The giving up/cutting down alcohol support thread!

winebox

Afternoon all,
Well I posted last Thurs that I had a few bad days coming up and July 1st would def be my day 1. Boy was I right - 11 bottles at 13% in 4 days is upping the ante; aren't I clever to drink so much:o . I woke early this morning, feeling rather ropey why would that be?, & almost straight away found myself not exactly panicking but thinking about tomorrow, & what I would have to drink today (I usually start early p.m. 3/4 ish, but am not car-free until 8pm on a Monday, how can I squeeze 20 alch units into such a short time? What a worry! I usually have a couple of heart-starters as soon as I get home at 2, thinking they will have worn off by the time I have to drive at 6).

Then it hit me - 6am & I'm planning my day's drinking :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: . Then my mind wandered on (slowly, bear with me) to previous discussion points in this thread, namely choosing not to drink, & the phrase I used last week, postponing the grief. Jo quite rightly pointed out, why is it "grief" - I want to do it! Also whilst I like to build up to a specific date it puts pressure on as the day looms (wrong mindset, again).
So, I thought, just do it TODAY. I got up straght away & poured the half bottle in the fridge down the sink, am taking the half-bottle of red to OH tonight (he does red, I do white....), & went out with the dog on a long walk - beautiful morning. Slogging up the hill made me feel carp physically, but mentally great cos for once I am doing something today which I was going to do tomorrow & not the other way round! My self-esteem is at an all-time low the last few weeks cos I feel powerless against the alch, so I felt really good to have chosen today as Day 1.
It's early in the day yet of course, but I didn't have the lunchtime ones - put kettle on instead & kept busy. I have dinner at OH's on a Monday so the next thing to avoid is a glass of wine with that - OK in itself but it is very likely to trigger a bottle or two when I get home again, even if I do have to speed-drink. So prob will be back later. If it all goes horribly wrong at least I had the walk.
It's all so silly!
There's been a lot of scary stuff on here about sudden withdrawal but I've not had symptoms before tho it has, ahem, been a long long time since I went more than 48 hours. And I'm thinking ahead - one day at a time.

shopaholictiedtheknot

Hi winebox, sounds like a smashing 4 days to me That is one of my problems, I just love drinking and all I can think reading about your 13% bottles is 'ooh lovely strong white' :eek:
I know what you mean about planning your drinking too - the minute you wake up - been there on more than several occasions:o
Well done on your decision to start today :T - no time like the present, I will cross my fingers for your willpower at your mums, it is always worse trying to resist it when it is offered than just trying to stop yourself from buying it don't you think?

Good luck with the rest of the day, I will be on later to moan about my cravings no doubt:rolleyes:

spam.jam

I gave up alcohol 34 days ago, cigarettes 22 days, started work 20 days ago, I feel like a new woman. Well done everyone, hope to see you all on here another day:A

barshamhillbilly

Go for it Winebox !!! :j

Welcome to the madhouse spam.jam :hello:

Jo. Sorry you had a tough gloomy night last night - you seemed to have pirked up a bit this morning - hope it got better through the day.

I've given in again today - though just the one bottle of beer ...... a four pint bottle .... just kidding - a pint bottle of cobra lager

So - on course for keeping to 3 units a day - not on course for giving up completely!

Never mind - a drastic cut over the last few months and that is the main thing, though I wish I had the will power of Mollypolly.:T:T:T

Best wishes for this evening

BHB

spam.jam

Thank you barshamhillbilly.

If its madness I should feel completely at home

Could anyone pm me how to change my profile.x

winebox

Thanks Shoppy & bhb.
Made it! Got to OH's house just in time - the foil was off the top of the bottle & he had the corkscrew at the ready, not sure how things would've gone if he'd had the opened bottle under my nose, but I just said after the weekend I had to have a day off. He was surprised (!) but didn't question it. And...I've been fine. No cravings etc (I read years ago that day 3 is the hardest both ref cravings & withdrawal reaction). My main worry is that although I genuinely haven't wanted to drink today the thought of alch is "there" all the time.
The human body is amazing sometimes isn't it? You'd think I'd be a quivering mass by now given the drugs that haven't gone into my system all of a sudden. Have had pints of builders tea - prob get caffeine poisoning now.
bhb - I had black pudding 2 days running for breakfast (just to ensure entire weekend as bad for me as poss) & I wondered - do you make that yourself as well? Not that I'm asking you to put some in the post, just wondered. I read that you can eat more of a pig than any other animal!
Hope everyone else OK this evening? Cravings not too bad shoppy? Mollypolly I am guilty of taking you for granted these days! - hope it's still going good. And Bis & Jo (hope your better mood has kept going) and everyone else (it's lonely on here tonight).
Am going to finish my online Tesco order now - amazingly I can focus on the screen so late.

spam.jam

Hello Winebox and flippin well done u

winebox

Good ol Tesco - did a search on chicken & got about 35 pages, only wanted one. Thanks spam jam, hope someone has pm'd you re profile cos I dunno! Am going to bed with a good book now - am not expecting to sleep very well tonight. Hoping to be up with the lark to do the long walk again in the morning.
Good night all hope you are all having evenings going as you wish.

spam.jam

winebox wrote: »

Good ol Tesco - did a search on chicken & got about 35 pages, only wanted one. Thanks spam jam, hope someone has pm'd you re profile cos I dunno! Am going to bed with a good book now - am not expecting to sleep very well tonight. Hoping to be up with the lark to do the long walk again in the morning.
Good night all hope you are all having evenings going as you wish.

Hope you have beautiful dreams and wake up fresh as a daisy tomorrow. hope to catch you again.:D

eselt

Hi All Hope you are all OK- thanks for asking about the BBQ- alcohol free for me, there was a drunken punch up though, which are strange to watch when you are sober-it was much scarier somehow.

Jo-hope you are back to your usual positive self this evening- you are doing so well.

Winebox- well done- I think the fact that you can plan for when you are likely to be tempted is a great idea- its good OH doesnt do the 'oh go on, its only one-enjoy yourself' routine too.

BSB- I love the way you can stick to really low amounts and stop after one or two- I've been thinking about this-do you think people can go back to 'social drinking' after having a problem or is abstinance the only way? After relapsing, and going on a bender I always seemed to get back to being an out of control drunk so quickly (about three days) and have to go back to square one and start again- I think I will have to be an all or nothing drinker but I'd just love to be able to have one........

Winebox-re: withdrawal symptoms- first three days are usually the worst if you are physically dependant- by then the alcohol should be out of your system and you can concentrate on the psychological stuff. Mind you I seemed to process alcohol quite quickly, everyones different. Its very unlikely you will have bad withdrawal (eg. fits and stuff) if you don't suffer from some obvious withdrawal symptoms in the first three days. As regards sleeping, I still don't sleep well and this can carry on for months. One of the biggest pitfalls I found was how good you feel after 3-4 days without a drink-full of energy, positive, healthy, eating propperly etc-then you say to yourself, well I feel great, I'll just have a couple and downhill you go......you have to keep reminding yourself the fact that you feel great is directly related to not drinking.

Hi Shoppy, MollyP, SpamJam and Bismark- and everyone else.

See you soon- keep up the brilliant work.