The Brave Babes Battle Bus - All Going On A Sober Holiday! <crosses fingers that it stays sunny>

[Mouseface]

Hello, tis me, mouse

Welcome to The Brave Babes Battle Bus, grab yourself a seat, they're really comfy and a , oh and a home-made chocolate chip before they all get eaten!

We're a Bus full of alcohol abusers/addicts, some of us say it out loud, some whisper it and some aren't ready to say it at all just yet.

That said, there are a few of us who just have the occasional drink and that's something that they can handle. There are a few of us who must NEVER have another drink because that first one will lead to many, many more which will only ever end badly.

We're open to all....there are no requirements to join us on our journey to sobriety, there's support, great laughs, tears and tantrums here and that's just me!!!

If you'd like to see how we got here, follow THIS LINK

I think what's making it slightly easier is knowing that I already managed it once (7 weeks! 7 weeks!) Right now I'm stressed about work - I told them my GP thinks I've got CFS and I'd rather not take on any extra work at the moment... so they get me to do extra hours next week & keep a daily record to prove show what I'm doing... WTF - and yeah, wine would be nice to take off the edge of the anxiety... instead there are THREE tubs of ice-cream in the freezer

dragon just think that if you don't buy any alcohol in the supermarket, you can use those self-checkout tills much quicker - no need for 'over-18 authorisation'. And the bags aren't as heavy.

Oh, lord, I can't stand self-checkouts! They drive me up the wall (yeah, I'm one of those annoying people). But I have done ok this evening by taking DH with me and buying non-alcohlic treats instead (ice-cream for me too ... stem ginger with dark chocolate).

It's good you've got a bit of an excuse with work - I think work stress is so tough, isn't it, because it is so normalized that you'd want to clock off and have a glass of wine. What's CFS (ignorant)?

I hope it's ok I'm being really chatty ... I'm just trying to keep myself focussed!

Evenin' babes. It's busy on this bus today!

My interview went well, I think I hear by next Friday, so not too long to wait.

Who said they were on a diet? I'm not strictly on one, but I am trying lose a bit of weight. In preparation, I've bought a pair of jeans a size to small. A bit nuts I know, but it's my motivation

No wine has got to help, no? Sober, early nights has also meant no crisps, so I reckon I'm cutting out about 800 calories a day!!

Hi daisy!

Glad to hear your interview was good - what was it for?

I think you mean kotinka with the diet but I also want to try to eat some good healthy stuff as I feel bloated and not-very-kind to my body, so although I'm keeping up with ice-cream instead of wine I'm also going to eat loads of fruit and veg and proper breakfasts.

It is so true about the wine --> crisps thing! I reckon half my puffiness (goodness I do sound attractive) is down to getting the munchies, as well as the alcohol calories themselves.

Waitrose.

Waitrose do about the only de-alc wine that's actually nice, so I excuse the fact it's all stupidly expensive by thinking how much more expensive it is when I'm actually buying alcohol, even from Tesco.

The ice cream is really yummy, I recommend it!

Hi Babes,
day4 for me.

Craving my wine fix more than ever tonight.
Inner voice says one drink wouldn't hurt, its not as if you can't control it.
You.ve not had a drink for 3 days and hardly any sleep in 3 days either.
One glass will help you get off to sleep.

Not sure if I am going to have that one glass. Think i could stop at one glass tonight and my goal is to control my drinking rather than never drink again.
I am very very tired.

Another voice says three days and you are ready to be a normal/ occasional
drinker. Who are you kidding. Not the babes who have been where you are now, probably not yourself.
OMG THIS IS SO HARD. Sorry babes Ive got my selfish poor me head on tonight.

Ma thanks for the pat on the back and advice. Its really helping me tonight. Hope you are having an easier time than me tonight. As others have said you always seem to have time to help and support others.

Hope any other babes wobbling tonight get through.

Goodnight all (well maybe).xx

that does sound like yummy ice-cream! I'm on Sainsburys (2-for-1) Salted caramel and chocolate - it sounds weird, but its fantastic!

