The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Getting Ready For The Golden Sights Of Autumn In Search Of Sobriety.

[Mouseface]

Hello everyone, I'm Mouse :) and this is the Bus I've been on a while now!

It's filled with a variety of drinkers. Those that do, those that don't, and those who are desperate to STOP but hide it, or embrace it and get the help they NEED.

'Help' in whatever form works for them, your friend or you. Be it AA, a Local Community Alcohol Counselling Group, your GP, your family/friends, this thread or even a combination of all of the above!

You have to want to stop drinking more than wanting to breathe.

I know that right now, that may sound like a ridiculous goal.

They got sober, One Day At A Time then came here during the process to chat about it, discuss their feelings, but more than anything else, their experiences HELPED OTHERS TO BELIEVE that they too could get dry.

They might not get dry and stay dry, sometimes they'll be lying about their consumption, fooling themselves as well as others

BUT when the posters do get dry for good, come back and post to help others with their tricks of the trade or just to say 'I did it!!' my heart jumps for joy because that person, poster, Brave Babe has gone through hell and back, lived to tell the tale and now wants to share that with the rest of the Bus to see if one simple trick or technique will put them on the track to recovery, sobriety, to the life that they want to lead :)

There's two saying that have appeared to stick with us -

1. • The Vulnerable Need Our Support, Not Our Judgement
2. • Alcohol Fosters Inertia

We all have our own reasons for starting to drink 'too much', we all have an excuse don't we.... we all have a "but....."

Well, as I say to Nemo (who you will get to hear about ) - goats butt!

And for those of you who want to know a bit more -

HERE IS THE MOST RECENT THREAD

AND THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, OVER FOUR YEARS AGO!!!

See you soon x

Good moooooooooooooorning babes! inde tis heaving down here, but every cloud....I have a 3.30 finish so I'm going riding, rain or shine! How are you? Any plans for today/weekend? I am almost on day 21. I say almost but I am sole nurse today. One trainee to help. It's going to be so stressy but hopefully going riding will make me feel all shiny. Xx

spanna now then, check how well you did! Don't dwell o kind one, you know how fab you did/are! I hope your day isn't too stressy my lovely, have a good one and I'll catch you later okay? Today is a shiny new day, and it's almost the weekend not that I'm counting down the hours or anything haud gaun, xx

ma re plaiting...it just flew back into my mind from the dim and distant...do you remember thon fashion in the eightie for having short cropped hair but having a piddly wee half cm ratty pigtail at the nape? and I promise if I come to see the lovely Kelpies again I'll give you a shout! I didn't realise you worked near there, I had a fab day, and had the finest fish and chips ever. They're nae stingy doon there with the portions, eh? Xx

Anyhoo, hi ho and that, time to crack on, see you later you lovely lot, xx

Hey Spanna You are doing just fine. A few glasses of cava does not mean failure.

At least you are not like me. I am stuck in some sort of ground hog day scenario. Day 1 Af, day 2 drink, day 1 AF, day 2... you get the picture!

Yesterday was DD1's birthday. She was 22. 22! FFS that is a proper, real adult. I got married at 22! This is the first time i have seen her on her birthday since she turned 18 so it was very nice. We sat out in the garden drinking wine/fizz and listening to cheesy music.

Back to day one. DH is off today on a golf trip until Sunday, then he is off to China on business. I will need you lot to keep me company when he is away.

Bagsie the orange opal fruits.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

So I managed yesterday and even resisted buying mixer in Aldi.

Tonight is going to the be toughest night I think....

Happy Friday!

Great news about your boys beaches, that must be a weight off your mind! Hope today's equally positive for you, isinde. Vegan, eh? When I went to primary in the 80s my family were veggie. Nae bugger was veggie back then, so lunchtime mainly consisted of other kids looking at what I was having and saying uuuuuuuuur, what's that? Thank goodness we've moved on a bit

Your group of mums sounds lovely.

spanna, looking at the positives: you didn't have any bubbly on Monday (must have been a battle if your mates were having lots of it) and you didn't get a bottle on the way home. That's all good!

