tomsteve

We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself. Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking. Try to drink and stop abruptly. Try it more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition.

secretchord

I appreciate your honesty. Thank you.

Berrybean

I suspect you knew that before you did the test. Most alcoholics wish they could find an easier or softer way than sobriety. The thing is, you can't unpickle a cucumber, and moderation isn't possible / sustainable for us.

I remember feeling that my life had ended when I stopped drinking. In reality it was just the beginning.

You'll be able to sing without alcohol. Better than you can with it. Eventually. If you work on your recovery you'd be amazed at what is possible. I'm 19 months sober and can hardly believe the change in myself and what I'm able to do at times. I go to AA and am working the 12-step program of recovery - there are some 12-step promises, and when I first read them I didn't believe for a second that those things really ever happened (for ANYone, let alone someone like me) - but hey-ho. Sometimes it's bloody marvellous to be proved wrong...

THE A.A. PROMISES

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and selfpity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.



Stick around and keep posting. Your alcoholic voice will be feeding you all kinds of scare stories and threats about what isn't possible for you without the booze. Our alcoholic voices are big fat liars. We can do ****-loads more without the booze than we ever could with it - as long as we work on our recovery.

On The Road

It took me over 25 years to look myself in the mirror and admit that I'm an alcoholic. By that time, I would drink everything in-sight until I blacked out. My memory was erased from the night before. Anxiety, depression, headaches, stomach pains, shakes, shots of vodka in the morning to even me out. My kids saw me passed out on the sofa with drinks next to me.

And after all this, I, too, worried that I couldn't drink, ever. It took some sober time to resolve this in my mind.

Stick around and try to stay sober for one week. All you need to do is go to bed sober tonight. Repeat tomorrow.

secretchord

Thanks. I'll try.

doggonecarl

Good. Accept you have a problem with alcohol. Accept that the solution is not drinking. And quit. Then apply yourself 1000% to doing whatever it takes to support that decision.

MythOfSisyphus

You are like I was a few years ago, secretchord. I loved everything about wine; the taste, the smell and the feelings it gave me. And I too couldn't imagine how my life could have meaning or joy without it. But comedian George Carlin summed it up best- in the beginning it's mostly pleasure with very little pain, but as the years go by that gets flipped around and it's mostly pain. The drugs we use- be it booze or other stuff- eventually start using us. By the time I decided to stop wine had made my life a walking nightmare. I was hungover all them time to the point that I never knew if I was sick or not. I went from blackout to hangover again and again with seemingly no control over my life. That last part was the scariest! That utter lack of control over it. No matter how much I loathed the idea of getting drunk yet again I knew to my core that I would hitting the liquor store after work.

But I can tell you there is life after booze! I never would have believed it but my life is so much better sober than I could have imagined when I was drinking.

I drank hard for 25 years, and I knew I had a problem for at least 20 of those years. Don't be like me, afraid of the label, living as a slave to the bottle for years. Get off the ride now.

secretchord

Thanks for all your advice. I did go to AA meetings about 7-8 years ago for a brief period. I felt like the oddball and so I stopped going. I heard so many worse stories than mine. I felt very out of place and took that to mean that I don't have a problem. I have a very good life. I am married with a child, have a full time job, and a lot of friends. I just feel like drinking is my hobby. It's what I do for fun. But lately I've been isolating a bit more and being more secretive about my drinking. Like yesterday, I must have drank a bottle and a half of wine between 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. My husband didn't know I had any. I try to hide it from him because I feel like he judges me. So I'm not totally truthful with him about how much I drink.

I've never blacked out. Ever. I've always remembered everything I said and did. That's what makes me want to drink at home more so I save myself the embarrassment in front of others.

My husband works for an alcohol distributor. So I get cheap high end wines. The problem is that he can keep track of my drinking this way. So lately I've been buying at the store so he doesn't notice the shelf getting less and less. And I stopped recycling too. I throw my bottles in the garbage so he can't count them in the recycling. I feel ashamed. But is it just him being sensitive? His mother was an alcoholic so he is more sensitive to people drinking. He basically thinks everyone who drinks has a drinking problem. Maybe he's convinced me and that's why I'm here?

SoberInCLE

Welcome to SR secretchord! It was hard for me to admit it. I try and think of all the things I want to accomplish. Things I wanted to do before alcohol got in the way. I think you are on the right track. Hang around and hear what other people go through.

PennyLane76

Drinking as a hobby. Isolating. Drinking more and hiding bottles. Check, check. Problem. It is progressive, you can stop now. Read around here, it helps so much.

tomsteve

from the second set of stories in the big book of aa:


They Stopped in Time


Among today’s incoming A.A. members, many have never reached the advanced stages of alcoholism, though given time all might have.

Most of these fortunate ones have had little or no acquaintance with delirium, with hospitals, asylums, and jails. Some were drinking heavily, and there had been occasional serious episodes. But with many, drinking had been little more than a sometimes uncontrollable nuisance. Seldom had any of these lost either health, business, family, or friends.

Why do men and women like these join A.A.?

The seventeen who now tell their experiences answer that question. They saw that they had become actual or potential alcoholics, even though no serious harm had yet been done.
They realized that repeated lack of drinking control, when they really wanted control, was the fatal symptom that spelled problem drinking. This, plus mounting emotional disturbances, convinced them that compulsive alcoholism already had them; that complete ruin would be only a question of time.

Seeing this danger, they came to A.A. They realized that in the end alcoholism could be as mortal as cancer; certainly no sane man would wait for a malignant growth to become fatal before seeking help.

Therefore, these seventeen A.A.’s, and hundreds of thousands like them, have been saved years of infinite suffering. They sum it up something like this: “We didn’t wait to hit bottom because, thank God, we could see the bottom. Actually, the bottom came up and hit us. That sold us on Alcoholics Anonymous

Fly N Buy

Well done Sir = Awesome!!

Fly N Buy

Lot's of pickles here in this jar>>>>>>>>

Lotets

Secretchord, I am just about to hit my first week. The people on here have been so supportive. I'm beginning to feel the "positives" already.

We can do this!!!!

D122y

http:// http://www.the-alcoholism-gu...lcoholism.html

D122y

Not sure how changing a few answers can define a person, but it is better than nothing.

PurpleKnight

Welcome to the Forum Secretchord!!

Struggling with being able to stop answers your question, but you can and you'll find loads of support here on Sr to help you do it!!

Carver

I remember feeling like that. The thought of never drinking again scared me. So I kept drinking. That's a sign that things aren't good, whether you call it alcoholic, problem drinker or whatever.

Now the thought of EVER drinking again scares me. Thank God, I'm free! You can be too.

blueberry2015

Ok so heres the deal you pretty much know that there is a problem. First step. You have two choices you can either quit or try to moderate. If you fail to moderate and always fall back to square one then chances are you are an alcoholic. Personally..... my biggest advice to you hun is to quit whilst your ahead, problem drinking undoubtedly gets worse and believe me once it really gets a grip of you it will happen so damn fast and without you realising it. I was a "problem drinker" for years and then just like that I became physically dependent - an alcoholic. Please don't do what I did, knew there was a problem - but told myself "but im not an alkie" and carry on repeating the same cycle over and over, because rest assured if there is a problem now it WILL only be a matter of time where you will definitely know that your an alcoholic x x x

JD

^^^^Said perfectly.