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fadingaway22

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I am trying to tackle a new mountain in my life - alcohol. I am what you may call a binge drinker. I am never satisfied with one or two, I have to have more. I don't drink everyday, but once a week. However, I am willing to admit that I can consume a 12 pack easily on my own. That's a lot considering my size ( I am about 5'8 to 5'9 and 145lbs). Anyways, I am trying to stop drinking. Lately, I have been making a fool of myself and blacking out. Other than AA meetings, what are some other tips to help me stop drinking ? I have started marking the days I don't drink on my calender. How else can I fight the urges or temptations ? If there are any recovering alcoholics or current non drinkers, can you please share some of your tips with me ? Please be honest for I have just done the same.

Thank you.
 
Don't think of it as not drinking again forever. For now just try to get through each day without drinking. Try to make it through the next 24 hours without drinking. At then end of that 24 hours make a commitment not to drink in the next 24 hours. Basically don't drink for a day and then keep repeating. Just going each day at a time can make it more manageable then then thinking 'forever'.

For a while, at first there may even be times where you have to get through it even an hour at a time.

When you think 'forever' then stopping later always sounds like too good of an idea. Addictions are really good at getting you to rationalize like that.

Go to as many meetings as you can especially when you are still prone to cravings, though don't neglect them later. If one group isn't right for you check out a different one. They aren't all the same and unfortunately some give bad impressions of the program. Actually work the program, don't expect to just absorb recovery by sitting in meetings, though they can be good distractions from the carvings and you may learn something.
 
Don't even worry about the god thing.
The 12 step program is a spiritaul program not a religious program.
I still struggle with the conceptions of god.
Beside there's plenty of religion in this world that dose not belive in a god.

Heck a god of my understranding????...I don't even understand god today
after all these years...it's okay, i don't have to.
I had to do the door knob or light bulb thing.
Or
Good Orderly Dictrections.

I'm still trying wrap my head on what's occuring in my life today.
It's like a total mirracle or god working in my life or something...IDK.
I'm very, very grateful and staying positive about it. I can wraping my heart around it.

You don't have to do it alone. Get the love and support.
Hang out with people that loves you , care for you and is willing to help you.

As Minus suggested, try attending different meetings.
You can also try NA. It's the same priniciple 12 base program.

Yeah..I still can't imagine not drinking for the rest of my life. Actaully
if I can successfully drink without ******* up my life or going into a deep depression,
I'd do it again, again, again....
Too many consequences. I hurted alot of people in my life that loves me every much.
And i hurted myself too. I don't want to do that anymore.


Easy Dose it and give yourself a break.

Heck i couldn't even do it oneday at a time...
So someone suggested I do 1/2 day at a time... phoooeeee..
I couldn't even do that either.

I can do it an hour at a time though :)

However it was suggest to me that I can start my days over any time i want.
I thought that was tottally awesume...becuase i was having a shitty day
all the freaken time. I had to start my day over again 4-5 times a day.lol

I still start my days over again..it's a living tool
 
when I was binge drinking I couldent go for 2 or 3 weeks without terible cravings a I would be climing the walls then I would have mood swings and yell at my family then I would take off and go get drunk, the funny thing was as soon as I took the first drink the dark brain cloud would go away but I would get drunk anyway, so one time after a really bad one of about 3 days when I got home I was so sick drinking wouldent do any good and I would lay out in my camper and go through withdrawls (again)
it would usually take a week and a half to start feeling better (after a bad one) then for a week or so I would feel great and happy and get lots of things acomplished then the cravings would start creeping back (again)
but this time was different I still had a whole 12 pack in the garage when the cravings got to be too much I went out a beer drank 1/2 and poured the other 1/2 out,2 weeks later when the cravings started I did it again,
and I started writing down in a date book every time I drank 1/2 a beer,and I havent been drunk in 10 years!

seven weeks to sobriety by Joan Mathews Larson
helped Me a lot too
it's all about brain chemicals and how they get screwed up and what you can do to fix them.

I hope I was able to help
 
I am a cured alcoholic. I am currently depressed and don't drink a drop.


Don't go to AA, it is definately telling you the wrong message. You are not powerless and if there was a god do you think it would have purposely made you powerless against alcohol. AA is the worst thing you can do to yourself as an alcoholic.

When I was an alcoholic I needed to drink 24-7 to get through the day. I hated being sober and I hated myself. Know when I stopped being an alcoholic? When I quit hating myself.

Why do you binge drink? That is the question you have to honestly ask and answer. Once you answer that question you can give up alcohol without even missing it and do you want to know why? Because alcohol will no longer do it for you. You won't ever get that same feeling back from a drink because you no longer have that need for it.