I love green opal fruits, and reap the benefits of most people hating them

Day 5 for me today. Very happy to have got through yesterday. There really is a period between 3:30/4 and 7 where I just have to mentally stick my fingers in my ears and hum. Tonight should be OK, as DH is driving so can't drink, and oddly enough DH's parents aren't drinking at the mo. DFIL saw the doctor recently and was told to stop drinking for several weeks, and DMIL is doing it with him. It's a total stroke of luck, as they're normally big drinkers and it's hard to say no.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP for pizza!

Film night?

Thinking Return to Amish - Love shite TV

Totally

I watched First Wives' Club last night - fantastically cheesy.

With the added bonus that because I was sober, I can - (ta-daa) - remember what happened in it!

Oh I love shiney new bus threads. Hello all. In bed here because I'm so knackered. Still reovering from my half marathon 2 weeks ago.....well that's my excuse. I've lost count of my AF days which is quite a nice feeling in a strange way. I know it's close to 4 months which is quite unbelievable.

Got to get through a summer of heat, swimming pools and BBQ's which I can already feel is going to be a bit of a challenge, but once I've done my first of whatever, I'll be fine. It's like having my first birthday sober (since I was 15). Now I'm not worried about the next birthdays. It's just stupid mind games, but it's working and so I'll carry on doing whatever works.

Still extremely happy to be sober. Love to you all and hello new babes xx

Day 5. to everyone on the Bus

indie hope all went well at school.
Ds was an embarrassing sobber when he was left on his first day and had to be peeled off me....no wonder he still hates it now he's in secondary!
spanna pizza you are doing great.
wry how many days??? Bloody hell

had a couple of glasses last night, none Wednesday and none Tuesday.
tonight..dunno!
Been at a military barracks all afternoon.....mmmmmm hmmmmmm

Day 22 and old saggy tits is not bothering me so much I am glad to report. yeah that's cos she has set up camp in my kitchen to taunt me day 14 and the voice is saying 'hey... you have done sooo well, one little drink won't hurt, its friday after all and work has been tough... g'wan you deserve it' wish she would STFU I have agreed to go out walking with DH tomorrow so no way can I listen to her as it will be torture with a hangover. I just keep focussing on the weight I will lose by abstaining and walking.
congrats to all you mums waving off the little one's. It makes me all nostalgic, my 'baby' is off to Uni in a couple of weeks

To those who have slipped a bit, I am impressed at how little you had, that is not a slip, its control. I am an all or nothing gal so think you have nothing to feel bad about, and tomorrow is another day (one) onwards and upwards babes.

day 0

I knew I couldn't so this

Pizza you so can, you just need to prep, get rid (or drink) all of the alcohol you have, buy in some tasty non alcoholic drinks, plan your strategies for the days the evil bitch is on your shoulder hinting away at the need for a drink, find other things to occupy yourself and don't beat yourself up... every day can be day one until it works and you get to day 2, 3, 4 etc. Think about the health benefits of AF life, weight loss, clearer eyes and skin... NO HANGOVERS, better sleep, more energy etc etc. read back over the old threads to see the struggles and successes others have had and try again. we are all here to help too. Don't give up.

pizza I've been on here forever. Try, fail,try,fail....repeat. Just keep at it.

pizza I agree with eccles and Ma, don't give up honey. By my reckoning you did four af days this week, a huge accomplishment from no af days. If you just shift your thinking a little bit, you could congratulate yourself on getting 4 days under your belt already. For many this is a BIG deal and YOU DID IT! And you can do it again.

Stunned. Unadventurous, homebody dd1 has announced she's leaving on October 16th. Giving up dead end job in local cafe and heading to Spain to try and find work and travel about. I am beyond gobsmacked and beyond delighted! She will continue to do her degree via the OU and see what happens. Dd2 is the suck it and see one in our family so this is amazing news for dd1. Am really really pleased!!!! Not least as it gets another bloody child out of the house. Another step nearer to freedom.
rural one day......

