ImDoingIt

Hi. I...WE... need more than ever for you to help scare ME...us...to quit drinking! Please post a very short paragraph to help myself and others to realize how very bad alcoholism is and what it does to your body after drinking for years at a time.
Please be brief and most graphic. We... newbies or other...need to hear this. Thanks. This is important!!!

hypochondriac

It made alot of sense to me when I heard someone say that sobriety is something you have to have in order to want it. No health scares would scare me into quitting. We don't drink for the reasons we shouldn't. I felt like I forced myself to quit and just did everything I could to stay sober. Then I started seeing all the benefits and wanted to stick with it.

Instead of looking at all the negatives of alcoholism maybe it would help to look at all the benefits of sobriety

chicory

Hi Imdoingit.
If you want scary stuff, check out the Sticky http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...influence.html

not sure how to post a link, but it is the sticky titled excerpts from Under The Influence. It explains what alcohol does to your body, brain, etc. If scaring you will do the trick, I think that this information would.
good luck to you. stick around. this site has helped more people get and stay sober than any scare tactics ever have.

chicory

DoubleBarrel

Doesn't sound like you're done.

I know that no amount of dire warnings from others were ever enough to stop me.

What would it take for you to be willing?

Amajorityofone

I concur with the previous poster who said rather than focusing on the negatives of alcoholism, focus instead on all of the benefits of sobriety.

Here's an excerpt from my Journal-

23rd July, 2013-

Do or do not. There is no "try”

- Yoda

Do or do not…..“personified”

per·son·i·fy [per-son-uh-fahy] Show IPA
verb (used with object), per·son·i·fied, per·son·i·fy·ing.
1.
to attribute human nature or character to (an inanimate object or an abstraction), as in speech or writing.


Today has been one of those days that I look back on as having made me stronger.

The day started out relatively early. By 8:30 am Karen, William, and myself were on our way to have a family breakfast at Cracker Barrel. From here, we took William to his 9:30am tennis lesson.

From here, the real work began…

We stopped at Altums and picked up a half yard of mulch and three plants. Once we got home, William played with his friends while Karen and I worked on the house.

Karen edged and swept the sidewalks for me while I tore down my tired looking sunflower garden. After I finished tearing down the garden, I raked the bed, planted the three new flowers, ran over to Home Depot, picked up four more, picked up lunch, came home and planted those, too.

Once I got all of the flowers planted, I proceeded to re-mulch all three flower beds, re-mulched all nine of my trees, watered and fertilized all of the new plants, cleaned the edger, swept out the truck, put the excess mulch in my wheel barrel, swept up the driveway, cleaned the garage, and washed the truck.

Once I was done washing the truck, I treated myself to a Venti Mocca and a cinnamon roll from Starbucks. All told, it was a grueling eight hour work day, with only one break for lunch. 10:30am to 6:30pm. All of which was done outdoors.

Not only is it all now done, but it was done so, with excellence.

Now I can finally take a shower and enjoy a bit of the Reds game before doing some Dave and Rae work and calling it a day.

Once again….Do! or do not!….there is no “try.”
Amen.

Anna

Agreed.

Posting negative, horror effects of alcohol is not helpful.

We all focus on recovery and the positive aspects of our lives.

ImDoingIt

I get where you all are coming from. But...please post in one sentence why drinking alcohol is so bad! We need to hear the horrible things and how totally bad it is for us!

Anna

I think that is something you will have to figure out for yourself.

We cannot do that for you.

Change4good

In my experience, nothing *external* could scare me.

In the end, it was fear of losing everything I loved. I think one has to experience that. . .it can't be told.

Dee74

Hi I'mdoingit

Short? ok.

Drinking nearly killed me. As it is I suffered several mini strokes and will never ever be the same again.

I recommend reading through our Stories of Recovery forum especially, but any forum will do - there's a lot of horror stories here.

There's a lot of hope here too tho - and I think that's important because fear only got me so far - fear fades...but hope & support lasts

D

kadidee

Hi. One thing that really helped me to even begin to consider quitting was spending hours and hours reading the threads in the forums. I joined this site in January of this year while still drinking...but I kept coming back and reading. It wasn't the 'horror stories' that got to me so much but more that I could relate to all of the negative feelings and consequences (large and small) brought about by my own alcohol use.

