New Alcohol self help

Bogof_Babe

I can identify with that Hill Bicks (brilliant name, couldn't possibly imagine what your real name might be ). What I do if I get a desire (not strong enough nowadays to call a craving) for a drink is make myself a sandwich and have a glass of pop, squash or water - immediately.

When I was drinking we (OH and I) used to defer our evening meal to allow us to get a few down us first, because once you have a full stomach the booze has no further effect. Therefore I associate having eaten with no longer wanting to drink.

We still eat fairly late (because OH is still drinking, but he is in control of it) but now I have several soft drinks of an evening, and water with my meal.

All these little tips might help someone, so keep posting them folks.

Aah I wish you an easier time in the new year, and please don't beat yourself up in the meantime.

[Deleted User]

Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism
James Robert Milam Katherine Ketcham

That's the book I mentioned earlier.

Details and a review:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Influence-Milam/dp/0553274872

Hiphouse

Taffyscot

thanks hip will order it from my library. If they dont have it it will be a good book for them to get Oh and by the by went to AA a few months back son living in Canada and feeling suicidal about drink and what it was doing to him. He was in crisis all the way over there and I in crisis over here. I went to AA and had such a feeling of friendship and welcome and spewed my guts out I needed to at that time. Needed to tell someone who understood without condeming my son like some of my friends do to me "How can he do that to you after all you have done for him?" blah blah. Anyway I nearly didn't go back cos 3rd meeting an AA member took me to one side and asked me not to speak when sharing came around because there are alcholics that need to do that and I don't really belong. It was an open AA meeting and the alanon meeting in my town is practically non existant. So I know how you can feel when you are at a low ebb and feel you have nowhere to turn. Funny thing I didn't go back for 3 weeks and thought to hell with everything, everything getting me down. Next thing I knew AA members were rallying around and some had dropped me off knew where I lived and were coming around asking how I was doing how my son was doing. That was what I needed at that time, exactly what I needed without shame, guilt and lies that come from this disease and trying to hide it from the outside world. Ahhhh I can not begin to understand what you are going through but tears rush down my face at you saying about that idiot my name is

---

and I used to be an alcoholic. Bloody idiot if she only knew what it was like and I share your sorrow but not your shame. Taffy
Bogoff you are right these little tips might sink in for someone and that is all we are trying to do give you the little tips that might just help.

lewt

i was not a reputable member of society 16 months ago, i thought i was though, the denial of my addiction was so strong i really thought that i was ok. i thought because i was paying my taxes and not drink driving that i was a stand up guy. the reality was completely different i would not help anyone unless there was something in it for me. i wouldnt hold doors open for people i wouldnt let anyone out whilst drivingeven though i expected epoel to let me out if i was in their position. i was so sick and i couldnt see it even after admitting i had a problem.
I saw when i did my step four how selfish and self centred i had been in the past. And I am so gratefull that i have that inventory to do daily to keep my self in check, its like suki says above there is no known cure for addiction but we can recover from the seeminly hopless state of mind and body that i suffered from 16 months ago.
I don't suffer with alcoholism or addiction today, i have it but i certainly dont suffer. All i have had to do is let go of my old ideas about life, allow others to be wrong and be willing to do everything that is suggested in the big book of AA. If i wanna try and change things to suit me i dont fully get the promises which are spoken about after every step is talked about in the BB. i have lernt this by trying to make the program suit me, when really i have to make myself suit the program if i want to continue with my recovered state of mind.

[Deleted User]

Very many congratulations on your 9th birthday.:D

Hiphouse

brodev

Yes Suki Congratulations. Well done.
I am one of those people who believe fully in what AA says but not necessarily in what individual AAs say.
When I joined AA it was quite simple, either you went along with them or you died if you were an alcoholic. There was no other recognised way of stopping drinking. Occasionally some individual here or there managed to stop, usually after some great conversion.
Since the advent of AA and the realisation that there was a recovery from this illness, other agencies have put forward their ideas. I do not know of any that has had the success that AA has had. In saying that I am also aware that AA has had no where near 100% success.
I could never express my own personal gratitude to AA. I was close to death when I joined. I had already attempted suicide more than once. I did not want to know me. I regarded myself as a blot on society. I was in my early 20s.
I met people in AA who had looked for years for an answer but there was none out there. Even AA was not known about. I found out about it by accident and as I said it saved both my life and my sanity.
I don't care how any individual alcoholic gets sober. I have no great wish for an increase in the number of people in AA, just for the sake of it. The absolute truth is that I do not know of a better way of getting sober for most alcoholics than AA.
I have NEVER met any alcoholic who has managed to control his drinking for more than a few months. It is the great obsession, Controlled Drinking.
I am aware that there are people on this thread that are not alcoholic but who wish to cut down. None of my posts are directed at them and I wish them every success.

shazrobo

at the alcohol clinic that i attend, they do not use the word alcoholic, they refer it as alcohol dependant, is it much the same thing?

suki1964

shazrobo wrote: »

at the alcohol clinic that i attend, they do not use the word alcoholic, they refer it as alcohol dependant, is it much the same thing?

Its the same thing, just different terminology "Alcohol dependence, also known as alcoholism, is an uncontrollable desire for alcohol that overrides an individual's ability to stop drinking"
http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/alcohol.html

[Deleted User]

Just wanted to sign in and say Hi to Shaz and Aah.

I hope you are both OK. Hope everyone else is keeping it together too.

Hiphouse

brodev

Nice thought Hippy. I'd like to say Hi to them as well, and to everybody else.