Hope has gone
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Join Date: May 2018
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Originally Posted by Bird615 
Please do not be scared of AA; especially as it seems to be your only option right now. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised, or at least relieved once you go.
I had asked my doctor about Naltrexone, too, and he told me it wasn't used for that and so wouldn't prescribe it. I tried other things like meditation and AA was the only one that seemed to work. It was such a relief. It doesn't matter if you can't understand how it could work. If you give it a try, you'll find out. Best wishes to you!
I had asked my doctor about Naltrexone, too, and he told me it wasn't used for that and so wouldn't prescribe it. I tried other things like meditation and AA was the only one that seemed to work. It was such a relief. It doesn't matter if you can't understand how it could work. If you give it a try, you'll find out. Best wishes to you!
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Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 980
I ran into the same thing with Naltrexone. I called around to different facilities and found one that had meetings that could adhere to my work. Some of them were ridiculous wanting you to go to meetings 6 days a week + counseling. Centers were 45 min away + an hour meeting + 45 min home + counseling. It was a full time job just to get an rx! I could not fit that into my schedule with work. I KNOW I could fit drinking in and the hours I lost from drinking probably exceeded the meeting/travel time hours yada, yada, yada. I ended up finding a center that allowed online or local meetings to count to rx Naltrexone. In the end, it didn’t work for me as I still drank. I too had a ton of faith in Naltrexone, but as someone said above, there is no magic pill. My advice - call around and find a place that would adhere to your schedule. I think I called 5 diff places before I found one.
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: northern michigan. not the U.P.
Posts: 15,281
Originally Posted by Sweetpea74
Because I’ve talked about it before online and felt really positive but still not been able to quit.
the program of AA isnt about talking- its about action to recover from the hopeless state of mind and body.
meetings arent about talking about quitting. meetings are for people that have recovered to share their experience,strength, and hope with the still suffering alcoholic on how they got sober- their views on the steps and also different topics and how the program helped them through life on lifes terms.
there is one step of the program that deals with alcohol. the rest are about learning what the underlying issues are, how to learn and change, and how to live life on lifes terms.
sweetpea, to get an idea of what the program is all about, it would be wise to read the first 164 pages of the big book.
https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/alcoholics-anonymous
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Join Date: May 2018
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Originally Posted by Behappy1
I ran into the same thing with Naltrexone. I called around to different facilities and found one that had meetings that could adhere to my work. Some of them were ridiculous wanting you to go to meetings 6 days a week + counseling. Centers were 45 min away + an hour meeting + 45 min home + counseling. It was a full time job just to get an rx! I could not fit that into my schedule with work. I KNOW I could fit drinking in and the hours I lost from drinking probably exceeded the meeting/travel time hours yada, yada, yada. I ended up finding a center that allowed online or local meetings to count to rx Naltrexone. In the end, it didn’t work for me as I still drank. I too had a ton of faith in Naltrexone, but as someone said above, there is no magic pill. My advice - call around and find a place that would adhere to your schedule. I think I called 5 diff places before I found one.
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Join Date: May 2018
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Originally Posted by tomsteve
P.S.
there IS hope for ya.
once a hopeless,helpless,useless,worthless POS, the program gave me hope, i can help others, am no longer useless, and have worth.
there IS hope for ya.
once a hopeless,helpless,useless,worthless POS, the program gave me hope, i can help others, am no longer useless, and have worth.
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Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 980
I understand sweetpea! Call around and find another clinic to accomodate your schedule. They’re out there. With the naltrexone for me, it made me sick so I couldn’t take full doses - and then I’d forget to take a dose so maybe that was it. Call around to other clinics or find a doc that will rx it They are out there.
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
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Originally Posted by Sweetpea74
I think it’s because when I gave up smoking i had tried so many times and only succeeded when i used patches. They gave me a psychological boost and made me feel much stronger. I was kind of hoping for something like that but for alcohol and had decided naltrexone was it so when I couldn’t get it i was so upset.
You can read a lot of stories here about all of those drugs like naltrexone, but the overall consensus is that they are intended to be an aid/supplement to a recovery plan. None of them will solve our issues with alcohol by themselves. And there are also other possible negative side effects.
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: northern michigan. not the U.P.
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Originally Posted by Sweetpea74
Thank you so much for your words. I have been reading Russell Brand’s book recovery and he goes through the steps in that, they do make a lot of sense. I just need to apply them and think i need help with that. I think I will call AA first like the other commenters suggested, that might make me feel more comfortable for my first one.
i will say that the doors to my first meeting were the hardest doors to open and they were automatic doors!
i was quite fearful- fear of the unknown. what life without alcohol would be like. i started drinking when i was 13 and was 36 when i walked into AA. i had no clue what life without alcohol would be like.
it just took courage to walk in there.
first meeting all i could say was,"im tom im an alcoholic and i cant take it any more" and broke down crying. i didnt have to say anything else- many of the people in that meeting had been in my shoes.
they also had to walk through the doors of their first meeting,too and understood how much courage it took.
