“Seriously, you want to stop?” -Weekender thread 26 - 29 April 2019
 

:welcome

Welcome to the Weekenders. :wave:

Weekends can be difficult when trying to stay sober, so we get together and support each other and talk about a range of topics.

If you’re new to Weekenders and it’s your first sober weekend, firstly, you’re doing great for making this decision. :)

Secondly, you’ve realised you can’t control your alcohol intake.....but want to...”you seriously want to stop?”.

When I first realised this, I dismissed it...I was ok!(denial!) and thought I knew when to stop....
.....Yeah, it was usually when I’d passed out, or as I liked to call it, fell asleep.
I couldn’t bear the thought of life without alcohol, the future looked so bleak without it....How wrong I was!

If you’re thinking along those thoughts, there is a way past it.

There’s so much more life, without the booze.

‘Sobriety Delivers Everything That Alcohol Promised’

Come and join us and shout up whenever you feel like it! :)

Shotgun!

Lots of frogs croaking woke me up early early early this rainy morning.

Yes, there is not only life, but better life past the bottle.
I couldn't imagine it either at first, but life is richer and so much happier and less stressful away from what my drinking had become--no longer light and fun but for a few short,and getting shorter, hours.

And then the payment of pain, anxiety, and insomnia.

Now I wake refreshed, without fear, and ready to go.
Thanks Mags

Any hardships I've endured over the past weeks are nothing compared to the horrible despair of drinking. And all I had to do was make that final decision to stop for good. Sounds easy but it's not. It is, however, very simple.

Heading into sober weekend #7.
It's a fine way to roll into Spring. :)

Thanks Mags.

I'm IN for the weekend.

Long live the sober life.

Later weekenders

Thanks Mags :)

D

I'm on my 11th day, having mood swings, but feeling better overall sober. Still get cravings even whilst on anti-craving meds (I was/am? extreme and it had to come to that point). I grudgingly take them down so I'm sure not to drink (it would ruin any effect).

I'd think how could I watch a sports game without booze, until I have and found myself more in control of my emotions and social media posts, replies with other fans,and the like.

Today am feeling flat, friends on the net I like as well as my team have all fallen in round 1, game 7's. Intense. I feel sad, but gotta take out the dogs and then go to my SMART recovery session. It's kinda lame, like common sense (goal settings, taking accountability and all these tools) but nice to be able to relate to some. Others, which I found particularly funny at my first meeting would say, ''who drinks in the mornings?'' Then the social worker would intervene, ''let's not judge....''
If anything, to me, it passes the time and is something different (even though I have done years and years of therapy before, in patient, out patient, one on one, group for eating disorders).
I'd (and many) be one who'd look down on alcoholic problems. It was like, you do not need alcohol to live, but you need food. And there's no pills for an ED.

I wold honestly say the ED was a tougher battle, but how did I end up coping? By substituting it with alcohol, escaping myself, and stop caring for 15 years. Ending up ruining, albeit differently (altered state of mind) the second half of my ED free life.

I still find it hard to imagine my life completely swearing it off, given my history, and how socially acceptable it is. But I am giving it another go, with meds this time, until I can trust myself again.

Absolutely 110% agree with that! I am doing much more interesting and fun things in sobriety that I only dreamed of (when I wasn't passed out) in my drinking days. I never thought I could do it, I told myself day-in and day-out that could not 'survive' without alcohol.

Congrats on shotgun Hawkeye and Thanks for the new thread Mags!

Is there a proper greeting used on ANZAC day Dee? It's a remberance or memorial day isn't it?

thanks Mags, I'm in. :)

Prayers for the families, and gratitude to all who serve to try to make the world a safer better place. We have a similar holiday to ANZAC day, it's Memorial Day, and it doubles as the kickoff to summer. I don't know about Australia, but in the US it has become a long drinking weekend for too many people. I hope no one is injured or killed due to alcohol this weekend, that certainly isn't the intention.

Obladi!! So glad to have you in Weekenders. Welcome. Your battle with alcohol has played out so eloquently on the pages of SR. I'm so happy for you that you have SEVEN WEEKS!


