The Brave Babes Battle Bus - Battling The Wicked Wine Witch, One Day At A Time!

[Mouseface]

Hello, I'm mouse, one of the Babes who have been on this lovely, rickety bus called Gerald for some time now!

There's no judgy pants worn on this bus, nor hoking of bosoms!! It's filled with every day life, love and laundry. As simple as that. The rest falls in between.

We're a welcoming, supporting thread, filled with a mine of information from many years of experience, from those who have consumed alcohol day in, day out...hidden the 'habit', the lie, disguised our drinking with many an excuse. So perfected over the years or new to the guilt of drinking more than you think you should.....

Anyway, old or new, lurker or not, come and say hello to us if you feel the need. We'd love to meet you if we haven't already :)

Thank you for reading this, find a seat, hide green opal fruits if you find any, they're like gold dust around here! Aren't they ma!!

See you soon, I hope.

Mouse x

And, if you'd like to see where we all began, sit with a cup of tea/coffee and have a peek at this - the beginning

And our latest thread that will take you back to many others enjoy your read!

Well done winter! I'm so glad you could make that choice for yourself!

Wow special just read your post below, you've been through an awful lot. Well done for battling through and being so strong, hope things take a turn for the better.

Flu, pop star! Yikes! [Flowers]

Thanks special I have jelly legs and aching bones. More boring house move crap to sort then off to bed. Early nights really do seem to be the answer for heavy craving sometimes.

mouse are you out there?

How long have you been sober, pop?
Flu is horrible, you have my sympathy.
I just borrowed dhs blood pressure cuff, mines 98/58..
Bit low?

special, that does sound low. Do you suffer from low blood pressure? Well done on telling DH about the hidden bottles. If they're not there, they can't tempt you.

winter, I've been tempted tonight too. I'm stressed about work tomorrow which I think triggered it. A bit of oblivion would be nice. But a hangover won't make a tough day any easier - quite the opposite. So I've had a hot chocolate and am now off to bed.

I've never bothered taking it before...I'm very tired, sleepy and feel nauseous and freezing cold.

Hi, Think I might need to be here please,

Too late for today but I seriously need to rein it in a bit. It's causing massive problems with DH and sooner or later the kids are going to notice. Heaven only knows how I have managed to pull off work, kids, life etc over the years but it's really got to stop - this is no existence.

When I have stopped for a little while I feel so proud and energised I don't know why I feel the need to do this to myself - it adds nothing to my life. I'm not sure I want to quit totally but it's the mindless everyday drinking that has to stop.

Going to try and make it to Friday (baby steps)

Thanks for listening to my moaning.

Welcome sanity.

special, that doesn't sound great. Have you got people with you? Is there a Dr you can call?

Yes, ill call them now.

Hey everyone
Thought I'd jump on as hanging out around bus stop too long.
#Special# you need water and sugar.
And make sure DH is watching you.

I'm here!

Well done Winter and Special, fantastic job not giving into the WW. And awesome advice as always from Pop and Faire.

I fucking gave into the cravings tonight, can't seem to get past day 3/4 at the moment.

April, well done for not giving in.

Welcome Sanity, I could have written your post, my drinking is also mindless, half the time I probably don't even want it but it's a habit that is SO hard to break.

Good to see you too Wish.

Hello everyone, thanks to everyone for their lovely words.

Hi sanity and welcome.

The craving has passed. Feeling so glad I didn't drink tonight.

Well done winter. The more you do it the easier it gets. It really is worth holding out and riding the storm.

Hi Sanity and Wish, you are very welcome. Most of us go to bed quite early (one way of avoiding the wine witch) but we'll all be here tomorrow for a catch up so just post whatever you like.

Margie it's ok. Those 3/4 days will become 4/5 days soon and then 6/7 days and before you know it you will be routinely doing whole weeks without alcohol. Just keep chipping away at it, you're doing great

We tested it on dh, so the unit is working. It's down to 88/44, even after food and water. Doc said ambulance.
No fringing way! I'm going to do a few jumping jacks and pull self together. Dh is freaking out

Hello, can I come and join you?
I'm not feeling so good tonight: it's about 48 hours since my last drink (moderate but steady drinking, 2 or 3 glasses of wine every night, more at weekends, only had maybe 2 dry days in last few years).
I'm feeling really anxious, heart racing, wide awake and know I won't sleep tonight.
To complicate things I came off Prozac a few weeks ago )quite fast) and have started a low dose of sertraline. But that hasn't started working yet.
To complicate things more I have been taking HRT (I'm 49) but decided to stop at the end of last cycle) and since then have had 2 periods in 2 weeks.

