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

maman

Target day for me today.


I'm still feeling a bit under the weather so not sure DH's theory about effect of red wine holds. I think it might be a sinus headache so I'll try some medication.


Definitely no drinking.


10 AFDs please Shaggy.

PriceySOS

14 please, Shaggy, thanks

piggles1

Dizzy_Imp wrote: »

Thanks for the good wishes everyone...Still on, or rather back on flood alert, after a reprieve of 36 hours thanks to Storm Barney. Just had messages to both our mobiles and the landline from Flood Agency warning that the river is rising again. So is my anxiety lol. Prediction is 60cms lower than the high of Sunday, so it should be OK, but....

That's good of the flood agency to let you know, if a bit worrying. Is it receding a bit yet?

Chardonnay wrote: »

My therapist is trying to make me think of it as a bully and that helps me. I know that I've spent far too much time letting that bully dictate what I can and can't do so now I'm trying to talk back to it. Not easy at all as you know! But you sound like you are doing your own therapy by cutting down on the drinking hence not using it to relax and making you deal with the thoughts with more of a clear head (do us OCD sufferers ever have a clear head?! )

That's a good way of looking at it as a bully. I tend to try and stay one-removed from it, if that makes sense. So there's my brain looking at the thing I'm trying to check, and I try and ignore the OCD part of my brain. I can feel it coming on so I have to finish checking quickly so it doesn't get the chance to take over.

You know the little voice that when you've checked something says 'have you?' and the trick is to think yeh I have thanks. Really difficult though.

Honey_Bear wrote: »

The good new is actually, sort of - Yes - the thoughts do leave you, the longer you go on not drinking. I've had a bit of a reprieve recently and realised that I've got a bit of a food intolerance thing going on which I'd always blamed on the booze. A year after quitting I was still feeling as beset by it as I was when I was drinking which really upset me. Anyway, now that I've worked out what the chronic lack of energy and lethargy were caused by, technically I could, I think give myself permission to have the occasional tipple. Except that I know, I absolutely know, that I'm a creature of habit and it wouldn't be long before I went back to sloshing it back in the same way as I used to. I don't want to live like that any more and if I hadn't already developed a serious problem around booze I was certainly on my way to doing so. So - no, I don't feel tempted to go back to drinking.

I might, very occasionally, want to be able to join in the convivial atmosphere by swigging on a glass or two of red but I don't mind just nixing the thought and having another B***$ B**e. I just like this life more.

As to the issues of watching catch up TV on a computer - I have all sorts of problems with my laptop and something like either flash or shockwave problems seem to be the issue. I have a feeling it's to do with old computers and operating systems but as long as I can get iplayer to work and the tube of U I'm not spending any more money updating my hardware so it can take the new software until I absolutely have to.

I had a night almost slipping back into old habits on tuesday. I was really tempted to have loads again, and the only thing stopping me was horror stories about people who gave up and then started back and had awful problems because the liver couldn't cope. My fear of drinking being a hazard was bigger than my desire to have some more, so I stopped after 3.5 units.

I can't tell what my poor liver is feeling like, so the safest thing is to not drink. But the more I don't drink the more I get a sudden desire for loads. It's as if I feel like I've been depriving myself and need to catch up. I've noticed the more days I go without the more I want all of a sudden a few days later. I didn't really want that to happen, but last night I redeemed myself by having none.

In terms of computers, yes shockwave flash is the thing that won't let me play the catchup videos despite having the latest version. So I've got out an old vista machine and I've been fiddling with that to try and get a browser that plays the george best programme. But before I can even get the browser I've had to do a load of other stuff to it. arrggh. It's just one tiny tv programme I want to see

13/15 AFD please shaggy

piggles1

maman wrote: »

I'd agree with you there HB, it does get easier with time. You're doing brilliantly piggles, looks like you're going to smash your target and you didn't expect that did you?? Success!!


chardonnay, while I don't have OCD I've definitely used the technique of talking back to that little voice (or sometimes loud voice actually) that's tried to persuade me to have a drink when I hadn't planned one. I find it works.

I'm keeping my target in mind still although weirdly I keep thinking I won't meet it! Even though I only need 2 more days AF.

I suppose I still don't feel out of the woods. I do when I'm not drinking, but when I slip back I think I wish I was back in my old life

Daft really, I must have had my reasons to not drink. And now when I do drink it's not even fun after the first mouthful and yet I feel back to myself again. With the not drinking I'm not sure who I am any more and feel a bit empty.

Maybe that's just today and it'll pass. There is a great achievement to waking up in the morning remembering I didn't drink, so maybe I'm dissatisfied with something else.

I did go for a haircut to make me look totally different, but she thought it would be too short so I came out looking the same as when I went in, but with a trim

debjay

16/22 for tonight please.

Barny1979

15/20 AFDs today, first day back in work, came back from holiday yesterday.

satchmo1

14/21 AFDs for me tonight. Slipped last night, which wasn't advisable as I was still not 100% so it had more effect than usual.


Barney, I hope you're feeling brighter? These dark, rainy days don't help.

Doshwaster

Barny1979 wrote: »

15/20 AFDs today, first day back in work, came back from holiday yesterday.

How did you find that AFDs and holidays mixed?

I'm fairly comfortable with AFDs during the working week but for me drinking and holidays and always gone hand-in-hand together. I was away for 2 weeks in October and the only dry day I had was when I went a little too far the night before that I couldn't face the sight of alcohol the next day. Apart from that booze was never far away and I find it hard to imagine a sober holiday.

Any tips on not drinking on holiday?

milky1991

5/10 AFD's for me please tonight :j

Honey_Bear

Piggles are you using any support other than this thread and your OCD therapy? I only ask because there are lots of options available and there are quite likely to be other people who are in the same position as you, who might be able to give you their experience of stopping drinking while managing your OCD. For the first couple of months I found older women's blogs and books about stopping drinking really, really, helpful because I could indentify with the writers. Some of their ideas and coping strategies were massively helpful.

As an example, and this will sound stupid, but I actually needed someone to say that I shouldn't be trying to incorporate my well-established 20 year social life based around drinking into my new not drinking persona for the first few weeks - obvious, really, but I needed permission to duck out for a while. I found I needed lots of ideas like that before I could choose the ones that would help me, and know that the rest were helpful for other people.

20/30 please, Shaggy.