Hiccup. What?
To all the people who have been trying to quit drinking. How are you doing
by cognac 24 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
digderidoo
Good thread Cognac.
At the end of the month it will be 6 months sober for me, i like you don't miss it, i now have no desire to have a drink. Over the last year i can count on one hand the times i have drank.
I do occasionally miss the craque that comes with a night out with mates though, that i can't seem to experience sober. But that said i my life has come such a long way over the last year, that i can sacrifice the wild nights out for it. I have started a degree and took up interests such as scuba diving that i would never have done. In general my life has got a whole lot better over the last year or so, i wouldn't give that up for a nights drinking. In fact my social life has got better, i have met more new people this year than any other year really, something i never thought possible without the drinking scene.
Oompa,
i drink each night...it is medicine to help me sleep and it works unfortunately
I used to find that, but from my experience and the experience of others i have come to learn that if you can go 10-14 days without a drink and the restless nights that comes with it, you can generally get a better nights sleep. Lack of sleep is actually a withdrawal symptom, especially if it occurs with the first 4 days of not drinking after drinking every night.
Well done though for cutting back.
Gregor,
I'd like your opinions. If someone is presently drinking at, say, a value of 10 and they want to cut back to a 5 or a 3, is that more difficult than simply targeting zero?
It is for an alcoholic. I tried it over 2 to 3 years, but found zero a lot more easier to achieve.
Hamsterbait,
The hardest thing about sobriety is changing your socializing habits and missing all you lovely alcoholic friends. (That has been the most painful part)
I second that, this was and still is the most difficult thing for me. But on balance it's a sacrifice worth making for me.
Jaguarbass,
It doesnt sound like your an alcoholic if you could quit drinking for 5 months and not miss it.
If your not an alcoholic and you quit drinking what you said is like saying I havent eaten at McDonalds in a year and I dont miss it.
Big deal.
If you were an alcoholic you couldnt say what you said.
Having said that I doubt there is anything an alcoholic would say that would interest you.
Because an alcoholic can not do what you did.
I must say that i totally disagree with that statement. I am an alcoholic and don't miss drinking. I know that if i were to take a drink, i would be back to square one. I certainly couldn't stop at 1 or 2. After about 5 months of attempting abstinence, with two slips, i came to the point where i had no desire to have another drink, it almost felt empowering, that was in May, my final drink. I went out for a lads night out and just didn't want a drink, but felt compelled to have one as part of the night out, i couldn't stop at a few, so got paryletic. From that night on i have had no desire to drink. I am an alcoholic and now i don't miss drink at all, i know other alcoholics that would say the same too.
Don't get me wrong i am not saying that cognac is or isn't an alcoholic, that's something that only she can decide, but i totally disagree when you say that an acoholic cannot get to a point where they do not miss drinking.
Cognac,
Well done and good for you. I would like to add though now you have a major reason not to drink, so it that sense it's easier not to drink. Whereas after the baby is born, with all the stresses that comes along with it, bear in mind it may be more difficult to resist drinking again. Whether or not you were an alcoholic is something that only you can decide, no one here can really tell you that.
I hope things really work out for you and your baby.
Good luck (we can say that now :-))
Paul
-
mama1119
I am not a big time drinker...but now I am pregnant (yes, again) and I do miss the occasional glass of wine at the end of a stressful day. Sometimes you just need something to unwind, and tea just aint cutting it.
-
cognac
after the baby is born, with all the stresses that comes along with it, bear in mind it may be more difficult to resist drinking again.
Yeah, I've had that in the back of my mind. I mean, I will be bf'ing so I no that there is no way I would have even a sip while doing that - so that's about 2 years or so away after the baby is born. In general, I'll make sure to be very careful and not even have 1 sip - cause I really think that's what get's me in trouble - it's just that 1st sip...
-
willyloman
I stopped drinking in the summer of 1999. It wasn't the first time I quit but it was, hopefully, the last.
My plan was to quit for a month and see if there were any aftershocks. After a month, I found I was thinking about having a drink all the time. That scared me. After about a year, I noticed that my brain started working better. I could see myself and others more clearly and discovered I was no longer afraid to question everything about my life. This led to questioning why I became a JW and why I remained one for parts of three decades.
I came to realize that I really hadn't been comfortable as a dub for a long, long time, and that I had been using alcohol to medicate myself, to keep from having to think about how I had chosen to live my life (and my kids' lives).
If I hadn't stopped drinking, I'd probably still be a witness. When I stopped, it forced me to confront my demons and taught me I could cope just fine with life's challenges. It was, for me, the path to freedom.
It's as if, by shedding one addiction (to booze), I was able to shed another (religion).
I am now addiction-free. Life is beautiful.