I’m an alcoholic and go to Alcoholics Anonymous. My sobriety date is 8/7/2016. Even after two years I still think drinking will make the bad feelings and problems go away. The only two reasons I don’t drink now are my medications and I can’t afford it. Right now I would drink if it weren’t for those two reasons. I have problems sleeping, and alcohol always put me to sleep. Plus I would forget my troubles. Even with the alcoholic blackouts and injuring myself. Any advice on how to change my opinion of alcohol and other reasons not to drink?
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You already got two very good reasons. Besides, it destroys your liver, your brain and your life.
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Stop giving alcohol power over you. It’s your choice whether to consume it or not. You have the power within you to change the way you think about alcohol. As hard as it may seem, you, only you, ultimately can decide whether or not to drink. No one is going to force it down your throat. That may seem daunting, but again if you change the way you look at it, you have all the power in the world, and alcohol has none.
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I haven’t been to a meeting in awhile though I have 29 years clean and I used to go to 5 or 6 meetings a week for literally years and I have been to over a thousand AA, CA, and NA meetings and went through the steps with a sponsor and got into service a little. I got clean mainly in AA though I’m an addict. No one minded in the meetings, in all my years of going to AA meetings and announcing myself as an addict only two people complained about me being in an AA even though I was an addict. And it wasn’t a coincidence that they were real jerks.
You know you can’t drink. Don’t think of the very few positive things about drinking, think of the many negative things. If you’re really an alcoholic, and you drink again, it’s not a matter of enjoying a couple of drinks one night and then you’ll go right back on the wagon. More likely, if you are an alcoholic then it’s going to be a matter of a series of drinks and getting drunk and most likely it’s going to trigger the kind of drinking you did that made you want to quit in the first place. You know this. And you don’t want this. AA says before you pick up that drink to think it through. Think of each step that’s going to happen if you drink. From picking it up, to having just one, and then two or three, and then being drunk and having to face the behavior or whatever you do while drunk and than facing yourself the next morning. That should help deter you. If you are worried about drinking than call your sponsor or hit a meeting. That’s what sponsors are for and the meeting will offer support and safety from drinking. If you are in a meeting you will at least not be out drinking. Did drinking really solve anything and make your problems go away for a length of time? I doubt it.
Every alcoholic is capable of having a weak moment where they are tempted to drink. I repeat, go to a meeting and talk about this and everyone will understand and give you support.
In AA they say that “The best time to go to a meeting is when you don’t feel like it.”
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Do you have a sponsor?
Are you attending meetings regularly?
Are you reading your Big Book every day?
Are you working the steps?
Just putting the plug in the jug won’t do it. Failure to actively work the program is the shortest path back to the bottle. (Not accusing you of not working your program, just sharing my experience as an Old Timer.)
Sending (((hugs))) and best wishes, this is a tough thing.
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I’ve changed to a new sponsor. He told me to start reading the Big Book again when I think about drinking. I haven’t been reading the Big Book. I go to meetings regularly. I worked all the steps in 2016 into the early part of 2017. Recently with my old sponsor I started working the steps again. But I just got a new sponsor last Saturday after the old one dropped me. I was on Step 4, but I stopped working it.
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Note to non AAs: What we call “The Big Book” is actually “Alcoholics Anonymous”:
Just in case people think we’re referring to The Bible or some such.
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Well that sounds like you are doing some things right. Keep it up. Hell, you’re going to inspire me to get back to meetings. You know what to do, just keep doing the right things.
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Long story short: You came into AA as a person with a real mess of bad habits. Regular contact with healthier AA members and actively working the AA program will help you start replacing these bad habits (and bad emotions are a type of habit) with more positive ones. This is one of those “time takes time” things and you have to keep at it to get the results. Kind of like a diet and exercise plan. Slow to lose the weight, but stop your diet/exercise and the weight comes flying back. So do bad habits. Gotta keep at it the best you can, man.
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number 1 reason. you need to accept the things you cannot change. other words drinking will never fix anything for the better. it will always make it worse.
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Sounds to me like the drinking was a coping mechanism. Work on finding other healthier ones, and talk to your pdoc about sleep meds
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Did u taper off alcohol or did u quit abruptly. How much were you drinking before you quit?
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I just quit abruptly.
I was drinking 5 to 8 32oz cans of beer a day.
I don’t drink because it makes my symptoms worse, changes who I am into something I don’t want to be. I was killing myself slowly on it, ruining my home life. Hit rock bottom a few times. I like who I am better when I don’t drink
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