The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Carry On Past The Brewery!

[Mouseface]

Hello.

I'm Mouse and I've been on the bus for 2 months now and not fallen off it as yet. It's much more comfortable than The Wagon!

Anyway, this is thread number nine!

Everyone is welcome to join at any point of the journey, drinking or not, wanting to stop or just to cut down.

Jump on board, you won't be judged, just supported whatever you decide.

Here is the history of The Brave Babes if you want to have a read.

JWN's original thread

Thread two

Thread three

Thread four

Thread five

Thread six

Thread seven

Thread eight

depeche well done for posting that you're drinking, any chance you can throw it down the sink?

You're my main man MI

Depeche

When you say, "I couldn't resist the urge," that implies that you tried and failed.

So what practical things did you do as part of that attempt? Maybe that's where you're going wrong - tell us what you're doing when you make these concerted efforts not to drink and maybe we can suggest some alternative strategies that have worked for us.

Depeche

Drinking is probably going to kill you - or at least, drastically shorten your life. I am not saying this to scare you per se but just to make sense of what I'm going to say next.

imagine that what was going to kill you was not a drink but a dog. You're in a house, there's no door, the dog's outside.

Assuming you don't want the dog to kill you, what are you going to do to stop it happening? Just sit there and think, "I hope he doesn't attack me"?

Or are you going to do something practical which acknowledges the risk - like, leave the house; get some sort of defence; distract the dog?

Your current approach to the matter is mad. You have a problem with drink; you don't want to drink; DO SOMETHING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Read a book; go to AA; call a friend; make tea; watch a film of yourself pissed up; remember the last time your drunkenness made your child cry; masturbate; play pool; swim; drive; ANYTHING that isn't basically sitting in a room, thinking "I hope I don't drink"! I HOPE I don't get AIDS - that's why, in new relationships, I use a condom ...

BTW

Bollocks to smoking, stop the drinking first.

depeche keep smoking
are you still drinking? Are you drinking right now?

depeche...step away. you know, i'm sure that though the battles are REALLY mad REALLY tough and apparantly REALLY unwinnable, it can be done. I think of dd. i think of the fucked up pishead i have been for the whole of her life (whilst presenting a veneer of caring devoed mummy...with piss head breath) and imagine her at my funeral. Simples. Dosn't always stop me, but these days...

mil on 'phone

depeche you still there?

Are you going to try AA while you're away?

sorry 'bout that chaps, mil demanding immediate atention

need to tend to dh now...

depeche. your health...think of your liver being squelched out on the mortuary slab. god don't i sound sensible. like i can practice what i preach...

Well like depeche I failed today but I know why

I need to sort out my commute - I commute in first class on a train that has free alcohol. Bad day, coming down with a cold, sore throat, felt dreadful (although I'm sure my tendency to get ill is due to the alcohol) so I succumbed to the free wine - especially since the people I travel with (i.e. regulars on the same train) are also drinkers. I need to fix that.

I have however fixed the next two days:

1. I am working from home so no need to go out
2. There is nothing I need from the store other than what it in so I have no excuse to go out
3. I only bought a half bottle not a full bottle so it is cutting down to what I used to do

Stupid thing is I know there is no physical issue - my mom was here three weeks ago and I didnt drink for the entire two weeks she was here with no side effects.

hello again everyone :)

i'm sorry for going quiet; i have thought of this thread every day since posting but sometimes the words get lost iykwim?

