DRY 11

[TeapotDictator]

Time for a shiny new thread.

Old thread here

howbad are you ok? x

Bollocks bollocks bollocks

Wednesday - I'll just have one small glass of wine before bed, no problem

Last night - a skin full

So I'm back at square one

Hi Matron, thank for asking!
much better thank you, posting and running as I am still in PJs and supposedly leaving the house in 10 minutes.

Big shouts outs to all of you, you have really helped me that NASTY day on Thursday. I love having you lovely people here to talk to and to say such great, sane, encouraging stuff to me. Thank you

Have a great day everyone if you can.
If you can't: HOLD TIGHT, I am thinking of you all

notgrumpy it's startling how just one becomes a skin full so quickly isn't it. Be kind to yourself today it will pass. I am on day 3 and my hangover is much better.

I thought my drinking would take months to escalate when I slipped but I was full pelt within 3 days

You are doing well to contain it to a 2 day slip. Can you get out and uplifted by the sun today? Shake the mental low off. Good to have you back.

Take care

Hello, just peeping in to say hello! Still sober here since I gave up in early December last year and AA has kept me on the straight and narrow. There is NO WAY I'd have managed without them.

Anyone struggling or slipping, I can't recommend AA more highly.

Love to you all X X

Regarding relapse - that's the thing I hear over and over at AA - people think they're in control enough for just one or two/sensible drinking and within a couple of weeks max they're drinking at least as much as they are to begin with.

And as one member said, "relapse is like sex with a 500lb gorilla : it's not up to you when it finishes."

Morning all Beautiful here too - been for a run & dug over the veg patch
Matron Did something similar in Rome choosing to watch the England v Australia World Cup Final in a bar rather than go to the Sistine Chapel!
For those who are wobbling remember we have carte blanche to eat our body weight in chocolate this week-end and I will be using that excuse fully
Notgrumpy onwards :)

marry that's a really funny good analogy! I feel like poop this morning. Massive to do list and I could easily vomit If anything I've merely proved to myself that I'm not winning this and Jesus after only 10 days sober a hangover is really unpleasant. And I used to live like that, hungover most days. No wonder I was exhausted. All I want to do now is DRINK DRINK DRINKY DRINK DRINK. I should have stayed in here. In future I'm going to stay in here. I like it in here. You people inspire me. One day at a time.

Stay here and come to AA!

What helped me when I felt like carrying on drinking was "play to the end of the film." Meaning, as well as imagining how lovely the first few drinks are, fast forward to the way you feel the morning after and ficus very clearly on that. I LOVE the first couple of drinks. But I can't have a couple, I get arseholed anc then feel wretched.

Hello! Hi marry!!!! Good to see you. :)

Just back from a good AA meeting. :) There is always lots of laughter in the AA meetings I go to. Feeling better than I was. Now off to make a chicken casserole.

[hugs] Sober Warriors.

Morning all very productive day yesterday. I'm on the way out for a walking day. Where is the sun?!

Have a great day warriors I will check in later.

Quiet on here this weekend. All well?

Hi, hope everyone is OK on what is a nasty cold, rainy afternoon here in the North West of England!!! To think I left Malaga this morning and it was 20 degrees and beautiful sunny blue skies at 9am! Boo!!

Jojo I hope you're family weekend is going well for you, stay strong

Notgrumpy I hope you're ok....your slip really doesn't mean you're back to square one, you will have learnt some things from it I'm sure, so please don't beat yourself up, it's not worth it!!

Howbad I hope you're having a good weekend

Fuzzy it sounds like a successful trip! Well done you, bet it was very enjoyable.

Lucy, Slim and Teapot hi to you and thanks for just being here and sharing such valuable experience.

And Marry....great to see you posting, not seen you for ages

Well, the holiday is well and truly over, I'm home and I'm proud of myself.

One slip. One tiny slip that's all. The best thing I did after that was to go down the naice drink route and forget the calories, sugar and carb content for a little while. Once again yesterday, I had a strawberry and banana smoothie at lunch and an alcohol free passion fruit daiquiri with dinner. It felt like a lovely treat in a nice glass.
Many restaurants here and abroad haven't gone down the "Mocktail" route but if you ask them to make you an alcohol free version of whatever cocktails they have, they will throw you something together. And it feels quite special and necessary for me, whilst I'm on holiday with a OH who drinks

I count myself very lucky as I feel like I've had it easy as it tasted so vile, like hairspray or chemicals or something. Don't know what's happened to my tastebuds but I'm not complaining!!

Keep on Sober Warriors!!

Yay Hurricane - that's fantastic, well done and good to have you back :)

We are limping through Easter, all so f*cking ill, I am so bored of it now! The worst flu I have ever had... felt like I needed to be hospitalised! We've had it now for 8 days, thought we'd be better by now but no, had to cancel today's plans and stay home for yet another duvet day watching endless TV. What's made it so much worse for me is that my sleep has been awful, so I'm dogtired as well as dealing with the rest of it.

We're not even enjoying eating chocolate!