CFS is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (aka ME, yuppie flu, post-viral fatigue, Lyme Disease or anything else they can think of because no-one actually knows much about it...) and I don't know if I do have it or not. The anti-depressants which the doc gave me seem to have helped though (even though I wasn't depressed )

Actually I'm a bit angry that despite telling my manager last week, she has asked me to go to an extra meeting on Monday, work on my day off, email her daily reports - and not once has she asked if I'm feeling better since starting the tablets. (Her argument was that it wasn't 'extra' work - these things are in my contract blah blah)

Also with myself - if I hadn't already let my work go so much the last few months, she would have more sympathy. A couple of years ago I was attending HR because of anxiety issues; last year I time off (left 30 mins early on four occasions) for back/neck treatment PLUS long-standing bowel condition (called in sick twice in 6 months) so I guess they think I'm just a sickie.

So I'm angry, guilty, tired, anxious, really anxious. But also sober!!

Thanks for reading all the way through.

Oh just got something else to be pissed off about, DH is really annoyed at me 'always' being on the Bus.

Still sober. Still here.

You'll sleep even better soon if you don't have that glass of wine. I think it settles out after a week or so (have done this quite a lot of times as you can tell! ).

Can you do the old, brush teeth, get into bed thing to distract yourself?

(Hi, btw! Sorry, I jumped right in there but nice to 'meet' you.)

alias - thanks, I've heard of it now you explain the acroynm.

If you don't mind me being nosy (ignore if you do) - why does your DH mind?

kotinka x posted so ony just saw your post. Well done, thats day 1 done and dusted for you, you derserve to be happy. I want some of that chocolate too. Waitrose for me tomorrow, about 60 mile round trip to my nearest branch
but it'll be worth it.

wow busy here tonight,
sorry for the x posting, i,m computer illeterate so I don,t know how to avoid it.
LRD Really nice to meet you too, thanks for the advice am really going to try and not have that one glass.
joey sorry for jumping in across your post, sorry you are having a crap time.

rural I know how strong those feeling are, but really, really you will feel so much happier with yourself if you can hold on for a little while longer and get off to bed. I spent years kidding myself that I didn't have a problem - after all I never drank whiskey, I had a can of McEwans Export laying untouched for years, I could be sober for a whole week while on a training course. So I could quite happily ignore the fact that I drank many bottles of wine each week, that it hardly made me feel drunk, that once I'd started I found it hard to stop, that I felt a bit panic-ey if there was no wine in the house, and I felt furious if dp drank MY wine.

Only you know which little voice is telling you the truth, but most of us on here could have a good guess at it

joey it doesn't really understand as though your boss understands CFS or that they have a responsibility to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to work effectively. If you've had 'undiagnosed' CFS for a while that might account for some of your recent difficulties at work. Can you speak to your GP about it all? They might have some helpful advice. Do you have an HR dept at work? Some of these things may be 'in your contract' but asking you to work on your day off, is not taking any account of your illness, and your employer has a responsibility to do that. Best thing is to always put things in writing: e.g. 'Dear Manager, on [date] I made you aware of my health issues. One consequence of this illness is extreme fatigue and when fatigued, difficulty with concentration. It is therefore imperative that I have sufficient proper rest-days to enable me to function effectively on the days when I do work. The request that I attend an extra meeting, and to work on my day-off exacerbate my condition, and I would be grateful if we could discuss how workloads and meetings could be scheduled to avoid this.'

And in the meantime, keep emailing the reports, then at the end of each week also email the time that it has taken you to meet the additional reporting requirements.

And it is so, so good that you are sober. That is great xx

rural while I was typing my epic post, I've x-posted with a big flurry of others. It just happens - and sometimes you really do have to be sober to work out which post is replying to / commenting on which previous post

Night kotinka! Sleep well.

(I'm really glad of being able to 'blurt', too, thanks all!)

venus thanks for the words of wisdom.
about the wine and the x posting.
Your right I KNOW just the wine monster in me doesn't and sometimes he seems to be winning the battle.
Anyway at least for tonight because of your help of the other brilliant babes here, the wine monster hasn,t won.
I WILL NOT DRINK
Thanks to all.
Goodnight againxx

C'est moi les bebes

Can't work out how to name change back

it's Silver....

JW - wow xxxxx

Hello silver!

Hey kids

I'm good

Just going to change my name back now I'm on the lap top, not phone

Nope - buggered if I can work out how I changed it in the first place

where's techno mouse when you need her