Wine drinking woman, desperate to stop
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 604
What an amazing story you have, thanks for sharing. I liked wine for a bit but not what it would do to my teeth so I changed to vodka. Good reasoning, huh!
The savings alone from not drinking are breathtaking and worth banking the $ each month. Now I am pleasantly surprised when I look at my bank statement, it's getting healthy along with me!
The savings alone from not drinking are breathtaking and worth banking the $ each month. Now I am pleasantly surprised when I look at my bank statement, it's getting healthy along with me!
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 666
Another update to my original thread. I'm happy, excited, nervous, amazed, thankful to say that one week from today I will have one year with no alcohol.
Incredibly grateful for this forum and community. I would not have been able to do it without you all. It truly is what made the difference... the similar stories shared, the compassion and support.
Anyone reading this... if you think it's not possible for you, you are wrong. You can quit this nightmare and create a better life for yourself. I tried alone for years and it never worked. I think Doggonecarl is the one who said that to me... drinking alone and trying to quit alone was never going to work.
Cherishing each day and so grateful for this now almost one year free!
Incredibly grateful for this forum and community. I would not have been able to do it without you all. It truly is what made the difference... the similar stories shared, the compassion and support.
Anyone reading this... if you think it's not possible for you, you are wrong. You can quit this nightmare and create a better life for yourself. I tried alone for years and it never worked. I think Doggonecarl is the one who said that to me... drinking alone and trying to quit alone was never going to work.
Cherishing each day and so grateful for this now almost one year free!
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Florida., USA
Posts: 3,252
Originally Posted by tealily 
Another update to my original thread. I'm happy, excited, nervous, amazed, thankful to say that one week from today I will have one year with no alcohol.
Incredibly grateful for this forum and community. I would not have been able to do it without you all. It truly is what made the difference... the similar stories shared, the compassion and support.
Anyone reading this... if you think it's not possible for you, you are wrong. You can quit this nightmare and create a better life for yourself. I tried alone for years and it never worked. I think Doggonecarl is the one who said that to me... drinking alone and trying to quit alone was never going to work.
Cherishing each day and so grateful for this now almost one year free!
Incredibly grateful for this forum and community. I would not have been able to do it without you all. It truly is what made the difference... the similar stories shared, the compassion and support.
Anyone reading this... if you think it's not possible for you, you are wrong. You can quit this nightmare and create a better life for yourself. I tried alone for years and it never worked. I think Doggonecarl is the one who said that to me... drinking alone and trying to quit alone was never going to work.
Cherishing each day and so grateful for this now almost one year free!
. Your thread has inspired me. For sure, drinking alone and quitting alone doesn't work. I'm also grateful to SR.
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Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 42
Clarification
Just realized my repose was to your original thread posted over a year ago! Congrats on over a year sober!! I'll leave my below comments anyway 😊
Welcome Tealilly: it takes a lot of courage and strength to be here so acknowledge and celebrate that courage and strength in yourself. Reading your story is like looking in a mirror--our stories are so similar. One thing I had to do was address the underlying fears and anxieties that were the catalyst for reaching for a bottle of wine every nite to escape. I searched for a new way of relating to the world. I don't know if this will resonate with you, but I found many wisdom teachers taught such different views and that gave me a way to cultivate and build a new foundation on which to build a new sober life. I listen to teachers like Abraham Hicks, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, and Joe Dispenza for a radically new
view of how I fit into this physical reality and those wisdom teachings have given me the foundation to build something different. I am 5 months sober and I reach for these teachings everyday for strength and inspiration. Ask your inner wisdom for guidance--the is a greater energy within you that will show you the path. Posting here is a big step on that path. Keep coming back. There is much love here for you.
Welcome Tealilly: it takes a lot of courage and strength to be here so acknowledge and celebrate that courage and strength in yourself. Reading your story is like looking in a mirror--our stories are so similar. One thing I had to do was address the underlying fears and anxieties that were the catalyst for reaching for a bottle of wine every nite to escape. I searched for a new way of relating to the world. I don't know if this will resonate with you, but I found many wisdom teachers taught such different views and that gave me a way to cultivate and build a new foundation on which to build a new sober life. I listen to teachers like Abraham Hicks, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, and Joe Dispenza for a radically new
view of how I fit into this physical reality and those wisdom teachings have given me the foundation to build something different. I am 5 months sober and I reach for these teachings everyday for strength and inspiration. Ask your inner wisdom for guidance--the is a greater energy within you that will show you the path. Posting here is a big step on that path. Keep coming back. There is much love here for you.
