rainyengland

Well into day 6 and moving into day 7- feel great but I can feel my resolve slipping away - odd as after going through first 2 crappy Days I would know better and grow up!

Almost like Sod it - boring now, let's have a nice glass of wine !

I think about it all day and evening and starting to get annoying now it's evening,when I was downing 2 bottles a nite never used to think about wine - probably cause I knew I can have it when I want...:-(

Question - am I a binge drinker as did it evenings or weekend or am I a alcoholic..been bugging me for some reason last few days

Good job this forum is here so I can write exactly what I'm thinking - nobody to speak to at home

Thanks from frosty England !

Scott6433

I could have written this myself. Same here. Day 6. I feel no different. I too was drinking 2 bottles of wine before this. I too have yet to figure this out.

rainyengland

Screwed up thinking by both of us I think! :-)

AnotherPaul

As far as I know, there isn't really a line where it's like, "Yep, now you've moved from heavy drinker to full blown alcoholic."

And there are certainly degrees of alcoholic. I drank every night and all day on the weekends for years, but only in the last few months was I so chemically dependent on alcohol that I started having daily withdrawal symptoms, which very quickly started occuring earlier and earlier in the day until they were there first thing in the morning. At what point did I go from heavy drinker to drunk? I don't know. And I really don't think it matters.

What does matter is that alcohol is impairing your life and you've realized it and you want to stop but you're having difficulty doing so. That's perfectly natural. If it were easy, there would be no alcoholics. But you've both also made it almost a week without drinking, which is a hell of an accomplishment.

When you have cravings, you have to get your mind pointed at something else. For me, I go to a meeting, or meditate, or take the dog for a walk, or go to the gym in my apartment complex, or pick up a guitar, or just get out of the house and go do something, anything but sit around and miss drinking or think about drinking or let that stupid little voice in my head tell me that I'll be able to control it if I just stick to beer instead of vodka, etc.

Get away from the things and places that trigger your desire to drink and replace them with other things and places. It helps immensely.

Good luck to you both.

rainyengland

Thanks another Paul :-). Off to get mountain bike ready for a day in mountains tomorrow and no work - yay!!

Mind back to reality - get lost booze! :-)

Dee74

You can be both.

I experienced both binge drinking and all day everyday drinking...they were just two points on the same graphical curve for me.

As for being bored - a lot of us find that. I was bored too.

Then I realised the things I did for fun in my drinking life - sitting on the couch, watching TV etc - weren't really that exciting without alcohol.

The world is your oyster - think of something fun and positive you'd really like to do today and do it, rainyengland - no sense in waiting for your life to begin

D

TTBABP

Hey Rainy & Scott - I too could have started this thread. Good for the two of you on 6 days!!!!! I am sitting here right now with a hangover because I can't seem to get past a few days myself.

Keep it up!

mecanix

I used to drink at least two bottles of wine a night ( one and a half uk gallons a week !) and then a couple of spirits at the weekend .
My "life" was all about planning and waiting for the next opertunity to get drunk everything else was a sideshow .

For me wondering if i was an alcoholic or not should have been a huge sign that even if i were or wern't an alcoholic i had a very bad relationship with alcohol and should quit drinking for a very long time .

I swung between trying moderation in all it's guises and not giving a hoot .. the only thing i wouldn't consider was giving up for good as that was unimagineable ( hmm another big sign i missed there, that i might have a bad relationship with booze ).

I gave up for good 453 days ago (i hope) when i realized, had a complete revelation , i need never have another drink again. I felt wholeheartedly relieved and was quite exstatic as i was utterly "sick of being sick".

I think i'm an alcoholic , at the very least i've certainly a very bad relationship with mind altering substances . My life is far better sober and i work hard at making it the best life i can .

It's worth it for me, if you're anything like i was then stick with it as you'll feel different after 6 weeks and even more so after 6 months .

Bestwishes, M

Kasia71

I'm on day 6 as well...and I plan to drink some this weekend....which I kindof planned from the get go. My goal last weekend was to give it up during the week and not over do it on weekends. I have never attempted this before and I'm not sure if I can do it or not?? But I want to explore that first...if I can have a healthier relationship with booze. Maybe I can, I definitely have the desire to. The positive is my husband is doing the same, so we can keep each other in check, and he has ridiculous will power. If I feel I can't manage that, well then I have to stop. I've honestly never tried to do this....so we shall see, all I know is I realize the daily coctailing has got to stop.

MrsKing

I used to drink like you did, too, but it was a good 5 years ago. I then realised that I shouldn't drink every day (didn't think I was an alcoholic then though) and so decided to drink instead on nights out only. Nights out became more and more frequent and I drank huge amounts. Again, realised this was too much, so decided I was only allowed to drink once or twice a month. So I didn't really drink very often at the end of my drinking career but my God, did I drink a lot... 5 bottles of wine in one sitting or maybe more. Disgusting.

I'm just telling you that because I want you to realise that however much you drink... however often you drink... it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really even matter if you're an alcoholic or not. That you are thinking about it constantly now that you can't have it does ring alarm bells though. I was like that in early sobriety. Now I rarely think about it at all, and when I do it's almost like an alien concept.

Keep going... the thoughts you are having are totally normal. If you fancy, have a look at AVRT - it really helped me and many on this board in understanding those thoughts about alcohol.

Wishing you all the best.

(from Glos, too!)