Brave Babes are boinging into Spring..Join us here!

[dementedma]

We are a bus load of Babes all battling alcohol and trying to resist, reduce and get our lives back under control. Whatever you have to say, we will have heard it before and no-one will judge you. This is a warm, friendly,supportive place with tough love when needed ( slap round the face with a wet squid called Barrie). Join us here.

I was knocking back about 90 units a week when I went into counselling, flowery. You're not alone Embroidery sounds good. Have you done cross-stitch? It's the kind of thing I find really absorbing and satisfying.

Time that's a killer plan! I forgot to mention eating, I always know I'm safe if I can get to eating dinner. The kitchen is also my danger zone. You have done awesomely tonight, hope you're proud. Enjoy Broadchurch. It's fabulous (in a menacing and disturbing kind of way).

Day 2 AF here. Bloody exhausted after a week of drinking and disaster sleep. Would like my brain back. Bed soon!

Hi all
Impressed with all the thoughtful insightful and generous posts.
I'm feeling a bit wiped out with H and all the rest of it, so not posting but am reading.
I'm moderating, 3 or 4 AF days then trying hard on the other days to drink less.
And as a result am defo a nicer mummy.
And just like ma did recently, a few times I've invoked the names of the babes on the bus to enable my resistance!

Good luck to everyone tonight. Agree that 140 units to none is not advisable, please take care.

Good to hear from you 42 you look after yourself x

Flora yeah I like that kind of work you have to focus on. How are you finding counselling? I got for my depression but I never really talked about my drinking

42 3-4 days is great though. And being a nicer mummy is definitely the goal, I hate that I'm so short with the boys when they're making noise when mummy's head is sore

I know flowery but you're here, addressing it and beating the witch, so

Thanks lux you're driving I think at the moment giving loads of support. for you

Is it 10 units per bottle as a rule of thumb?

The reason I keep on posting tonight (sorry) is that it definitely is dangerous to go from very high consumption to 0. So I am slightly worried about Time and Flowery.

Ma - really sorry to hear about your fall. Did you trip?

Agreed lux your support is amazing

Happy to drive for a while as long as I can play some mellow tunes
Yes Bibbity about 10 units a bottle, so I was doing at least 20 units a night every weekend and maybe 20 during the week.

When you open a 3rd bottle, well, it's time hey?

But, we are all self aware, intelligent people and we can redesign our lives as we wish - yes?

Yes yes and yes

Bibbity most of the bottles I drink are about 9/10 units. I am concerned about stopping abruptly which is why I think a glass or a few alcohol free days is the way to go.

From what I can remember lux saying is that she did dry Jan with not too many symptoms.

I've had the sweats and the shakes last night and today and I'm over 24 hours now. I can only hope that doing my 4 af days and cutting down on the others will help

Yes I was fine Flowerey everyone is different though.
Tbh as I mentioned I had no idea if drank quite so much and it didn't occur to me I shouldn't just quit.

My sleep settled after a week or so, the cravings subsided fairly quickly.
I was lucky.

Lux well I'm glad to hear it

Mellow tunes on the bus and the hope of actually sleeping properly it is then. I think that's what I miss most, also the not feeling constantly lethargic

I agree with the pro-alcohol messages. Most of the supermarket meal deals (evening meals) include a reduced bottle of something or other, there’s a big thing about ‘wine o’clock’ on glasses/mugs/cards for mothers day, on TV whenever a main character has a bit of a bad day they down scotch if male or wine if female, alcohol’s such a big part of everyday life, it’s all around us.

Flowery it sounds like you had a rough night out, I am sorry. I can relate to the not remembering what happened feeling and it’s shit isn’t it have an early night and be form tomorrow

Induction went well, I’ve managed to get 13 hours overtime already so doing 23 hours this week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday). Am hoping to try and get overtime Sunday too. It’s not loads of money but better than nothing have got a training course (related to volunteering at the refuge) tomorrow 9.30-4.30 so will be leaving house at quarter past 8 at the latest. Will prob be tired tomorrow (tiring myself out might be good though, as atm I’m struggling to get to sleep without cocodamol although whether that’s anxiety over next weeks court case, I don’t know)

Aw made that's great news about work! Plus overtime is good going for your first week, do Tesco still do time and a half on a Sunday? Tiring yourself out is definitely a plan, think it's the way forward these days

Good stuff made busy is good and your tiredness will be a natural, healthy fatigue. Your sleep should settle down. One thing I learned is to not look at the clock during times of insomnia - makes you panic.

