Problem/Dependent Drinkers and Alcoholics (recovering or active) Support V

[kokeshi]

Welcome to the thread, the purpose of this is to give anyone who is having any trouble with their drinking, a safe place to come and post about it honestly and without judgement.

There are many of us that use the thread for support and encouragement: some in recovery, others just needing a place to share about their worries. It's been going on in one form of another for a while now and has helped many people.

Thank you to all of those who have kept it going thus far, and welcome to anyone who has decided the time has come to ask for help.

Everybody's welcome, no matter what stage your drinking is at.

Jump right in, the water's fine

well done ! curcubit is courgette i think.

oop DS up... will pop back later.

keep calm, MM

I'm off for the night, but I'm sure someone will be along later. Have a good one, and stay strong.

Our mystery veg is keeping us entertained while we wait for it to flower. We've pulled most, but kept half a dozen to see what they are.

Hey MankyM - stay with it!! If you haven't had a drink yet, you're so nearly there and you'll feel chuffed to bits tomorrow!

Hi Daisy - good luck with the bbq, hope the sun shines!

Boy did we talk last night! I love this anonymty (sp?) . I don't think it would take taggart or di masters to work out who I was after last night. But...whoever reads it reads it and I've always been fairly open about being worried with drinking...

Nas hope you've had a good day and are gearing up for the performance tomorrow

Am staying at mum's tonight so will have to log off after this (maybe to the relief of some who are sick of my many posts )

Hope everyone's having a good weekend
Gerbra xx

wow - that was a lot of s in one post!

Stick with it mankymummy, you'll be really proud of yourself. And, if you can do one night then the possibilities are endless.

Many of us work on taking it one sober day at a time, after all, that's all any of us have - the day in hand. We can do nothing about yesterday and we don;t know what will happen tomorrow so there's no point in worrying about it.

That's how we all begin, having more and more sober days in a row strung together.

Am feeling bad now. Have had a little bit more than my normal for the past 3 or so nights. I know I have been banging on about being acutely stressed but have now told dp will need to take majority of week off next week (although will do some work from home)
Have been sleeping badly recently and can't sleep in day. Last night had bad heartburn and ds was up at 4.55am.
I don;t think my body can take much more. I am really going to try and cut back tomight so I can get some decnet sleep for one night (I hope). I usually wake around 3am when the booze wears off?) nd then my mind races. SO if I cut bakc but have enough to get me off then maybe I'll be OK? Too exhausted to try cutting it out because I know I won't be able to get to sleep in the first plcae.
I think I'm doing about 9 units a day, what would I need to think about if I did cut it out completely... Kokoshi (sorry if I keep getting your name wrong?)

morning everyone.

i did it !

first night without drinking for two and a half years (since i stopped breastfeeding actually).

i am very pleased with myself, only a small step i know.

dont feel any different for it this morning though...

hope you all had good night and good luck with the bbq Daisy...

MAnkymummy, fantastic! Well done you. Keep at it, we only really start to feel the rewards after a wee while off the booze, although I'm sure your body is thanking you.

Glowworm, that's a vicious circle you're in with the booze, self medicating to get to sleep. Unfortunately, the alcohol induced sleep is of really poor quality so you'll be left feeling even more tired, exhausted and irritable, and so the cycle continues.

I've been told my medics that it's far better to have 2 or 3 hours of natural sleep than a whole 8 hours of being comatose with the drink. I work on that principle myself because I've always had problems sleeping and I did the same thing as you.

That whole racing brain thing is awful. You just can't think straight. Is there any way you'd consider going to your GP and asking for help? I think what you're doing isn't sustainable, so you may have to think about the bigger picture.

I would ask do you have problems stopping once you start? The most sensible advice to someone without a drink problem in your situation would be just to cut down, have one glass instead of a bottle. If that's a problem for you then you may need to consider other courses of action.

When was the last time you were drink free? How much in an evening would you drink? I don't mean in units I mean in say, glasses or bottles (wine, gin, beer, vodka etc).

HI everyone, I'm back from my week away.

Mankymummy- don't minimise it, well done. It gets easier- you perhaps don't feel the benifits straightaway, but you will. Sorry I can't remember what level your drinking was at, or if you are trying to cut down or stop completely, but at least now you know you CAN do it.

thanks kokeshi.

GlowWorm... i had been drinking more than usual too, obviously dont know your situation but take heart that i managed it after so long. Even cutting back if you feel able to is a start. Pat yourself on the back for each little step.

hope that doesnt sound like i'm crowing... I'm def. not out of the woods yet either, just wanted to offer you a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Teasle, i was drinking average a bottle of wine a night, sometimes more, and had managed one glass only one night and then two another night but usually much more.

Want to cut down definitely, ideally just to socially drink at weekends. Ironic i chose a saturday night to have a break!

yeah, but you did it though.
What helped me initially was to plan the day,afternoon evening and keep busy- you mentioned your trigger times, so that shows a good deal of self- awareness anyway.
I think you're doing really well.Its scary to admit to yourself you have a problem, and even scarier to admit it to others.

Teasle, yep it's really hard to admit to others.

2 yeras down the line and it's only twatty friends and dd1 who know. Exh, school, people who SHOULD know are clueless.....

