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

no, she's still feeling pretty crap and looks it too. She hasn't really been well for a while. wonder if glandular fever or somesuch....

oh bless her, lucky she has you

Chances are your lump's just a cyst ma. They're really common.

I had a scare a few years ago when I found a little hard lump in my vagina. Turns out I'm the proud owner of a sebaceous cyst. Gross, but better than the alternative!

Oh, and six months ago I had a few weeks of sharp stabbing left-sided chest pains. I was so convinced there was something appalling wrong with me which I'd brought on by drinking, but when I finally went to the doc's he just shrugged and said 'Probably muscular'. Then it went away

Alcohol makes stuff like this so much worse because you secretly think you deserve illness.

thanks phase
pretty sure it will be fine but it niggles away at you doesn't it?

Hi all. Friday afternoon. Still in sidecar. Not drinking tons but not having the best week food or drink or exercise wise

Mouse, so sorry about your friend. I hope you are ok

On phone so not a long one... Got to get back to work soon. Just wanted to wish you all a good weekend, will be back later x

Where is everyone tonight? Are you all OK?

Hello, I'm here. Been away on holiday with almost no phone / internet access so I'm just trying to catch up with what's been happening, and who our new babes are (waves to anyone new)...

Hi all, I'm here too. I've been reading back to catch up with the thread again. Just wanted to send a shout out to pick as I don't think you've posted for a while. Are you ok?

I'm not drinking again tonight and not missing it at all. Think the ww has forgotten where I live and I'm not complaining. So much easier to ignore her if she isn't here

I do find the less I have, the less I want. It's a funny old game.

Good to see lots of people posting. How about Thurso, you ok my lovely? Not seen a post from you for a while either x

Oh my fucking god. It's nearly 9.30 and I've not had a drink. And it's Friday.

Admittedly, I am hungover from last night but I am still pleased. I am trying to parrot the stuff in the Allen Carr book - if I feel thirsty, why have something that will make me thirstier / one drink will only lead to another / I won't sleep well (again) and wake up groggy at least etc etc. Seems to be working so far and don't intend to have one now

Well done nancy you are doing better than I am.

I'm here. I feel like drinking.

Instead I will hide under the duvet at the back. I wish my menopause would bugger off.

The one symptom I can't put up with raged uncontrollably today. Not only do I wee when I least expect it, there I was, walking around theatre and my arse makes a noise like a rifle crack. I go into the kitchen - crack. I walked past the surgeon - crack. I bent over to say hello to a patient - crack.

I never used to be windy, and when I was? Well, I could hold it in. They fall out despite my best clenchy efforts. I have a battery operated thingy which helps my pelvic floor. Do you think if I introduced (phoenix nights reference) it to my arse cheeks it would help?

Nobody warned me this would happen. I remember my gran letting one go frequently when I was growing up and we'd all get the giggles. This is going to be me, isn't it?

I remember my gran going up the stairs with a noisy toot on each step

Me and my brother stuffing our fists in our mouths so she couldn't hear us laughing. Karma gets us back eventually though

A battery operated thingy to help your pelvic floor????????
Aye right!

Fart away. Better out than in. This only app!ies to farts.

I miss Distracted Chap

Crikey, just lost my long post, how does that happen?
Thanks for giving me a shout Faire, I'm ok, my job is quite overwhelming at the moment, luckily the fact that my 2 years of studying to no avail have seemed to make no difference, and I still have the full on job!
Dc2 is home, after uni, and an internship that he didn't find "edgy" enough, But Friday night isn't the best time to conjecture!
Dh in bed at 9, and so I am chilling wiith a "pink" book, that people in the staffroom would sneer at, but I want to switch off for a little while!
T xxxx
Ps.Guggs I'll pm you

Evening, tis me, Mouse

BLOODY WELL DONE Nancery!! :) Grab a seat next to me, I'm off to bed after a sober day five.

This next like is going to sound twatish but I found the decision not to drink tonight really easy. I was going to do dry week days but when DH asked what I was drinking tonight, I said my usual.