TKS

Boo! Did that scare you, and was it short enough ?

I'm unsure why you insist that people's responses need to be short. It would serve you week to read tens of thousands of words here at SR every day. There's no quick fixes, and if you can't be bothered spending time for your own recovery to even read anything more than a series of short sentences, and hope instead for a quick fix to your addictions then I'm not sure if you are ready to commit yourself.

ImDoingIt

What wonderful responses!!! Thank you all! Point is well taken!

Amajorityofone

When it comes to sobriety, everyone has their road to damascus moment. That moment in time when you simply say I'm done. For me, the day was August 20th, 2012. Haven't had a drop of alcohol or a whiff of drugs in my system ever since. I literally came home and threw all of my beer, wine and whiskey in the trash can.

11 months and 22 days later I started posting here.

It doesn't sound like you've had your road to damascus moment yet. I certainly would not wish for such a thing if I were you. I cannot make it anymore simpler than that.

Good luck and God Bless

Pete55

Boo to!
peeping over to your side, you will never ever know if you never ever go to the other side, the sober side. Once you experience the sober side of the fence you will never wanna go back to drinking side of the fence.
Why would you, why would you want to carry all that what ya carrying now which is shame,guilt,remorse,gloom.
But the beefy bits in my case, I had 3 real alternatives if I kept going, asylum,prison or cemetery.

Now what side of the fence do you want? Sober or asylum,prison, cemetery.
And one day you to may do the same to another who is where ya at now, and say the same to them, "boo, what side of the fence.....?"
Can you see yourself doing this?

kadidee

I agree with Amajorityofone. There wasn't a super-horrible event that happened that made me think, 'hey, maybe I should stop drinking.' It was more like a culmination of just feeling tired of it all and so, so tired of being tired of it, if that makes any sense. I'm really new at this--this is day 12.

JumpnOn2

I was going to share something I might have but that won't scare u to quit. you have to want/need to quit. I had an uncle die at 46 from drinking beer. his scare events were real and it made no difference. neither did 2 failed marriages due to alcohol(he was voted most likely to succeed in his high school class). he was 5 10 and about 170 lb. His belly swelled up huge. Looked like if you had touched w a pin it would have popped like a balloon. In hospital for three days. He started hallucinating, had to be restrained, died the third day. Through up right before he expired and it looked like coffee grinds. I can still see and smell it. He could have had varicose veins in his esophagus bleeding into his stomach. Not sure but I think about 90% of people with cirrhosis develop varicose in the esophagus. None of that mattered to him and I don't think it will mater to you. YOU have to WANT or NEED quit. Other than that....you won't.

Tamerua

I believe we each have our own bottom but I will share because I hope what I share will help.., I wasn't a daily drinker, I didn't drink in the morning, didn't lose my house or job. I was a weekend binge drinker. And I wouldn't think twice about drinking a bottle or two of wine and taking medication.

What it led to was waking up and hating myself almost everyday. I loathed myself. I was waiting for either my son to grow up and graduate so I could drink how I truly wanted or to die, whichever came first, didn't matter which. It was sincerely a horrible existence... And I didn't even realize booze was my problem.

At the end of the day, we can all attempt to scare you but You have to make the choice to be scared enough in your own life, from the choices you made.

Best of luck!

ImDoingIt

Thanks everyone. I...I... want to quit. So maybe... I don't know. It is so hard. I feel like ****...every day. I was just hoping some one would say...
"Guess what stupid...you are going to die if you don't"stop drinking! Wake up Lolo! What are you 12 years old! You are an adult! Take control of your life! No One can do it except for you!!!"

LadyinBC

Lots of us have been told this already. It's just a given that if you drink in excess, it's not good for your body. Just like eating fatty food, smoking, doing drugs etc. And it didn't stop me either at the time.

I agree with the previous poster that we all reach our own bottom. I had to want sober so bad that I didn't want to be drunk anymore. It took me awhile, but I did get there. No one can "make" us quit, we have to decide that on our own.