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

Hello Babes!

Hope you are all well tonight. Drinking apple, pomegranate and blueberry tonight! Delish!

Tall glass, lemonade and ice. I have treated myself to a straw too!! Mid-week frivolity!!

I may push the boat out and have a non alcoholic Becks with the curry. And a hot chocolate for supper.

God, the high life! Anyone around this evening or are you all leading more interesting lives than waffling on about soft drinks?!!

AA meeting.
Everyone has some coffee and is very nice to each other.
The meeting starts with aa literature being read out, central to which is the fact that everyone is powerless over alcohol.
Then one person 'shares'. This means they talk about their drinking and how aa was the thing that saved their life. This is absolutely obligatory, the bit about aa saving their life.
Then everyone has a chance to say something, usually about how brave the speaker was and about aa has saved their life.
It ends with more aa literature.

The literature available in aa meetings is exclusively aa-approved literature.

I would advise you to research aa via google. For example, google, how effective is 12 step treatment, or how effective is aa. Be aware that you will only hear good things about aa, AT aa. You will only get aa approved literature or theories at aa. Research it in the same way that you would if you were choosing a school or buying shares. It is called due diligence.

xx

I am here, after a very frustrating hour with DD. I think she is now going to sleep though. The desire for a giant glass of wine is there but I shall sit here for a while till it goes away.

Mouse your drink sounds delicious (as does the curry - yet another ready meal here). I am going to do an online shop and stock up on soft drinks. I am thinking hot chocolate and some of that naff whipped cream.

Fizzy water with lime juice.

Hi there, just marking my place.

Hi there,

Can I join please? I am cutting down on alchol ie wine.I have drank a couple of bottles a week for year apart from when pregnant which is probably too much (but was okish with that). However I have been drinking that plus going out more s
ocially and getting drunk so feel its a bit too much , slippery slope and all that. I have decided to drink on nights out only - no mean feat as wine is such a habbit.....

I am also quite worried that I'd drink a bottle over a couple of nights but now end up drinking the whole thing in one night.

I'v not read through yet, will do now.

Hi Hadaball, welcome!

I am MsGee, on day 6 of being sober so very very new here, am sure some of the others will be along soon but you are more than welcome to join! Lots of room on the bus.

In my mere 6 days I am finding its easier to not drink that try to control my drinking by setting rules for myself. Just a thought...

Hi there you lot. Just wanted to keep in touch. Don't feel I can post because I've had a bottle of wine. My OH missed his train from paris - long story but was expecting him home tonight, and now it will be tomorrrow. and it's that same old bloody thing with me - can i get away with it - so stupid. now i will have to work from home tomorrow (daughter to look after - roll on the end of the f**g summer holidays) as OH won't be back in time. Today back at work was fine.

Anyway I feel very priviliged (is there a spell checker on here?) to be a able to talk to you all.

Sweet dreams to you all xxx

Hi Silver, glad you are still posting. I am so new to this that I don't have much advice but tmrw is another day.

It sounds like you have stopped drinking for today, so perhaps get a big glass of water, get some sleep and you can start afresh tmrw. If that is what you want to do? I'll be around online for a little longer if you need someone to talk to though.

Hello MsGee

Thanks for your post.
I am very clear that the only future for me is no alcohol ever again and I just keep making excuses for it 'to be the last time'. My partner being away is the biggest excuse for me - no-one will know - and now that I am working from home tomorrow I know I don't have to drive or worry about smelling of booze in the morning. I have de-toxed with the local alcohol team - I see my GP at least once a week - my partner is so supportive in that he knows what's going on (i think) but he'll never critisise or confront me. My family know. I have everything in place to help me but I STILL HAVE A BUTTON NAMED SELF-DESTRUCT. And i just can't seem to stop pressing it. I did so well - 5 weeks - anyway Ms - what's your story? If you feel like telling x

evening everyone!! looks like we have a newbie!! hi to you hadaball

silver - i understand your frustration and the fact that once again you 'could get away' with drinking, thing is, has it made you feel good about yourself?, do you feel really happy now?, or a bit shit? i think you are at a point where you have to decide if you really want to stop drinking, obviously the choice is yours, but if the answer is 'yes', then now is the time to stop fucking about! say it, mean it, and just bloody well do it!, i know from my experience that it can be done, you just have to be totally honest with yourself - either you want to be sober or you dont.

