How to stop drinking

[marky mark]

Morning all, day 23 and strong today. Welcome CJB......addiction is addiction and 5 months is awesome. I hope some day to have it, I mean i cant wait till i get there. You can chase the tiredness away with exercise if you get a chance. Like everyone has said your body is adjusting. Morgan sure would love to hear from ya. Bryan and JeffR you are doing great. I have actually had a few days that I havent thought about drinking at all. It kinda makes me nervous but I will take it. I know that the hard punch to drink will hit me when I least expect it.......Got invited to a party where everyone will be drinking tonite. Gonna make sure I have eaten and take a giant bottle of water and if the urge hits me get the *@#$ out of there. I WILL NOT DRINK TODAY

[Mel]

Hi all - Good luck at the party marky mark, you sound ready and def. run (!!) if you have to. I'm waking up to day 4. Had a fairly disgusting set back on Tuesday night, but woke up thinking to myself that not only wasn't it worth it (felt like crap, yada yada) - I just do not have the luxury or time to feel like that, baby myself and waste a day. I'm teaching two classes with intense preps, will have more grading than I want, have a conference in England coming up, have to finish writing some articles . . . and, need to lose weight, eat better and get healthy. I need to get on top of my career and life in order to get a permanent job and succeed. I drink because I am not succeeding, but that only derails the Plan. Every single one of these goals or need-to-dos is absolutely destroyed by drinking. I know that I can make it for long stretches without booze, but I really need to get that traction again and make it stick and not look back.

PS. Have been going to the gym at 6:30am - that has been making not drinking easier, barely make it there 'normal' with a hangover . . . forget about it.

[Molly]

It is so encouraging to read about how well many of you all are doing! Like Marky, I'm attending a birthday party tonight where there will be margaritas. Fortunately for me, considering how delicious they are, my hostess will be providing a 'virgin' option! Today's plan is to complete some paid work that got shuttled to the side on my hangover day, clean out another closet, go for a walk, check back in here a few times, and NOT DRINK!

P.S. My relapse was so strange, my 'need' to drink wasn't in order to get hammered (the thought makes me queezy to be honest), but I really 'needed' the alcohol. At 10 days sober, you'd think the physical addiction would have lessened, so was it the psychological alcoholic breaking through? And there really wasn't any trigger - the urge just kept building over a few days. Sigh ...

[Eric]

It is great to see all the encouraging post. Today I promise to not drink, zero tolerance. I love being able to get up early and accomplish things that I would put off for days pr weeks while drinking. It is especially nice to sit down for breakfast having already exercised. Relapses are very strange and subtle. My thinking before a relapse is almost never to get drunk, but usually just to have one simply because... There are no particular triggers; everything can be a trigger. It can be a nice sunny day and a old favorite songs comes on the radio. I will remember how much fun I had drinking to that song 20 years ago...next thing you know, I am hammered again. I have to remember to stay firmly in the present and doing those things that keep me sober. I have to shut down immediately any thinking that says, or even hints, that having a drink is a good idea.

[Beth]

What a difference a week makes! Last Saturday was awful but today I am up, already worked out and ready to accomplish many things today. Last night was extremely hard. I dropped off the kids at their dads and was already to pick up a case and settle in to drinking to oblivion. I kept trying to tell myself why I shouldn't drink but nothing was coming to mind. Then I read a page from this forum and like a lightening bolt I saw Massive Action! Oh yah that's what I was missing. Those two words are extremely powerful. Boredom truly is the devil in my path of recovery. I am hopeful that I can now begin to make the massive changes needed in my life. I will not drink today.

[CJB]

Hello everyone. Congrats to those who made it through Friday night without a drink! And to those who did'nt thats ok too. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and Don't drink today. Simple enough right?

Thanks for the welcomes to this forum. It's a great place to come to stay encouraged and to encouage others.
Marky, and Molly, be very careful at your parties tonight. I tried that before and I drank. That doen't mean you will. Just be careful. I am at work until 11.00 p.m. CST. So i'll be waiting to see how it goes.

To everybody else, have a great sober day

[Kip]

Hey friends.. Sorry not to post. Been a little hectic but sober. Off to Japanese welcome party armed w seltzer. Gonna soberly drive the $&@ outta my rElise. My wide won't be able to threaten w DUI. Joyful driving..! More tomorrow.. Best to all of you and know you are in my thoughts.. Hang in there..

[Mel]

Phew. Day four almost in the bag . . . 53 more minutes until wine/liquor stores close and then I'm really off the hook. I'm posting here rather than putting on my boots and accidentally - on purpose making a trip to the my local wine-beer place. Don't want it. Had a great day. Worked out. Did chores, organized my closet (wasn't someone else here cleaning closets) and made a proactive step in my job search. Now that the house is clean . . . I can work on the work stuff tomorrow. Lots of prep for teaching and getting things ready for my own next big two-three projects.