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Join Date: Aug 2015
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So, feelings are good and being positive about recovery is important. BUT - feelings are just that, and don't mean action.
I hear a lot of people talk about fear, nervousness or apprehension about going into AA. Some even talk about sitting in the parking lot outside and not being able to go in! While that wasn't my experience (I was resistant then angry but resigned) it makes sense. Change, the unknown, everything you've "heard" about or think you know about AA....so much can be intimidating- if you let it.
And IME my understanding of the program has evolved and the merits of both talking (sharing) and listening are the powerful 1-2 punch I needed at the start, and still. Like you will hear, I had to want to be sober more than I wanted to drink. Period.
We're all rooting for you to get the IRL help that can indeed help you, and hope to see you around here.
I hear a lot of people talk about fear, nervousness or apprehension about going into AA. Some even talk about sitting in the parking lot outside and not being able to go in! While that wasn't my experience (I was resistant then angry but resigned) it makes sense. Change, the unknown, everything you've "heard" about or think you know about AA....so much can be intimidating- if you let it.
And IME my understanding of the program has evolved and the merits of both talking (sharing) and listening are the powerful 1-2 punch I needed at the start, and still. Like you will hear, I had to want to be sober more than I wanted to drink. Period.
We're all rooting for you to get the IRL help that can indeed help you, and hope to see you around here.
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: California
Posts: 13,040
Sweetpea,
I'm so proud of you and the steps you're taking to get sober. AA seems like a good option until your appointment. I would keep calling to see if you can get in sooner. Also, talk to them about IOP, sometime they can get you in every evening, that might be a good fit. If not, you can take a leave for health reasons if you feel it is what you need.
I promise life is better on the other side!
I'm so proud of you and the steps you're taking to get sober. AA seems like a good option until your appointment. I would keep calling to see if you can get in sooner. Also, talk to them about IOP, sometime they can get you in every evening, that might be a good fit. If not, you can take a leave for health reasons if you feel it is what you need.
I promise life is better on the other side!
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 6,902
It took several attempts for me to get through the door of an AA meeting myself. So msny i walked to.... and walked past. Just petrified. Thinking and over thinking what I'd say and do when I arrived, who might be there, surely they couldn't help ME, and they're probably far more alcoholic than I am, and ya know... maybe I'm not alcoholic at all really, yeahhh, I'm just making a great big fuss over nothing... let's go home and have a cup of tea instead........ And off I went, not having got in the door.
When I finally did go it was nothing like I'd expected. Everyone was sober for a start off. (Seems obvious now, but hey). Everyone was clean. And dresses okay. And lots of them looked happy and calm. People were making teas and coffees in one corner. Someone had set up a leaflet and book stand in another. It was peaceful and organised. I wondered if I'd walked into a church meeting by mistake (it was in a church hall) but there were AA posters on the wall, and very quickly someone came over and asked me if it was my first meeting, got me a starter pack and a cuppa. Other people came over and said hello and introduced themselves as well. Much more friendly than starting a new group outside of AA had ever been.
A lot of the readings just went over my head the first few meetings - I suppose I was too nervous to concentrate.... but when the people started talking it was easier to listen. And although lots of my circumstances and details were different, there were so many similarities I how they'd thought and felt to how I had spent my life thinking and feeling that it left me kinda shocked, but actually more than that, it gave me hope, and it made me feel like I'd kinda met my clan. I'd always struggled with certain feelings that I'd never had the words to explain them to anyone. And here were all these other people who'd felt the same. Such relief.... Unless they'd somehow got in my head. Maybe they'd been spying on me and that's how they knew. But no, of course they hadn't.
That was four years ago, and now that group that is my clan has grown as I attend more different meetings and meet new people. I've got some very close friends that I made through the fellowship. I've also got my sponsor who I know I can trust to help me think things through when I need very honest feedback and someone whose discretion and jusgement I trust. I've learned to like myself and accept who I am nowadays. The way I see life nowadays means that it doesnt seem hopeless and scary any more for the most part. I don't think I could've got the same from any pills . Not long term anyway.
The first month or so IS tough. It just is. We end up having to sit with some rotten feelings. And we learn that they won't kill us (although I did need to learn some good breathing exercises to get through panic attacks - which I actually thought was something wrong with my heart or brain or vision or stomach, because all seemed affected - for the first time yesterday I heard someone mention getting kinda tunnel vision and remembered how I'd feel in a busy supermarket when I first got sober, thinking I might just fall right over there and then if I didn't get out of that place right NOW, and realised that's what the speaker was talking about).
