Daisy1981

Yeah your right weekends are the worst.
I'm working Friday night so should be fine fine then and off surfing sat and running. Its the night I'm dreading but Ive been reading that urge surfing and think I'm gona try that. It's the not remembering that has really scared me Jitterbug. When I think back to last Friday I was totally off my head and then had a massive blackout, still cant remember a thing. All I know is I must have taken my ipod out with me cos I cant find it any where, gutted as I use it to run :-/ x

Martin1

I know exactly what you mean, you're fine until a certain moment. For you it's days off work, for me it's Friday/Saturday nights. Once you've got that urge to drink it doesn't go. I fail every time.

SeekSobriety

If I was to pretend that I was a Drug and Alcohol counselor and a "Patient" came in and told me the following.

1) They drank to excess 2 to 3 times or more per week.
2) Drinking frequency has been increasing.
3) They have periods of drinking in which they "Black Out" or do not remember what happened.
4) They state they cannot "Normally drink"
5) They wake up with regrets over the previous evening drinking and things they have done the night before, some of which they cannot remember.
6) They are moody
7) They are stopping or giving up activities they enjoy doing.
8) They classify there drinking as "Binge" drinking.

If we were to imagine that we were a Drug and Alcohol Counselor What type of treatment would you recommend to this patient?

YVRguy

Hey Daisy , I think a lot of folks have already given some great support options. Heck I use part of all of them including AA.

I am in counselling , attend meetings , read SR and at this point whatever I need to do to have a sober day.

From what I personally experienced , if you are an alcoholic , only you can decide , this never gets better only worse. Millions of others had the same experience.

I am binge drinker too ....but once I start is it 2 days or 22 days...... Now I wasn't always like that but I always drank more on any occasion than most other people and I am a pretty short and slim guy.

I could not solved this on my own....tried so many times and it was hopeless.

Get some support and make a decision to work with that support. I have all this awareness of my condition but with no action I got nowhere. Lots of choices for ways to recover , some use faith/HP others do not.

Find one that feels right to start with. All I can say if you do not seek support and your anything like me , its not going to be fun till you reach the point of seeing clearly you need the help. I am happy I now see that I can't do it alone and I can get help. Sure I should have done it years ago but I guess I wasn't done with my drinking yet. It has cost me but thats the past which I can't change and all I have is today.

Daisy1981

I would ask them if they want to stop drinking and would like support. I would recommend specialist alcohol support as in the form of an alcohol intervention programe i.e: keeping a drinks diary so they can how much they really drink, recording feelings before and after and the situations that happen before drinking and the ones they are in while drinking. Then I would work with that information. Possibly a detox then followed by counselling and maybe AA's if they wanted to try that.

I'm guessing by the questions your going to tell me to take my own advice???

I dont need a detox as have not drank for 6 days now, but as expected tonight I had myfirst alcoholic thought - maybe I could drink at the works party in 3 weeks, maybe this time would be different and I wont want to drink 4 to 5 days later.

hypochondriac

Don't let these thoughts disturb you Daisy... they will come and go for quite a while til you become more comfortable sober. AVRT taught me to identify those thoughts as my alcoholic voice and to dismiss them. The more you ignore them the less they come back x Hope you're doing okay x

sueellen

hello Daisy1981, and welcome i myself am new here and would like to share a few things that i have done while drunk, and Also to say i am 24 days sober and totally loving it,

I myself would not have said i had a drink problem up until the last year or so,, or maybe i have always known but never admitted it to myself or anyone else,

i been drinking for over 10 yrs or so now on and off every other day i would say i could take it or leave it but i mostly took it,,

in 2002 i worked in a pub on a sunday afternoon during my shift i went thu 4 bottles of Jacobs creek wine on my own all while serving customers and belive it or not i was still able to walk and deal with work,

i then finished my shift and got into my car with a few friends from the pub we where all going to another local for karaoke night it was 8pm i had one large glass of wine in that pub and then went on to vodka and cokes, had a good night but i remember no more after my 3rd vodka,
AT CLOSING TIME 11PM I APPARENTLY LEFT THE PUB I HAVE NO MEMORIES OF THIS AT ALL I went outside and refused to hand over my car keys to friends became very argumentative with them threatening them and i got into my car and drove off to head home,

i didnt make it home of course and ended up putting my car into a wall not a 1/4 of a mile up the road from the pub i just left, i just drove straight into a dead end wall,,


it took 4 fire crews with cutting equipment 2 hours to cut me out of the car and i was resuscitated twice in the car and once in the ambulance,

