Terminally Unique

AA is right about one thing - the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind.

Alcohol is not the enemy. Any thoughts of consuming it are the enemy.

SomethingBetter

I was a moderate drinker if moderate means sneaking in a six and killing it alone before others would see me, and hiding beer in places that I could sneak off to drink, this on top of the regular drinking I did that everyone knew about.

No matter how many times I tried to moderate the end result was that above, it was just way too much work for me.

Moderation for me always started off well enough, but given enough time I was back drinking as much as ever.

topspin

Great thread ETA !

It's so funny hearing how "creative" we can get with a delivery system !?!

In the end, all futile.

obsession is brutal

Sobriety is wonderful

Ghostly

I never tried moderating because I knew the only reason I drank was to get as drunk as possible as fast as possible. Sometimes I would hold off on starting, but I seemed to always make up for it with volume.

Soberpotamus

These were great thought-provoking posts! I had a good laugh at some of them... I've had all these same thought processes and I'm also worried I'll end up convincing myself I can moderate one day... How in the world has everyone managed to convince themselves they can no longer moderate?? How long did it take before you really believed it, and knew it... I think deep down I know it's true for me, but I wish it weren't still

sobermax

When I stopped drinking, I just quadrupled the amount of weed I smoked. Not quite the same thing I suppose but finally realising that yes - if I alter my mental state in any way, sooner or later I'll end up drunk. Even cigarettes, I think.

finrodfelagund

I tried to moderate many times toward the end, typically by matching the pace of the people around me. I always wanted to slam back whatever was in my glass and go get a new one, instead I found myself squirming in my seat waiting for everyone else to finish theirs...I find I am more relaxed now, drinking a coke, than I ever was when I had a beer in front of me out at the bar. It's amazing how things change.

filthrich

Moderation and myself do not make a good couple. I told myself 100 times "I will just drink a half pint today" only to make another just-a-half-pint liquor store run; then of course I'd go back and grab the pint to put me in what a thought was the "nice" zone. So I went from "only drinking a half pint" to downing a fifth of vodka (and cheap vodka at that) in a few hours. Not to mention the amount of cigarettes smoked while drinking. "slow calculated suicide"

ETA

Oh I forgot about this one - eat greasy fried food before drinking! There was some study that said fatty foods slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream.

1undone

Wow, some of this stuff I haven't heard of! LOL I did try to moderate towards my sober date below. I did really well for several months only drinking on the weekends but sure enough the weekends got longer and longer and suddenly didn't exsist anymore! LOL How crazy this whole alcoholic thinking is! Well at least we can get a good laugh out of it.

Fenris

LOL 1undone...yeah, I can relate to that one. Saturday-Sunday became Friday-Sunday, then Friday-Monday because of the hangover, then @#$ it, Monday-Sunday.

EmeraldRose

For me one was too much but one was not enough...for me there is no moderation and every thought of limiting booze was ceased by my alcoholism.

If you need to ask about moderation chances are it won't work.

Latte

I bought shot bottles. Good grief I wasted a lot of money.

leo21

Mine was always 24 oz cans of beer a.k.a. "tall boys". So here I was having a tallboy in the morning on the way to work, then a couple during lunch, then a couple more either late afternoon or after work (or both). This was my daily ritual and if possible I could always find more time to sneak in a can or two.

Before my first attempt last year to totally abstain, I slowly cut out the morning ritual. Once the morning ritual was out of sight I focused on cutting out the evenings. That left me with lunchtime and late afternoons to deal with.

It was this point where I just couldn't stop and my struggles continued on. After I put myself into a corner and totally stopped I had the frame of mind that moderation was something I could not do. Drinking one little sip wasn't an option~~and I did well with that for a good while.

The kicker for me was that ONE moment in time where I actually let me guard down. Right there in late November just one stressful situation came up and it was the perfect storm. I thought after I had that one can that I had things under control so I started "moderating" again. Well, my crazy definition of moderation carried on for six months until I finally crawled out of that hell-hole.

I dunno.....some people might be able to do really moderate and never blink an eye. I'm too scared to think of giving it another go. I'll just stick with where I'm at and run from the poison.

JJK

ive never given the moderation thing a shot until i entered the rooms.. id like to enjoy a nice IPA or red ale every once in a while.. it may work a for a while, but usually for a short period, but never long.. if youre truly an acoholic.. its like playing with fire.. because you never know which drink is the one thats going to see you back off and have you "running and gunning" again..