Evening all - oh god I have been so busy this week, not a minute of spare time, and it looks set this way until midday Monday (oh roll on coffee and biscuits at 11.30 on Monday).

However, when I get a wee chance I always read this thread, so here is my very inadequate response to loads of lovely posts....

isindie I am intrigued about how you deal with feeling scared and possibly needing a poo during the day (but not so intrigued that I want a detailed answer ). Hope first day at school went well.

phrase what a great opportunity to join in wholeheartedly with your FIL and MIL - help them (and you) out by experimenting with some great non-alcoholic drinks. Try out the sweet / sour / bitter / fizzy combinations that make you realise you don't need champagne (and you don't need to spend £20 a bottle either)

pizza you've not failed, in any way, you've simply found out that whatever you did on 5th September 2014, didn't work as a way of being sober. But guess what? Tomorrow is not 5th September all over again. Tomorrow is 6th September. A whole brand new day, never experienced by any of us before. What an opportunity! However many days sober or drunk), each of us can wake up on 6th September 2014 and be sober for the whole day. And instantly we are all equal.

And guggs - well, I laughed and laughed and laughed. In one of your posts (near to the top of the first page on this thread) you said preaching to the perverted I don't know whether you meant to say converted, but I love the idea of us being more perverted than converted

ma one day, one day.....

Hello Babes.

Made the foolish mistake of drinking tea in the evening, meaning my brain will not shut up and go to sleep, even though I'm really tired

I've given up and come downstairs rather than continue disturbing DH.

The evening with PIL went really well. It was definitely the right thing to do. All present dodged the WW as well.

pizza, you did do it. You did it every day you didn't drink. You'd have to be bloody Superwoman or a saint to never touch alcohol again from the very first moment you decided to make a change. Please stick around

To be honest, I'm not sure I'm aiming for the rest of my life dry. I'm just taking this one day at a time and noticing how it feels to be sober, and how much happier I am in myself. The thing I know I want is for my baseline, my natural state, to be 'sober', because for too long it's been 'drunk'. I've spent an awfully long time as a drinker who occasionally manages some sobriety, and I'd like to be a sober person who occasionally drinks. Time will tell whether this is possible.

Every day I don't drink is a learning experience. It's teaching me why I think I 'need' to drink, what happens if I don't, what triggers drinking, what can replace it and what kind of person I really am. Having a day where you drink doesn't unlearn all of that, so don't feel you've failed pizza!

Sober, where do you live then? Are you Antipodean (great word)?

yeah, I noted guggs' excellent phrasing: thought it was deliberate though!

Right, off to cruise round the rest of MN until sleep comes.

phrase yes I'm in Australia. Not quite an Australian though. Bit of a hybrid of all sorts. Some Welsh blood somewhere and a fair amount of family in the UK. Wish I had Scottish blood though then I could talk just like wry or even just understand her sometimes . Well done on Day 5 or 6? They're the bloody hardest.
xx

Sheesh- saggy tits got me last night. Oh well,have had a birthday and my beautiful little bugger boy is off to school next week. I'm a bit more emotional about that than I want to admit to,nails,me. ahem.

Right I'm going to steal what venus said to pizza and apply it to meeeee! I'm all ok today,back to being sober. Bit scared to own up to it in aa,but I have very mixed feelings about that group anyway.

Yup,it was deliberate,I KNOW you lot

isinde can I come round for tea and cake? Won't need the tissue,don't do crying. Might have a wobbly bottom lip.

Morning all,I'm not going to be defeated by my lapse. It was only 1 frigging night. I'm just going to get back to being sober and happy instead.

guggs don't stress. WW is a killer addiction. Just brush it off and keep going. One night isn't going to break you. In fact it will probably just make you more determined.

I'm not sure we ever get rid of her whisperings entirely. When I'm feeling close to cracking I think half the reason I don't succumb is because I'm so fucking afraid to go back to all of that and I think just one glass might be weeks of drinking for me. So I just can't.