stop drinking

I was reading earlier on the alternate thread..”quit drinking” and came across some posts where people were complaining that others would quit for a few days then start up again.

Might be insitefull to post the reasons we drink or drank(as the case may be.)

For me it was several reasons.

1. Habit-after work or on the weekends I was in the habit drinking beer. During the weekends this was an all day event.

2. To relax and be more comfortable with people. I believe this had to do with self esteem.

3. I just plain enjoyed the way being drunk felt. Of course the few hours of high got to be not worth the days of disgust, feeling like crap and being broke jonesing for another beer, fighting with the missus etc.

Do some soul searching and throw it out here. Not going to be anything new or anything we have never heard or seen before. But it might help us take a look at the cause of our drinking. Once we find the cause/reason we will be able to better handle it and take the necessary corrective steps.

Shoot Shaun, I plan on being burried with all my favorite SH**.
In my full tech diving rig! Might be a bit heavy for the poll bearers!

Then again I might just prefer to be creamated and/or burried at sea and fed to the sharks….

But yes it is just material items..they mean little. And getting drunk didnt help bring the car back or help you figure out how to deal with the situation did it? I assume no one was injured..which is the important thing…and guess what? Totaled cars is what we pay out the rearend for insurance! Call those folks up and get them to cut you a check.

I thought of a question I would like to pose to you fine folks here.

We are all trying to quit or stay sober. How do you respond when someone offers you a drink? First there are the people just being polite and offer you a beer or drink, you politely decline and that is that.

Im sure some of you have the person who keeps asking or actually drilling (maybe demanding?) you to drink. “Come on, have one ..come on come come on..why not” and on and on.

How are you guys handling that? After the first “no thanks” I would proabably loose it…..but I have yet to run into this situation.

My wife had a couple of beers last night. I found a 1/2 empty can and asked her if she was finished. She said yes and as I was carrying it to the garbage…..no I did not take a sip! But I did take a whiff. Not sure really why…just to test my reaction. It smelled pretty damn good….so of course I poured it down the drain and tossed the can.
People have different reasons for quitting..but for me
I did it for my family.
I did it for myself. Health reasons. I had exteremely high blood pressure and was on high blood pressure medications. I went to the doctor for a diving accident, blown out ear drum and infection…they checked my blood pressure and it was slightly below normal! The doctor asked me what I had done since the meds ran out 5 months earlier. I told em I quit drinking. They were impressed with the results.

If you quit for a while and are tempted…concentrate on the positive aspects of the abstinence, remember the negative aspects of your drinking as well.

I am not going to loose 9 months I have invested in this to have a drink. I refuse to have to start over.

Pietzsche said ””I guess I know that it’s not about everyone else, but to some extent I feel like I let the “team” down.”“

I also refuse to the let down the team. Myself, my family and all you guys here.

One other thing I continue to read here that is a re-ocurring theme. It seems a number of us have people in our lives, important ones, (at least that is the way we see it presently) who know we are struggling with this and pretty much refuse to be supportive. Actually trying to encourage us to do the one thing we are dead set against. I cannot tolerate this and neither should you folks. If someone trys to get you to drink tell you are TRYING TO QUIT and F* OFF! (maybe not in that exact tone, but you get the picture.) You dont have to tell them why. Say your driving, say it’s for health reasons, whatever. I am fortunate enough to have support from my wife and friends but it seems not all are as lucky.

After 9 months of sobriety I can look back at some of the asinine things I did and laugh. Might be early for some of you but this might help.
Have you ever..

1. Done something stupid and embarrasing only to be told about it by a friend and not remember?
2. Had your spouse/significant other find hidden or lost containers? (I used to drink in areas of the house such as the bathroom and hear my wife walk into the bedroom. Hide the beer cans under the sink, ect.)
3. Snuck drinks into places where you shouldn’t? IE work, school, ect? (Used to sneak beer onto dive boats in canteens and go down in the cabin and sneak drinks.)
4. Tried to make plans revolving around where you could get a drink or time things to make it easier to obtain a drink?
5. Taken a leak somewhere you shouldn’t have? IE the refrigerator or wall in your bedroom?
6. Gone to great lengths to obtain a drink? Like drive a great distances to find a place open that sales alcohol?
7. Spent large amounts of income to purchase something that can only do you more harm?
8. Caused auto accidents, fender benders, banged up the car while you were buzzed?
9. Argued with your significant other that you “were not drunk” knowing good and well you had enough alcohol to float a battle ship?
10. Not gone to functions, like a child’s baseball game or a church function, because there was no alcohol served?
11. Wound up in jail for some alcohol related incident that could have been avoided?