"Uzumma" 12 years ago
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aNuC9VRH-...2+copy+sml.jpg


They have closed the gorilla exhibit at the zoo for a few weeks here in Seattle and and and AND :wink3:...they took Uzumma (12 YO female Western Lowland Gorilla) off birth control. Squee. She needs to have a baby - she's way too self-absorbed and tends to cause drama with all her excess passion and energy. The image is her as an infant, but today she's a typical beautiful fully grown teenaged, "girl," who spends lots of time on the edge emotionally and posing provocatively for the silver back male. Sometimes she gets herself so wound up she gives herself a time out up in a tree or hiding. I'm excited about it- so is everyone! I bet you didn't know that zoo gorillas are on The Pill (human birth control pill.)

Hi Caprice, great news on day 11! :)

Bim, I didn’t know that zoos put female gorillas on the pill. Uzumma sounds lovely, I look forward to her infants being born.

Welcome Caprice6 :)

Likewise nice to see you on the weekender Obladi...

Hello to all the gang.

It is hard, most definitely.
I just wonder why I can't manage it like normal social drinkers, what makes me (and some of us) the exception? How come some can have control and others can't or eventually lose it? It's hard today for me to accept that I can't drink ever again.
I tried everything over the years, but sobriety seems to be the only solution. I feel sorry for myself today.

It really IS the only solution.

With some sober time you'll feel a lot better and as long as you stick to your commitment to not drink it will get a lot easier.

It is biology, Caprice. I think some of us are just born with the inability to process alcohol properly once we have had a certain amount. It doesn't really matter about the nuts and bolts of it though; I mean its a complicated issue. That can and will be sorted out with Continuous Sober Time.

I would suggest reading as much as you can about it - here, in books, online, wherever you can. Podcasts are good, too. Try, "Naked Mind," podcasts.

I'm in! Thanks, Mags.

Caprice - I spent a fair amount of time feeling sorry for myself and wondering "why me?" so I know exactly how you feel. I was pretty angry about it, too - it WASN'T FAIR!! All of my friends could still drink and "have fun" and I no longer could. I also had a hard time accepting that I could NEVER drink again.

But as time went by, my attitude changed completely. I know it sounds hard to believe, and maybe a bit trite, but I am now grateful to be an alcoholic and to be sober. Early on, when I would hear people in meetings say they were grateful to be alcoholics, I just did not understand that at all. How in the world could a person be grateful for having a disease that meant never drinking safely again? But I understand now. Without my alcoholism, and the work I did in treatment and AA over the past 4+ years, my life would be a wasteland, or very possibly over by now. I have never experienced as full and free of a life as I have now, and I really didn't think it was even possible to feel this way. I have learned so much about myself, and learned how to cope with life on life's terms, and I feel so much stronger and more capable than I ever thought I'd be. So, these are the GIFTS of sobriety I have found. So yes, I am grateful.

To Caprice and anyone else feeling like life will never be the same and feeling bad about that, I promise - it's true life will never be the same. But with time, work and patience, it will be BETTER.

And Bim, how exciting about the possibility of baby gorillas!

https://blog.zoo.org/

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_SsBbk4q2...d%2BUzumma.jpg

^^Uzumma all grown up.
I'm so excited! This blog post by their keeper Stephanie is about my gorilla friends. :)

Well, I think of them as friends, not sure they would agree. On a good day, I feel like they tolerate us humans.

She's beautiful.

Oh Bim, she’s marvellous, just checked out the site and signed up for newsletters. Give me some interesting reading tonight. Thanks :)

Thanks for all your replies and encouragement! I find this site most supportive and helpful.
While it can be biologically, even when I had an ED (which controlled my life), I could manage to only drink on weekends before hitting the clubs. It wasn't a problem then, cuz I was controlled by something else.
Then, alcohol took control, which is a similar yet different hell.
I need to finally live a healthy life, but in order to do so, I cannot start diets or counting calories, I cannot drink, I cannot smoke, all that's left is coffee (which cuts my appetite) and even that I shouldn't.
Idk but I cannot be immaculate.
I will continue, sometimes it feels like my life is a tragic comedy (I actually did an inane fun kinda test and that's what the result of my life was).
Thanks to you all, am headed and looking forward to the smart recovery meeting in an hour, but first I need to bring back the dogs, so catch up with y'all later! And sincere congrats to all on this difficult journey and decision.

Caprice, it is hard at first. But further down the line, give it time and it will feel normal....not to drink.
Finding something to do with the time you spent drinking is a good idea. For a few months I did the same but without a glass of alcohol in my hand. It’s good to change tactics. Keep your mind busy.. :)