Last edited by Pajarito1663; 05-16-2018 at 10:43 AM. Reason: Clarification
Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 269
Originally Posted by tealily
Another update to my original thread. I'm happy, excited, nervous, amazed, thankful to say that one week from today I will have one year with no alcohol.
Incredibly grateful for this forum and community. I would not have been able to do it without you all. It truly is what made the difference... the similar stories shared, the compassion and support.
Anyone reading this... if you think it's not possible for you, you are wrong. You can quit this nightmare and create a better life for yourself. I tried alone for years and it never worked. I think Doggonecarl is the one who said that to me... drinking alone and trying to quit alone was never going to work.
Cherishing each day and so grateful for this now almost one year free!
Incredibly grateful for this forum and community. I would not have been able to do it without you all. It truly is what made the difference... the similar stories shared, the compassion and support.
Anyone reading this... if you think it's not possible for you, you are wrong. You can quit this nightmare and create a better life for yourself. I tried alone for years and it never worked. I think Doggonecarl is the one who said that to me... drinking alone and trying to quit alone was never going to work.
Cherishing each day and so grateful for this now almost one year free!
So much of what you said rang true. How the "glamour and mystique" that drinking may have once held was replaced by sneaking , hiding and deceiving. There was the moderate amount of beer I'd put in the fridge, and then there was the secret stash that I'd guzzle down behind my family's back. Those empties I would bury in laundry baskets or drawers until they were out of the house and I could dispose of the evidence. Insanity! The loss of control was pathetic and scary and so very shameful.
Drinking was something that slowly evolved for me. There was the social drinking of my mid 20's, the habitual boredom reliever of my late 20's, mommy's little helper drinking in my 30's, and then, in my 40's, drinking became a compulsion that took over my life. It was no longer an accompaniment to other activities (drinks to socialize, drinks to get through dinner prep or toddler tantrums, etc). Instead, drinking became the main event--an activity in and of itself. And that change marked my leap from habitual/binge drinker to, plain and simply, a slave to alcohol.
What was hard for me and I'm sure so many others is that once you cross that line into the depths of alcohol abuse you almost always cannot go back. That's what's taken me so many years to accept. It would be nice to return to the days when I just drank socially, but having progressed so far past that I can never be that normal drinker again. It is such a relief to finally embrace that fact because it means I can stop fighting to control my drinking and instead live my life in complete freedom!
I am so looking forward to living my life, making up for lost time, and accomplishing so many of the things that booze prevented me from doing.
Thank you for sharing your story and congratulations again!!
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 666
BND, thank you for this!
You are so right. That was exactly what I found.. there was no putting the genie back in the bottle, as they say, and retrieve those long ago days of casual, social drinking and not even thinking about it in between. It grew into a monster that overwhelmed all healthy life, and became, as you said, the "main event", by itself. Truly, when I stopped to think about it, my main occupation and hobby and activity .. looking forward to it, planning it, making sure I had the supplies for it, the time and opportunity carved out for it. Think of what I missed in those hours, days, and weeks ... the healthy, real living I could've done.
As it progressed, "trying to cut back" or "trying to quit" became the next all-consuming job.... measuring, bargaining and hiding, trying different drinks ... but again replacing and crowding out the normal joys of life for normal people.
So glad you are on the road to freedom too. It is SO much easier to stop trying to keep it in your life, to just accept it's simply NOT AN OPTION anymore, and that life can and WILL be so much better without it.
Thank you for replying!
You are so right. That was exactly what I found.. there was no putting the genie back in the bottle, as they say, and retrieve those long ago days of casual, social drinking and not even thinking about it in between. It grew into a monster that overwhelmed all healthy life, and became, as you said, the "main event", by itself. Truly, when I stopped to think about it, my main occupation and hobby and activity .. looking forward to it, planning it, making sure I had the supplies for it, the time and opportunity carved out for it. Think of what I missed in those hours, days, and weeks ... the healthy, real living I could've done.
