Breaking the Cycle
 

Hi.

I've been lurking here off and on for a while and have fought to moderate my drinking for years. I've quit a number of times, sometimes for long stretches. Last year I went about 6 months from May to the holidays. Then I rationalized that my drinking wasn't as bad as I thought and I could have a few beers at the football game, or I'd only drink on Saturday, yadda yadda. Like everytime before, I moderated for a while but then I find myself right back to the bad place. I've binged for the last two weeks -- waking up every morning feeling awful.

I've never had any large consequences to my drinking. No DUIs, I have a professional job, a good wife and kids, etc. I am very thankful for all of that, but I think I use that to rationalize my way right back here after periods of not drinking. I know that wont always be the case -- each time I get a little worse.

I know I need a plan to remain vigilent and not fall into the cycle again. Part of my new plan is to stop lurking and create an account on here. I turn 40 this year -- time to put an end to this cycle

Thanks for reading.

You're right that it does get worse because alcoholism is a progressive disease. Stopping is the way to go and I'm glad you found us and decided to post.

Welcome to the posting side of things. I find posting and reading add a lot to my sobriety.

I'm a professional. Married, two children, a house, cars. No DUIs. No arrests. Never fired for drunkenness. But drinking diminished me. I didn't lose material things. I lost myself.

Moderation won't work for me. Abstinence and building a more fulfilling life is worth it to me.

"Drinking diminished me" -- wow - that resonates with me so much. Thank you.

I could have written that when I was 40. At age 48 my good wife told me to figure it out or get out. Why did I have to let it get to that point when I knew long before that it was a problem?

Welcome. Start living a sober life now. You don't want to find out how bad a little worse each time can get.

You can do this! :ring

Welcome RussC. A lot of good advice in the above posts. SR is a great place to be and you will get a lot of valuable input. Good luck with breaking the cycle.

Welcome to the Forum RussC!! :wave:

Welcome Russ :)

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