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

Honey_Bear

19/31 please, Shaggy.

Barny1979

16/15 AFDs tonight

AlexLK

Still not well, so looking like another AF weekend. 16 for tonight and the past few days.

ellie-g

Not sure how this is done but I would like to join this thread. Had 3 AF days last week and only 1 so far this week so need to push these figures up. I am going to try to do the rest of the month dry so 12/12 please.
Do I need to do anything else? Help, please!

grassgirl

Welcome Ellie-g :hello:
Just set your aim, declare your days like you have and have a nice chat I think


Ok so im still on 5/20 as bought four cans yesterday.. I was good and only had two, but it did leave two for today, oops! I think I'll have an afd tomorrow, only 11 days left to up my numbers and I've aimed for 15 I think so, even though it's party season, I've got to rein it in a bit!
Good news though, gave the wine away to my Nan so that's no longer in the kitchen and able to tempt me

Honey_Bear

Welcome Ellie-G!


Healing vibes for you Alex.


20/31 please, Shaggy.

aneres

15/26 please Shaggy.

Had a couple of mulled wines yesterday, it felt good to just have a couple then come home and go on blackcurrant.

ellie-g

My aim is to stop drinking wine at home and when I do go out just have a couple. Drinking at home has become a habit I need to get out of. I plan to have the rest of the month off drinking with the hope of lowering my tolerance and keeping within weekly units. At the moment I'm way over that limit. I'm in my 50s and really feel the effects in terms of my energy and recovery time. Anyway had last night off and have an afternoon 'do' today next door and plan to drink Schloer. The problem is that I know I will be pressurised to drink -how do people deal with this? Anyway on a positive note I had an AFD last night -hoorah! Feel better already joining this forum. Thanks to all on here.

Honey_Bear

Ellie-g, the pressure to drink is immense when people around you want to normalise the fact that they know they are drinking too much.

I'm very polite about it and just say, 'No, thank you.' Anyone hearing you say no, who pretends that means you should be drinking, is bullying you. Knowing that means you can still laugh it off and say, 'No. Really. Thank you.' Would they feel the same right to pressurize you into taking heroin? Or a line of cocaine? And would you then do so just because they thought you should?

To be honest, I've been exceptionally lucky with my friends and not one single one of them has been difficult so far, but I know the crunch will come when a group of us indulge in our annual excessive feast - that day there is one person (possibly two) who I know will find what I'm doing very, very difficult to accept. That's their problem, not mine. If they're offended, again, that's their problem, not mine.

One or two have found it rather odd, I think, and told me they know they drink too much but they don't want to stop completely. I never, ever go down the road of saying anything about their alcohol consumption; all I ever do is tell them I didn't think I could, either, but I'm very relieved I did. That's it, nothing else, ever, unless they ask specific questions. I think some of them are going through the 'moderating' thing, and good luck to them. I wasn't any good at it, and goodness knows, I tried!

I say I've been lucky - my Beloved genuinely did not understand for at least three weeks that I was never going to share a bottle of champagne with him again, never have another gin and tonic with him and not even have one on Christmas Day. I think he thought it meant we'd never 'share' those occasions, but he's absolutely fine with it now.

I don't drink. End of.

Day 148. How cool is that! By Christmas Day I will have made it past 150 days! Whoop whoop! (That's the very first time I have ever counted ahead, and I'm allowing myself that as a Christmas treat.)

debjay

14/18 for tonight please.