Anyway i came thu that with a lot of brusing and a bad head injury a cut above my eye where i had hit the window screen, funny how i had put on my seat belt dispute being totally off my face but i think this was automatic when getting in my car no matter what state i was in, thank god it was or i'd have been dead,

i stopped drinking for a while after that but soon slowly started again,, tho i have NEVER got into a car after having a drink again after that, not even one and thankfully the only person i hurt that night was myself,

Still not thinking i have a problem,, i been drinking every other day for years now and would regularly take my dogs for walk while drunk,, even walked up a busy main road to get a kebab while off my face with my rottie off a lead all the way,,, good job my dogs got more sense than his owner i say,,,,

but i do feel dreadfully ashamed of the things i have done and have been incredibly lucky that nothing really bad has happened since the car crash i haven't really gotten my self into a state like that since but i have still over the years been getting close ,

and still been drinking to much really,

i am now coming up to 4 weeks sober and loving it,, i know really that i don't need a drink to have fun,, im a scatty bubbly funny mare without it,

so after a bad bout of food poisoning 4 weeks ago, ok i was drunk when i ate that chicken and was well aware it tasted tangy,, had i been sober i would never have touched it as i am a fussy one when it comes to food,, if it aint fresh i wont touch it and my drunken mind that night told me what the heck eat up girl , lol,,

well maybe it did me a favor really because i have stopped drinking since then, and am so glad,, weather i thought i had a problem or not at the time i think deep now i know i have a problem its admitting it that i found hard to do, simply because i can take it or leave it,

nearly 4 weeks sober proves i dont need it im not shaking or gagging for a drink and yet i have had a few ups and downs in this 4 weeks that would have had me reaching for the bottle i have not done it because i know really i dont need it,,

had a nerve in my gum left from a tooth extraction 4 yrs ago coming thu my gum which was extremely painful i went and got that sorted monday my son set fire to my new kitchen the other night, my microwave broke,, now im going to give you all a laugh and tell ya something i aint told no one but my doctor, i been so good at staying sober got me gum sorted been me zumba classes been eating healthy and the last 2 days i got a fecking boil on my arse :rotfxko ,,, now tell me i dont deserve a bloody drink after all that,,, lmaoloool,,,

Well i aint going to do it, no way, it aint going to beat me,, im feeling like these things are being sent to test me, or push me over the edge,,, well push away im sober and just realized i can fecking fly, boil on arse an all mate ,, looool

Daisy1981

Sounds like your doing great Sueellen and thanks Hyperchondriac so far so good. I'm on day 8 and aprt from a few thoughts about drinking I'ts been ok. The thoughts are coming more frequently now though, woke up this morning and already i'm thinking I should drinking on the staff night out as can stop after.

It's like an arguement in my head between myself and my AV is this normal or am I going mad?? Has anyone else experienced this as it's hard to manage. The thing is I have stayed sober for three weeks earlier this year so although Ive got through 7 days and FRiday night I dont actually feel like I have achieved that much.

Thoughts so far: AV - maybe just a few drinks on the night out would be ok, Flares wont be as fun without a drink.

ME - NO drinking, show your face and go home when everyone starts drinking heavily.

AV - Maybe just a few drinks, everyone will think I'm strange if I dont drink and I'll be bored.

ME - No drinking, no drinking, no drinkin (at this point I try and ingnore the voice and think of some thing else).

The thing is I would just not go but it's one of my work friens 10 year celebration nights out. xx

Applecrumble

Hi daisy,

Ive only properly read your last post, but you are right, it's as simple as that sometimes:

Don't drink tonight.

Sobriety is king so you might want to rethink and make your excuses tonight ... Or going only for a few minutes with a glass of fizzy water welded to your hand plan this evening out.

However you decide to handle it, I'm sure you will manage. Youre awesome for getting this far! Keep going!

Mizzuno

Hey Daisy
I'm pretty sure that people are not going to care or notice if your drinking or not tonight. IMO. Being there in support of your co worker is celebration enough. Drinking does not have to be apart of this equation. If it comes up tell them your driving and you don't need nor do you want a DUI.
The cravings will come and go. It's what you do with those cravings that matters. You have come this far, there is no reason to go back now. We are all going to do what we need to do until it just can't he done any longer, until we find a new direction of doing. Welcome aboard the SR Train.