As it progressed, "trying to cut back" or "trying to quit" became the next all-consuming job.... measuring, bargaining and hiding, trying different drinks ... but again replacing and crowding out the normal joys of life for normal people.
So glad you are on the road to freedom too. It is SO much easier to stop trying to keep it in your life, to just accept it's simply NOT AN OPTION anymore, and that life can and WILL be so much better without it.
Thank you for replying!
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 269
Originally Posted by tealily
Truly, when I stopped to think about it, my main occupation and hobby and activity .. looking forward to it, planning it, making sure I had the supplies for it, the time and opportunity carved out for it. Think of what I missed in those hours, days, and weeks ... the healthy, real living I could've done.
It was so absolutely pathetic.
Congrats again and I'm so glad to be a part of this new "club"--sober and LIVING LIFE!
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Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: New England, USA
Posts: 129
OMG....you sound like my twin drinking sister only a slightly older sister, but my story is so identical to yours! I lurked here for years too.
I’ll write more later and read every response to your message, but I have to go into work for the day. HUGS to you. Glad you are here. Join the Class of November 2018 and let’s journey to sober life together.
-Otter
I’ll write more later and read every response to your message, but I have to go into work for the day. HUGS to you. Glad you are here. Join the Class of November 2018 and let’s journey to sober life together.
-Otter
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Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: New England, USA
Posts: 129
My reply sounds so dumb, I only read TL's original post, not having time to read anything else I assumed this was her first post today....but it turns out she's back at 18 months sober! How amazing and inspiring! Hope I'll be your sobriety twin as well!!
-Otter
-Otter
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Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 666
Originally Posted by OtterIsland
My reply sounds so dumb, I only read TL's original post, not having time to read anything else I assumed this was her first post today....but it turns out she's back at 18 months sober! How amazing and inspiring! Hope I'll be your sobriety twin as well!!
-Otter
-Otter
Thank you all for the congratulations and good wishes. I just wanted to encourage someone maybe hanging by a thread that it really is possible to get through those tough early days. And it just gets better. I never thought I could turn myself around, and I did. You can too!
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 666
Update to my old thread, just to keep it accurate! I now have three years (plus a couple months) sober.
Grateful every day!
If I can do it, you can too. Wine ruled my life, and it's such a relief, now, to be free from it. I don't miss it, I don't think fondly of the "good old drinking days" or wish I could drink normally. I'm just so relieved to be on the other side of it. Once it's out of your life, you realize how much of true value -- and of your REAL self -- it was robbing you of. Now, no more lying. Hiding, Sneaking. No more waking up sick, with shame and regret.
I've gotten healthy, rediscovered interests, reconnected with friends and family I had been neglecting. I've been creative, thinking more deeply. I've finished projects, gotten up early, gone to sleep naturally, driven without any worries. I've been present for my teen and young adult kids as they grew up and moved off to college, instead of slurring my way through their last years at home. I'm able to help my elderly parent whenever he needs me, and my marriage is stronger and happier.
If you are reading this and despairing, please have hope.
It can get better. You are here reading and imagining making a change. That's the first step.
A better life is possible! You CAN do it.
Grateful every day!
If I can do it, you can too. Wine ruled my life, and it's such a relief, now, to be free from it. I don't miss it, I don't think fondly of the "good old drinking days" or wish I could drink normally. I'm just so relieved to be on the other side of it. Once it's out of your life, you realize how much of true value -- and of your REAL self -- it was robbing you of. Now, no more lying. Hiding, Sneaking. No more waking up sick, with shame and regret.
I've gotten healthy, rediscovered interests, reconnected with friends and family I had been neglecting. I've been creative, thinking more deeply. I've finished projects, gotten up early, gone to sleep naturally, driven without any worries. I've been present for my teen and young adult kids as they grew up and moved off to college, instead of slurring my way through their last years at home. I'm able to help my elderly parent whenever he needs me, and my marriage is stronger and happier.
If you are reading this and despairing, please have hope.
It can get better. You are here reading and imagining making a change. That's the first step.
A better life is possible! You CAN do it.
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