Cutting Down - Did it work for you?
 

During the dozens of campaigns I conducted in my private war against alcohol, a common strategy I employed was to cut down slowly. It never worked. I'd get down to three beers a day, and suddenly on the weekend would end up at a party or in a pub downing anything from 10-20 units with "friends." The resultant hangover would disable me with regret and a desire to have a "hair of the dog" which would merge into mind-numbing oblivion or incapacitation, which could last anything from one day to a week. That went on for 20 or so years, during which I tried several other strategies: "I'll only start drinking after six" or "this week I won't drink during the day," or "I'll dilute the vodka/brandy/gin a bit more." I even got to the point where I would measure out how much I was "allowed" to drink that week. Looking back now, I realize that these were all a charade -- a caricature of the alcoholic mind, orchestrating excuses to carry on drinking. Cutting down didn't work at all. What turned the tide in my battle against booze was a campaign analysis and a change in strategy. This included: admitting I was an alcoholic, seeing an addiction specialist, and having faith that I could change my life and positively impact the lives of others. I declared a ceasefire just over a year ago. Since then, there haven't been any casualties, and there's no more talk of war.

Hi!

No...

Never worked for me either. I always ended up drinking too much, too fast, and feeling horrible and guilty and hating myself. It was like trying to win against a prizefighter, I always got my @ss kicked but good...:(

Only thing that stopped my 'war' was to stop fighting altogether.:) And what a wonderful difference now that there's no war going on in my head anymore.:) My world is quiet and peaceful.:)

Nope, not ever and I tried it in the ways you described AWOL
and many more. Somebody said on another thread I think today
that it is easier for an alcoholic to have 0 drinks than three.
I have never understood that concept over all these years,
until now. Maybe I'm finally starting to "get it".

Great post. No it never worked for me, as soon as that booze was in my system then any plans of 'control' or 'moderation' went straight out of the window! The times where I would only have 4 pints/cans in some attempt to try to exert some control were like torture. I was just getting going after that and to stop was total and utter torture, I would just charge around the shop like a mad man and end up buying more than a normal session!! trying to buy booze once I already had a drink was a nightmare ha-ha, I literally keep walking back into the shop and buying more and more! Total alkie me, there never was and never would be any control when it came to booze.

Through experience I knew deep within that alcohol would beat me everytime and I would never be able to control or moderate drinking, I surrendered and admitted defeat. I am so grateful that I don't waste my time drinking or thinking about drinking booze anymore.

Peace

The resultant hangover would disable me with regret and a desire to have a "hair of the dog" which would merge into mind-numbing oblivion or incapacitation, which could last anything from one day to a week. That went on for 20 or so years



I don't know why, but that just made me laugh hysterically, well said and comical.

For me, I just couldn't cut down even when I tried, I'd say... well im just gonna get 2 tall boys, and then after an hour I would be in my car on the way back down to the store with the idea of getting fit shaced and nothing less. After that first drink, I'm just done. Nothing changed for me until I just gave up completely.

Ha - Fit shaced...now that has me laughing out loud.
And I like you would start with just two small bottles
of wine (the tiny ones) intending that would be all
and then multiple trips back to the store for just
4 more, then 6 more all within hours....well I know you get
what I am talking about. What a waste of time energy
and money. What a delusion I have lived for a long time.

Not in my experience.

I could never control my alcohol - not for long - especially when I got to thinking this was the 'last hurrah'...

D

I decided to limit my drinking slightly differently
I drank things I disliked the flavor of...:yuck:

drink 1-3 would have to be done quickly ...not tasted.
Drink 4 I sipped .with a new appreciation....:wink:

No....it never ever worked for me and I'm so grateful
I will not be going back to a toxin....alcohol.
:c031:

Never worked for me

I believe we've all tried to moderate. I think at that point its the beginning of the end if you know what I mean. I would succeed for a couple of weeks. Then out of no where, I was drinking until I blacked out. It was soooo hard! So much easier to just wave the white flag. The war is over. I gave up the alcohol and started a new life for myself.

I'm so grateful to be off that merry go round.

Best Wishes To You!

Hi!

Nope, didn't work for me neither. Maybe for a while, but it was not fun. Really stressful in fact. Count me among those who found it easier to just give up that losing battle.

