Any recoverying alcoholic or alcoholic in the forum

I don't get on here often enough or long enough to keep up with things.

I've been alcohol-free now for 8 days. Really surprised that I've been able to do it and I'm not even really having cravings, just the odd thought now and then, which is easy to dismiss. This Naked Mind is amazing - highly recommend it to anyone struggling.

Hi @-Rayne-

Congratulations on the 8 days, well done.

Thanks for posting.

SP

Hi everyone 🙂

I have only just found this post, thanks to it being pointed out by another member. I am an alcoholic and have been sober for well over 5 years now.

I was aware that I had a problem with alcohol almost from the beginning. I just used to always drink too much. I could rarely stop at one - no matter how hard I tried and since we are led to believe it is a matter of will power, I spent the next two decades trying over and over again to apply that willpower.

Turns out that one of the definitions of an addict is that no matter how hard we apply will power - we are doomed to fail. Will power is useless to an addict and the way I understand this is because for me alcoholism is a spiritual and physiological malady.

Deep down I was very sad and I’d long since devoted myself to alcohol rather than face the truth. This was due to a failure on the part of my own culture to replace the spiritual element when we ousted the churches. Science is a wonderful tool, but by it’s very nature it is useless as a belief system.

Plus alcoholism is a kind of allergy to alcohol. My body reacts differently to a drink. This has long been anecdotally noted and is now evident in scientific study. (I don’t have that paper on hand but I can find it if anyone is interested)

Despite always knowing I had a problem, I never really new I was an alcoholic until I went to AA. We are encouraged not to think we are alcoholics because of the stigma. Addiction is horrendously shameful. Part of 12 step programs AA and NA is to help a person deal with their shame because shame only encourages them to keep drinking and/or taking other drugs. Plus; alcoholism is poorly represented as a stereotype and thus poorly understood.

To cut a long story short, I crawled into the rooms of AA on deaths door. Not because my liver was shot, but because I wanted to die. And for me, that’s what it took to be humble enough to shut up and listen to folk that I had previously considered a bunch of religious fools.

I was wrong. The wisdom among the elders of AA is an incredible resource.

Even if you’re not an alcoholic and just drinking too much, I would recommend going along to some meetings and talking to folk who’ve been sober for 10, 20, 30 years plus.

To finish; my condition which is Bipolar 2, is manageable now that I am sober. Though I am still learning - every day is a work in progress.

But at least now I can see 🙂

hi @Mulgajane

im also a recovering alcoholic.

i did try AA meeting one time but it wasnt for me. what i did was ended up in hospital for 9 weeks and thats how i stopped. yes i have slipped every now and then but my last drink was on 16th of sep last year. so thats pretty good for me. i know i might slip up again at some , but i hope not to. it is the most hardest thing iv ever had to do. really it took me 2 years to realise that i was an alcoholic. but i made it. i do miss it every now and then but i do like not havi ng it around in my life. some times when people come to drink i have to go in my room because i cant handle the fact that they can drink and i cant. but i get through it and people around me understand. so thats good.

How is that working for you? Just relying on yourself?

Hi @Twinklelight and @MovinOn1

I do understand how difficult it can be Twinklelight - when others are drinking around you. When I first started socialising again I always had an escape plan incase I couldn't hack it. Bit hard in your own house though! I am the only adult in mine and so I am fine to have a barbecue here with a few beers but I would not allow a piss up since it would be disrespectful towards me.

One of the things we learnt in AA to helps us avoid 'slip ups' is; when tempted to have a drink, imagine drinking one, then two. then all the drinks you would drink that night, then how drunk you would be, then waking the next morning, how sick you would feel, then imagine the shame and regret etc. Make sure you think of all the consequences of that one drink.

Little things like that really helped me in the first couple of years. But the biggest thing for me was taking away the desire to utterly numb myself in the first place and that took a spiritual shift via the 12 steps.

I doubt that I will ever be truly comfortable around other people drinking but that's okay.