My advice to you is to see a psychologist who focuses in cognitive therapy. Alcoholism is a symptom of a greater disease, not a disease like many behavioral-genetic psychiatrists want you to believe.

A former alcoholic, from 16-23, now I am 30.
 
if AA works for you Go,
at least there are people there to talk to with the same problem,
 
Leave your beers out in the sun, I bet you wont be too willing to smash them down.

You are only an alcoholic if you want to stop lol. im just a drunk
 
I wouldn't consider you as an alcoholic, fadingaway22. If drinking 12 beers once a week, passing out and losing memory of the night is considered alcholism, I think me and 60% of my fellow Finns would be alcoholics. Also, I don't think it's smart to stop it altogether, since that will make it a forbidden substance in your mind for which your craving will rise (we all love the forbidden fruit don't we). Drinking is a wonderful way to socialize, have fun and let your mind rest. And hey, imagine you're on a business meeting and have to take your guests to have a drink and you either a) drink soda or b) get wasted very quickly because you don't have any tolerance left. How would they think of that?

Some simple tips on 'controlled drinking' based on empirical study (keep in mind: don't do like I do - do like I tell you to do);
1. Avoid doing several shots. Especially machine gunning, where you drink X amount of shots one after another in very short time. This results in an imaginary peak, where a little after drinking you get drunk quickly, stay there for a while, and come crashing down. I sometimes happen to do this when I'm pissed off and want to get drunk fast and hard, end up getting beat up and passed out on the sidewalk.

2. Don't mix too many different drinks. Sometimes I start with beer, cider, some shots at home, then in the bar I get cider, long drink, some more shots, etc etc and usually this leads in me feeling quite sick and wasted way too hard. Especially starting with hard booze and continuing with mild stuff is known and proved to be destructive (brrr...).

3. Sometimes mixing pot and alcohol may result in uncomfortable situations.

4. Try to have a maximum two drunk days per week. Any more and it begins to affect your normal life.

5. Every once in a while it may seem like going back to reality may seem too scary. Hangover, school day, perhaps something you did the night before which you know you'll be embarrassed about. You may want to continue drinking, I totally understand that and have been guilty of doing it myself. But the problems won't go away. It is only a temporary solution. It sucks, but what can you do.

6. Don't drink and drive. Even if you have drunk only a beer. The risk of drunk driving will grow suddenly when you understand that hey, I can drive this car even though I've had a couple of drinks. You'll think of drunkg driving as nothing special. This is how I lost my driver's license. I had had a few drinks before and driven, then one night when I was really drunk I thought what the hell I'll drive. Thank God no one got killed, now I have to lead a second life secret from my parents and friends to hide my crime record.

If you follow steps 1 & 2, you probably won't get too drunk too fast, and will probably avoid starting fights, barfing around the dancefloor and so on. The rest of the steps are more like a drinking life philosophy. Don't rid yourself of the fun of drinking buddy, especially if you don't have serious health issues. :) And definitely don't think of yourself as an alcoholic, which you are not. I will keep posting more tips as they come to mind.
 
Thirteen said:
I wouldn't consider you as an alcoholic, fadingaway22. If drinking 12 beers once a week, passing out and losing memory of the night is considered alcholism, I think me and 60% of my fellow Finns would be alcoholics. Also, I don't think it's smart to stop it altogether, since that will make it a forbidden substance in your mind for which your craving will rise (we all love the forbidden fruit don't we). Drinking is a wonderful way to socialize, have fun and let your mind rest. And hey, imagine you're on a business meeting and have to take your guests to have a drink and you either a) drink soda or b) get wasted very quickly because you don't have any tolerance left. How would they think of that?

Some simple tips on 'controlled drinking' based on empirical study (keep in mind: don't do like I do - do like I tell you to do);
1. Avoid doing several shots. Especially machine gunning, where you drink X amount of shots one after another in very short time. This results in an imaginary peak, where a little after drinking you get drunk quickly, stay there for a while, and come crashing down. I sometimes happen to do this when I'm pissed off and want to get drunk fast and hard, end up getting beat up and passed out on the sidewalk.

2. Don't mix too many different drinks. Sometimes I start with beer, cider, some shots at home, then in the bar I get cider, long drink, some more shots, etc etc and usually this leads in me feeling quite sick and wasted way too hard. Especially starting with hard booze and continuing with mild stuff is known and proved to be destructive (brrr...).

3. Sometimes mixing pot and alcohol may result in uncomfortable situations.

4. Try to have a maximum two drunk days per week. Any more and it begins to affect your normal life.

5. Every once in a while it may seem like going back to reality may seem too scary. Hangover, school day, perhaps something you did the night before which you know you'll be embarrassed about. You may want to continue drinking, I totally understand that and have been guilty of doing it myself. But the problems won't go away. It is only a temporary solution. It sucks, but what can you do.

