Too scared to stop

[JulieHoney]

I am an alcoholic. I've been one for nearly 10 years. I want to stop because it's damaging my relationships but I'm too frightened. How do other people find the courage to not pour that drink?

AA has been the only thing that worked for me. Worth calling them, if it's not for you a lot of people say Smart recovery is good.
Life is better on the other side, although it seems impossible, recovery does happen x

My Dad's very active in AA, I feel kind of uncomfortable about it. I'll look into Smart, thanks.

Life without booze as a crutch for chonic pain just terrifies me. And without it to knock me out to sleep each night - yikes.

Hi @JulieHoney my Dad died of alcoholism. The addiction was too much, he ruined his life. I really think AA will help, join an online zoom AA meeting. Unfortunately they didn't have this back in the day when my Dad was around.
Sending you lots of strength, you can get through this 💪x

How much are you drinking.

2 bottles of wine a night.

There is a taper guide. For above 20 standard drinks a day and below. You are below as if 125ml then a bottle is 6 so times 2 is 12. So can you reduce by 2 a day that is the recommendation. So don’t try to stop but tonight throw away 250ml. And go from there. Much luck and check back in

I sometimes struggle with an off switch - if I want to cut down I find emptying half a bottle down the sink before I start drinking it can help to save me from drinking the lot. I will drink whatever’s left, but there’s less left.

As well as AA and Smart Recovery, there is Recovery Dharma which has online meetings. It’s based on Buddhist principles of being kind but you don’t have to be Buddhist to join. They do a meditation as part of the meeting if that is your kind of thing.

@Theskyoutsideisblue and @knackeredagain , thank you both for your information and support.

I really appreciate it, I do.

So far tonight I’ve had 3 units of alcohol where normally I’d be done. I’m trying to at least slow down this week.

I read a lot of sobriety stuff today and am trying to put together a plan.

My family deserve better from me, I need to get on to of this.

The Sinclair method

YouTube Claudia Christian Ted talk
YouTube one little pill
The Sinclair method uk

Current steps - I’ve ordered Alcohol Explained, as the 5 free chapters made a lot of sense to me about understanding how it all works.

I’ve bought in Big Tom, so I can have Virgin Marys as a cocktail replacement, and some nice tonics (and lemon). I thought if I was just on water or tea I’d be feeling sulky about my naff drinks.

Plan is to write a list of reasons I want to stop, but most crucially of things I’ll gain by stopping. At the moment life without alcohol sounds grim and frightening and full of pain (pain was how I got started on this destructive path.)

To succeed, I think I need to find positive things, real benefits of a sober life rather than deprivations. I liked this perspective:

” I gave up everything else for one thing. Now I’m giving up one thing in favour of everything.”

I was scared to stop and one day my body said this is it, stop. That was 228 days ago.