New Alcohol self help

shazrobo

hi jo, i'm struggling with not drinkin at the mo too, not had a drink since first jan, but i'm so depressed and down i'm desperate for a drink right now to help me calm.
god how wrong is that i'd have an excuse everynight i'm sure. but as i's so unhappy i'm scared to drink too, as in past i've mixed tablets with drink and woke to regret it.

jo1972

Hi Bogof_babe yeah, thanks for reminding me, that's what I used when I quit drinking for those 4 months, I filled up a 2 litre water bottle with orange squash and put it in the fridge in the morning so it was freezing cold when I got in from work and instead of coming in and going straight to the fridge for a beer, I'd down about half a litre of squash which changed the taste in my mouth and that did help, thanks

Shazrobo, I know where you're coming from, I have an excuse for everytime I drink, I also have an excuse for going to the shop every night, i.e. doing a huge Tesco shop on a Sunday then when I know that Tesco is shut I 'have' to go to the local convenience store (offy!) as that's the only place that will sell gravy at that time of night and obviously I 'forgot' :rolleyes: to buy the gravy/mint sauce/mustard/milk/something else when I was doing the shop and you can't eat a roast without the gravy/etc etc.

Addicts are the most secretive and schemeing (sp?) people on the earth!

Good luck to you Shazrobo

Well, this is the time of day which is the hardest for me, I would have left work half hour ago (I'm off today) and I'd be driving past the off licence about now.

brodev

Hi Jo and welcome. You have done the most difficult thing by admitting to yourself and others that you have a drinking problem. I would suggest that the next step for you is to make a decision that you don't want to drink any more. I know that that sounds trite but it did help me. Again I would encourage you to attend AA as I know that I would have stood no chance on my own. Keep posting as you will find that it will help.

beachbeth

Can I ask if anyone has tried the milk thistle tablets which are supposed to help liver function? I don't know if this would be a waste of money. I rarely drink during the day but usually have a few each night and now that Christmas is over I want to stop.

I absolutely love red wine, especially with a meal but just lately Ive found that its given me diarrhoea. Trouble is, if I drink shorts such as vodka I find I just have another and another but with red wine I can only usually manage about 2 glasses. So I switched to red wine so that I wasn't drinking so much - a lot of the time I only had 1 glass in the evening which is much better than 6 vodkas! However, now that its giving me diarrhoea I don't want to switch back to vodka so I need to stop drinking. Has anyone else had this reaction to red wine?

Bogof_Babe

I don't like red wine, so never drink the stuff. That is probably because (a) I don't like wine much anyway, and (b) always refused to pay more than about £3 for a bottle of the stuff, so it was probably rubbish.

Can't help re. the milk thistle, but I wouldn't knock it without trying it, if you need it. Have you been told that your liver function is inadequate, or is it just an insurance type thing? If you are serious about stopping drinking altogether, I believe the liver gradually repairs itself. So don't take the milk thistle as an excuse to continue drinking too much!

I am annoyed today because once again the news was on about how people who don't drink are more at risk of heart disease than those who drink moderatly. I think this is highly irresponsible, because it gives a false message that alcohol is good for you, which is lethal to a good proportion of the population who are already drinking too much :mad: .

If it is true, I wish they would come up with something non-alcoholic that has the same beneficial effect on the heart. I am sure cranberry juice or something similar would be far more likely to keep us healthy.

Rant over. Morning all!

jo1972

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

I I am annoyed today because once again the news was on about how people who don't drink are more at risk of heart disease than those who drink moderatly. I think this is highly irresponsible, because it gives a false message that alcohol is good for you, which is lethal to a good proportion of the population who are already drinking too much :mad: .

If it is true, I wish they would come up with something non-alcoholic that has the same beneficial effect on the heart. I am sure cranberry juice or something similar would be far more likely to keep us healthy.

Rant over. Morning all!

Morning, a very justifiable rant it was too

What I want to know is, why are fruit smoothies not as addictive as alcohol? It's always the bad stuff that's addictive!

Well, I've made an appointment with the dr for this evening and I might ask him to send me for a blood test to look at my liver function. I've not had one for 2 years so probably best to see if anything's changed. And now I'm going to have a look on the AA website and see where my closest meeting is.

Hope you're all having a good day.

beachbeth

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

Can't help re. the milk thistle, but I wouldn't knock it without trying it, if you need it. Have you been told that your liver function is inadequate, or is it just an insurance type thing? If you are serious about stopping drinking altogether, I believe the liver gradually repairs itself. So don't take the milk thistle as an excuse to continue drinking too much!

I just wanted to detox. I already take multi vitamins and just wanted an added boost for my liver as well as not drinking.

Bogof_Babe wrote:

I am annoyed today because once again the news was on about how people who don't drink are more at risk of heart disease than those who drink moderatly. I think this is highly irresponsible, because it gives a false message that alcohol is good for you, which is lethal to a good proportion of the population who are already drinking too much :mad: .

If it is true, I wish they would come up with something non-alcoholic that has the same beneficial effect on the heart. I am sure cranberry juice or something similar would be far more likely to keep us healthy.

Rant over. Morning all!

I agree totally! They do say a glass of red wine a day is beneficial (not for me, it gives me diarrhoea!) but that it is just as beneficial to eat the red grape itself! Yet they don't really push this fact do they? There are lots of foods and drinks that must have the same effect.

lewt

vitimin B is good for the liver.

I met a chap on training the other week and he had got it into his mind that the rule was two glasses of red wine is good for you. when i think what was said was 2 units. he really belived that 2 glasses was good for him. per day. which took him well over the weekly safe limit for men....

jo1972

Evening all

I went to the docs this evening, I had to get some anti-b's as I've got a throat infection that I think's moving down to my chest, and I said to him that I wanted to talk about my drinking. I asked him how the he11 do I stop doing it. He said that I must try to drink a lower strength beer (he knows that I only tend to drink Stella) and I said that I probably wouldn't 'enjoy' it as much and would no doubt drink more to get me to where I need to get to iykwim. So he said he was really happy that I seemed to want to stop and encouraged me to get in touch with the place I used to have counselling and see if they would get me back on their books. He asked me how I felt at that moment, I was very tense and my shaking was getting worse as I was 'due' a drink, and so he said that he could prescribe me some anti-depressants to help with the panic attacks and heart palpitations if I needed but said no for the time being, thought I'd see how I got on.

So, after going out 3 times this evening and driving round the block, past the off licence and back home again, I didn't buy any drink. I've had 2 mugs of ovaltine and am now on my 3rd coffee, so I reckon the sleepiness brought on by the Ovaltine is well and truely gone!

Day 1 for me, feel kinda empty at the moment, but I know I'll be really proud of myself in the morning

Hope everyone's well?

xx

Bogof_Babe

That's a really positive post Jo, good for you, both for talking to your doc and managing tonight without a drink. Believe me, it does get easier every day, and you should be very proud of yourself tonight. Your doc sounds very understanding and non-judgemental, so you have a good source of support there.

I hope your throat problem doesn't come to anything, but if it does then you must stay in the warm and look after yourself, which will help you avoid temptation tomorrow.

I wouldn't have any more coffee or ovaltine, or you'll be up half the night!