Hi all [waves] thanks for all the input into whether I stay or go. I have found the whole couple of days inputs really interesting.

If you read all the responses most people are saying they would prefer people to be honest, to be true to themselves, to not trigger, to not talk about drink, the thread was supposed to be dry etc and yet almost every post has someone admitting to drinking, cross with themselves for drinking, starting to be dry again.

Its ironic...

The Brave Babes irritate the hell out of me, yes they are in denial and the "Tis Me Mouse" is enough to send me over the edge but are we any different here? We seem to be more in denial than them really apart from a few stoic true abstainers.

This is not a complaint or a criticism, but just an observation.

I wont say what day I am on but its good :)

I think that's an interesting observation Loubilou because I see them very differently.

Who's in denial here, and what do you think people on this thread are in denial about? The only claim that has been made is that people are decided that their goal is complete abstention.

Loubilou interesting observation indeed :) I would like to think we are different over here but yes the last few days of posts would suggest otherwise. I'm still dry - day 917 but consider myself more of a happy non-drinker rather than a stoic abstainer

Just had a peak over at the Brave Babes thread seeing as it's been a while and on second thoughts - there are similarities and differences between the two support threads. I'd last about 2 seconds over there and then disappear as the active drinking and posting would trigger and make me itchy twitchy. Agree with Teapot (x-post earlier) that the goal here is abstinence whereas over there it seems to be varied depending on the person.

Hi Lou you asked an honest question with the caveat that you could take rejection. The majority of posters rejected a moderating poster for trigger reasons.

lucy I believe that you can't become a happy non-drinker without stolic abstaining to launch you.

My decision to abstain is new to me I had a dry January which opened my eyes. The subsequent pissed episoded on a bar stool was only significant because of its proximity to dry Jan it is not the worst thing I have done drunk (or sober) or the worst hangover but bundled together next to the great benefits of being dry for a month was enough to make me try for a lifetime of sobriety.

I am sober I do not enjoy being observered.

My goal is to be a non drinker. And I have been a non drinker for almost 3 months. I had one slip after almost 3 months whilst on day 4 of my first Dry sunshine holiday with an OH who still drinks and I asked for support from a group of experienced non drinkers on a support thread.
Following on from this I developed a good strategy by myself, for myself, that worked and will continue to work for me when I next go on a sunshine holiday in July. I believe that my strategy will work well for others. When I'm not on holiday, living my ordinary day to day busy working life, being a non drinker is not a problem for me....even though it's early days, I don't feel the need despite my colourful recent past. And despite the fact that my OH drinks at home. Most of my posts on here are ones supporting others if anyone cares to look back over the last few months.......( I wouldn't bother if I were you)
Nobody posting about wanting to drink or asking for support after a slip would trigger me to go and join them "virtually" as I am responsible for my own decisions and my life. .....as long as their goal was to be Dry and that's because this is a Dry thread. That said, I can understand why it might trigger others and I totally respect and accept that.
If Somebody was continually posting here and it was obvious they were in denial, posting in the wrong place and didn't actually want to be Dry, even though I and others had tried to support them and shown them compassion and kindness on a support thread, then I would just ignore their posts. Skim over them as it were. They would soon disappear. But that is what is true for me and how I feel.

If anybody on this thread thanks I'm in the wrong place then please let me know and I'll go and buy some opal fruits and jump on a bus, or something like that, or please point me in the right direction of where I should be.....but I don't think I am in the wrong place. I think I'm exactly where I should be. I am however, only human.
There will be people who have succeeded in becoming long term non drinkers, who would have given anything for a Dry support network like this one to have existed during their early days of sobriety, their attempts at sobriety and slips. Somewhere where they could be honest with themselves and own up to their mistakes and gain insights and strategies.

.

Tis true matron there was a great deal of stoicism in the early days but that fades into insignificance once you reach a place of acceptance and then joy at your serendipitous discovery Sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised

I would prefer to be here than the Brave babes thread - I find the talk of moderation etc there too triggery. And would prefer if active drinkers did not post whilst actually drinking, but very happy to welcome them back next day :) Just my view :)

Have lapsed many times but am on track now. Day 102 for me today :) Equals my previous Dry period in 2014 :)

X-post Hurricane you ain't going anywhere as you're in exactly the right place :)

X-x-post Glad well done on 102 days

I can see where you're coming from in a way Loubi (I've just gone back and re-read your opening post...) because you're saying "realistically I'm not going to achieve complete sobriety at the moment but I'd like to get there eventually" (I'm paraphrasing) and then saying what's the difference between that and what is actually happening with some other posters in that people are having slips anyway.

However... I do think there's a difference between knowing you want to stop completely, and having an occasional slip, mulling it over afterwards, learning from it and getting straight back into sobriety; and what happens on BB or in your case where you say, eg. you've had something like 33 sober days so far this year (so 1 in 3 dry days on average).

Moving on a bit, why do you think you're finding it hard to rack up longer stretches of sobriety, or are struggling to think you could stop completely? Maybe we could help you with that.

Hurricane don't go anywhere. Nor you Matron. :)