The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Next Stop Sobriety!

[Mouseface]

Hello, welcome to thread number six!!

I'm Mouse and, thanks to these threads, I quit the booze on August 2nd 2010.

This truly is a fantastic source of support for anyone who wants it! Full of real, honest, everyday people who are all at different stages of quitting the booze, cutting down or being long term sober.

There are no judgmental 'know-it-alls' here, whatever your circumstances, you will be supported all the way.

Come and meet the rest of The Brave Babes........

And, as before, here are the previous five threads for those who would like to see how this all began.

JWN's original thread (the reason we are all here)

Thread two

Thread three

Thread four

Thread five

As committed Leftists we are both trying to ignore the fact that a certain someone has now sullied the name ...

We are just hoping that, by the time she is 5, mention of him and his daughter will be met by blank stares!

Mouse . . tubes staying tied:) Youngest child is 15, reckon I have played my part in repopulating the world with 4:)
Love babies but also love being able to hand them back:)

MIFLAW

Yes, I have to say that I'm glad DS is not a DD now that he who should not be mentioned has named his latest offspring the same!

desire

Fair enough! Yes, you have indeed contributed well to the repopulation of mankind!

I'd have another if we could. Far too much physical strain on me and I think caring for DS full-time means no chance of a newborn being added to my workload!

I'll just have to be 'Aunty Mouse' to all these new babies instead!

I went out last night with a friend of mine who has been in aa for over 20 years. He told me this story, which happened over the weekend. He and another bloke went to a man's house. (I assume the man had called AA). He was in a terrible state and had also managed to call a fire by cooking whilst inebriated. Call my friend Don. Don and the other aa guy went back the next day and HE WAS DEAD and Don had to ring his parents (in their seventies) to tell them, and ring the GP etc. He had just continued drinking.

Glad to cheer everyone up.

Does anyone have a juicer? I make (every day) a drink which we call a ginger sling, out of 6 carrots, 3 apples and 3 pears and a bit of ginger.

Or, just freshly sqeezed orange juice. I have a Anthony Worral Thompson juicer at the mo, and I think it is the best one that we have had

So sad Fortheverylasttime:(

I'm glad you posted that, Forthe - good reminder to us all that, for some of us at least, the stakes are a lot higher than a nasty headache and a missing ten pound note the morning after.

I mention it because for me, re smoking, I find it better to listen to gruesome stories about emphysema to keep me away from cigarettes, rather than the 'Oh my hair smells' sort of argument.

The guy who died was a very bad case, obviously. I remember an actor from the Bill who whiskeyed himself to death, shortly after being sacked.

I read somewhere else about there being 4 reasons that people drink to excess, I'll try and find them.

Awful story forthe but a great reminder to us all.

MIFLAW - I am also hoping that in a few years time mention of DC & the rest of them is met with blank stares!

I salute you desire with 4 children!

I definitely hope you will be Aunty Mouse to any DC I have in the future!

Giggling about JWN being a cross between Diana Dors and Peggy Mitchell! The mind boggles!

Venus - Florence Louise - both gorgeous names.

Also, and I would like to be corrected here, I have only very recently read that alcohol is carcenogenic? Is that true?

I know someone else who drank themselves (whiskeyed) in 2001. Coincidentally my friend Don knew him too, and tried to persuade him to go to aa. The dead man said he would rather die than go to aa. He said some rude things about aa that I don't remember (I might ask Don next time I see him). He thought aa was the only solution and he couldn't bear the thought. (He was also a fairly well-advanced snob, huntin, fishin, shootin type). Being super-rich, this bloke didn't have much else to worry about, and servants are paid to facilitate the choices of their employer. So he just chose to continue and now is dead (in his fifties, I think)

That is why I think it is important that people are aware that there are many, many alternatives to aa. Most people seem to think that aa is the only solution in town, and it isn't.

Hello sordid!!!Just been catching up. Welcome! I love international people on mn.

So it looks like the guy did die rather than going to AA?? I know which I would prefer!

Forthe

I totally agree that everyone should have full information about the "alternatives" to AA.

However, I do not think they are as numerous as many would like them to be, as most rehabs etc use a 12 step programme (or are heavily based on it) anyway.

Meanwhile, a lot of the chemical ones (eg Antabuse or kudzu) have one major flaw - you actually have to take the medicine. If someone wants to drink (which, as an alcoholic, they probably will) they stop taking the medicine and are then absolutely defenceless.

Worse still, many people, with full knowledge of what the choices are, make the same "choice" as your acquaintance and do nothing. Then they die.

Forget the name AA for a minute. Imagine someone coming to you and saying "I've got cancer" or "I've got AIDS". You say, okay, I know of a treatment, it doesn't always work and you may well not like it; and it won't cure you, BUT it does work for a lot of people and it may just mean that you'll have a normal and happy life and not die prematurely and in agony.

If that person said to you, WITHOUT EVEN TRYING THE TREATMENT, "no thanks, I'm all right," would you not suspect that that person, far from making a sensible choice, was simply burying their head in the sand or not taking the illness seriously and hoping it would sort itself out?

As I've said before, by all means choose to do it your way (as it says in the Big Book of AA, "if a fellow can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him") - but make sure you do actually have a "your way" before rejecting AA out of hand.

hi forthe, of course there are altenatives to AA, and for many people their favourite alternative is just to carry on drinking!

iirc there are links between alcohol and cancer, notably mouth and throat cancers and also breast cancer and bowel cancer. And of course liver disease.

It is interesting how each individual is motivated differently to take action. I knew a lady who gave up smoking when she found out it could cause blindness. She somehow managed to accept the risk associated with lung disease but was shocked by the concept of losing her sight. Aye, we're all different.

