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Introducing myself......
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Hello, I'm new to the board. After seeking out a forum for support, I choose this one after reading John's post on "a letter to a woman alcoholic." I am a alcoholic....letter confirmed it! Today, I am going to try and stop drinking....all alcohol in my home is now gone. Poured down the drain. Happy I found this site. Thank you John!



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MIP Old Timer

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Welcome to the discussion forum, GH. You have taken an important first step on the road to recovery.

There are many members here who have  been where you are at now. Many of us are AA members. I am one. I could not stop drinking until I got help. I got help at a rehab and in the rooms of AA. 

Have you ever gone to AA before? If not, maybe go to the web site:

http://aa.org 

and take a look at the link titled Need Help With A Drinking Problem?

There is useful information there about AA, alcoholism, and how to find meetings in your area.

If you have any questions, fire away. I am sure we can answer them.

 



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MIP Old Timer

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Ah... the letter hooked you too? I wrote your post some many moons ago and did the same thing with the alcohol. Glad u decided to get help. Bravo for u. Now don't give up no matter what. That's all alcoholism really is in my mind. Anything or any voice that tries to get me to drink. and yes there's much more to it but bottom line is don't drink today no matter what for me. I don't think about it anymore. .. that's long gone... but at first not drinking was nearly impossible without a meeting sometime in that 24hrs. Keep posting. Xxx



-- Edited by justadrunk on Friday 13th of February 2015 05:34:02 PM

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Thanks for everything.  Peace and Love on your journey.  



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Welcome Grace. I could not have stopped without AA. I resisted going for a long time and then it turned out to be the best thing I ever did in my life. Hopefully you do get to some face to face meetings too. Welcome to recovery!

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MIP Old Timer

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Welcome to MIP GH, ... glad you decided to join us ... may this be the beginning of a new life filled with peace and serenity for you and those around you ...


Love you and God Bless,
Pappy



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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'



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Thanks everyone! Happy Valentines Day! Went out to a nice dinner last night----drank water. Tasted great! I will seek out those meetings in my area...my weak times are when I get lonely! Being able to go to a meeting would really help!



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 May God give you...For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.
 


MIP Old Timer

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Welcome to MIP!

Stick around,,WE need you    smilesmile



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MIP Old Timer

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Welcome.

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But for the grace of God.


MIP Old Timer

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...my weak times are when I get lonely! ...You're learning already.  Aloha and welcome to the board grace...this is family.   The meetings are face to face and I got to hear the message and the messenger what worked for them which was new Experience, Strength and Hope for me whether I bought it on the first round or not.  Ours is a simple program even for complicated people like myself and then they had a response for that for me also at the start, "Keep coming back" which I have done.  2/8 was my anniversary which started in 1979.  It isn't only about not drinking.  The program teaches us that it is much more than that and it includes your stated self awareness.  In order to get sober and stay sober I need to be where sober is at.   Welcome to the board.   (((hugs))) smile



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MIP Old Timer

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Hello Grace, welcome to the board! About 150 years of continuous (combined) sobriety posted in your thread ;). This fellowship works on duplication of a successful plan of action.
Stick around, learn and experience the joy and wonder of a life worth living sober.

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MIP Old Timer

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Welcome Grace!  Glad to have you here with us. 



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Newbie

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Four days....no alcohol. It's a start. How does it feel not drinking? Like holding your breath underwater. And if you come up for air you fail the test. Why do people decide to stop drinking? Life is stressful, lonely, and sometimes absolutely cold. Alcohol is a warm blanket of comfort to me. 

I am trying to stop because alcohol has left me feeling ashamed of myself too many times. Embarrassed. And sometimes scared of what I might have said or done...or could do. That it why I am choosing to quit. No DUIs. No losing my family. Haven't lost anything tangible. Some people would be shocked to even know I drink. But I know if I don't stop now I might start sliding down a slippery slope and I won't be able to stop.

No one has asked me to stop-except me.

 



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 May God give you...For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.
 


MIP Old Timer

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Seems to me that a very important person has asked you to stop. 

Are you thinking about learning about AA?

Or do you want to stop drinking solo?

Four days without alcohol is good. Keep up the good work.

 

 



-- Edited by Tanin on Tuesday 17th of February 2015 10:17:45 PM

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MIP Old Timer

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We Agnostics

"IN THE PRECEDING chapters you have learned something of alcoholism. We hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic. If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer." AA book.

Alcoholism is not a sin. It's a debilitating, serious physical illness. Coupled with a fatal obsession to drink the chemical, it is impossible for an alcoholic to recover on his own.
To the best of my knowledge, AA is the only fellowship that's been able to help alcoholics of my type. It describes the problem in simple terms, it gives a simple solution to the problem, it then gives detailed instruction on how to apply a simple program of recovery.
Does it work? After 26.5 years the program still works 100% in my own life.