See (she says to herself) - your doing great. Your reward is not-drinking and that means that you can actually get even more stuff done. When you drink - you fail to get stuff done. So there. Don't forget that.
Phew. 49 more minutes. I can do this.

[Molly]

Evening everyone! I'm back early, safe and sober, from a friend's birthday party. Man oh man, drunk people are not as fun and attractive as they think they are. Great job, Mel! I got my kitchen cupboards cleaned out today (close enough to 'closets').

[nomoredayones]

Tomorrow will be day one. Again. :-(

[James G]

Tomorrow will be day one. Again. :-(

Morgan,
You can do this if you truly want to...Follow the advice of your quote...Just it, that's all there is to it! You truly do have to.

"Believe to Achieve"

[Kip]

Morgan.. Me too friend. Wasn't an hour after my previous post that I succumbed to the temptation of a beer at a party. Several over a long evening left me drowsy and just blah. It was too much to sit there got hours with my friends, trying to speak another language, and stay sober. I wasn't ready for the situation, frankly, always enjoyed it with my Japanese friends. But there is always next time. You take care a let's start counting.
Hey JeffR1, hope you are well. Talked at length w my friends last night about here and now. They were exactly correlated with that..
Happy Sunday day and eve to all.. Going out on the bike to think it over. I'll be thinking of you..

[marky mark]

Morgan and Kip. Day one again. Congratulations.....you get to start over. You are still fighting. You are still trying. Dont give up ever. It will stick!!!!! Kip, I like you was at a party last nite with friends and ONE ENEMY.....I stayed about an hour said goodbye to both. I cant say the party was fun at all but when I got in my truck sober, a smile came on my face. Another tiny victory. I will not drink today!

[nomoredayones]

I am sorry Kip. I am feeling just awful this morning. I feel terrible physically and emotionally - like I have been fighting a long, long fight and I've lost.

[Molly]

Oh, Morgan ... that's the hangover talking. Wait a few hours before you decide throw in the towel. All of us know how hard it is. Hell, I was fealing all cocky in my sobriety a few days ago, and look where that got me. Relapses happen to all of us, at least that's what I'm getting from this blog, especially in the early days. I hope you find your way back.

You, too, Kip.

You are both inspiring and I look forward to your posts.

[Molly]

Marky, I know what you are talking about! I stayed at the birthday party for 2 1/2 hours last night, drinking lime ade. I wanted to leave at hour 1, but waited until everyone else got just smashed enough that they really didn't notice (or care) that I was leaving. What an eye opener. The drunk guy telling me that I looked really sweet but probably had a wild side was too much! It was all I could do to not laugh out loud. SO-O-O happy to come home sober and get a great night's sleep. Small victories, friend!

[Beth]

Morning All....hope everyone is being kind to themselves. Molly congrats on your victory last night and Marky Mark, funny how you can smirk at at knowing you can beat this. That is great! Kip you know you have it in you and that is what you need to remember. Morgan, I am sorry for your pain we all know what you are experiencing. Are you drinking out of boredom? When I really reflect on myself I see that my life is so hard trying to stay up with the daily grind that when I have time for myself I don't know what to do...so I drink. It fills the boredom and numbs the pain and guilt of what I wasn't able to make perfect. I am struggling with how to stop the guilt and fill that time with something else.
JeffR1, Carol, and anyone else who is journaling..... Can you help us figure out how to start a daily journal. Like examples of what you are writing..... Even without drinking I don't feel life is that great. I need to reprogram myself to understand what people say when life is so much better.....they are finally living life.
I spent sometime yesterday bringing up and listening to the songs on the non drinking song thread. It was great. I can't believe the song by Pink is called Sober.... I thought it was called So Bad...LOL
Is there a thread of non drinking quotes? I think that would be a good one too.
Let's all be Champions today! Stay Sober!

[Beth]

Mel, How do you feel this morning? You are truly an inspiration.... I can tell you're a fighter. The devil that is SCREAMING for us to give in can really play tricks on our minds. Remember hundreds of years of experience at this. But I believe we can beat this ugly monster together! Stay strong just for today.

[nomoredayones]

I am so disappointed in myself. I have promised myself so many times that I would stop drinking and here i am back on Day 1 again.....
I stay sober for a few days, feel better physically and emotionally then tell myself it is ok to have "a few" glasses of wine. I am incapable of having only "a few" glasses of wine but I have been in this pattern for so long, I don't know how to break out.
I feel so awful. I just want to cry and stay in bed. I feel so defeated.

[lucybrown]

Morning All, I am new to the site. Yesterday was day 4 with zero alcohol and it feels great. Tonight my husband and I have "date night" and typically I will have about 8 shots and a couple beers when we have our date night. Honestly, I don't even have a taste for it today. I am not looking forward to having a drink. I am thinking I will only have 2 shots and one beer but I don't want to feel like a failure. Is it better to not have any alcohol at all or just ot have it in moderation? Moderation being only having a couple of drinks 2 days a week.