6. Don't drink and drive. Even if you have drunk only a beer. The risk of drunk driving will grow suddenly when you understand that hey, I can drive this car even though I've had a couple of drinks. You'll think of drunkg driving as nothing special. This is how I lost my driver's license. I had had a few drinks before and driven, then one night when I was really drunk I thought what the hell I'll drive. Thank God no one got killed, now I have to lead a second life secret from my parents and friends to hide my crime record.

If you follow steps 1 & 2, you probably won't get too drunk too fast, and will probably avoid starting fights, barfing around the dancefloor and so on. The rest of the steps are more like a drinking life philosophy. Don't rid yourself of the fun of drinking buddy, especially if you don't have serious health issues. :) And definitely don't think of yourself as an alcoholic, which you are not. I will keep posting more tips as they come to mind.

i smell denial o_o
 
Dear Battling Alcoholism,

After pretty much destroying my life with alcohol I had to finally accept all the trash that led me down the path of self-destruction. I never, ever wanted to accept the horrible things that had happened to me; I just wanted to mentally fight them, deny them, push them away and loop the word "why" in my head, literally millions of times over a lifetime. Rage, rage, rage at the people who severly traumatized me, allowed other people to severly traumatize me and then the natural progression of self-destruction because I never knew what it was like to really be loved by the most fundamental people who are suppose to love a person. Rage, rage, rage at a family who are racists, bigots and full of self-love. Rage, rage, rage at myself for not being as emotionally equipped as all the "normal" people at work, in the grocery, just everywhere. I spent at the minimum 25 years self-loathing, 25 wasted years. I finally accepted that the people who traumatized me had to go and I had to accept that just because they are family does not make them good human beings regardless of their intellect or their accumulation of wealth. I had to accept that I had come from morally bankrupt people who literally hated my existence and that I was not responsible, in anyway, for being born or the backlash that came from being born. I stayed in very emotionally abusive relationships because I was extremely afraid of being all alone in the world, what I didn't realize was that I already was alone and being abused and abusing myself. I am a good person who had horrible things happen to her and then did horrible things to myself. Alchohol was my creature comfort, although I blacked out nearly everytime I was drunk, made a fool of myself countless times, I repeated the same process over and over again for 25 years. I know it sounds corny but what is literally eating away at you in the inside is why you drink. It is why I drank. My only words of advice are to seek out counseling and tell the counselor you would like to begin the process of acceptance for what is eating away at you on the inside. No matter what you accumulate in life your happiness and mental well-being are the most valuable and precious fundamental right you have. I cannot take away your demons, you can accept them, know that you are a good person inside and leave alcohol to the people in the world that are not self-destructive. Be well and take care of yourself.









fadingaway22 said:
I am trying to tackle a new mountain in my life - alcohol. I am what you may call a binge drinker. I am never satisfied with one or two, I have to have more. I don't drink everyday, but once a week. However, I am willing to admit that I can consume a 12 pack easily on my own. That's a lot considering my size ( I am about 5'8 to 5'9 and 145lbs). Anyways, I am trying to stop drinking. Lately, I have been making a fool of myself and blacking out. Other than AA meetings, what are some other tips to help me stop drinking ? I have started marking the days I don't drink on my calender. How else can I fight the urges or temptations ? If there are any recovering alcoholics or current non drinkers, can you please share some of your tips with me ? Please be honest for I have just done the same.

Thank you.
 
Thirteen said:
I wouldn't consider you as an alcoholic, fadingaway22. If drinking 12 beers once a week, passing out and losing memory of the night is considered alcholism, I think me and 60% of my fellow Finns would be alcoholics.

I could not say if fadingaway22 is alcoholic or not. If he feels that alcohol is causing a problem for him, then that is good enough for me.

I do know that amount and frequency are not what determines if someone is or is not an alcoholic. It is the control over drinking. "I am never satisfied with one or two...", having blackouts and struggling to stop drinking are more of an indication then amount and frequency. You suggest that he only have a max of two drinks a day and if someone can consistently do that then there is no problem but he already stated that he can't limit himself to two.
 
Actually I suggested that he has two drunk days per week max, which I think is bearable even if you have the kind of a problem that when you go out you're never satisfied with one or two. I can never make it with a couple of drinks either, but I do have quite a control over the days I am drunk per week.

I was just trying to say that I don't think total abstinence is the way to go here, and that he has a chance to acquire enough alcohol consumption management skills since it doesn't SOUND like it is yet a very big problem. Stopping altogether is a lot harder mentally than controlled drinking, from my own experience, which is why it may also be a lot harder to execute.
 
Thirteen said:
Actually I suggested that he has two drunk days per week max...

Yes, it looks like i did mis-state that.
 

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