Grateful to have found this forum!
 

Hello, I'm new here, and grateful to have found this forum!

:welcome

Welcome Joan. We're very glad to have you with us. SR saved me when I was a lost soul. Good that you found us and reached out.

Welcome, JoantheMaid. I hope that you find this site to be as helpful as I have.

Welcome to the family. :hug: I'm glad you joined us. :)

Thank you for welcoming me.
 

Thank you!

I will stay quiet for awhile, Need to read through the conversations and threads posted by other newcomers (so that I will know I'm not alone.)

Grateful that I am spending time here, rather than reading uplifting messages on Facebook. Those are posted by healthy people who say, "Claim your joyful life!"

Of course, those messages helped me understand how far I've fallen from a state of joy, which led me to seek out this site.

Hi and Welcome.
Wishing you well.

I felt tremendous relief when I joined here - it felt so good to no longer be alone. It gave me the strength to let go.

Welcome JTM - you'll never regret coming here. Many inspirational people here!!

Welcome Joan! I felt so alone with my alcoholism until I found SR. I gained the strength to stay sober right here by reading everything I could find.

Lots of fabulous members to lend you support. :)

Welcome to SR Joan.Glad you are here.

Welcome! Glad you have joined us. :)

Hello everyone, and thanks again, so much. When I tried to reply on another thread, I received the message that I can't do that until I have posted 25 messages. I'm assuming that's not true for this thread, since I started it?

I stayed alcohol free for nearly 25 years, and relapsed in 2007. Went back to AA and stayed sober for over a year, then had a few brief relapses, recovered, and then relapsed again in July, 2012.

Took a trip with my partner last May. He'd been sober for 25 years, but decided that he wanted to experiment with wine on that vacation. He didn't even know that I had started drinking again almost a year earlier. Since his primary residence is in another state, it was easy for me to hide it from him, but I felt dishonest. Keeping secrets is bad for me. We were high school sweethearts for four years, and then he re-entered my life in 2011 (after we had married other people and raised our children to adulthood.) Had not seen each other in decades! But true love never dies.

Experimenting with wine quickly accelerated to having cocktails before dinner, and beer with lunch. I discovered that our drinking patterns are almost identical. We have a great time, lively conversations, and the illusion "we're okay" stuck with us. But when he went back home for a month, I began drinking more heavily and was hospitalized for four days (detox.) Stayed sober for two months, but when we took two more vacations together in November and December, I relapsed again.

Have been watering down the wine (and occasional bottles of vodka) with either lots of water, or tonic water, or Diet 7-up, hoping to wean myself off the alcohol that way, rather than guzzling straight alcohol. Afraid of the withdrawals, of course but know that my body will fall apart if I keep doing this.

Cannot drive with any alcohol in my system, having had my first DUI in 2009. I've taken taxis to where I need to go, rather than risk getting another one. I keep reminding myself, "automatic jail time with the second DUI". The first one was extremely costly! Thousands of dollars! Spending one night in jail was a nightmare. I keep remembering that experience as an incentive to get sober and stay sober.

Thanks for listening. Just wanted you to know more about my story.
Have read so many supportive words offered in the threads I've been reading here for hours. Those words are helping me!

This is incorrect. You are welcome to post anywhere on any of the forums anytime. :)

Welcome Joan :)

You'll find a lot of support here.
If you're afraid of withdrawals,the very best thing to do is see your Dr - best to be safe :)

D

i joined this forum 2 weeks ago and i have found it very helpful.

Joan I feel the same exact way, it was making me cry after a while.

Thank you to everyone who has replied
 

It helps so much to feel less alone.

Solitary Thinker, you and I are in a similar place. My heart goes out to you!

Were def not alone that's for sure! Likewise, I hope we can all move on from this nightmare.

<3