So I guess the addiction to alcohol will always be there I just go every 4 to 6 months sober then I relapse and binge drink ā this time I thought I would be thrown in a black hole by God and my progress and sin meant nothing at allā¦
Someone please shoot me!
Your thoughts?
So you spent months not touching the sauce, then had one slip up. Instead of drinking every day.
Did you stop drinking again? Feel horrible? Want to stay sober again?
Thatās not a failing. Thatās a slip.
Failing is going off the wagon and giving up on sobriety.
Took me 6 years to get it to stick, doing the same thing, but Iām sober now.
My only thought is that personally if I donāt keep myself distracted with various hobbies I will go on a bender. I ended up in the ER going through alcohol withdrawals and needed to get loaded up on Ativan to stop shaking. Any ideas as to why you drink? It can be many things if you want to chat?
Yup I feel the urge again to stop, you are right it is only a slip up but to consider it this way is the biggest challenge ā got to get back on the horse
Thatās all we can do. Admit it happened, count yourself lucky that you didnāt do anything to bad, and climb back up.
You arenāt a bad person, you just had a moment of weakness.
From one addict to another, Please donāt give up. Itās hard work, but Iāll tell you itās worth it. Iām happier now than when I was using.
AA, CA, and NA has kept me clean and sober for 29 years. Those programs donāt work for everybody but they work for a LOT of people and the programs are free.
When I was going to meetings regularly it wasnāt unusual to see or hear people with a mental illness. The members tend to be pretty tolerant of the differences in each other. I used to hear a lot in AA , āPrincipleās before personalities.ā Though some members stand out, the common purpose of getting and staying sober trumps any members ego or popularity.
The meetings can get dead serious or hilarious but the common purpose is to help each other get sober and stay sober and the other saying is, āTo keep what we got (sobriety) we have to give what we know away.ā
So people in meetings freely tell you how they got sober and how they keep sober. Iāve been to a lot of meetings and have heard hundreds and hundreds of alcoholics and addicts tell their stories and I have seen alcoholics who before they got sober drank for 10, 15 or 25+ years and slept on sidewalks or park benches in their own urine who little kids were afraid to get near them.
People who drank copious amounts of alcohol nearly every day and doctors told them they were hopeless and they are going to die from alcoholism. But somehow they got to an AA meeting and started going regularly and got sponsors and worked the steps and sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, they started to āgetā the program and pretty soon their eyes get brighter, sometimes they smile for the first time in years and they start dressing normally and then they start racking up clean time and eventually rejoin society and become honest, productive members of sobriety and these people get 10 or twenty years of continuous sobriety.
What Iāve learned in AA and CA is that no matter how much alcohol you drank or how many drugs you took, or no matter how long you used or what drug you used or how often you drank that you can still get clean & and sober. Iāve seen it a million times.
And itās not just hard core drinkers that were homeless or in prison who are in meetings, alcoholics can come from any walk of life. I smoked crack four years which is highly addictive. I caused trouble while I was a practicing addict but as soon as I got clean, āI stopped being part of the problem and I became part of the solution.ā
If you want serious help to quit drinking, you might want to attend some AA meetings. You donāt have to talk you can just sit in the back and listen until you get comfortable going. AA, CA, and NA saved my life and sanity. They can help you too. When you want help to stop drinking the rooms of AA are waiting.
AA and NA are a friendly place where I found some very powerful tools for recovery. Nick is right, Itās worth a shot.
I will attest to AA helping a LOT of people
I second what @77nick77, and @Ooorgle said.
I highly recommend giving AA a try. And if you have some extra dough I highly recommend what they call āthe big bookā in AA.
The Big Book is basically the history and philosophy of AA along with some personal testimonies.
Iām about five years clean off alcohol and I feel great. I should note I didnāt work all the steps, but I feel like AA and talking to other alcoholics really saved my life.
Take care, and be well.
Iām proud of you for going so long without a drink and Iām proud of you for reaching out for help now that youāve slipped up. Just try again and put the past behind you.
You can do it
Youāve come so far
Believe in yourself Hun x
I did AA for five years and learned a lot of tools that I could apply in my life, but it wasnāt for me. I find that getting involved in my community, volunteer work, and having pastimes is what I need. When I get cravings, its time to review myself, my life, and my relationships. Those are the reasons why I usually relapse. Iāve also tried CBT (Recovery based on mindfulness), Refuge (Recovery based on meditation), and mental health workshops (Recovery based on education). They are a nice alternative to meetings if your interested in trying something different.
Yeah. Itās hard not to drink. I have liver problems so I have to quit. I still crave it though.
A.A. got me sober. Worth a go.
@77nick77. Amen. Iām so thankful I never tried drugs.
I was addicted to weed for 2 years one time, could not go a day without at least a joint. I spent thousands of pounds on it throughout the years, but when I got sz I started to get paranoid and delusional from weed so I quit. I used to drink while in England once weekly I had sleepless night with my co-worker, we had chats and stories, we used to drink quite a lot, but like said once weekly.
From what I hear from people, it is normally that once you get addicted to the stuff, you have to never do it again.
I heard once an addict, always an addict the difference is the clean and sober addict vs the drunken addict ā¦
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