DayTrader

While I was drinking, especially in the last year or two, I tried to slow it down. I never committed or even tried to stop for good - truthfully, I never planned on going completely sober.......ever. During those last several years, I suppose I was able to moderate occasionally.....but I don't recall any one specific time where it actually worked. I suspect, if I ever was successful in "moderating" I certainly didn't even REALLY count it as "drinking." Unless I got loaded.....for me......it almost didn't "count." yanno?

I didn't realize that moderation was impossible UNTIL I finally quit drinking all together - which came compliments of a SCRAM Alcohol Tether via a judge. Once that thing went on, I started to recognize just how much and how often I'd been drinking. WHILE I was drinking, I was successful in tricking myself into forgetting about all the times I got drunk and/or had myself deluded into thinking it just wasn't a problem.

2 things got me to start taking AA seriously. The first one was the same fear you mentioned......that ONE day......I'd fool myself into starting up all over again. It became obvious that I needed a full time, 24/7 coat of armor.....otherwise it was almost guaranteed I'd be back at it before too long. The second reason was that I actually believed the AA folks when they said that if I'd work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, I'd feel better, I'd enjoy life again, and I'd be happy. Hell..... if I could get to feel that way, I figured most of the reasons I had to get loaded would fall by the wayside. .......I have to admit, I didn't really believe it 100% but I figured it was worth a shot. ......thankfully, they weren't lying.

coming_clean

moderation is for me.....

trying to run......with only one leg. I need two in order to keep my balance. Or buy an artificial one LOL.



u get the point.

cairns87

Hi ETA that is also one of my biggest fears aswell and is one which has lead me to relapse time and time again!

I have tricked myself into just sticking to beer or stop drinking after midnight. Sometimes i am able to moderate for a night but I always get back to square one or even worse!

bexxed

red wine is good for me. I'll have a glass with dinner and I'm a class act so I'll have a glass after dinner too. Gonna buy a bottle. I'll get something nice but not too expensive.

Well that was great! Wow, so yummy I guess I drank the whole bottle last night. I'll get another one of those, but I'll get a cheaper one too, just because I'll want to save it for if someone comes over. I'll get two bottles of that cheap stuff because I don't want to come back here, just in case, you know, every day. I mean, that blonde has seen me here three nights this week. Does she ever have a night off? Jeez.

Damn I was on a roll last night. I got everything all figured out, too bad I don't remember all those things I thought about! Oh, who'd I call? Oh that's right, ****. My sister. I knew she'd be up on the west coast. I remember opening that other bottle when she answered the phone. It's almost gone now. OK, I will NOT buy another bottle. I am going to cook with this one tonight.

It's not right to make tomato sauce without an open bottle of wine. Criminal. OK, that nice bottle I bought last night. I drank most of the other two and put a little in the sauce. I'll drink some of the nice wine while I'm cooking.

It's almost 11 and I am WIRED now. Walgreens sells wine, I'll go down there. It's just for tomorrow night, since I'm up now. I'll just have a splash.

Where's the advil? I am NOT doing that again tonight. What happened? I wasn't supposed to drink that nice wine. It smells like alcohol breath in here. Gross.

DO NOT forget the recycle. There are 12 wine bottles since last week. Make sure they get covered with other stuff. That guy across the street could look. You're only what other people think you are.

Classy people have lots of wine in wine cellars. So I'll buy a couple cases. Then the people at the liquor store won't remember me because I won't come in as often. I feel like everyone's looking at me. Why don't they leave me alone? I can just FEEL them looking at me. A$$holes.

Maybe if I drink a lot, I'll just get sick of it....

This has got to stop. There's no way that it can be good for me. I can only drink when I'm done with everything that has to be done.

I'm not taking good care of myself. I can only drink when I'm eating a good meal. That will encourage me to eat a good meal.

I'm getting fat!!! This food rule is making me eat too much! I can only drink on an empty stomach.

Only beer when it's hot out.

I do not drink hard alcohol. Unless it's tequila accompanied by tex/mexican beer and spicy food.

Well, gin and tonics are not that bad, actually. haha. I like having gin around. Wow. that went fast. Yeah, that's not good. Get a couple bottles of wine.

Drinking a couple bottles of wine is NOT good. I'm going to get only one, and a six pack for when it's hot out.

I drank three beers with that wine. Well, I'll get another bottle.

I only drink beer and wine. That is NOT a problem.....



Thanks for this post. I'm grateful to report that 16 days later, I haven't had a drink.

topspin

Bexxed,

LOL !! ^

That pretty well sums it up !!


Congrats on your 16 days !!!!

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