sorry to sound harsh, the fact is though, pussy-footing about will not help, its like that saying 'piss or get off the pot' - i cannot describe how good life is once the decision is made and the voice telling you to drink is given the old heave-ho, it is so liberating, freeing, life enhancing even.
i have been sober now for three months, oh yeah, sometimes it is fucking hard, but guess what, life can be hard, just because i am a sober alcoholic does not give me a magic existence where no bad shit happens.

so, tomorrow is the start of a whole new life, if you want it!, its there for the taking, all you have to do is remember that just for today

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DRINK!

its that simple!

xxxxxxxxxxxx L

Fortheverylasttime

Tell me about it - been to a few meetings and just found them so depressing and a form of self punishment. I know it works so well for some people but I just left the meetings feeing 'God I'm not as bad at they are' - and buy a bottle of wine on the way home.........I don't know - just not for me.

xx

prime - dont over think it!, just a day at a time, there are no medals to given out for being sober yesterday, just a deep sense of satisfaction at another sober day - a life being lived to the full, not dulled, diminished or spoilt by alcohol.

forthlasttime - please dont be so negative about AA, ok, it dosnet do it for you, there is no need to put others off though - it may be just the thing that someone is looking for.

JWN

you are absolutely right and when I think back to how good I felt two weeks ago - my system clear of the booze, swimming every day - on a buzz just being alive, my daughter telling me how much happier she was that 'you understand what i say now you don't drink alcohol'. OK tomorrow is the day again - I've got so much in my favour in terms of support that it would just be pitiful not to try and succeed. I'm aware that i am sounding totally self obsessed and probably very boring - but I am so glad I found this thread - and I hope that I might be able to support others once I've got over my own self obsession.

x

Silver, sounds like you know what you have to do then ... JWN has put it all pretty clearly though! I am doing this without meetings too so if they don't work for you, find something that does? For me, this thread is what is working right now.

Potted history: I've always been a messy individual and drinking has played a big part in that. I have never been able to control my drinking, I've never enjoyed 'just one'. Its caused many problems. Ironically I was drinking less the past few years than at other times in my life but its had more of an impact recently. And I know how the slippery slope goes. And the guilt of it impacting on my DD life far outweighs any benefit of drinking.

Right, I am off to bed now. I have eaten so much tonight to ward off the desire to down wine. So much for losing weight.

Sleep well everyone.

JWN - excellent post to Silver.

Silver - I am going to be very harsh here so feel free not to read on.

It's easy to quit the booze, real easy. It just takes one action. Just one process. STOP.

It's harder to kill yourself from the inside out by drinking too much too often. It's slower, more painful and will take the best of you as you do it. If you are lucky, you'll just lose your looks. Most alcoholics lose there jobs, husbands/wives, children, homes etc. Ask JWN how close she came to that.

Oh, but what if you aren't an alcoholic? You just drink too much. Every day that you drink, you just go a bit too far, but that's all.............

You can kick this. You can take control but honestly? And feel free to hate me for this too, I don't think you want to stop.

I'm not sure why. I don't think that, even with all of the support you have in real life, you will not drink.

Is there more to the booze than you have said? More than because you can? More than because it's there?

I'm sorry if I have upset you. I want to help and to understand more about you I guess.

I'm really pleased that you came back tonight.

Are you ready? Do you want to stop?

I find that pickling is best left for fruits and vegatables rather than your internal organs.

X posted with everyone I see

MsGee - night, sleep well xx

Wasindie - how are your gorgeous babies tonight? DS has finally given in!!!

Prime - well done for getting through another day!

Hot chocolate time here,then bed. Back in a mo.

i am still a whisker away from loosing my family - my dh has made it very clear - he loves me, wants to be with me, wants to carry on building a life together, wants to make love to me, spoil me, laugh with (at) me, but only if i stay sober! he has to think of his own well being and sanity, i was destroying all that and he deserves better, and he said so, thank god! my dd just loves me, im her mum, but my word, she has gone through times of hating me, i have hurt her mentally and i am so very ashamed of it, she is the one person on earth i should protect above all else and i fucked up!
in the scheme of things, three months is a very short time, however, simply by not picking up a drink i am regaining all the things i was loosing, the thing is, if i had carried on drinking for those last three months, my dh would most certainly have left and proberbly my dd as well - i would now be looking at having to leave my job (i work with dh, he would not have allowed me to keep drinking while at work) i would be about to become homeless, (my dh is not going to work his arse of to keep me in the family home, why should he?, while im just pissed all the time?) my parents would be dispairing of me, lovley thing to do to them at their time of life!

i can see all that just waiting round the corner if i decide that 'just a small merlot' would be nice.