You can do this. Maybe see if you can get to a meeting before the weekend. You'll honestly feel so much better once you've been to the first one.
Take care.
BB
When I finally did go it was nothing like I'd expected. Everyone was sober for a start off. (Seems obvious now, but hey). Everyone was clean. And dresses okay. And lots of them looked happy and calm. People were making teas and coffees in one corner. Someone had set up a leaflet and book stand in another. It was peaceful and organised. I wondered if I'd walked into a church meeting by mistake (it was in a church hall) but there were AA posters on the wall, and very quickly someone came over and asked me if it was my first meeting, got me a starter pack and a cuppa. Other people came over and said hello and introduced themselves as well. Much more friendly than starting a new group outside of AA had ever been.
A lot of the readings just went over my head the first few meetings - I suppose I was too nervous to concentrate.... but when the people started talking it was easier to listen. And although lots of my circumstances and details were different, there were so many similarities I how they'd thought and felt to how I had spent my life thinking and feeling that it left me kinda shocked, but actually more than that, it gave me hope, and it made me feel like I'd kinda met my clan. I'd always struggled with certain feelings that I'd never had the words to explain them to anyone. And here were all these other people who'd felt the same. Such relief.... Unless they'd somehow got in my head. Maybe they'd been spying on me and that's how they knew. But no, of course they hadn't.
That was four years ago, and now that group that is my clan has grown as I attend more different meetings and meet new people. I've got some very close friends that I made through the fellowship. I've also got my sponsor who I know I can trust to help me think things through when I need very honest feedback and someone whose discretion and jusgement I trust. I've learned to like myself and accept who I am nowadays. The way I see life nowadays means that it doesnt seem hopeless and scary any more for the most part. I don't think I could've got the same from any pills . Not long term anyway.
The first month or so IS tough. It just is. We end up having to sit with some rotten feelings. And we learn that they won't kill us (although I did need to learn some good breathing exercises to get through panic attacks - which I actually thought was something wrong with my heart or brain or vision or stomach, because all seemed affected - for the first time yesterday I heard someone mention getting kinda tunnel vision and remembered how I'd feel in a busy supermarket when I first got sober, thinking I might just fall right over there and then if I didn't get out of that place right NOW, and realised that's what the speaker was talking about).
You can do this. Maybe see if you can get to a meeting before the weekend. You'll honestly feel so much better once you've been to the first one.
Take care.
BB
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Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 23
Originally Posted by Berrybean
It took several attempts for me to get through the door of an AA meeting myself. So msny i walked to.... and walked past. Just petrified. Thinking and over thinking what I'd say and do when I arrived, who might be there, surely they couldn't help ME, and they're probably far more alcoholic than I am, and ya know... maybe I'm not alcoholic at all really, yeahhh, I'm just making a great big fuss over nothing... let's go home and have a cup of tea instead........ And off I went, not having got in the door.
When I finally did go it was nothing like I'd expected. Everyone was sober for a start off. (Seems obvious now, but hey). Everyone was clean. And dresses okay. And lots of them looked happy and calm. People were making teas and coffees in one corner. Someone had set up a leaflet and book stand in another. It was peaceful and organised. I wondered if I'd walked into a church meeting by mistake (it was in a church hall) but there were AA posters on the wall, and very quickly someone came over and asked me if it was my first meeting, got me a starter pack and a cuppa. Other people came over and said hello and introduced themselves as well. Much more friendly than starting a new group outside of AA had ever been.
A lot of the readings just went over my head the first few meetings - I suppose I was too nervous to concentrate.... but when the people started talking it was easier to listen. And although lots of my circumstances and details were different, there were so many similarities I how they'd thought and felt to how I had spent my life thinking and feeling that it left me kinda shocked, but actually more than that, it gave me hope, and it made me feel like I'd kinda met my clan. I'd always struggled with certain feelings that I'd never had the words to explain them to anyone. And here were all these other people who'd felt the same. Such relief.... Unless they'd somehow got in my head. Maybe they'd been spying on me and that's how they knew. But no, of course they hadn't.
That was four years ago, and now that group that is my clan has grown as I attend more different meetings and meet new people. I've got some very close friends that I made through the fellowship. I've also got my sponsor who I know I can trust to help me think things through when I need very honest feedback and someone whose discretion and jusgement I trust. I've learned to like myself and accept who I am nowadays. The way I see life nowadays means that it doesnt seem hopeless and scary any more for the most part. I don't think I could've got the same from any pills . Not long term anyway.
