Anyone ever successfully give up the hard shit but still drink beers?

[aihfl]

I have given up drinking. I'm medication that doesn't agree with drinking alcohol. I used to drink a bottle of red wine every night 7 days a week. I was never a bit spirits drinker but had the odd bottle of vodka. I don't miss drinking. I used to drink myself to sleep every night. But things change I guess.

I used to drink to pass out, but coming off my last drunk, I bought two cheap bottles of wine at 7-Eleven and couldn't pass out. I stayed up the entire night drinking and watched the sun come up without having slept a bit. If I'm not going to pass out, drinking has lost it's meaning.

 

[manboychef]

I used to drink to pass out, but coming off my last drunk, I bought two cheap bottles of wine at 7-Eleven and couldn't pass out. I stayed up the entire night drinking and watched the sun come up without having slept a bit. If I'm not going to pass out, drinking has lost it's meaning.

This is such a true statement. I used heroin to stay well. I didn't want to catch a nod most times because that meant I wouldn't have more to stay well later...but I used cocaine and alcohol to party. If I wasn't falling down drunk I wasn't drinking. It is so true that if you try to moderate (if you end up figuring out how, let us all know, we are dying to find the answer) you will eventually slip back into your old patterns and then surpass them. Addiction is not cured...dependence is cured. Addiction stays there sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear and if you finally give into his bullshit, you will go right back to where you were when you quit after such a short time your head will spin. It is insidious in the fact that addiction will make you complacent, and lull you into a false sense of security. It will convince you that you can get away with just one...but I know so many people that did just one and ended up in full blown active addiction again. There are some that can use and realize they have done wrong and go running back for the help they need to not pick up again....but if you are like me, you can't use just one.

 

[aihfl]

There are some that can use and realize they have done wrong and go running back for the help they need to not pick up again....but if you are like me, you can't use just one.

Yup. One is too many and a thousand is never enough. Whenever I would pick up a drink after an extended period of sobriety I would always end up worse than where I left off.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I always felt so left out because a thousand is too many and one is never enough.




....soery, I've always wanted to say something that witty

 

[Edna Hole]

I went from 5 day amphetamine and whisky binges with 'friends' 2 days recovery and begin again for years. Then I decided chasing over town at 3:30am trying to track a dealer who would say gimme 15mins...then "maybe Ste's got some over in.....?" I quit speed pretty easily as supply in my area dried up, but the drink still stayed, drinking strong cider from dawn til dusk and vice versa. I then got down to two bottles of wine a night for ages. Then RC chemists hit the net. The thing that really stopped me, without trying, was Kratom.
Something about Kratom took the crave for booze away..dunno how. But 5grams green Kratom shaken up in a bottle of water and drunk down in the morning and similar around 1900m.
I barely drink alone or during the day any more, and I only buy 2 beers if I fancy a drink.
But now with rc's i'm taking 2 many benzo's and coke/phet analogues!
I always seem to have an addiction on the go! my Doc recommends C.B.T. cognitive behavioural therapy, dunno much about it but i'll give it a try!
I know it turned into my story, but I think Good Kratom helps with Alcoholism - but of course there is no science behind what I say, just personal experience.

 

[vegaskukichyo]

Each time I have sobered up and allowed myself to "loosen up" with a few beers (or a bowl of good weed), I find myself falling back down the hole of active addiction. My last relapse started with weed, then before I knew it I was stoned every day. Being sick of being couch locked I figured a drink would help, and it did... Until I began drinking everday. Waking up sick and needing a hair of the dog to feel better, I asked myself "how to fix this?" and like an idiot my solution was "just one shot of meth"... There is no such thing as "just one shot of meth". Soon after I learned that addiction really is a progressive disease. What took me 18 months to get to bottom the first time took exactly 30 days the second time... With the meth. I've found that its better for me to abstain entirely. Hope this helps.

Yep I thought I was one of the magic unicorns too. Didn't drink for 2 years and then suddenly, decided I missed the taste and having a buzz. Got a little too wasted a few times, learned my lesson, and then drank moderately for months. Then of course it happened: I was smashed with a buddy one night, decided hell yeah, I can smoke pot, then I'm smoking pot every day, then I'm crossfaded faded every time I go out, then I start doing coke to function. I'm a slow descent into the abyss every time because my control issues cause me to hold on tight. Once I get confident I get fuckin dumb though. Classic.

 

[Edna Hole]

I think most of us are missing a certain something in our lives, and I've swung back and forth with most drugs, yet alcohol was a constant to me. to Vegaskukichyo, god I know how addictions work. Yet I still believe moments of clarity can come through and we can suddenly realize the stupidity and futility of what we are doing - it might last or not but keep on trying. BTW I know it's hard but cut 'drug buddies' outta yer life. Hard I know but you feed of drug buddies and you can feed them also, it just needs one guy to mention a sesh and youre whipped along again 'not meaning to'...but....8)

 

[manboychef]

My last relapse started with just a few drinks after a hard shift on the line. I had a team of stooges that were worth the minimum wage (maybe less). I would have to watch them close or else shit would not get done. I ended up drinking a beer everynight I worked.....which was everynight. then two then three, then whiskey. Pretty soon I remembered that a shot of morphine made me work harder and better. Then that became everyday...finally nervous breakdown.

It never works out if you are truly addicted. It does not matter the substance...it is the soul of the consumer.

 

[What was it?]

My relapses usually also start with a few drinks. I feel better without alcohol and I think most people do/would do so as CH said earlier in the thread. I think 95% of my relapses started with alcohol so I am staying away from it. It's basically not allowed into my home anymore. If my partner wants to drink she will go out with friends. (she's not an addict like me thank god)