Two minutes later, I had a soda and lime, with crushed ice! How the double Geoff did that happen! A drink, on a Friday night sans vodka.

Sorry to have not read back properly, but wry - how far are you into it if you don't mind me asking? I'm off to bed now and certain that I'm in the early stages but if your bloods come back as 'normal' for your hormental levels, they say that you're not unless you're 50 and have been period free for a year or more.

I have had two this year, no more than a sneezes worth in a hanky!

Anyway, any advice or tips would be ace. The rest of me has text book symptoms. Doc said it could my meds but I've been on them so long I'm not buying that shit.

So, it's off to bed to have a night of tossing and turning and sweating until I have to change my PJs, getting up to pee, scratching my skin off..........

I love being a woman!

Night all, do take care, and I think I might join you up on the rack wry, one is vair windy in the lower region this evening too! Could be the third full moon of the week?

Faire - I miss thurso too.... didn't she get a new job or am I making that up? I can't remember.......

Take care Babes xxx

A pink book thurso ? Is that chick lit? Long day for me, in bed with kindle deciding between improving book or easy one. Think Gone Girl might win tonight

• no spoilers please and not seen the film. Another day of driving kids to sports tomorrow. Will check in when I can, night all xxx PS Spanna, Rural, where are you?

Thank God.MN is back. I have had withdrawal symptoms.
thurso so good to see you on the bus again. Ds has finished uni? When did that happen? Tisnt 5 minutes since he went!

Hi all , typing in the car while DH walks the dog ( DS is asleep you see, otherwise I'd go with him.) Thanks Mouse for the congrats! For normal people this would be barely worth a raised eyebrow but, alas we are not that kind of 'normal.' I felt good this morning too, and would like to continue in a similar vein as it felt so much nicer (even after just a few drinks, mixed with soda.) However, my mum has give us a huge wine box (she's just come back from France) so it ain't gonna be easy!
A slight aside, you know I recommended lime, soda and a dash of angostura bitters as an alternative grown up drink? The bitters are bloody £10 a bottle! Still might have to get some though, I need some low sugar grown up soft drinks. Any other recommendations?

I have lime and tonic as it isn't sweet

Yy can't believe ds has finished uni, where did that time go? My dd will be just starting next September, if she gets the grades.

Lime & soda for me here.

Hi babes,

Been thinking about how long periods are the bain of our lives.

Life as a girl is kinda fun till you get to the tender age of 12, then a poltergeist takes over your body bringing raging hormones, has you in tears half the time and the first agonising pain of period cramp, it's so painful then the blood comes and your convinced you will die....

Then we enter womanhood and if we bare children we get a short break from periods only to vomit, get fat, a sore back, get stretch marks, piles and swollen ankles and our reward for repopulating the earth is an enormous agonising period to get us back on track,

Then it's the menopause in all it's glory, q all the above humiliations, then by the time you get through the acceptance of ageing and the menopause the arthritis is kicking in, everything else starts to go wrong then not long later we die..,,

The end
God is a man

Ps my dh says never trust an animal that bleeds profusely for a week and doesn't die!!!

2 days shy of a whole month sober, sober with PMT, yikes xxxx

Hi all - well back I'm day 2 - in bed with milk -yum !

Going to stick my head out from under the blanket to wave at all babes

baby that is fantastic!
ma and wry-

Thurso thank you- have pm'd back.

I'm taking my safety blanket to the bus library- and I'm staying in my safe place until all the horrible things go away. maturity level of a 7yr old

Today I got up to find a folder I had brought home from work in the middle of the kitchen floor.odd. Even odder, it had a pink post it stuck to it with something written in dd1s scrawl. So I pick it up to read it - you would wouldn't you? And it says "mum, there is a massive spider under here. It should be dead." Turn folder over to come face to face with fecking enormous squahed spider!
When I had calmed down, I txtd her. The response? "Well. I put a note on it!"

Have you all moved to a new bus and not told me?