DRY 8!!!!!!

[CheesyNachos]

Hello! This is our 8th! thread for those who are abstaining from alcohol and for those who want to abstain. :) We love newbies and lurkers. We have people who have been DRY for years, for months, for weeks, days, and hours. :) ALL are welcome. We have heaps of tips and we offer support at any stage.

DRY 7 the previous thread is here...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/2347295-DRY-7?

Teapot I am tempted to get one of her bracelets!

Bashing my face was a low point, even for me - hope it is a wake up call !

glad I think I was getting a bit confused by what you mean when you said sober blogs trigger you... I was thinking of blogs like Lucy's, or MrsD's, or Belle's... but I guess you are talking about the blogs eg. on Soberistas with people talking about their attempts to stop? I might be wrong. Glad you enjoy/ed the Bubble Hour btw, I listen to one each night and pick an episode according to how my day has gone. I've listened to the one about 'feeling our feelings' every day for the past three days ; really love listening to the bloke (John?) who is a recovering gambler.

BamBam Don't give up giving up! And now you have the additional incentive linked to driving :) If you want to read up more about the third person approach it's called Addictive Voice Recognition Technique (AVRT) and you can find more details here.
Glad I have a 'f**k you wolfie' aluminum bracelet that I no longer wear that you are welcome to have :)

Teapot yes sorry I meant the ongoing recent type blogs on Soberistas and Club Soda, not Lucy or Mrs D or Belle etc. I subscribe to Belle and find the emails very helpful as I do Lucy's site :) They are techincally blogs I guess but I think of them more as helpful websites :)

Sorry for the confusion!

Today has gone well, had a lovely trip out and a chat to a friend, but is now going downhill rapidly. DD, who is on the spectrum, is behaving spectacularly horribly and I have no idea why - just have to ride it out I guess .

I don't want a drink, though - I have a sore throat and a terrible headache and I just want to get through this evening and then have a bath and go to bed. Feel shattered tbh by recent stuff happening with her Wish I could help.

Lucy Having just had a look at that link, the AVRT stuff looks similar to what JV says ( and I guess AC?) in their books? Makes sense to me, anyway

Glad I think they are all pretty similar and as Teapot said it's about disconnecting the voice from us and recognising it's the addiction speaking and that if you don't drink it disappears or is less present less often anyway! :)

Yes I love the idea that Wolfie dries up and eventually dessicates and blows away :)

Hey Bam glad you are back.
You have not failed ,this is just a blip and god knows we have all had them.
Icould I really must echo what the others have said.
If it was that easy there would be no need for the thread!
The aim is to be "Dry" and discuss and support each other in achieving this.
I was on the BBBB but found it was a few dry and others cutting down, I know that I have to stop completely so it wasn't for me.
Ive tried to give up many times and the cutting down approach/day by day approach did not work for me.
Have you tried "pausing" when you feel the urge to drink.
Very few of us stopped without employing a couple of these techniques.

1. Get rid of any alcohol you have in the house,you will drink if its there.
2. Identify your trigger time, Plan to do something completely different at that time.

3.Buy some nice cold drinks/chocolate or Magnums and have one when the urge strikes, promise yourself before you drink alcohol you will try one of the above. If you get through the urge think about how you feel and why. This is vital I felt utterly calm and at peace, no anxiety, stress or worries- that was the shocker for me! I think I should patent my Magnum therapy

Hello there! I'm just checking in. I think I'm on day 10 now.

I visited Gloucester this afternoon... I lived there years ago, and hadn't been back since. I just had a wander around. Although I was driving, it struck me that I sort of wished I drank as I felt a bit aimless and having a drink in a pub would have given me something to do. I'd always liked the New Inn, as it's so old, but there didn't seem any point to just going in there.

Good to see you again Bam. I somehow missed that you passed your driving test so big congrats!

I call that voice 'the liar' as he's always lied to me before that it's just the one, I'd be able to handle it; shortly followed by some nihilistic, self destructive binge. I have no idea why I regard it as a man terribly sexist of me.

While the idea of magnum therapy appeals to me Pink, I have problems enough fitting into my skinny jeans these days :)

Thanks for the good lucks. Really looking forward to this weekend, have passed my isolation phase and have something planned Fri, Sat and Sun. Proper out.. with proper grown up people and all. Not a buggy in sight or a conversation about minecraft and creepers to be had.

