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

Baileysonice

10/15 please shaggy

Angela84

8/15 please.
Im so excited about achieving my target!
Absolutely determined to keep going with this and completely change my life around. Good luck to everyone else, knowing there's other people out there struggling and succeeding is a real motivator

arsenalbarnie

6/10 For me I'm on a roll! Well that roll will stop tomorrow as off out with mum, sis and DD for mums birthday. Meal then pics, so shouldn't be too bad.:p

Greytcatlady

22/31 for me tonight please.

Well that was a cheap night out with no wine. Ok so we had a voucher which saved £8, but OH had two pints ale, I had two BBs and a two course meal each and I had a coffee for less than £50, including tip. Normally that's at least £75-80 . Don't feel as if I've missed out at all. A 40 min round trip walk too so a bit of exercise as well.

And OH said how well he thought I was doing for the first time. Not because he's not supportive, far from it, he's just a no pressure kind of chap.

satchmo1

22/31 AFDs today. We went out to a guitar recital tonight, which was brilliant, despite DH being foul as we set off. He's always wanting to arrive at venues far earlier than I want to, and we agreed we'd leave the house at 19:35. We left at 19:38 and he was livid. Yep, 3 minutes, that's all it was. We arrived at the venue at 19:45 for a 20:00 start time. Much as I love him, he can be a right berk at times. Ho hum.

Greytcatlady

Yes, they do all have their quirks and foibles don't they. We've just got let them on with it sometimes.;).

The recital sounds lovely. I really must investigate more. You think oh there's nothing goes on round here, but spend 5 mins having a google of the local area and there,s loads of stuff that goes on.

judi24

20/31 AFDs for me. Pleased as we went to pub for lunch but just had a diet coke even though others were drinking. Tonight really fancied wine but managed to resist. It's still hard at night to not revert to old habits. I am still feeling down and did the NHS depression questionnaire which suggested I was depressed. Can feel my self spiralling into a place that I am going to struggle to get out of! Need to sort myself out! I am sure not drinking is making the situation better but although the physical dependency is not there the habit of having a drink when stressed is definitely still alive and kicking!

Onward and upward!

AlexLK

Still failing here and rather miserably so.

graemecarter

afoolwithmoney wrote: »

Can anyone please tell me how many weeks its said to take to break a habit & start a new one?
Thank you everyone for being here its a far from easy trip & those that have fallen off the bus don't worry still plenty of seats jump back on the scenery is fantastic x

If drinking alcohol most nights is a 'habit', then I'd have thought that that could be changed and stay changed after a few weeks.
Habit for me is having a cup of tea, not coffee, as my first drink of the day, or always flossing and then brushing my teeth (as opposed to other way round)

However, my drinking was no 'habit'. When it was costing me a lot more than just money, damaging relationships and jobs, etc I would have wanted to stop it if it was a mere habit.
But it took a lot for me to want to stop drinking, and I still have to put some so I don't feel the desire to dink.
My drinking was habitual, but no mere habit. Most habits don't destroy your health.

I call my condition 'alcoholism', but others would say 'addiction', 'dependency', etc - it's all semantics.
What matters is that I do the work so I no longer have the desire to drink. There would be no point me not drinking for a month and then picking up where I left off. I needed to change myself so I no longer had the desire to drink alcohol.
If I want a drink for a prolonged period of time, there is no doubt in my mind that I would eventually pick up a drink. I am no superman so do not have endless supplies of will power.

So changing myself is what works for me - and I have to make sure I stay changed and don't go back to the old me. There's no time limit on that.

365days

judi24 wrote: »

20/31 AFDs for me. Pleased as we went to pub for lunch but just had a diet coke even though others were drinking. Tonight really fancied wine but managed to resist. It's still hard at night to not revert to old habits. I am still feeling down and did the NHS depression questionnaire which suggested I was depressed. Can feel my self spiralling into a place that I am going to struggle to get out of! Need to sort myself out! I am sure not drinking is making the situation better but although the physical dependency is not there the habit of having a drink when stressed is definitely still alive and kicking!

Onward and upward!

Get yourself to the Gp. Depression is a very common side effect of stopping drinking. The drink masks depression. The old self medicating line.

Don't worry how it will 'look' in light of the recent CP issues.

Believe me it will look better than being found legless somewhere, or falling over and knocking yourself out (which happened to a friend of mine) Or being reported by neighbours for rowdy parties etc etc.

You sound like you have a HUGE turning point ahead. Go for it!