How the f%&#@ do you turn this thig off?!?!
 

Ok, I'm like 99% convinced I can't stop drinking. All day everyday it's just an obsession that wont leave me alone. I mean I can only busy myself with cleaning the house doing yard work or other stuff for so long. As long as I know I have a spare $10 lying around my mind wont rest till I cash it in in and get myself drunk.:tapping

Have you considered useing your local AA ?

You really don't have to live as an alcohol driven person..:hug:

Putting down the alcohol is just the beginning of your recovery. Working on yourself mentally, physically and spiritually is key to the obsessive thoughts your having.

Maybe look into AA, Smart Recovery, or counseling. There are many programs out there. Find one that works for you. Willpower was never enough for me. :)




Best Wishes To You!

I completely understand and am trying to figure that out....

Some things that helped me.

1 - really accepting that I was never going to drink again. This is hard to pin down but the difference when I really 'got it' was huge. The main thing I think was that the thought of never drinking again became a RELIEF instead of a sad thing.

2- when the obsessive thoughts came (and they did) I would acknowledge them ("oh there's another obsessive, alcoholic thought. I am definitely an alcoholic!" and then consciously choosing a new way to deal with the feeling. Like "I feel anxious. Let me go take a walk and see if I can calm down". It felt so weird and fake but it worked.

GL to you!

Would be a good time to see a doctor about this. You maybe suffering a disorder that you don't know about. Maybe OCD and there are medication that can help with it.

What helped me in the early days, was to change my routines and daily habits. Drive home from work a different way, go out for a walk after supper, or go to the gym, visit with a friend over coffee - just do something differently and it will help to begin to break the habit and the obsessive thoughts.

And, each time you get through a craving, it will get easier.

Staying busy in the early days can and does help with cravings. But as others have said, getting and staying sober, getting into recovery, is much more than not drinking. I would venture to guess that those who do not work on recovery don't stay sober.

However, i know a lot of people who were hopeless alcoholics, and they don't drink today. They have learned to live. You can do the same.

I would recommend AA hun, helps me

Double post.

SSIL, this is not weird and fake at all. It does take some doing to convince your mind that you can do this, and for all sorts of reasons like no more depression or anxiety, you get to keep living with your family, better health, more money in your pocket - you can make your own list. Once you have decided to never drink at the present moment, you 'get it', and things become easy.

What remains is what to do about those 'alcoholic mind' thoughts that suggest to you that it wants a drink, or it deserves a drink, or it needs a drink, whatever it thinks will work to convince you to go along with it. Acknowledge the thought, don't fight it or struggle with it. Then just tell it that you are in charge, you have decided, and you don't drink anymore.

You also need to practice the idea that any thought whatsoever, that this won't work, maybe just one, I might as well give in, I deserve it, or any of a million other things that are leading you back to your DoC, these thoughts do not come from you, they come from it, that alcoholic mind. Then just tell it that you are in charge, you have decided, and you don't drink anymore. Rinse, lather, repeat.

It gets easier every day. Good luck.

AA works for me, soberviking!

Welcome to the ISM of alcohol-ISM. The ISM starts where the drinking stops.

1. Sitting around not-drinking does not help the situation much, if at all.

2. True sobriety is nipping the problem in the bud, before it enters your head.

3. True sobriety is getting the peace of mind, joy and sense of purpose ahead of time without any substance so as to render the substance superfluous.

Do a search for

aa speakers

Take a listen!

So what's your plan to stay sober?

Sheer willpower?

Good luck with that!

Many have tried, myself included. I finally gave up and went to AA, that has made the difference.

There's some great ideas here SV.

I was like you - time and again I'd try - and time and again....

The trouble was I was just doing the same thing. Trying not to drink is great - but if it's the only tool you've got, you're gonna find it doesn't always fit

Listen to your body and mind. Whatever you've been doing up to now is not enough, man.

What else can you try - and if the answer that comes back to you is nothing...grit your teeth and ignore it.

There's always something to try - even things you've tried before, or things that seem impractical to you...none of us stay the same and neither does our addiction...anything got to be worth a shot right now, yeah?

Get more support, examine all your options - be willing to try anything.

You can do this - fan that 1%, man :)

D

are you retired and that's why you're at home all day?

If yes, I can understand how boring it can get watching the grass grow.
You see the same trees, same furniture and after a while start feeling like you're one of the furniture fixtures.

How about this? Do you like to dance? Square dance, hip hop, whatever is your era....
I was thinking of taking some dancing lessons to uplift my spirit.

Or some other hobby where "drinking" is not the main dish.

I don't know what 'willpower' means. I do know that my 'will' is so much stronger than the 'power' of my alcoholic voice. I will always win.

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

"The most successful people in the end are those whose success is the result of steady growh... It is the person who carefully advances step by step, with their mind becoming wider and wider - and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation - persevering in what they knows to be practical, and concentrating their thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree."

never have truer words been spoken, how is everyone keeping? i hope all are doing great..





Sometimes you must keep going.
Life punches you in the stomach.
It knocks your breath out and leaves you bowed and gasping.
You lose a job. . . you must keep going.

... You find out you have a serious illness. . .you must keep going.

You have a headache. . . you must keep going.

Sometimes the things in life are not serious but they affect you
nevertheless. . . you must keep going.

You have a big argument with your spouse.
Neither of you feels like talking and maybe not even looking at
each other. . . you must keep going.

Your son/Daughter rebels and you have a blowout with him. . .
you must keep going.

The bills seem to never end and the money seems to never start.
You must keep going.

There are times that make us just want to curl up, stick our
heads in a hole, and make the world go away.
We can't, because we must keep going.

Life is full of those circumstances.
Many of you when you woke up this morning, for a variety of
reasons, didn't feel like getting out of bed, but you had to.
You must keep going.

In times like those, and we all have them,
remember the blessing.
The blessing is not in that we must keep going.
The blessing is that we can.

Viking...... I know the feeling.

I wasn't 100% convinced I couldn't stop for now.........but I WAS (and am) convinced that there was no way in HELL I could stop forever. I knew (and know) that if I just try to keep myself sober several things will happen:
1. I may pull it off....for a while
2. I won't pull it off forever
3. Eventually I'll drink again
4. If I drink again, I'm going to go back to that depression that had me thinking about suicide - or maybe I'll get lucky and booze will kill me off before I summon up the balls to do it myself.
5. I want to keep drinking.....but I don't want to want to keep drinking -- so I need to find a way to make this "not drinking" work...and nothing I've tried so far seems to work for very long. (hope that makes sense)

It wasn't pretty.....but that's my first experience with the realization that I'm a chronic alkie. I knew, sooner or later, I was screwed and I'd drink again. I didn't just want something that would work "today" - I wanted (needed) - something that would work forever.....that would guarantee me sobriety and, more than that, would promise me that I'd find a lifestyle that I'd truly enjoy. Cuz let's be honest here, if sobriety wasn't more fun than my old drinking life, I'd go back to drinking. It took going to AA and working the program to fiiiiiiiiiiinally find what I was probably looking for all my life. Never woulda' thought AA was where I was supposed to be - but I'm damn glad I'm there. :)