Don’t feel badly if you have…I have done each of the above listed…more than once!
Feel free to add to this list if I left something out.

Won’t it be nice never to have to worry about any of this Bull Sh** agian?

I have missed you bozos so I decided to come back to the fray. Havent fallen but just wanted to drop back by and say “howdy”.
On my seventh month and things are still GREAT!.
You newbies read and post often. It will help a lot.
Take care and stay sober!

Ok my five month post. Quite a trip. This is how I arrived at this current state of affairs.

I had been drinking fairly heavily since I was 19. In college it hit a plateau and landed me with two DUI’s. This was 20 years ago. Since I got married and had children I had cut back quite a bit and only really pounded the ole beer on the weekends and days off. In September, after drinking beer all day I got arrested for my third DUI. Actually I was not all that intoxicated and managed to hold it together pretty well. However wound up in the slammer till 2:00 the afternoon the next day. That was it for me. All I could think about was how I let everyone down. My family, kids, wondering where there daddy was..wife lying telling them I was scuba diving..what bull Sh**. I decided right then and there no matter what happened the only good that would come out of this was if I quit…so I did. Had my “farewell” beer on Sept 21 had have not had one since.

Ok so that was five months ago. Suddenly things started to get much better! I added up what I was spending on beer and still, to this day the savings astounds me. About 60-70 $ a week! Were talking 3100 a year!. First revelation…saving tons of money! Second, fighting with the wife and kids dropped drastically. Why? because A. I was not buzzed up all the time and B. Felt much better. No hangovers any more no cravings for a drink…wondering wherever I go will I be able to get one.

Well after about month or two things began to turn around totaly. Luck or moving through life with sober clarity..I dont know but I began to feel like a child..a great weight was lifted from my psyche. And I began to get…well LUCKY! for lack of a better word. The DUI charges were dropped. I had to fight with the DMV and spend a few bucks but I got my license back 100%..not a work permit thing but a no restriction’s license. Well I am down a few bucks but hey I have made up for it with the money I am saving. Actually pulling quite a bit ahead. I have paid off one credit card and aggressively attacking another. My goal now…and I have to see if there is a goal here on 43 things for this ..is to buy a boat this time next year.
I know this is a long post but quite a milstone. I reccomend the book by Alan Carr , The Easy Way to Quite Drinking. It helped me a great deal.
Good luck to everyone out there. Keep up the fight. It is hard as hell sometimes but ….Worth Doing..

Look at it this way..we are able to do something that puts us above the norm…beat an addiction.

And now I would like to thank my mother..father…John St. Clair, Barren…lol feels like winning an oscar or something!

Tomorrow will be my five months of sobierty mark. Tomorrow I will celebrate by marking this goal as somethign worth doing! It has been quite a ride but worth everything I have put into it. Stange as it is I just had a craving I had to fight pretty hard a few minutes ago. How good a beer would tase. B.S. It has passed.

I will be thinking about the last five months and I am sure I will post something profound to inspire everyone tomorrow!

123 Days for me and things are definitley going great as well. I also post at http://wqd.netwarriors.org/ regularly as well, although not as much as I used to.

If you are just starting out or having touble read and post. We have all been through it before, all of us are in the same boat, some with different stories, some similar, but all are trying to quit or keep it that way.

John St Claire, Barren, drop me a note and let me know how you guys are doing.
Good luck gang!

Today is my three month anniversary. I have not had a drink since Sept 21st. I rarely think about it much but there is still that occasional temptation which I have to fight. My buddies are supportive although they make fun of me. Kid me about drinking Odouls or other non-alcoholic beer or drinks. I get a kick out of it and give it back as good as they can dish it out.

Im not terribly worried about the holidays. Made it through Thanksgiving without a drink. I imagine Christmas might be a bit tougher. Basically I just dont want to start over after being sober for three freaking months.
Ive come too far to turn back now.

Good luck everyone.
Hang in there!

Long Live Odouls!