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MIP Old Timer

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Grace Hopper wrote:

Four days....no alcohol. It's a start. How does it feel not drinking? Like holding your breath underwater. And if you come up for air you fail the test. Why do people decide to stop drinking? Life is stressful, lonely, and sometimes absolutely cold. Alcohol is a warm blanket of comfort to me. 

I am trying to stop because alcohol has left me feeling ashamed of myself too many times. Embarrassed. And sometimes scared of what I might have said or done...or could do. That it why I am choosing to quit. No DUIs. No losing my family. Haven't lost anything tangible. Some people would be shocked to even know I drink. But I know if I don't stop now I might start sliding down a slippery slope and I won't be able to stop.

No one has asked me to stop-except me.

 


 Hi Grace, it IS a start, a great start ... and I'm go'n to say I wish I had stopped before the 'yets' ... I had many opportunities, but didn't ... 

I tried to make a list once listing all the 'pros' and all the 'cons' of drinking ... the longer I continued drinking, the longer the 'cons' list grew ... I went to AA for a while and found out I wasn't nearly as bad as those folks ... then I found out about the 'yets' and when I stopped going, the 'yets' started happening ... my health went south on me, then I got a DUI, then my wife threatened divorce, then this and that ... 

I wise person will 'sit-up' and realize what's happening to them and take measures to stop it ... but the alcohol will tell you you're fine ... I pray you will try going to some AA meetings to hear those who are just like you ... at some point or other, they were on your path ... please listen to the 'solution' they found that turned there life around ... it's the only thing that saved my life from total destruction ... 

 

Love you and God Bless,

Pappy



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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'



MIP Old Timer

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Grace Hopper wrote:

Four days....no alcohol. It's a start. How does it feel not drinking? Like holding your breath underwater. And if you come up for air you fail the test. 


Hi Grace - what a coincidence! That is EXACTLY how I described what it felt like to abstain from drinking when I had just a few days without alcohol!

And I have some encouraging news for you - that feeling doesn't have to last, and for me, that feeling stopped when I stopped trying to abstain from drinking on nothing but my own willpower (we sometimes refer to this type of sobriety as 'white-knuckle' sobriety) and began to seek help from other people in AA. It got SO much easier as soon as a started participating in AA meetings, making new friends in AA who knew exactly what I was going through and who were actually very happy to show me how they had achieved long-term and contented sobriety without those feelings of craving, tension, and 'holding my breath'. That's how it works in AA - we get helped by those who got sober before us, and then we can help others who arrive after us.

Having a drinking problem is not something to play around with. I encourage you to please don't try to do this the hard way, all by yourself, trying to rely on only your own willpower. It's extremely unlikely that this method will result in any success at staying sober, and even if it does, it's VERY uncomfortable and just a miserable way to get through the day. I encourage you to get to lots of AA meetings and make use of the help that is there, freely available to people like us.   



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Great discussion you have initiated Grace...memories of how it use to be for us...what happened and what it is like now...You hear the WOWs!! this kind of life without alcohol never occurred to me...drinking and what came with it wasn't an issue.  I was born and raised in this and I drank because I could and because my family always could before that and we kept ourselves loaded on alcohol.  I had that arrogant, belligerent alcoholic non-caring attitude which came with the disease.  I had no losses...if people, places and things passed they passed...not a big deal and I didn't scramble to trying to save things others thought had value for them I just didn't care.   I stopped drinking on a strange thought that there "was no law that said I had to"...weird and I guess that came from my history in my family where we were always offering drinks and taking them because they were offered.  It didn't occur to me to say something other than "Oh OK, thanks".  Before "the thought" I had reached toxic shock (alcohol poisoning) three times that I knew of which is so profound because I was reduced to a heart beat and breath and absolutely nothing else.   I could not and would not even twitch until just enough alcohol would absorb and let me twitch my way across the floor and either to the shower stall (I could even raise my head high enough to get the commode) or the foot of the bed.   Toxic shock...go figure...learned that 5 years after I stopped drinking.  Five years after I stopped drinking my body color changed also...from urine yellow/green to tan...there was lots...tons I didn't know about the physiology of alcoholism that I eventually found out.   I didn't need to know it to stop...I needed to know it because I had learned there was no law that said I had to and what the consequences were.

Good on you coming here.  I'm grateful for your awareness and participation and I how you keep coming back often.   ((((hugs)))) smile  



-- Edited by Jerry F on Wednesday 18th of February 2015 09:56:02 PM

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MIP Old Timer

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Welcome, Grace! I'm glad you're here and I hope you'll stick around.

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