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Alcoholism Discussion Thread Version 6.0

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phactor said:
Few things:

1. Do you see yourself being able to use any of those substances successfully and without consequences. I know I couldn't. I fucking tried though. 100s of times.

2. Do you think you can use any substance successfully?

3. What is stopping you from getting that implant? Do you think that some day you can use them?

I cannot use drugs at all. Doesn't matter the type. If I can abuse it, I will. I abused the hell out of alcohol, I abused opiates, I abused coke. I abused weed. Shit, I have to be careful nowadays when I have a cold and really watch it if I need DXM. I was getting altered because I hated myself.
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When you have a flu or cold, and you take cough syrup do you use the type that's alcohol-free? I know alcoholics who do this, and some alcoholics who do not and ingest cough syrup with alcohol when they're sick with a cold.

Congrats everyone.
 
phactor said:
I used to think the same, but for me personally it was something I wanted to use to rationalize.
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I'm slowly or maybe quickly realizing this myself. The thing is it seems like I can moderate sometimes and other times go completely off the rails. The more I actually think about it tho the more I think it's just a correlation between how much money I have and how much I'm drinking. After all, it's hard to drink a lot if you're broke.

Either way, today will be day 5 for me totally sober. After a binge lasting about a week and losing my shit mentally on the last day of drinking I once again decided to try to quit drinking, only this time for myself. And after learning yesterday that my blood test from a doctor's appointment came back showing that my liver enzymes were high and that they want to do an ultrasound to see what my liver looks like, that pretty much sealed the deal I hope.
 
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Oh, and here's a post I made the other day in the other thread which seems more oriented towards other drugs...

nuttynutskin said:
2 days sober here, soon to be 3 after I went off the rails again. Strangely last month it seemed I was for the most part in control of my drinking and I didn't have any bad things happen, but somehow I slipped up again this month and ended up binging for about a week. It seems like every time that happens it takes more of a toll on me each time and is harder to bounce back from both physically and mentally. There's probably some scientific reason for that but either way I'm getting too old for this. I used to be able to drink hard for a month straight and stop with no real side effects but those days are LONG gone. Anyways I'm going to try again to cut out the drinking but completely this time before I end up either in urgent care or the loony bin. Mentally I'm still not all there from 2 days ago and while I've never had full blown dt's the last day of drinking and first day sober left my brain scrambled with some seriously delusional and paranoid thinking. Each time it happens I literally feel like a part of me has died and I think I may be finally learning it's just not worth it for me to risk it anymore.
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I'm currently feeling a lot better since that but am worried if they're going to find any problems with my liver. The blood results might have been a bit off because I had only been sober 2 days since after the binge, but at this point that's just speculation.
 
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PriestTheyCalledHim said:
When you have a flu or cold, and you take cough syrup do you use the type that's alcohol-free? I know alcoholics who do this, and some alcoholics who do not and ingest cough syrup with alcohol when they're sick with a cold.

Congrats everyone.
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I consume the kind with alcohol and just take it as directed.
 
nuttynutskin said:
I'm slowly or maybe quickly realizing this myself. The thing is it seems like I can moderate sometimes and other times go completely off the rails. The more I actually think about it tho the more I think it's just a correlation between how much money I have and how much I'm drinking. After all, it's hard to drink a lot if you're broke.
.
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I could "moderate" for awhile as well. Quite a few times I tapered myself off (more times then I could count) but inevitably it would come back and I would be drinking out of control. The craziest part was that it kept feeling like it was "sneaking up on me". Especially towards the end, I remember thinking "I have to drink a fucking six pack to allow myself to get some sleep???!!!! When did this shit start again?"
 
phactor said:
I consume the kind with alcohol and just take it as directed.
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You'd be utterly obliterated by DXM by the time you consume an active dose of alcohol via cough syrup.

I could "moderate" for awhile as well. Quite a few times I tapered myself off (more times then I could count) but inevitably it would come back and I would be drinking out of control. The craziest part was that it kept feeling like it was "sneaking up on me". Especially towards the end, I remember thinking "I have to drink a fucking six pack to allow myself to get some sleep???!!!! When did this shit start again?"
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A key part of some CBT programs like SMART is to arm people with sufficient cognitive tools to allow very careful, rare moderate consumption to become possible. Part of what makes this viable is that these programs come with very explicit, objective standards for moderate consumption and its behavioral correlates, and these standards are a whole lot more cautious than what many alcoholics think of as "moderate", lol. Most clinicians would also avoid attempting moderate drinking with recently clean binge-type alcoholics, particularly binge/maintenance dual-type addicts...one needs to first get comfortable with sobriety to healthily manage altered states.

ebola
 
I think SMART requires total abstinence. I remember in the workbook it talked about making a vow to not use anymore. I have seen some CBT type stuff that attempt to teach moderate drinking, but I am not sure why the clinician would take the risk. I know I wouldn't.

Now, there is 0.5 education that is supposed to teach someone the dangers of drug use and drinking and all that stuff, but those are for people without some kind of diagnosis.

And for me, I know there was no moderation, there were periods of it, but no way would it stay that way. I don't care how much CBT, DBT, EMDR, Therapy I got. God knows I tried.
 
there are a few perks to not drinking, and not having to moderate is one of the biggest. silly to deny yourself that for what, an occasional drink at best?

though i will have another glass of fancyass port at some point in life. and i want to drink vodka tonics on terrace with an infinity pool. not just any terrace, but one belonging to me or someone i sleep with. other than that, forget alcohol.
 
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I finally hit the week mark for no alcohol. Haven't even had so much as an ibuprofen as far as I can remember.

phactor said:
I think SMART requires total abstinence.
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I watched a SMART video quite a ways back and I could swear that that's not the case, but it was so long ago I don't really care to go back and find it.
 
http://www.smartrecovery.org/resour...itional_Articles/abstinence_vs_moderation.htm

"What we know is that after one has developed a severe addiction, the simplest, easiest, safest and surest way to keep from repeating past behaviors is total abstinence. This is not to say one may not go thorough a period of "day at a time," or "week at a time," or even try a "harm reduction" approach. Still, if you want the easiest way to minimize the problems in your life, go for abstinence eventually. It actually is much easier to just give it up entirely than punish yourself trying to moderate or control your addictive behavior. Studies have shown that regardless of the method employed to become sober, the number one factor for sobriety success is a permanent commitment to discontinue use permanently; a commitment to abstinence."
 
Practical Recovery has the same president Tom Horvath as SMART. I think that's were the confusion was.
 
Well shit, I guess I give up then lol. It's been a while since I researched any recovery programs. Carrion.
 
SMART and NA/AA are really the only ones you will find much activity in and SMART isn't very well established. Not saying the 12 steps are a necessity, both NA and AA also strongly state that they are not the only method of recovery.
 
Today was day 9 for me totally sober. Not looking for a pat on the back, more just to record my progress.
 
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