ForestRunner

To prepare for potential withdrawal symptoms. I'm going to Maui on New Year's Eve and plan to start a sober life on 1/1/14. Hopefully the sun, waves, and snorkeling will help ease the transition. I'll be with my family and close, supportive friends...

mecanix

Hey ForestRunner ,

Sounds like a good plan, i hope you follow it through

Bestwishes, m

EndGameNYC

I've learned that planning to drink is never a good plan.

Thepatman

I Sincerely hope you succeed with your plan!

Personally I spent the last 15 years trying to time my sobriety with calendar dates. My birthday, my son's birthday, the date my mom passed away, name it.

Took me 15 years to realize the time has to be now. That is why my date is December 09, it has no meaning other than my new sobriety to me.

Inca

Sounds like a wonderful fresh start to me!

Soberween

I agree with you, EndGame, but it does work for some though. Caroline Knapp (Drinking: A Love Story) actually did a tour of the rehab facility one month prior to entering it. The rehab employees apparently found it hysterical that someone would do that as they believed that she most likely wouldn't show up a month later, but she did and remained sober until her passing. Good luck, ForestRunner. You need to do this. Life can be good or it can be great. Your choice.

ForestRunner

I've been tapering because I am scared of the possibility of withdrawals that I won't be able to cope with (more mentally than physically). I am a 1-2 bottle of white wine a night drinker for years and for the past few days I am down to one. I am so distracted with work, kids, family life, Christmas, etc. that I decided to spend a lot of time on SR (1-2 hours a day lately), get all the advice/tools/information I can (like meeting with my doctor, getting blood tests, exploring medications I might take temporarily to allow me to deal with my AV in the first couple of weeks), so that when I am on vaca I can truly focus on finding that light at the end of the tunnel. I am not naive; I know that the whole mañana mañana thing is a symptom of the disease, but I'd rather make a smart plan and set myself up for potential success than set a unrealistic goal, like trying to stop on Christmas Eve, and fail, only to feel like a failure. I welcome your criticism and insight--bring it on! But this is what makes sense for me right now, today.

Thepatman

People will always share their own stories, with the purpose of sharing.

But everyone's journey is different, the end result is what matters not the road we take. We are the captain of our sobriety ship ;-)

Happy Christmas!