Silver you were absolutely right, i'm a party animal by nature. i love being surrounded by friends, chattering laughing and dancing. my experiences of abusive relationships, friendships turning nasty etc have left me with a sense of anxiety around people that only goes when i'm drinking because i become fearless; i lose all anxiety. it bloddy sucks, but i have definitely improved over the years. i dont drink like this at home, thankfully!

i honestly wish that i could alternate my drinks, that i could feel tiddly and slow down, that my past hasn't damaged me so that i seek oblivion and fearlessness. the last one is the one i need to reach for; if i achieve that i might be able to have my first 2 wishes, but alcohol is a drug and i cannopt presume to control it.

i want to thank you for being so welcoming :)
and i hope this message finds you all as well as possible x

fallen...habits that are easy to break have a habit of turning in to habits that are nigh on impossible to break in my world...my 'habit' started in deep shit territory 12 years ago, but in honesty more like 18 years back. Felt cool then, just like the commuter train piss up feels...

mari...i'm like a lion too with whiskey (or anything else) in me. I'm still anxious and insecure...but at 42 the anxious and insecure look isn't a good one...

And you can alternate. You can do anything. However, my experience has been that turning down the first sniff/ inhale/ glug is far easier.

sorry sounds like a load of old shite and i do seem to be swearing a lot

oh, and by the way, meant to say before mil called...JWN I am well posh me! Don't forget, I immac my face and everything, even when i'm sober.

Performance date 4th December...come see me and laugh!!

depeche good idea about aa. You must value yourself though and think of your poor liver.

fallen i think you'd feel so empowered if you went for a lovely orange juice or something or one of mouseface's 'nothing and tonics' on the train

Anyway, to both of you, was just going to say something about the urge to drink, that it PASSES, I always forget this but this evening I did have urges, they feel terrible, but then they pass, if you just post here or make some tea or something then they pass, quite quickly. So suddenly another hour will have passed. Remember you won't feel that urgent desire ALL night.

algee what performance? Have I missed soemthing?

fallen - im about to do a miflaw here! - i too always travel 1st class - you HAVE to say yes to the wine!, you CAN say 'no thanks', its actually as simple as that!, no thinking about it, no agonising, no explaining, just 'no thanks'! right now the booze is dictating to you, do you let ANYONE or ANYTHING else do that?, i bet the answer is no!

btw algee, you just made me laugh, i remember the night you immaced your face!, just before you met your model friend!

...skin's all grown back now though jwn

christiana, poncey algee joined a choir! Arf.

Night all

wonderful! A CHOIR. Apparently it's so uplifting. Very glee..... Algee A glee.... Aha!

See how much better I am with just one evening not drinking? Still awake too after just 3 hours sleep last night. DOH. I am such an idiot, why do I put my body and mind through this alcoholic pain when I can feel like this, alert, clear, clean, more positive... Tonight I made a delicious cabbage and chorizo soup, some healthy muffins for snacks, and did loads of ironing. Amazing what you can get done. And I'm feeling better despite having more crap news this morning that I won't even bore you with.

Night all

christi - read your last post again in teh morning!, you sound so bright! ,

im off to bed now babes, got to up be in the morning before dm (otherwise she rearranges my house, my ornaments, my life........... )

night babes!

L XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

JWN love the sound of your DM... You can't leave out a pile of ironing!?

My morning call in. Good morning everyone. Day 1 - no alcohol. I'm feeling good.

Quick question for you please. I need to lose weight, but I am taking a different approach this time. Rather than going cold turkey on everything, I thought I would just drop the alcohol and, if it takes a chocolate bar to deal with the wine o'clock cravings, so be it. I'm hoping the lack of the empty calories in the wine might help anyway. Good plan, do you think?

Depeche what's the new routine?

Kismet, Last time I stopped drinking I went overboard on exercise, then injured myself! And went back to drinking. I'm going to take it easier this time. As MIFLAW says, one thing at a time. I am going to buy some lovely treats like chocolate truffles to have in the evening. Wine has a tremendous amount of sugar in it, so it makes sense to replace those sugar cravings for the first few days at least. I think it's a good plan, particularly if it's some lovely chocs or something and as you say you won't be having the calories from the wine you've got quite a few spare to play with! And I don't know about you but when I'm hungover I have to stuff myself with carbs the next day, so you may find you eat less overall anyway. And might be more active naturally as you feel better.

hippy i slept much better last night. Alcohol = depression = insomnia = alcohol = depression = insomnia... well for me anyway