It was only this thread and AA that forced me to admit I really had problems.
If I'm too busy, I don't think about it..until it's too late. Then end up pacing around down here all night long....

Well done Manky. Hope you had another night off? And Saturday too? Brilliant! Welcome back Teasle, hope you had a lovely time. x x

Well, I haven't had a drink since Thursday. I lied shamelessly to my GP, told her my friend was taking me to Paris for my birthday and that I was scared to death of flying. She prescribed some Diazepam (although only half the strength I'm used to) and I've one more left to take today. Do you think I'm out of the woods seizure-wise?

2sugars thats brilliant, i did drink yesterday but knew i would be as planned to meet a load of friends down at bar by the beach. its a sunday thing we always do.

only had one glass of wine when i got home though...

2sugars- sorry but I really think you should seek proper medical advice.
I think you're most likely to fit within 24 hours of your last drink.
Diazepam helps as far as I know with the other withdrawals. I've been prescribed stuff from the gP before to help with withdrawals.
At least access confidential or anonymous medicalinformation, please do.

Well done for not drinking since Thursday though- that really is brilliant, and I don't want to detract from that from what I've just written, just concerned, if you see what i mean.

Hello to everyone else. x

medical information

Hi, I'm a longterm lurker on this thread and can identify a lot with some of the posts on here.

I would love to cut back on my alcohol intake and keep it to weekends and social occasions. I hate feeling drunk but love the cosy feeling of having 2 or 3 glasses of wine in the evening. I would rarely finish a bottle of wine in one evening but I have noticed that whereas it used to be one or two glasses a few nights a week, it is becoming more like 2 or 3 large glasses nearly every night after the children are in bed. I don't have hangovers but never really feel as if I have had a good night's sleep. Main triggers for wine are 'relaxation' after dcs in bed and the association of me-time as 'winetime' eg good TV programme on - pour glass of wine, nice dinner in oven - pour glass of wine, difficult day with dcs - pour glass of wine. Every evening I can normally find some reason or excuse to pour those few glasses and I feel that it is becoming a definite habit. The worry for me now is that it could turn very quickly and easily into a dependence (there is some history of alcoholism within my family).

Overall, I probably drink about 3 to 4 (most likely 4!) bottles of red wine a week (I prefer lighter reds so they're probably between 11 and 12 units per bottle). I only like wine so if there was none in the house then I wouldn't dream of pouring a vodka or gin despite these being in the house.

My motivation is to feel healthier and to lose the guilt that almost daily drinking leaves me with. I'm going to start today and my goal is to not drink during the week.

Hope I haven't wittered on too much but would like to join in with your thread for support.

Hi there,

I wondered if anyone on here had tried bio reduction therapy for alcohol? I have had it done for smoking and amazingly it seems to have worked even though it all seemed highly unlikely and I suspect is more of a mind over matter rather or a placebo rather than something actually happening.

Anyway I wondered if anyone had tried it for alcohol as friend is thinking of having it done. I spoke with the guy who runs it and he explained it all however me and friend a bit worried as with smoking you never have one ever again but with this the guy said you cannot have a drink for a month but then you can start drinking sensibly - will this actually work though?? if he is addicted to alchohol won't having one just make him get straight back on it? I am worried about recommending it as I have only had the treatment for smoking and don't know enough about how the drinking works - it's £695 for the treatment for one day but friend will probably need more like two days or even three so could be a very expensive recommendation if it doesn't work or if it is just an expensive way of keeping you off the booze for a month with the hope that you don't go back to it rather than a proper cure....

funkydory... you sound exactly like me. i managed my first non-drinking day in years on Saturday.

whats your plan for those trigger times when you would normally have a glass?

lizzie... is the bio reduction where they put some sort of magnetic thing on you? if so i think my friend had that done for smoking and she's gone from 40-60 a day down to nothing.

HI Funkydory, welcome to the thread. It can be a good idea to write about the things you find easy or difficult this week- hope you keep posting!

Lissie- I've never heard of it- sounds expensive! Have you any links so I could have a read about it?
How long ago did you have it done for your smoking?

Thanks for the welcome

I tend to rush around all day and most of the evening and then pour a glass almost automatically once I have dcs to bed and everything on the day's 'to do' list ticked off. It's almost like it's a kind of off-duty signal to myself?! Don't know if that makes sense. I can normally manage a day or two off wine without too many problems but days three and four are difficult, roll on Wednesday and Thursday for the real willpower test, yikes. I say to myself 'well I can treat myself now, I haven't had any alcohol for a few days so I can indulge', but I would really like to get alcohol completely out of the equation for weekday evenings.

Goal is to still enjoy it at the weekend and hoping by not drinking in the week then I will be consuming half the units I'm drinking now or less (that will bring me down to 14-21 units which will be within current guidelines).

Plan tonight is to either go for a walk, have a bath or read a book as a distraction technique. Will let you all know how I get on.

good luck with it. great idea to start on monday and then you have Friday or Saturday to look forward to.

i think you are trying what i eventually hope to do, so if you manage it this week then i have absolutely no excuse not to try it myself next week !!!

Thanks mankymummuy, I'll do my best