Hope you feel better soon glad and your dd is ok. Are you getting any support from anyone?

Hi again Mutton and well done on the 10 days.

Hi all,

I've not had an alcoholic drink for five months now. Got into the habit of sharing a bottle of wine with the exh every Friday and Saturday night but, having left the mess of a marriage, decided to give up alcohol for a bit. Possibly forever, just me and my dd in the new house and enjoying our evening hot chocolate on Friday night instead

Welcome free and congrats on five months! :)
Mutton congrats on 10 days
Custard enjoy your grown up time going out without any Minecraft speak. Ooh how lovely

Hi, just checking in before [yawn] bed

have a work conference to go to..... 4 days away from home. Hoping to fit in 2 AA meetings and a trip to the cinema. Have 'welcome drinks' on Thursday which I keep dreading, then remind myself not to future trip and to just get through it any way I can.... it's okay to leave early! (I'll have a presentation to finalise anyway... :) )

Congrats everyone. :)

Five months is great!

I'm happy to say that I've lost a little weight. I feel shallow admitting that weight gain was a major reason I decided to stop drinking. Well, I knew there were other issues with my drinking, but that's the one that has caught my attention.

Has anyone else read about "high bottom alcoholics?" It's basically people who get off the down elevator at a higher floor. They've not lost jobs or families or gone to jail or anything. They just recognised they shouldn't drink. I think I could have waited until things were more seriously messed up, but what's the logic in that?

I'm not sure I'm actually done drinking. There's a big family holiday in a few weeks and I expect to drink that week. I don't expect anything terrible to happen. But I don't know if I'll get off track and return to drinking as I was.

Mutton Yep I was functional or high functioning or high bottom. I suspect most on this thread are. I posted a blog about it only a few days ago which was really popular and you can read it here :)
Glad Happy that my blog isn't triggery for you. Had me worried for a bit! Like you I find those ground hog days blogs triggery too so I steer well clear

That's a good blog!

I would say that I am between stages one and two. I've gone through phases for years of being that way.

Thank you :) I was a stage 3 for sure.

Hi ya finally and well done on 5 months.

Stage three yes, that would have been me. No legal problems but that might have come in time. Depression and isolation most definitely. Yet I've never lost a job, paid my bills on time, close to all my family.

Off to bed. Stayed Dry :) Tired now :)

No help with DD, no - she refuses to see anyone now... so we just have to cope as best we can.

Thanks for link Lucy. Mix of stage 2 and 3, though never had work or legal problems.

Stage 3 for me and heading into Stage 4 definitely. No legal problems, but depression, isolation, taking eveything to function. Not present for my family. Real possibilities of doing school run while still over the limit from night before.

Bit of a wake-up call for when I get complacent.

Feel a bit shaky actually reading that. Thanks lucy. Good post.

Thanks for the blog link I'll read it later. I nearly got to day 7 but was given a thank you bottle of wine from work yesterday and opened it. Makes me realise how important it is not to have wine in the house at all.
So, that's what I'll do from now on. It was a cheapie bottle that I should have binned on the way home.
If anything, it's strengthened my resolve.

Congrats to everyone for your small and large victories and also to the poster whose passed their driving test.

I agree. There's no shame in needing to remove the alcohol; I don't think it says anything about us. Why make things hard for ourselves when we're trying to fly in the face of everything society tells us from an early age, ie. that we need to drink to be 'normal'?

I would say I was a mixture of those stages, no legal problems etc but yes isolating etc. I always thought it was down to my circumstances (parent of young children; then single parent of young children).

Morning everyone.

Like Cheesy I was stage 3 borderline stage 4, very scary! And because I was in such a bad place I needed more of the stuff to numb the fear of what I was doing to myself.

Still doing well though 13/16 days this month and fast approaching a full week.

Tomorrow is gonna be a big test for me. I am going to a do with free drinks all night and I can't resist a bargain let alone a freebie. I would drive but I don't like driving in the city centre where it's being held as I had a bad accident there a few years ago and still get panic attacks. Any tips anyone?

bubble do you have to go? I wouldn't if it were me, tbh - too tempting