airwick

Think positive... Who would want to snort coke and gamble if they are not drunk! Stop the alcohol and see where it takes you. I stopped drinking, and I no longer crave donuts lol

mfanch

Alcohol is not the root of my problems. Nor are shopping, gambling, drugs, and men. I was irritable, discontented, and restless before ANY chemicals ever entered my body.

They are all symptoms. Once I got to causes and conditions all of the above improved and I stopped having cravings and obsession.

During active times, if I wasn't engaging in one, I was into the other, or I would fall off the wagon on one, then say eff it and go off the wagon in the others. All insanity.

I was pretty miserable without SOMETHING. I needed to rewire my brain.

SoberHoopsFan

It's not strange. I used to abuse coke but only after having drank first. In sobriety, I have zero desire for coke, although there were times many many years ago where I used it regularly (but almost always after drinking). Alcohol lowers judgment and makes us engage in riskier behaviors.

Someone in my outpatient program was addicted to pain pills and thought with a bit of clean time under their belt, they could try drinking again. Awful idea. Eventually one night they had a few drinks too many and purchased pain pills and used them. If you are serious about quitting any hard drug, you should never consume alcohol again, it's just too risky.

Ryno03272009

Urges may remain but the ability to control those urges and opportunities may not.

For example, I use to be a cigarette smoker for about as many years as I drank. I must have tried to quit smoking one hundred times but I would always start again. Then I realized one day, I do well with not smoking when I haven't had a drink in a while (hours/days/weeks) but when id go out to drink I would get urge to smoke (or urge would always be there it was just stronger and harder to control on alcohol) and Id wake up next day with a pack half smoked... So, it would be a waste to just toss the smokes so why not smoke the rest then quit again? (Dumb thoughts) but almost always I would buy another pack. When I made a choice to be sober I was able to slowly get away from cigarettes again and away from people who smoked them (smokers often drink) ultimately creating a better lifestyle for me.

My Point being once again, that by not drinking you may not eliminate the Urges but... You may create a extended chance for the ability to control those urges and opportunities to use and gamble while being in the "right" frame of mind.

MichaelJo

Ryno03272009

Thank you for your post. I think I will stop smoking after a few weeks of no Alcohol. Don't want to push it!

airwick

So True! Who would want to feel like that and waste money!

SoberHoopsFan

I feel the same mate. No desire for Cocaine at all if not drunk. Little Devil on the shoulder after a few pints.

airwick

MichaelJo: I did just the opposite. I quit smoking first. It seemed to work for me because there was always smoke at bars (back when I stopped you were able to smoke in bars) So by not smoking I was sort of forced to stay away from the bars, and there for away from alcohol. Make sense