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how to give up a drug (alcohol) that i like and have intertwined with my social life

All I can do for you is tell you what it took for me to stop doing just one more and take a healthy dose of reality. I realized that every time I took a sanity break from using or drinking to put my life back in order and then decide that I can control it I'd invariably end up with out of control use or out of control drinking.

I woke up and realized I really was powerless. My best thinking, the thinking that I could control it, got me fucked up every time.

To stop I had to put everything on the table for changing...friends, home, job, mentality....etc. everything is effected by use so everything needs to be effected by change.

AA helps. Try ninety meetings in ninety days...if it doesn't work, they will always refund your misery.
 
pofacedhoe said:
i never vomit from alcohol but i do consume a lot and it worries me. my issue is the daily drinking. binge drinking is unhealthy but if i could get pissed once a month that would be fine but if i have it one day its hard not to want it the next unless i have an extreme hangover. i use it to fill in the gaps when i am bored and this is bad for my body and bad for my soul.

the point is- i'm not at rock bottom, BUT my drinking has always been heavy and even though it sort of works out okay and i can hold down a job it is definitely going to shorten my lifespan/age me early and atrophy my brain like a dementia patient. because i crave it the way some people crave cocaine. at the moment i'm fine cos i have it in my head that i don't want it but how long will that last.

i've given up for a whole year before when i was on tramadol (small once daily dose).

i just want a healthy liver/kidneys/brain

there is nothing physical about my addiction its a psychological addiction but it really has its claws dug in deep.
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Just wondering how old are you? Have you seen a doctor and asked him/her about your body and health? How long have you been binge drinking or drinking daily for? At least you are aware of this. I have friends who are in their early 30s and older and they have issues with alcohol that they'll never accept or get help for.
 
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pofacedhoe said:
i never vomit from alcohol but i do consume a lot and it worries me. my issue is the daily drinking. binge drinking is unhealthy but if i could get pissed once a month that would be fine but if i have it one day its hard not to want it the next unless i have an extreme hangover. i use it to fill in the gaps when i am bored and this is bad for my body and bad for my soul.

the point is- i'm not at rock bottom, BUT my drinking has always been heavy and even though it sort of works out okay and i can hold down a job it is definitely going to shorten my lifespan/age me early and atrophy my brain like a dementia patient. because i crave it the way some people crave cocaine. at the moment i'm fine cos i have it in my head that i don't want it but how long will that last.

i've given up for a whole year before when i was on tramadol (small once daily dose).

i just want a healthy liver/kidneys/brain

there is nothing physical about my addiction its a psychological addiction but it really has its claws dug in deep.
Click to expand...

Your "bottom" is wherever you decide to stop digging, just because shit "could be worse" doesn't mean you need to let it get worse in order to stop...

The fact that you never puke is a pretty good sign your an alcoholic. Alcohol is a poison - normal people react to heavy consumption with vomiting. Did you puke the first time you ever got drunk?
 
Get out while you can, before it becomes harder. Rock bottom is what you define it to be,

I gave it all up BEFORE I lost the job, the girl, my home, my life, my brain. I saw where I was headed and it scared the shit out of me. Be honest with yourself.

I drank to the point of blacking out and 5 or 6 drinks after that and I didn't puke either. You just get used to it.
 
yeah- i stopped puking once i stopped smoking cigarettes. i does worry me the grip it has on my life.

i'm not anti drugs. i'm not weak and up for giving in to a higher power. i do have my beliefs but my alcohol abstinence has got to come from me.

no drug controls me apart from alcohol and that has to change. i like weed but i can leave it alone easily and don't crave it, same with all my other indulgences.

once i'm past a month without it i'll be fine. just need to stay focused on the goal.

no belly and a clear head and inspired mind with fresh ideas. and a pocket full of money
 
Who said you were weak?

Also, weed just made the alcohol cravings worse for me. If you think about the logic behind that, it makes perfect sense. Rather than dealing with the issues surrounding my drinking, dealing with the emotions that surfaced, dealing with real life, dealing with the rewiring of the reward and the coping parts of my brain, I hid behind another substance. Who cares that weed is less damaging to my body than alcohol? I didn't recover.

I hope you are successful in your continued sobriety. Alcohol is a difficult demon for reasons we have already discussed too.
 
for me i dont mind using drugs as long as i dont crave them or find myself doing them far more often than i think is healthy. if i'm doing them every other day and they have neuro/hepatotoxicity then thats a serious concern.

alcohol use for me has laughed in the face of healthy behaviour and thats what my problem with it is. it has a hook in my conscious and i just need to lessen its pull over time and enjoy other areas of life for once. find the drive in other areas.
 
I found this thread pretty interesting..............reading about others' pattern of drinking etc. I drank a lot for a number of years but when I look back now, I flirted with problematic drinking since my early 20s (I'm 63). 2-4 bottles of wine a night got to be a little much. Not quite sure what THE thing was that got me to quit. I think when everything became too hard, I was screwing up everything. I had to get away from everything and everybody in order to stop, so I went to a program 3000 mi. away from home and it was the best decision I ever made.

AA was not something I could embrace. When I decided to stop drinking I did it for me with the help of a very few select friends. The idea of having to depend on meetings, meetings and more meetings to stay sober seemed like trading one dependency for another to me, so I chose not to go that route.

It was difficult to give up the lifestyle that went with drinking. After getting through the initial few months it become much easier. One thing that made it easier was I got to like alone time far more than I did before. The true friends, not bar friends, are quite respectful.............at times too respectful in that I do not care if they drink when I'm around them, but I sometimes question if they are basing their behavior on whether I am present or not.

I don't know if this would help at all, but one thing that REALLY got me to thinking was: when I was in the program 300 mi. away, one night I with another person there tallied up the financial cost of our drinking. When I came up with a conservative estimate of $18 - $20000 per year, I nearly fell over. No wonder the mortgage was a struggle.

When the craving hits, I remind myself of the $, how much better I feel physically and it feels pretty damn good to not organize my life around my next drink.

It does get better.
 
My alcholic tendencies have done a lot of bad for me and yet I still can't give up even after going to many AA meeting, seeing a psychologist and a drug and alcohol counsellor. My best result this year was absteining from booze for 28 days until I got bored and thought a drink was in order. And my main motivation then to quit was I got told I had type 2 diabetes.

Some of The worse things alcohol has made me do this year is:
- Not look for work
- Made me ruin my relationship with my parents which is now fixed and go live in a car for 3 months
- Lose interest in training
- Have a car accident (lucky it was me and a metal barrier and no cops however the car was messed up and needed to get repaired)
- Not using my Masters degree in business which I worked my ass off for
- When drinking solo going out to steal food from grocery stores (this usually happens after 12 to 14 drinks and I'm in a blackout state)
- not looking after my health
- walking into a glass door and breaking it

Damn booze:(
 
Drinking alcohol is a stupid, stupid way to get high. Being drunk produces 0 euphoria and makes you feel like shit the next day. Pot is a better drug than alcohol, fact! Stop your internal dialogue! But Bill alcohol is an accepted...Shut Up! Get Over it! Your wrong kay? Kay
 
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