Sorry, had read the page without refreshing. Just done the calculations and February last year I was drinking around 100 units a wine last week it was 8 units, admittedly a large part of that is me trying to cut down for my weight loss, but still. A big difference.
Well done time
Hope everyone is ok

What mellow tunes do we have? Some Motown?

Edie Brickell?

Marvin Gaye for a while I think
I must get to my bed now, hope you all get a good rest.

morning all

Well head wise I definitely feel better.

However my stomach is hurting like it does when I've drunk at least double. I found it really hard to get off to sleep and feel like I havent slept at all. In the middle of the night I was in pain in my stomach too
Still day 1 done.

Positives.
Today I wont worry being over the limit driving to work.
Today I will be able to concentrate at work.
I'm going to see all pro-alcohol ads for what they are - had one on my FB this morning -a poster saying "take wine to work day" and 1000s of people (including friends) had shared and "loved" this picture

Am struggling with AF, but have reduced from my usual bottle to half a bottle both Sunday and last night.

Have a massive interview for a promotion on Thursday am- so hoping for AF tonight and tomorrow foe a clear head for that!

Well done all who are doing better than me!

Time it's still really good and I fear the same when I'm doing the drop offs that I'm probably still over the limit. Plus like you say you'll be able to concentrate on work better. It's still a win for last night whatever way you look at it

Swarski I wish I could leave a half bottle in the fridge that's stronger than I am, I see it as if it's half drunk I may aswell drink the rest

Morning to all the other brave babes this morning. Would nc but I'm trying to get ds1 ready for his school pics. Hoping to hear about our mortgage today aswell after they asked me for more info hope everyone has a fab day

Morning everyone.

To quote JesusWhatNext who started this bus rolling ...

TODAY I WILL NOT BE DRINKING!!!

Enjoy your last day before work made .

And relish your hangover-free days everyone else.

Morning! Day 3 AF here. Feeling a bit more human.

flowery I've had quite a lot of therapy over the years: CBT for OCD when I was young (not brilliant), psychotherapy for depression (excellent), alcohol counselling (useful) and counselling to address my fear of repeating my own mum's behaviour when my DD was born.
The counselling I mentioned in the post was the alcohol counselling. It was useful in that it taught me to keep a diary, to measure everything and to check out my triggers, but it wasn't the highest quality counselling I've ever had. The guy was Muslim and said that where he was from, they all thought we Westerners were mad for drinking alcohol. He'd never had a drink, but he smoked and had tried to kick it but couldn't. So he'd no experience of alcohol, didn't understand why you'd drink it and was unable to deal with his own addiction . It wasn't mega-inspiring! Still, I took a lot of skills away from it.

Psychotherapy was far and away the best for my personal development and long-term mental health. It's lengthy and, if private, expensive, though.

I forgot to respond to your comment about DC2 earlier, sorry! Good to hear that two are easier than one. One was like my life being hit by a freight train she's worth it though.

made hope you're not too tired today. You volunteer at a refuge? What a lovely person you are. At your age I would have been too scared and too preoccupied with myself to do something like that. Ah yes, the drinking on TV. It's amazing that detectives on American crime dramas ever get anything done. One minute they're downing the most enormous glass of Scotch in someone's office, the next minute they're DRIVING off to a crime scene or understanding complicated forensic evidence. Yeah right.

Well done time! Just think, that's one load of guilt off your mind. You're not worrying about driving drunk. You achieved that. The sleep will be shit for a while but you will see improvements. And when you do you'll feel like a new person.

swars that's great, you've halved your drinking for two days.

42 3 or 4 days AF is amazing, especially when you're going through a horrible time.