Re carcenogeic, I don't know if it's that straightforward, but heavy drinking is often a feature in a lot of mouth and throat cancers, I think.

Hiya everyone,

hope you are all having good days. We have had a good morning, music class in which DD did lots of dancing about (she thinks she is a superstar ballerina, and being 2, I am not going to correct her). Having just sang Bob the Builder and Twinkle Twinkle numerous times I hope she now sleeps.

MIFLAW - hope the cuts aren't as severe as you think. That said, I am trying to prepare all my clients for worst case scenarios! Florence is a lovely name and was my No.1 choice for DD but DH had other ideas (although poor child is now lumbered with a very old lady name, but I love it and it suits her). And you are right, no one will remember him in 5 years! Strangely am doing some work with a group of young people in Lambuff but I am very very behind the scenes!

JWN - I am now officially scared of you along with MIFLAW [joke!]. You give very good advice.

Wasindie - please come back and post.

Mouse - a member of my family works for the DLA. No-one has heard plans of cuts or more stringent procedures etc. Seems to be business as usual. That said, they are fairly low down the food chain there! I took your advice re DD and toilet and now have the pleasure of DD being Very interested whenever I go to the loo. Its slightly disconcerting to be honest . Hope you are all ok today.

Forthe - very sad story. I was thinking last night and this morning and how for all the jolly posts, we are all here because something is very very wrong with our lives and we are at a significant risk of losing something - our health, families, money, home, work, ourselves. Its a good reminder to (as I think MIFLAW put in a previous post) see the film to the end.

Red, desire, maddogs, saffysmum - hi

I have a small child yelling Poo at me, here's hoping its not another joke... back soon

sigh. of course it was a joke.

The guy died. I think his comments to Don were along the lines of preferring to jump through a window rather than go to aa. Don was trying to help, and had been asked by the family to try and talk to him. You could say that he made a fully informed choice, but rather bad luck on his kids.

Congratulations miflaw! I'm just catching up on a very very slow computer. I am very jealous. I am going through the change so won't have any more bubbas. (Hence the enthusiasm for ginger slings. I buy a sack of carrots from the market each week 28 lbs for £5.)

Wasindie, don't you find that drinking to excess takes up a hell of a lot of Time? Which you could have for other things, like, er, in your case, sleeping? Do you keep alcohol in the house?

I know it is more expensive, but could you buy those little bottles of wine, so you have to make a choice to open another, rather than just inevitably finish the bottle? Or plan not to drink in the week?

I think that Patsy from abfab has a great deal to answer for.

Hi MsGee - Hope there is real poo this time!! (and it's not often I would say that!)

MIFLAW - Congratulations on your good scan news. Florence is a gorgeous name, so pretty.

I thought we had decided on a name for our boy but then a few days ago DH came up with a name out of the blue, which I'd never considered and now it seems to be The Name! So it looks like he's going to be Tristan Xavier

Am having an awful day at work, rubbish. A million things I seem to have done wrong and brain like mush. Think I will call it a day soon and start over on Monday!

Sure I will speak to you all later.

Oh no, cross posted with you MsGee - no real poo after all

Hi MsGee!

I hope that you are not suffering another 'hilarious' poo joke!

Sounds like you and DD have had a lovely morning together.

Oh no, it was a joke-poo after all!

Fabulous name maddogs! (There is such a difference in the tone of your posts in such a short time. You are just so much more positive!)

MsGee - Re DD, keep going. Smiles, positive vibes, no pressure. Ok? Just take your time. Back to basics. Keep going. xx

maddogs - sorry you are having a bad day at work. Here, have a Mouse hug (( ))) and you should know, I don't hand these out lightly!!

Afternoon mouse, are you all packed? Or am I being a bit optimistic?!

"I think his comments to Don were along the lines of preferring to jump through a window rather than go to aa."

Have you ever noticed that people who say things like this very rarely do jump through a window? I wonder what they are waiting for? A miracle, perhaps?

Venus, I agree totally about bizarre motivations. I am struggling (winning, but struggling) the battle with fags. It is partly that I don't want to die, but it is also partly (I know this sounds silly, but that is my point) that I would hate to make an appointment to see my GP and have to find out that I have lung cancer and it is all my own silly fault.

When I was trying to cut down/stop drinking I think I might have found it useful to tell myself that it is carcenogenic.

My sister used to share a house with a vegan who was very particular about buying very complicated healthfoods (in the 80's, before Holland and Barratt etc). But she was also constantly making suicide attempts. My sister used to look at all the healthy foods and think, 'just stop overdosing, that would be healthy'. It is also just like a scene from Educating Rita.

Smoking is the maddest thing of all.

I still blame Patsy.

Moomin (I think it was you, if not, whoever said it, you know who you are!)

Meant to say, NEVER say "oh, I'm only three weeks (or whatever) sober." Did three weeks seem like "only three weeks" three weeks ago? Of course not! It's a bloody long time not to drink if you have a drink problem.

Also, there will be people (including some watchnig this thread) who can no more imagine three weeks sober than they can doing cartwheels on the Moon. In fact, your three weeks impresses them more than my seven years - they (wrongly, but reasonably) assume that I had it easy, or have a medical complaint, or am a Muslim, or was never a "real" alcoholic in the first place - if I was, then how could I do seven years?

But three weeks - that sounds impossible to them, but logically feasible. You are like a superhero to them.

So give yourself the credit you deserve and then be ready for them to ask, in hushed, awed tones, how you did it!

(Which is my grumpy way of saying "sincere congratulations!")