Well, I'm only on day 3 so It's too soon to really tell I guess. But I feel pretty confident that the day I decided to quit, Monday, I would have failed. The extreme tremors alone would have pushed me to have a drink at some point that day. Setting Thursdays as my quit day allowed me opportunity to rid my home of hard alcohol. I only drank beer Mon through Wed. I acquired the support of my friends and family. I wrote a list of all the reasons I want to quit. Wrote a list of all the things that would be better in my life. Listed specific rewards for milestones, including day 2 and day 3. I found this wonderful online support group. By the time Thursday rolled around I feel like I have all the tools I need to stay sober. It seems I may be an exception to the rule but for me it is working so far.

Not for me either.

Here's some of the ridiculous thoughts that I thought would work.

1. Buy a really big bottle but it has to last all week.............would be saving myself money and recycling bin would look better.

2. Have a one glass of red, one glass of white, one glass of rose. Mixing my drinks would get me drunk quicker but that would only add up to about 9 units a night.

3. Buy really really strong booze (like a can of barley wine) and I would only need one to get me drunk enough to sleep.........

4. Only gonna drink beer.

5. Only gonna drink spirits with lots of mixer.

5. Only gonna drink one large liqueor a night. Just a shame you can only buy them in large bottles.

6. Have my main meal at lunch time. Have a really small meal in the evening. Then I will need less booze on an evening to get a buzz.

7. Have a double instead of a single. Then I will get a buzz quicker and I will just go straight to bed and won't be bothered by anymore and that bottle will last all week.



Madness. All that energy going into all that crazy thinking.


xxxxxxxxxxxxx

@ Sasha - funny list. If we drunks could just have devoted the collective mental energy we spent figuring out how to poison ourselves more effectively on something which benefited our society, there would now exist a cure for cancer and no unemployment.

Okay, my list:

1. Only smoke 5 cigs per night. That way I will drink less because I won't drink unless I can smoke. (ended up gulping wine instead of sipping, drank the same amount in less time.)

2. Only drink vodka with diet tonic and lime, mixed very strongly. This way I will only drink 2 or 3 (equivalent of 6 the way I mixed them.)

3. Only drink 1.5 bottles of Chardonnay per night. This is so much better than drinking 2, that I can handle it. Even 7 nights per week.

4. Only drink 2 very dry martinis. Ended up having two martinis and washing them down with a bottle of wine since they were so dry I was "parched."

Never.

Nope. And trying made me feel ashamed and desperate.

No, never ever - not even once.

Oh, those lists....and I thought I was the only one. :)

Thank you for those insights... some had me smiling (thanks Dairo!) as I recognized my own crazy attempts to taper off alcohol. The ultimate "strategy" was: "you can drink, but only after meals." One Sunday, this resulted in drinking several bottles of wine with friends in a restaurant, then buying a case of whiskey and heading out for a country drive in a microbus, during which we drank the whiskey neat and ended up jumping out of the vehicle and rolling into ditches while it was still in motion. On reflection, it was incidents like these that makes me realize that tapering of alcohol is like trying to put out a bush fire by striking another match :)

Not this alcoholic. I never tried to drink socially or moderately. Trying to cut back on my drinking is a foreign concept to me. Why would I want to? It doesn't make sense. If I didn't have more than 12 drinks readily available, then I wasn't going to drink. I was always cognizant of the fact that when I stopped drinking, I became uncomfortable due to the cravings.

However, what I did try to cut back on were the negative consequences that arose from my drinking. Early on, I had great success and I was highly functionally. However, over time I lost my ability to drink and function. Eventually, I was going to eat a s*!t sandwich; self served and at the end, I started to acquire a taste for them since I was eating them so much. The worst part was that I didn't even realize I was acquiring a taste for them. However, that is alcoholism. At some point, the abnormal becomes the normal.

I finally reached a point where I threw in the towel. I couldn't take the suffering anymore that I was inflicting on myself. The more I drank, the more I suffered. At the end, drinking and suffering went hand in hand. Even at the end, I didn't want to stop drinking or moderate my drinking, but I wanted to stop suffering. However, I needed to accept the fact that is where my drinking took me and I had no control over these intolerable outcomes.