Oh and did I mention I've put on loads of weight in the last few months which will not bastarding go away?

I thought stopping the drink would be a really positive thing to do but I'm wondering if cold turkey wasn't the best way right now. Tomorrow night there's a quiz after work and I had already pretty much resigned myself to having a glass or two and then that's that...I have no idea whether that's a good idea or not.

Anyway, if there was anyone having trouble falling asleep that probably did it for you!

You seem like a lovely bunch of people. I'll just rock myself quietly in a corner of the bus 😁

Hey! Time difference, s o I m awake.
If you are shaky, and have the discipline, then stepping down might well be kinder. I feel for you, it is horrible to need a drink. That first day not drinking is awful.

Hey Special thank you for that. I'm not sure I do have the discipline, that's the thing, I have a feeling it's all or nothing for me. First time I've ever tried it though so who even knows.
How are you doing? You've not been feeling so good tonight I think? I hope that passes quickly for you.

I'm o.k. .. have you tried AA? It's helping me normalize my thinking about drinking. I can't drink again, and for abstinence is the only way forward for me. If you think it might be for you too, some support helps.
How are you doing?

Got some sleep eventually thanks :)
I will definitely consider AA. Have never thought about it before.
Hope you are feeling ok now.

Good morning most and wish and sanity welcome to you all. And a big hello to all others on here.

Seeing your posts yesterday evening about being in the grip of cravings takes me almost instantly back to that place myself - I so well remember coming on here years ago and posting from a place where I thought I'd never be able to resist, where the wine was screaming out for me to drink it. Two things amazed me that evening. The first was that actually the craving DID subside - despite how intense and crazy it felt at the time, it is not like a real need (like hunger or the need to pee) which just gets more and more, and an hour later it didn't feel nearly so bad and 2 hours later I was fine and glad that I'd had a cup of tea, and some toast and a bowl of soup instead. The second thing that amazed me was the wonderful support of the posters on these threads. I know that real life support is important (and I'd encourage anyone to at least give AA a try) but the honest and instant help that I got from here was incredible. I owe this thread so much, and it's why I keep hanging around

(well that, and I'm too scared to post on AIBU or most other topics on here!!)

special and winter well done for riding it out last night - I bet when you wake up this morning, whatever kind of night's sleep you had, and whatever sort of a day you're facing, you do not wake up wishing that you'd given in to the craving. Well done!

Hoping all babes have a calm and productive day, filled with love, generosity, energy and some humour.

ma you choose a lovely day to be off yesterday - nice to see the blue skies and feel the sunshine - wishing you all the best job wise x

Morning All.

Wow, busy busy bus last night. Special, you made it - but you need to look after yourself.

Welcome to new Babes.

I've been busy getting my fingernails down into the soil - all weekend in the garden, the sun just makes my heart sore, the prospect of spring and buds and green shoots. My greenhouse is full of seed trays, and so are all my window sills. And work is beginning to ease off for the Easter break, so I can get back to thinking about research rather than teaching for a few weeks.

But it's not been all roses around the door - I went to the supermarket last night just for bread and milk, and came back with a bottle of wine. I didn't want it by the time I got home, and it's still unopened, but what was that about?

Anyway have a good day everyone.

Morning all - special, I have that blood pressure issue too and suspect it's what caused me to have a seizure a couple of weeks ago. It makes me freezing cold and tired too .... seriously I do understand your reaction to calling an ambulance but trust me, waking up on the floor of a supermarket wasn't great either. I have to see a neurologist next month. Could you at least go to your doctor?

sweet - I am so impressed that you bought the wine and didn't drink it!!!! I have to force myself even now not to go out, because once the wretched bottle is in my hand, the journey to the till, back home, opening it and sinking the first half of the bottle is a given. I feel deeply frustrated with myself that part of my conscious mind is even giving the witch any credence and letting her take up headspace - if I had any sense, there would be a huge black hole where those thoughts used to be, and I wouldn't even be entertaining them in any way at all.

Welcome to sanity. I too recommend AA as a starting point and to connect with people who have the same issue. Meetings are all different, some you may like and some you won't. You may find that it's not for you but that you can extract some useful stuff out of it - as I did, although I wouldn't say it's for everyone.

Have a good day all.