The first month or so IS tough. It just is. We end up having to sit with some rotten feelings. And we learn that they won't kill us (although I did need to learn some good breathing exercises to get through panic attacks - which I actually thought was something wrong with my heart or brain or vision or stomach, because all seemed affected - for the first time yesterday I heard someone mention getting kinda tunnel vision and remembered how I'd feel in a busy supermarket when I first got sober, thinking I might just fall right over there and then if I didn't get out of that place right NOW, and realised that's what the speaker was talking about).
You can do this. Maybe see if you can get to a meeting before the weekend. You'll honestly feel so much better once you've been to the first one.
Take care.
BB
When I finally did go it was nothing like I'd expected. Everyone was sober for a start off. (Seems obvious now, but hey). Everyone was clean. And dresses okay. And lots of them looked happy and calm. People were making teas and coffees in one corner. Someone had set up a leaflet and book stand in another. It was peaceful and organised. I wondered if I'd walked into a church meeting by mistake (it was in a church hall) but there were AA posters on the wall, and very quickly someone came over and asked me if it was my first meeting, got me a starter pack and a cuppa. Other people came over and said hello and introduced themselves as well. Much more friendly than starting a new group outside of AA had ever been.
A lot of the readings just went over my head the first few meetings - I suppose I was too nervous to concentrate.... but when the people started talking it was easier to listen. And although lots of my circumstances and details were different, there were so many similarities I how they'd thought and felt to how I had spent my life thinking and feeling that it left me kinda shocked, but actually more than that, it gave me hope, and it made me feel like I'd kinda met my clan. I'd always struggled with certain feelings that I'd never had the words to explain them to anyone. And here were all these other people who'd felt the same. Such relief.... Unless they'd somehow got in my head. Maybe they'd been spying on me and that's how they knew. But no, of course they hadn't.
That was four years ago, and now that group that is my clan has grown as I attend more different meetings and meet new people. I've got some very close friends that I made through the fellowship. I've also got my sponsor who I know I can trust to help me think things through when I need very honest feedback and someone whose discretion and jusgement I trust. I've learned to like myself and accept who I am nowadays. The way I see life nowadays means that it doesnt seem hopeless and scary any more for the most part. I don't think I could've got the same from any pills . Not long term anyway.
The first month or so IS tough. It just is. We end up having to sit with some rotten feelings. And we learn that they won't kill us (although I did need to learn some good breathing exercises to get through panic attacks - which I actually thought was something wrong with my heart or brain or vision or stomach, because all seemed affected - for the first time yesterday I heard someone mention getting kinda tunnel vision and remembered how I'd feel in a busy supermarket when I first got sober, thinking I might just fall right over there and then if I didn't get out of that place right NOW, and realised that's what the speaker was talking about).
You can do this. Maybe see if you can get to a meeting before the weekend. You'll honestly feel so much better once you've been to the first one.
Take care.
BB
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Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 122
I take Naltrexone. The shot is called Vivitrol and is expensive. Naltrexone is the pills and is really cheap. It does help curb the cravings for alcohol but it is worthless unless you have a true desire to stop drinking and work a program. attend AA meetings, meet with a counselor, find a sponsor. it is so hard to do it alone. Listen to people who have successfully stopped drinking because whatever they did worked. I went to a 30 day inpatient to detox and then 2 months of outpatient meetings and i would HIGHLY recommend it. I am 99 days sober today. I drank daily for about 20 years.
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Join Date: Dec 2017
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Naltrexone can reduce urges to drink, and can make drinking less rewarding, but its not fool-proof. Towards the end of my drinking, I didn't even LIKE drinking anymore- most of the time I would just feel depressed or cry. I wasn't having fun drinking anymore yet I STILL had to do it.
I think you'll find that AA isn't as bad as you've built up in your mind. You can just sit in the back and not talk for the first meeting if you don't want to. Just try one meeting!
I think you'll find that AA isn't as bad as you've built up in your mind. You can just sit in the back and not talk for the first meeting if you don't want to. Just try one meeting!
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Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 23
Originally Posted by CincyFin
I take Naltrexone. The shot is called Vivitrol and is expensive. Naltrexone is the pills and is really cheap. It does help curb the cravings for alcohol but it is worthless unless you have a true desire to stop drinking and work a program. attend AA meetings, meet with a counselor, find a sponsor. it is so hard to do it alone. Listen to people who have successfully stopped drinking because whatever they did worked. I went to a 30 day inpatient to detox and then 2 months of outpatient meetings and i would HIGHLY recommend it. I am 99 days sober today. I drank daily for about 20 years.
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Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 122
I really can't stress enough how much a 30 day inpatient program helped me. I went to Lumiere in West Chester, Ohio but they have a facility in Jupiter Florida and they will fly you to and from the facility as part of treatment. My insurance covered it, I just have to pay my deductible. It saved me
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