liv1ce

I quit drinking after an intervention and 30 days in rehab. Shortly thereafter even with AA I fell off the wagon with prescription drugs because I could get high without having it on my breath. I sobered up with face to face counseling to try to figure out why I was such an idiot. Figured it out and stayed clean and sober for 10 years.

Even with that I managed to stumble, slip, slide and then run headlong down the road to hell on oxy and was gone for 3 years.

I am now heading toward 10 months clean after going cold turkey and am perfectly satisfied with the results.

There is some alcoholism in my family but I don't believe in the genetic or environmental origin of addiction. Each time I have gone to hell I have CHOSEN to do so.

In the end the problem really isn't getting sober. Actually that is rather easy. The problem is staying sober and that is where some need a program and bully for them. They have a round of applause from me. I just am not choosing to do so. I have proven that I know where the road to hell is and know exactly how to get there. SR has been great for me and to me and I plan to stick with it. I also have an avocation that absorbs the obsession I have for getting high.

I just need to be ever vigilant.

Dalek

You don't have to.

Is that certain undesirable fate more drinking, by any chance? In other words, do you think that you will inevitably be drinking some more unless you do all those things you say you won't do (groups, programs, etc)?

"Not lying to yourself" doesn't predict that in my mind, no. You doubting that you can quit drinking all on your own, or resigning yourself to more drinking as inevitable ("fate") because you don't want to hop on the recovery program/treatment bandwagon, OTOH, probably predicts something.

Just to be clear, I don't think you need to do any of those things you don't want to do to quit drinking. You really can just knock it off. Really. What I'm asking you to consider -- for your own benefit, not mine -- is this: do you believe that? If not, why not?

pkrma

Yes, I believe that I can quit, and No, you're posts didn't help me reach that conclusion.

I just started this thread to have a conversation with people to share experiences similar to my own, and most of the above responses are great for me to read and think about. I see alot of myself up there, especially what Murray4x5 said. Stuff like that makes me glad I started the thread.

You're trying to probe my mind, see why I am not interested in AA, support groups, programs, whatever. I've got my reasons, don't really need to go into it. I'm just not a program guy, that's all there is to it. There's alot of people like me out there, just like there's alot of people not like me out there.

The thing is, it is important to me to go about this the way I want to, I call it cold turkey, you can call what you like, but I know there's people out there like me who are having success, and I like hearing their stories, that's all there is to it.

007

Dude. I think I am coming from the same place as you on this. I don't really want to get involved in groups or aa or anything. I don't want alcoholism to define me in any way, I just want to be myself, but not drink. Then get on with living my life. I don't want to go to meetings and say 'im an alcoholic', I'd rather go to interest groups and say 'I play the guitar' etc.

But what I think this guy is saying, is that you are leaving failure as an option here. You WILL stay sober. Make no excuses and leave no doors open on that. There is no reason on earth that you have to start believing in god, or following anybody elses set of rules in order to do that. What we need to do is to gain better control over ourselves. Gain better control over our physical bodies and our thoughts. Not our morals and world views etc, but our impulses. The reasons why we feel the need to drink in the first place.

For example, for me, I know that I find things kind of boring without drinking, and I never think things are 'crazy' or exciting enough. I am also shy and have a certain amount of social anxiety, which leads me to drink socially. etc etc So I will make it a focus to work on these things. How? Well, I will make conscious efforts to speak to more people, just kind of small talk etc. I have already joined a social anxiety group and finding things more fun without booze? Well, I just need to try some new things because the old things obviously were not cutting the mustard for me.

I think the thing that needs to be reaffirmed here is that you should not even consider failure as an option. You quit and that's it.

Not drinking does not involve any kind of paradigm shift in world view. It just involves greater control over your body and mind. Kind of like you are an unruly child and you need to consciously keep him in line. The stuff about dopamine receptors makes a lot of sense.

This is how I see it. But hey, I'm just a beginner here. But i've been trying for a while...

tinkanman

pkrma, i too am one of those who have quit with only the help of this web site. i am only three months sober but stopped etoh, weed and cigs all at the same time. it hasn't been that hard.... yet. i keep waiting for something to happen. not sure what that "something" is. good? bad? i don't know. i just know that today i'm not going to drink. i feel great and have been living the same life as before, just without the booze, weed and cigs. stay in the moment and don't put effort into the future and what might happen. i wish you the best of luck pkrma. it doesn't matter how you get it done, as long as it works.

freshstart57

Pkrma, you can rest assured that our friendly advisor Dalek is in no way suggesting that you need any sort of program or support group at all in order to quit drinking. He strongly believes that we each of us can do exactly as you are doing right now, finally take responsibility for our drinking, and then take responsibility for our sobriety.

I am certain, because this is his calling, that Dalek is trying to lead you to the point where you can see that you will quit, dammit, no matter what. You will never drink again, no matter what happens. You quit, because you simply have chosen for good to never drink. Done. Question posed and answered.

Our program friends don't like this, but a study of tens of thousands of American drinkers over a period of time showed that almost all (75%) quit without any program whatsoever. No groups, no meetings, no steps, no programs. One step is all that is needed. I know you can do it too.

007

Do you have a link to the study?

freshstart57

Sure. There are at least two that show almost the same result. The first is most commonly cited:Another is from the Harvard Medical School (The Harvard Mental Health Letter, Volume 12, Number 4, October 1995, page 3):

Porter

I find this thread interesting and helpful. I found this site two days ago. I am just stopped drinking yesterday. No progam, no medications so far. I'm all a bit shaky. Just finding lot of support reading here and posting a little bit. The intelligence of many people posting and the honesty is inspiring.

Corvus

The first time I tried quitting alcohol, I did it cold turkey. I remember waking up one day after yet another bender and deciding it sucked. So I stopped.

I think whatever method works, really. For me, cold turkey worked for a time but eventually I relapsed. I managed to go for a good few years without much of a problem, but for me, eventually it came back. I guess quitting cold turkey works if you're also examining why you are drinking. I never really did that, so when issues re-emerged, I found I didn't have any coping skills aside from turning to alcohol.