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

ElusiveLucy

Let myself down and drank on fri/sat/sun and Mon......annoyed with myself.
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March totals so far: 16 AFD, 13 AD, so 16/20 for me please. Not going to make my target for March now, but its too late to do anything about it and I am going to try harder for April.


FOR SOME REASON I CAN'T HIGHLIGHT IN RED, SORRY!

mackeroo

10AF please Shaggy and 10 again for April. Thanks for keeping our tally every month :T

Barny1979

24/30 AFDs for April please

cathybird

Morning all! Lovely spring morning here. I love this bit of the year when the blossom comes out and the new green leaves, especially if the sky is blue too. It's all too brief. 16/15 for me please Shaggy.

CuppaTea

Sorry to hear people have been struggling over Easter with their intake. I fully understand all the emotions you describe.

I'm not going to make my target, if I do today it'll be 11/19. I hoped for better. But I hv had some ALD's in there so it's not all bad. I have exercised control and spent an good Friday with friends who were drinking all afternoon whilst drinking water. Only because I was out for a friends birthday meal on that eve and didn't want to spoil it or get ill by peaking too soon.

My target for April is 17 days please shaggy.
But it's two fold, I'm going to have ALD days and attempt to stick within the weekly 14 units, so even if I go over in days I still hv the units to stick to as well.

Arkers

Good morning everyone, 1 AFD for last night please. Nice to see the sun shining. Cathybird I love this time of year too. Like your namesake just seen a nuthatch and a woodpecker - amongst other birds on our feeder!! It's the little things sometimes.


Arkers x

Sandypan

Morning all, declaring 21/21 for tonight please Shaggy. I find if I make the pledge early then I'm not tempted later!!! Low total for April please because hoping to get some Spanish sunshine and I do like a glass of cava. This time though I will put a plan of action in place to drink less!!
April AF - 15

Honey_Bear

Thanks Arkers. When I post long posts it worries me that I may be going too far, but when I was sloshing it back I found people who had stopped drinking and were willing to talk about it more helpful than books or anyone else who had a prissy attitude about alcohol. So, all I'm doing is passing it on, sort of thing, in the hope that it might help someone else.

Oh dear, Stupotstu. That sounds pretty bad, to be honest, just the sort of thing I used to have to spend quite a lot of time apologising for and feeling ashamed about. *Healing vibes* for the injury - when my resolve was tested daily just after I stopped, all I had to do was look at a nasty deep gash on my ankle to remind me that 'one' wasn't an option any more because I knew exactly where it would lead. In the end I became rather fond of that scar which has faded completely now, but it was exceptionally useful for a few months.

I know some people have found Alan Carr's books on stopping smoking and drinking helpful. They wouldn't have worked for me for various reasons, but whatever works for you is brilliant and the right solution. The trick is to find something that suits you personally, and that often means a few false starts. The trick is to keep going and never give up giving up.

I find the debate about the words 'alcoholic' and 'alcoholism' really, really unhelpful. They're slippery words and mean what the person saying them wants them to mean. I also don't find other people's perception about my drinking that helpful - we don't know anyone that well, not even our partners, but we do sometimes recognise stuff about ourselves. The key, I think, is your comment, 'they all were of the idea that i didn't have the disease of alcoholism but certainly don't possess a stop button. It virtually always ends in disaster when i start.' That can't be a comfortable way to live.

The turning point for me was this test. I had to do quite a bit of reading to find it, so it may be that the cumulative effect of all of that reading was as important as the test itself. Who knows. Fortunately for me, the book in which I found it was written by someone very honest about her own alcohol-related experiences, and her first thought was that as she'd only answered Yes to 16 of the questions, that meant she wasn't an alcoholic until she read a lot more about the test itself. I answered Yes to 14, and even I knew I had a problem that I couldn't deny any more. I still don't know if I'm an alcoholic, though and it doesn't matter to me one jot - I had a problem and it was only ever going to get worse. The thing about alcohol is that it if we have a problem with it, it never gets better.

The sooner anyone with a problem centered on booze makes the decision to stop, the easier it will be to do so - or, conversely, the longer you leave it, the harder it gets. It isn't easy, but it gets harder, so if you know you want to live an alcohol-free life, or if you don't want to but you know you should (or must), honestly, today's the day.

As I said in my last post, my first day as a non-drinker happened to be a day when we were going to a wedding. There will always be a holiday coming up, Christmas, Easter, something to celebrate, a birthday, an anniversary, whatever. There are people who manage to have a pretty good time doing all of those things without booze, and taking the decision to be one of them is a biggie, but very do-able with the right support package you put together for yourself. AA may be part of that, or it may not. Good luck with it.

Doshwaster wrote: »

Let's try to do the whole month without a hangover!

As a measure of drinking in moderation, or cutting down, I think that's an absolutely brilliant way of measuring it!

30 for April, and 30/31 for March so far please, Shaggy. Love my bunnies.

shaggydoo

Morning :hello:

1 more AFD for yesterday.



Shaggyx

shaggydoo

March:

= 7 Days AF

= 14 days AF

= 21 days AF
= 28 days AF

= 31 days AF

= target achieved


Alcohol Free Days
Arkers 24/15
Barny1979 24/26
CathyBird 16/15
CountingPenniesClaire 18/21
CuppaTea 10/19
DebJay 20/22
DizzyImp 28/31

Effyb4 /14
Ellsbel 25/31
ElusiveLucy 16/20
Gabriel 30/30
Gien 13/15
Honey Bear 30/31
Mackeroo 10/10

Maggie 2/13
Maman 9/10

Muser /22
NewMe 8/12
Piggles 8/10
Pricey 20/20
Satchmo 25/27
SandyPan 21/21
Shaggy 17/17
SmallHoldingSister 8/21
Smiley_77 29/31
StuPotStu 18/31
WBF 7/14

Yellowmonkey 4/10

Alcohol Low Days
CountingPennieClaire 19/25
Debjay 23/TF
Shaggy 23/22




Everyone Welcome! It's never too late to join....

Please highlight your AFDs in Red

Don't hesitate to let me know if I've made a mistake!