Giving Up/Cutting Down Alcohol Thread Part 17

dustydigger

2/27 please cathybird

cathybird

August

7 days =

14 days =

21 days =

28 days =

Target reached =

Target beaten =

Entire month =

August targets

AllNightDiner 3/5

alt80 3/TF Arkers 3/TF cathybird 2/21 Coveredinbees 1/18 CuppaTea 1/10 Dexsmummy 10 dustydigger 2/27 Elisheba happydenial lantanna 1/12 LegoHead leftatthetrafficlights 10 maggiem 1/15 maman 3/10 marahouti 3/25 Mollypolly1956 PriceySOS 23 RobM99 1/30 satchmo1 2/26 Season of Mist 31 sukeyboo 2/10 WBF 2/10 yellowmonkey 11 Newcomers welcome!

AllNightDiner

Good morning all, 3/5 for me today.
Tomorrow I leave for an extended holiday which is why my target is, ahem, “modest” for this month. But having disappointed myself earlier by not reaching bigger targets in April and July, going forward, I would prefer to have smaller targets in months where there is a risk I would otherwise not achieve them.

On the plus side, I am getting the hang of planning for the whole year, which will help me in 2023 and beyond!

maggiem

So not so sure about declaring early at the moment, however 1/15 please for Monday and hoping it will be 2 by the end of tonight. 

alt80

3 for today please. Woken up not feeling well and know I need to make sure I don’t start to slip so will be staying well away from drinking today. 

@satchmo1 ha I wouldn’t put something like that past my dog but pleased to hear you have insurance.

@AllNightDiner one of the reasons I’m target free tbh takes any potential disappointment away. Didn’t help earlier in the year. I had a long run of not drinking at all and didn’t want to fess up to really slipping up, mainly with the other stuff but I was drinking as well. I know it’s not exactly a massive disappointment not meeting target but early on I found if I’d not met the target and no hope to as a well !!!!!! it then moment and would drink more when I did. As I’d massively cut down, I was a complete mess if it was just drink on those days. Realised recently if I have one which won’t contribute to a day but hasn’t been a night getting hammered is still a win so far as I’m concerned. Now I don’t count days on the other stuff either, the pressure to stay on track was stressing me beyond measure and white knuckling through until you can’t take it anymore, that’s not what recovery is about. Hopefully helpful in some way idk, if not just ignore me. 

@maggiem it’s only day 3 of the month and already clocked 1, hopefully 2 this evening but if not, there’s always tomorrow. 

AllNightDiner

@alt80 that is really insightful - thank you for your advice and perspective. Will think about it. Btw I admire how you are able to wake up, feel a bit sh**, acknowledge it and sit with it, rather than trying to find some sort of “solution.” Wisdom.

I must say too that, while it is disappointingto miss targets, I get so gleeful when @cathybird give me my stickers, it is a real sense of accomplishment!

alt80

If I have managed to reach a place of wisdom, and that’s a big if haha fml, its been through countless !!!!!! ups over the years, 2 stays in rehab and years of therapy now. I hurt my family to the point where my wife has also been in therapy since my second stay in rehab. We try to support each other now but have lost the support of a lot of our family. So called friends left our lives a long time ago or we’ve had to cut them from our lives because their lifestyles were damaging. I’ve had to let a well paying client go and two members of staff recently. I’ve been somewhat successful in business but we have so much personal debt / financial commitments we really find it a struggle to keep all the plates spinning. Had a time I was doing well, my addiction under control, clearing some of the personal monies owed, family time was getting better but when things started to slip this year my addiction got to ridiculous levels again I undid all that work and am starting over again now. Tbh We were destroying ourselves and I know how fragile recovery is, you don’t smash it, move on and go on to smash some other goal, it’s always there and all you can do is take it one day at a time tbh I think part of that is actually knowing if you slip you can get back up again too, the alternative is too !!!!!! grim. That said when you do get back up it hasn’t all gone away, the banks still want paying literally and figuratively speaking.

What the most important thing is that you find what works for you, it’s healthy, stress doesn’t build, other people can think what they like you can’t control others and the acknowledgment if you slip, you can get back up again. 

maman

3/10 AFDs please @cathybird

Arkers

Good afternoon everyone,
3 please Cathy 
Arkers x

marahouti

Good afternoon.
3/25 please cathybird. Thank you. X