crichton

I thought I had it licked - I got to 30 days with no real probs - even managed to stay sober through St Patricks Day and Mother's Day. I managed four weekends without touching a drop and then yesterday I gave in and opened a bottle of wine sitting in house from Mother's Day (mother-in-law brought it round when here for dinner). I recognised all the triggers all day - my AV convinced me that I could just have one glass and leave the rest. you all know what happened - finished the bottle . Am raging with myself now but am just going to start again. it was a blip and it just reinforced that I have a problem and its not going to be easy but I'm more determined than ever

FreeOwl

if it makes you feel any better, I had 5.5 months and decided the same thing.... except it took me 1.5 years to come back.

don't let that be you.... I promise you it's not worth the suffering.

mrjustin

Congrats on say one of the rest of your life mate, lifes about learning. Dont beat yourself up, learn from it and onwards and upwards from here ;-)

Gottalife

It is really common for an alcoholic, after a dry period, to fall for the idea that they can drink safely again. The other common thing is to be unable to remember with sufficent force, the reasons why we stopped in the first place. At times alcoholics of my type seem to have no effective mental defence against the first drink.

By alcoholics of my type I mean those that have lost the power of choice in drink, which I always thought was the definition of an alcoholic. But there is another type today, those who have not lost the power of choice.

Which group you decide you are in will affect your choice of recovery method. Why did your defences fail you? Lack of will power? Weakness? Calculated choice? Or is it possible that your mind was deceived into thinking in spite of past evidence, this time would be different? Were all the good reasons for not drinking easily pushed aside in favour of the rather insane idea that this time would be o.k?

The answer to these questions should help you decide what needs to be done next.

Dee74

Welcome back Crichton

D

ccam1973

good job on coming right back here. this is a learning experience. i have used all of my failures \relapses of the past as learning blocks for my sober plan today.

stay strong

waywardson8260

Glad to hear you have learned from it and that you are starting over. Good luck!

IOAA2

Hi, it’s good to see your back.

Gotalife makes some very important points. Many here stop drinking for a period of time and because we are humans we have a huge tendency to forget pain. Most of us probably would not be around if women remembered the pain of childbirth.
With alcohol our AV seems to trick us by making us forget the real “remember when” about our drinking.
Being honest with our self about our drinking is a big obstacle for alcoholics along with the fact of accepting the fact we can no longer drink in safety.
That’s just the intellectual part, then there is the huge obstacle of our emotional pull toward drinking.
This getting sober is a process requiring work and change within us which a lot slide away from over time but is so necessary to stick with.

Believe me it’s worth it.

BE WELL

PurpleKnight

Go at things again, though tweak your plan!!

My mind would convince me all the time and help me forget that I couldn't control my drinking, so what was important was getting a second opinion on things, in isolation I would drink so using the support I had around me to stay focused was key to getting over the craving!!

You can do this!!

Soberwolf

Welcome bk