The Brave Babes Battle Bus - On Their Way To Giving Up The Booze For Lent (or just for today)

[Mouseface]

Hello, I'm Mouse

Welcome to the Brave Babes Bus where you'll find a mix of drinker, non drinkers, those who has been sober for a long time, and those who are getting there One Day At A Time.

Come and say hi....... we won't bite

And if you want to know how this all got started, HERE is a link to the previous threads.

Ma I like your attitude. Life's too short to do without Yorkshire pudding. I've done this on my diet, btw. I've had slightly less than I normally would but stuff that is loaded in calories, then been really, really strict about sticking to it the rest of the week and I've still lost weight. Dd is a big help because she will share with me, so one week we each had half a pizza and half a portion of chips. Damage limitation. And it was gorgeous .

I didn't have any wine in the end. I don't know, I'm in a kind of limbo where I would quite like to have a couple of glasses but also I don't want to drink . I do plan to drink at a wedding in May and also on Easter Sunday. Other than that I will take each day as it comes.

We have a friend coming for lunch and Hose said, we'll have to get a bottle of wine, to which I agreed. Then later, when I thought about it, I realised that this friend is not a big drinker and will be driving anyway, so actually, we don't need wine at all. Hose agreed, as he's not fussed anyway and can always have a beer if he wants. These habits are so ingrained you don't realise it sometimes.

Blanket isn't it funny how, if you said to a work colleague or a friend, I haven't had a drink for four days, they would think nothing of it. But it's a huge accomplishment for you and here we understand. So massive well done to you and anyone else on day 4 or 6 or 10. Or even day 2. They all count .

Hi all

Just a quick hello...

I'm three weeks sober yesterday. Hanging on in there!

Love to everyone and wish you all a good week

X

Checking in and buying my season ticket for the new week. So nice to see a lot of positive posts - the lovely weather really helps doesn't it?

I have lost count of how many days not drinking I am on, but I started on ash Wednesday so I think that is just over 3 weeks?

DH and I went out to dinner in London last night with good friends who we haven't seen for 6 months or so. I had a cranberry juice and a lemonade and lime and honestly had just as good a time as I would have had I been drinking. No one commented that I wasn't drinking, btw. And I was able to drive, drive some of our friends home, drive the babysitter home, get to bed by midnight, sleep solidly for 8 hours and wake with a certain amount of boing at 8 this morning.

There's a lot to be said for this no alcohol lark!

What a beautiful day it has been, great to see the positive attitudes here too. Bibbity so good you are able to socialize with no resentment.

Blanket you are on newly sober cloud Euphoria, and I hope that you can see that perhaps you are unhappy because you drink, not the other way around.

MsGee, I understand what your saying about the pg and birth thing. Drinking stunts our thinking, and more often than not we dwell.

If you are an alcoholic there is an emptiness, a void, we fill it with drink. When I was little and had lost my twin, I had a void that I filled with my pony, I had to have the right pony, the right boots, the right hat, it had to be all encompassing. It became an addiction. Most addicts substitute and one addiction with another or have two running at the same time. Food is a big one. Funny really that there are billions made by the diet industry, and yet no one has made billions for promoting sobriety. Lack of sponsorship I suppose. Even The Lancet had to proclaim that booze was more dangerous than Heroin or Crack. Funny old world.

Faire I hope that you will be able to just have the odd glass or two without problems, you have done so well.

Well done England YAY!!

Stay safe babes. xx

anyone else see the article in the Mail on Sunday on mothers who drink too much?Mentions Mumsnet and some of the threads on here.

As usual, will have try harder.....

link to article Ma mentioned

Having read it through I think the advice at the end is pretty trite.

I just thank my lucky stars for the Brave Babes Bus, have a good week.
X

Hi all, sorry I haven't come back sooner but it's been a hectic weekend.

I don't know where to start really. Like I said, I was having counselling but we moved to the other end of the country in Dec and with the upheaval and Christmas (we literally locked the door on the boxes and went to relatives), I have relapsed and without the encouragement of a counsellor, I am struggling.

I am alcohol dependant. It started as a habit. I spent a lot of time on my own as my DH worked away, it was born of boredom. I managed to give up whilst I was pregnant. Then we had to move somewhere we didn't want to be owing to my DH's job, I was 5 hours away from my parents, DH was constantly out of the country, my DF died, one of my pets died, in my front room, and I had to call the vet out to deal with his body whilst trying to protect my then 2 year old from the sight of a large dog in full on rigor mortis.

That all seems trivial and I am sorry.

Now I am closer to where I want to be, DH shouldn't be going anywhere and I am very conscious of the fact that if you look close enough, physically you can tell I have a problem; watery eyes, bad skin etc..

My biggest fear is that I have left it too late, that the damage is done and I will not see my DD (5 yo) get much older. Still, that doesn't stop me, I feel a shit person and a shit Mum.

Sorry for the heavy posts, trying to get my own head straight.

Thank you, I will get it under control and cheer up soon, I promise, have actually had 2 glasses of 11 per cent and one glass of 9 tonight so far.

The sad thing is, I am a foodie, I love cooking, but I also love a chilled glass of white while I am cooking! I have habits that need breaking.

yeah, it was an ok article until the end. my "i" key s stckng - sorry.
"wrath" I am also alcohol dependent. Don't know f I will ever beat t but I keep tryng.

ma I just want to be around for my little girl, I lost my dad just over a year ago and even though I am facing 40 I still miss him.

I'm sorry, wrath for your loss. I never had that relatonshp wth my father.He is currently very ill, power of attorney signed over, surgery on Thursday where the odds of hm suvivng are very slim. I have already spent a lfetiime grievng for him so don't plan to start agan. Sorry for typos, key stuck.

Tis ok, tbh we had a very bad relationship, he was an alcoholic (surprise surprise) and we think he might have been bipolar, he had his moments though and doted on his granddaughters.

When he was on a positive he was brilliant.

I am sorry about your Dad too.

thanks. it's complcated. Alcoholc, abuser etc, now old and frail and sad.
I feel pity for what he has become and for what he never was.

See my Dad had flashes of being a good one, between bottles of Bells and packs of golden Virginia, he had me fetching beers for him at 6, his sister died of cirrhosis at 49 so you'd think I'd know better!

Hi Wrath, glad you are strong enough to admit your problem. I am abstinent, 12 years sober, and yes we have a trio, my Father was also an alcoholic, died of cirrhosis of the liver when I was 13. I was a raging alcoholic prior to throwing the towel in. If I can put the cork in the bottle for good anyone can, it didn't get much worse than me!

It's never too late Wrath, never. Too late is when you are dead.

Support is here if you need it, everyone seems to be at different levels of dependency or habit whatever you want to call it, the fact is that you recognize that you have a problem and want to get better. That's a good start.

It's a start, I'd like to hit 5 o'clock tomorrow and say to myself, 'nah, don't want any!' and just not!

The worst that has happened to me through abstinence is insomnia.

So the bewitching hour is teatime? How long were you sober for Wrath?

Was never completely sober, but I managed to cut down to 2 glasses a night. With my counselling I pushed the time back to 1930' I just need to do that again.

so sarah HOW? How dd you get from raging alcoholic to sober?
It's beyond me....

Same here ma!