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Lightbulb Moment: You can't turn a pickle into a cucumber

Old 11-05-2014, 06:57 AM
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Lightbulb Moment: You can't turn a pickle into a cucumber

I'm reading _Drinking: A Love Story(what a great book) and came last night to the chapter about moderation.The author noted that for many (although certainly not for everyone) a problem with alcohol develops over time and is a process, analogous to a cucumber becoming a pickle.She also used that image to explain why those of us like me with a problem with drinking, can't moderate: you can stop a cucumber from becoming a pickle, but once a pickle is a pickle, you can't turn it back into a cucumber.

I'm not sure why, but when I read that, it was an a-ha moment. I am a pickle. I can swear, gnash my teeth and complain to the universe, but it doesn't change the facts: I'm a pickle and I can't drink again.
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:03 AM
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I'm a pickle, too.

Great analogy.
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:03 AM
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Makes perfect sense

plus who dont like pickles (apart from my gf) lol
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:21 AM
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SoberWolf, what is wrong with your girlfriend? Seriously.

I remember reading that book too, but I may or may not have been drinking when I read it. That's a great analogy.
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:22 AM
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Yes, many pickles here!! This is an analogy used in AA.....
Ah-ha moments can get us on the right path!!

Glad you're here!
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:28 AM
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Yay lightbulb moment, Matilda! Doesn't it feel so liberating?

I read her book when I was still comparing my drinking to everyone else's around me. Funny, but the story affected me tremendously and I told myself it must be because I could relate to her description of rowing. Not drinking. Rowing. Geez.

You are a great pickle amongst pickles
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:40 AM
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I'm a pickle! Understanding it finally! So freeing!! Becoming a non drinker is soooo much easier then moderating, hiding it, dealing with the oh so many consequences of drinking. Feels so good to finally get it. Thanks for sharing!

I can do all things through he who strengthens me
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:42 AM
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This!!

From the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous


Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking. But the difficulty is that few alcoholics have enough desire to stop while there is yet time. We have heard of a few instances where people, who showed definite signs of alcoholism, were able to stop for a long period because of an overpowering desire to do so. Here is one.
A man of thirty was doing a great deal of spree drinking. He was very nervous in the morning after these bouts and quieted himself with more liquor. He was ambitious to succeed in business, but saw that he would get nowhere if he drank at all. Once he started, he had no control whatever. He made up his mind that until he had been successful in business and had retired, he would not touch another drop. An exceptional man, he remained bone dry for twenty-five years and retired at the age of fifty-five, after a successful and happy business career. Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has-that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men. Out came his carpet slippers and a bottle. In two months he was in a hospital, puzzled and humiliated. He tried to regulate his drinking for a little while, making several trips to the hospital meantime. Then, gathering all his forces, he attempted to stop altogether and found he could not. Every means of solving his problem which money could buy was at his disposal. Every attempt failed. Though a robust man at retirement, he went to pieces quickly and was dead within four years.
This case contains a powerful lesson. most of us have believed that if we remained sober for a long stretch, we could thereafter drink normally. But here is a man who at fifty-five years found he was just where he had left off at thirty. We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking , there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol.
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Old 11-05-2014, 07:47 AM
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^^^^^Makes the vat of vinegar sound like a great place to live!!!!!!
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Old 11-05-2014, 08:44 AM
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recently, a friend asked if i crave a beer when i see them around at a get together. after thinking, i said no. dont want a beer. i crave 8 beers. one would just **** me off.

thats why the moderation thing is off the table for me. i know i have done that on occasion in my pre-recovery life. but, it was always with effort and a desire for more. usually, i made up for what i "missed out on" at the next go.

so yeah, guess im a pickle. -mmmm. pickles.....LOL! hungry again!
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Old 11-05-2014, 08:59 AM
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I read that book and found it very moving, though I did not identify with her type of drinking behaviors. I still found her so eloquent in the description of romancing the drink, and then how it always lets us down, in the end.
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Old 11-05-2014, 09:01 AM
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<<<<< 100% Dill
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Old 11-05-2014, 09:05 AM
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Nonsensical, maybe pickles and pig butt? Yum...maybe I'll make some pulled pork this weekend to eat while I watch football!
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