The Giving Up/ Cutting Down alcohol support thread - number 13

gien

Oh Satchmo, I know so well how that goes - have a bit of a drink and then whoops, the bottle's gone. urgh, I think we've all been there.


Thanks you everyone who has posted such honest and supporting posts - I'm sitting there nodding my head and agreeing with all that's been said.
Tonight I'm AF, I am going to stick to having school nights AF - I'm even going to have a cup of tea and go to be now even though it's only 9.00 just to make sure I don't drink. How bad is that?

Honey_Bear

Would you be mildly comforted if I told you that I wouldn't nescessarily have stopped at finishing one bottle Satchmo?

gien wrote: »

I'm even going to have a cup of tea and go to bed now even though it's only 9.00 just to make sure I don't drink. How bad is that?

It's how I'm doing it! OH is spending a lot of evenings on his own watching TV while I take to my bed to read, or listen to the radio and do Sudoku. Anything that works, as far as I'm concerned!

Strangely, having posted about the lethargy this morning, I got my mojo back and have been tackling a huge outstanding job that has been worrying me. I may be able to finish it and get it in the post tomorrow which would be fabulous.

Glad you're still enjoying the book, Redemption Song!

18/31 please, Shaggy.

Fruball

I had my first hypno appt this evening to discuss my habits! It went really well and I am confident that she can help me when i go back on Thursday for my proper first session.

Needless to say, came home and opened a bottle of wine but I am ok with that... Thursday is giving up day!

We discussed whether I wanted to give up completely or drink moderately. I don't think drinking moderately (wine, anyway) is an option for me at the moment so I am going for the full No Booze after Thursday option.

(Satchmo, I wouldn't have stopped at the 1 bottle either )

BlueDaisy

8/16 for me please

Honey_Bear

Good luck with it Fruball!

I did my usual 'going to be early and listening to the radio' last night while OH went to the pub to watch his team play. He got back quite late and had a LOT to talk about which normally I wouldn't mind too much. However, he arrived back just as Fi Glover had started Shared Experience: Falling off the wagon.


I know one of the contributors is an alcoholic, another has a gambling habit and I didn't manage to get as far as the third interviewee, but for those who are interested it was on at 11.30pm last night on Radio 4. Thank you BBC for iplayer!

Top_Girl

9/20 and hoping for a tenth tonight.

Weekend turned out to be longer and boozier than I expected, but, these things happen. Top Boy is back tomorrow until the 29th, which always makes it easier.

Good luck all

graemecarter

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I've felt horribly tired for the past three weeks and I it seems this has to do with knocking the drinking on the head; some people have suggested on other forums that it's to do with cutting out the sugar in the alcohol. Has anyone got any views on this? I could really do with getting some energy back. It's absolutely not depression, something I would recognise, it's purely physical lethargy.

I had about 2 weeks of feeling shattered when I stopped drinking.
I put it down to

• Change of routine which always makes me tired
• My body not being awash with alcohol which blocks out the signals that say "I am really tired"
• Sugar levels lower
• Mental/Emotional strain of giving up a strong relationship (alcohol) (a kind of grief/bereavement)

I could be wrong but that's what it felt like for me.

Giving up drink was/is the BEST thing I have ever done. It hasn't made my life perfect, but for me, life is far improved without alcohol in it.

PriceySOS

11 please.Shaggy, ta

Me neither, Satchmo!

maman

I can't believe how easy I find I jumping back on the weekday wagon and almost impossible to stop myself jumping off at the weekend. I suppose I have to want to do it.:(


Meant to say HB, do be as chatty as you like on here. I'm certainly not bored and I doubt anyone else is either.


I agree that any distraction/displacement helps whether it's going to bed early or whatever works for you. I drank gallons of water (never found a soft drink to my liking) in wine glasses when I first started on AF days. Now I'm happy with a couple of mugs of tea. Except at weekends.:o


ETA: I do switch to tea mid-evening at weekends. So at least I know how to find the stop button. Progress of sorts.


8AFDs please Shaggy.

Honey_Bear

Thanks Maman for the supportive comments and GraemeCarter for the information and support.

I'm going to take the other bottle of supermarket AF red back. There's no point in trying to make it palatable, it just isn't to my taste. I have settled on several fruit juices I do like however, and have bought a couple of bottles of soda water to stretch them a bit further. Worth noting that the sugar in the huge fruit juice on Sunday night may have been enough to take me from super-lethargic to enough energy to cope with day to day stuff yesterday and this morning, but too much won't help with getting rid of my rather pillowy tummy.

In any event, what this has me realise is that while I stopped drinking without, apparently, any obvious acute withdrawal symptoms, the fact that I appear to have been side-swiped by Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms means I do actually have a serious problem with alcohol. I am not, as I first thought, just a heavy drinker; there is a level of addiction. Knowing that is unpalatable but helpful.

I'd rather knock it on the head now than wait until it gets worse. The truly frightening thing about it is that when I had a 20 day break from alcohol in January/February I had no side-effects at all. This has happened in just five months after 20 years of drinking. That's a very quick, very serious escalation.