Maryjan

Good luck with your new life...you can do it. One day at a time. I am eating ice cream right now, and I feel good. I have been sober for 43 days now...it's not easy, but I feel very proud and strong. Go for it!

LaFemme

Good luck!

Is there a different route you can take home? It might help not to drive your normal package store

reggiewayne

So are Viagra commercials... Do you spend your time consumed with Viagra?

Obviously, I'm kidding. For me, this is kind of an all or nothing kind of deal. Either you are an alcoholic (which most doctor's diagnose as a progressive and deadly condition) or your not. If I were in your shoes (which I certainly have been before) try and learn more about alcoholism. From there, make an honest assessment of yourself. There are online tests you can take to help you decide if you truly are alcoholic.

Once I really understood I am alcoholic, everything changed!!!! Drinking is no longer an option. At that point, I must find a way to live in the world without alcohol. I have found AA and it's working very well.

I too used to think this world revolved around alcohol. I was wrong. It really doesn't... I wish you the best in the future and if you feel you have a problem we're all here for you.

Thanks for posting!

ReadyAndAble

Hi, vauto! Looks like I found this thread too late to fight over my God-given right to the occasional Snickers bar, but hopefully not too late to welcome you to SR.

It is really hard to quit, but I suspect the one thing we all agree on here is that it's absolutely worth it. I wake up every day grateful that I made the effort.

AnodyneShift

I'm going to hold my tongue on the whole sugar/food standoff here-- I know a lot about food and nutrition, but my track record also shows I don't know much of anything about sobriety.

I was trying desperately to find a distraction for the night, to ignore my desire to drink, when I saw this thread. Dee, your link to the page on urge surfing just saved my night, maybe more.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Dave

Dee74

You're welcome Dave - I found it, or my own version of it, very useful.

D

vauto

Well, I tried not to buy a beer yesterday. But I had such a bad day, just felt like I needed it. So I stopped at the store and continued my usual routine after work. had 6 total! Sucks!! cause I really didnt want to, but I did anyway. today I will try again!!!!! No more!

Corri

The first thing you are going to have to throw out the window is your catalog of excuses to drink. Bad day, good day, feeling low, feeling high, it's cloudy, it's sunny, there's crap music on the radio, there's great music on the radio, I bored, I'm too busy...

Buddy, that list is never-ending.

Don't drink today. Not even a sip, no matter what. Just for today. Your actions can be independent of anything you feel in a given day. So even if you feel like drinking, for whatever reason, you don't have to drink.

It's a choice of action, not a feeling.

soap

i feel you vauto. i can't seem to quit ether. i'm in perpetual trying to quit mode. in the last half a year i have made it a month once, two weeks a couple of times, and a few days about a million times. only all these starts and stops have worn me down. i feel weaker towards alcohol than i ever have in my entire life. when i was drinking everyday, i could at least wait until beer 30 and drink my 8 beers. but now that i'm in binge mode, i drink a lot the 1st day and need hair of the dog just to function the next day. then i drink for 2 or 3 days until my heart starts to hurt again. rinse and repeat.

i fear i might become one of those unfortunate that lives the living hell until the bitter end.

Dee74

I used to think that too.
I realise now the only way it will happen like that is if I let it.

I've never met a hopeless case....and I've met hundreds (if not thousands by now) of people who have recovered from seemingly impossible alcoholic lives.

If there's only one message I can give, it's never ever give up hope

D

Supercrew

I hear you Soap. I swear towards the end, before I had my final epiphany to quit for good, even though I was trying to regulate more and was really trying not to pick up that first drink of the day, I obsessed more about it and ended up drinking more and starting earlier and earlier in the day. But the point finally came for me where it was harder to stay drunk, because staying drunk and not being too noticable and still functioning and hiding the empties and buying more booze is hard work. It became so hard on me and so hard on my body that I finally gave up.

Getting drunk to feel normal was the strangest sensation I have ever had to go through. That's when I realized that staying sober to feel normal was much easier and it didn't cost me anything and I didn't have to go through mini detoxes a couple of times a week. I still can't believe I was able to keep it going for as long as I did, as hard as I did. It makes me sick thinking about it.

artsoul

That's addiction in a nutshell, vauto. All those promises I made to myself rarely got me anywhere. I finally had to accept that I could count on many more of the same kind of days - the same kind of hangovers, hiding, obsessing - that I was already having... or it would get worse.....but it was virtually guaranteed that no matter how hard I tried, I'd end up with a drink in my hand.

So for me, it wasn't about finding a good time to quit or even enough motivation - it was more about using that very small bit of rational thinking I had left and facing the hard reality of spending the rest of my days living the life of a hopeless alcoholic. I realized I didn't want my children to witness that.

You said you felt like you needed it, but I agree with Corri- you don't have to act on the feeling......

Life really can be better..... and we're all behind you..... you can do it too!