New Alcohol self help

[Deleted User]

I'm not sure if I can help, but I was where you are last year - drinking up to two bottles of wine a night. Today I haven't had a drink and I haven't had a drink for 11 months now. I feel great and it was definitely worth the work to stop.

I can only repeat what has been said. Please go to your GP and get your family onside. You can do a 'detox' at home - I had valium for one week which took the edge off 'everything'. There's a lot going on in your life, but drinking on top of all that is making things worse - and that's the TRUTH. Don't use life's challenges as excuses for a drink - it's not a good, helpful or healthy response.

If you get to the point that you want a drink - go for a walk round the block - take a family member or friend with you if you feel a bit wobbly or go on your own if you've no choice (just don't walk to an off licence)!

You're going to have to build up your self-esteem - you need to decide how to do that, whether it be volunteering or taking on some other project. Just start small, make it manageable and achieveable. Do not sit in the chair waiting for time to pass with a glass in your hand.

Take each day at a time - minute by minute when need be. There are support groups around if you need them too, but first - get to the GP and get family and friends onside.

I wish you well
hiphouse

suki1964

Do go to your Gp and do be honest about how much you really are drinking as if your Gp feels you need to have a medical detox, the meds (strength/length)he prescribes will be based on what you tell him so being honest is in your best interest.

If you dont feel you can speak to your gp (although they really have heard it all before) then look in the help section of your local phone book. There is usually a alcohol service listed. This is where I went. I was offered an initial consult, then referred on to counseling and it was from those sessions that I came to understand I was an Alcoholic and needed to go in for detox and rehab. But they also offered routes to controlled drinking for those that didnt need/want to give up completely but learn to drink sensibly.

And try to get friends and family on board as soon as possible. Yes you may have some of them look at you aghast, but hey, its your choice not to drink and all you are doing is ask that they support you - not give up themselves. And AA, its always there. Theres a meeting every hour of the day somewhere so there really is no need to do it yourself. You dont have to label yourself an alcoholic to go to AA, just have the desire not to drink that day.

Im coming up to 9 years 7th Dec and my life is so much better then it was. I still have the same rubbish happening as everyone else but Im more able to manage it. I would have been dead eight years now if I had still been drinking - instead Im enjoying my first grandson, have learned to drive, moved countries, had my first holidays abroad, given up a job I hated and now doing a job I love and celebrated 4 years of marraige.

Good luck with the GP - and dont forget - be honest

ailuro2

welsh_worrier wrote: »

Easily bottle of wine or more per evening.


we can`t even afford renewal of our passports,never mind spending money and money for wedding outfits

Even a cheap bottle costs £3 a bottle, so, don't you think you have a fantastic goal to reach for?

Get help from those around you. Cutting back to half a bottle a night will save you £45 in the first month. Giving it up completely in the second month will save you £90. So there's £135 towards two new passports.
Scour charity shops for hardly worn wedding outfits.

Isn't it worth a trip to the GP to ask for a bit of help?

Drinking will notmake any problems disappear, they just come back the next day, except you have a sore head and sickly stomach to deal with too.

For the first poster- why not team up with the second poster and arrange to meet every evening on MSN or similar and fight your worries together.

You've both taken the first step, which is how every journey starts (sorry for the cliche, I can't think of a better way to describe how big an effort you have managed)

Bogof_Babe

I went cold turkey a week ago tonight, because my cider consumption had become too much of a regular habit and I knew it wasn't doing me any good.

So far so good, I know it is early days, but the odd times I have fancied a drink (not craved, thankfully), I drink a glass of water, which really takes away the desire for an alcoholic drink.

For the evenings, I am buying squash and pop. I have the squash extremely well diluted (see my post on the tooth enamel thread :rolleyes: ), but mostly drinking water, which costs nothing.

I am sleeping better and waking up more refreshed. I don't say I will never have a drink again, but at the moment the advantages well outweigh the disadvantages. I might even offer to drive next time we go out!

Best of luck to everyone who is tackling this situation - let's do it together.

aah

Thank you everyone for your responses and I do appreciate them.

To those who have given up are you ok? I just can't yet imagine being happy without a wee glass in my hand. Isn't that terrible?

Welshworrier your situation sounds awful, it makes me feel as though I have no right to a problem, which I know I have; - sorry if this sounds dreadful, but I don't have your problems, not to say that I don't have any. I'm just not making excuses, and NO I don't want to be a non drinking buddy. Thats why I haven't posted back before now... I can afford the wine (just) but I don't want to, yet I don't want to give up. What a mess.

Bogof_Babe

It's a bit like giving up smoking (done that too, 15 years ago). When you analyse why you feel you want one (ciggy or booze), it is most probably largely down to habit. If you fill those occasions with alternative actions, it (a) not only distracts you from your longing, but (b) instills a different "habit" in its place, e.g. my glass of water.

If you socialise a lot it is probably harder, due to peer pressure, but again the first time will be the worst, and it will get easier.

Hark at me, preaching after 7 days abstinence . With the cigs, I always kept a pack in the house, that way I knew I could have one, and I didn't because I didn't want to, of my own free will. It is very empowering to think like that. You are controlling it, not the other way round.

You will find your own best way of making this major change, but don't feel a failure if it doesn't happen all at once. Feel proud of yourself if you can manage a day without a drink, and take it from there. Give yourself other little rewards, or put the money saved on one side towards something you really want.

Good luck!

aah

yep - ditched the cigs too (25 years ago!, when I was 25:o ). I do remember that though - I felt really powerful in my own ability to conquer it.

And I really did need to save the money and look after my health, I suppose its much the same now. Just that when I gave up the cigs I overloaded on the alc :eek:

Is there any cheer left ? (Yep I know its round the corner, I am just turning the wrong way right now....)

suffolkb

I`m 6 years sober and succeeded with rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous. Now I`m doing an access course in health and am doing a project on alcohol(ism). Yesterday I came across a little book by Alan Carr (the stop smoking guy) called No More Hangovers. Please have a look at that if you think you have a problem.
Also, you will be welcome on the bigger alcohol thread in this section.
Good luck whatever you decide.

brodev

It would appear that nobody needs to post. I like to keep in touch so I am about to ramble for a bit.
Not everybody is like me but when I stopped drinking I was left without my "comforter". If life proceeded on an even keel I was ok, but it rarely did. Any slight ups or downs and the thought of the comfort that a drink would give me came into my head. My trouble was that it would not stay like that.
All these thoughts caused me to be ill at ease and I could not have continued like that for long. That is when I discovered that by talking about them to people that knew what I was talking about made things easier. Sometimes all that I was given was an interested ear but at other times specific solutions were suggested. I felt that it was not just me versus the world.
For me I do not believe that I would not have been able to stay stopped if it were not for the support of some very ordinary but wonderful people.
If anybody out there is suffering a bit, try sharing with us or others and see if you are assisted as much as I was.

suki1964

aah wrote: »

Is there any cheer left ?

hell yes - sex is a hell of a lot better sober and you can afford more chocolate if it isnt :rotfl:

Good luck