I'm really confused.

Tee81 · Newbie

I'm really confused.

Jane05 · MIP Old Timer

Hello Tee, Glad you found us and glad you're here.

Have you been to any AA meetings yet? I was at a similar place as you are in, but I was a bit older before I hit my bottom. When I got to the rooms of AA, I found I didn't have to do this alone and you don't have to either.

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

Hi Tee, and welcome to the board.
I was 27 when I began having a serious desire to quit drinking. That's the only requirement to join AA- "a desire to quit drinking". Here's a link to the "Big Book" of AA
that you can start reading online. Good luck in you new journey. smile

http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/

Dean

-- Edited by StPeteDean at 17:49, 2009-03-09

Sobrietyspell · MIP Old Timer

Welcome to MIP, Tee. You're in the right place today :) I stopped drinking at 29 & feel I got a lucky escape as I had a relatively high bottom but identified with other alcoholics in the meetings on spiritual, mental & emotional levels. I also came to realise how this disease is progressive & always gets worse, never better. I am alcoholic as once I take that first drink I just want more & I have an obsession where when I wasn't drinking I was thinking about my next one. Believe it or not I didn't notice this until the obsession started to lift as before that it had been so normal for me.

Pick up the phone to AA & share where you are with them. They will advise you on your nearest meetings & possibly even arrange to go with you if you need company. I went with a friend I knew in college who was in AA & then I was going on my own but I felt so welcome & I will never forget those early months for me. They were so special. The help, love & support I got & still have today. The very special friendship I developed with a Sponsor of my own choosing & the program of AA I learned that helps me to stay sober today too two & a half years on.

Me & my life have changed & completely turned around 1Day@aTime. I now live an alcohol free life, I have an abundance of friends & my family in my life who I now have harmonious relationships with. I am also settled in my work & studying for a qualification. I have a healthy & loving relationship & no more hangovers, waking up with the horrors of what I did last night. Yes, totally different to how it was before & it's all thanks to AA & the efforts I have made towards my sobriety. The work's hard but the wages are good ;)

It begins with 1step & you've already made it. Thanks for being here & sharing your courage with us. Goodluck in following suggestions as they're offered to you. All we do is share with you what was given to us & what helped us to get here too. You are not alone, Tee. In this together, Danielle x

lucaskywalker · Member

Hey Tee, and welcome :)
You don't have to be in that lonely place with the bottle anymore. If you haven't tried a meeting, give it a shot! If you have, keep going back! It is always there for you.
AA is one of the only places I've discovered where I can go at my worst low, and they say "Welcome, we're glad you're here." We have all been there.
That website Dean mentioned, http://www.aa.org is a good place to get started finding a meeting, too.

gary4u · Member

Hi Tee , Good of you to join here , this is a great place , I to have been there , losing friends etc. Need not to worry , you are just 28, you have a long way to go and build your self, we are here for you. Take things one day at a time and it will be clear to you as to how your day is. I used to drink very very heavily, my god don't say it has to be when ever my eyes are opend I need to drink , I have lost a lot in life but still having hope to regain it.

Thanks
Gary

Quetzal · MIP Old Timer

Hi Tee,

Welcome to MIP. I'm so glad that you are here with us.

By the time I reached out for help, alcohol had taken away my driving license, my boyfriend, my friends and my self-respect.

I eventually picked up the telephone and called my local AA helpline. The woman I spoke to knew exactly where I was and just how I was feeling. When I got to my first meeting I was greeted with love, warmth and understanding. From that moment on, I knew that I wasn't on my own.

I would suggest checking out meetings in your area and trying a few of them. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain. I just wish that I had done it years earlier.

Please keep posting and letting us know how things are going for you, won't you?

Take care,

Carol

Tee81 · Newbie

First I want to say thank you to everyone who replied to my post. I've been in such a terrible place the past few years and I'm ready to try and change. Many of you posted that I should go to a meeting. I would like to but I don't have a license and there isn't any bus transportation where I live, that is why I joined this forum. I'm actually afraid to call the number and ask for a ride.

Jane05 · MIP Old Timer

Tee - if you really want to get sober you will have to go to any lengths to get sober. What lengths did we all go to get alcohol? I did have a way to meetings but I could still come up with some real good excuses for not going anyway. We are not dumb people, if we want something bad enough we will find a way to get it. I'll bet there is a person you know who would love to take you to a meeting, if you'll ask them.

And after you meet a few of us in the rooms, some of these people maybe able to help you out as well. You just have to get to that first meeting.

Keeping you in my prayers. (((hugs)))

lani · MIP Old Timer

Welcome TEE!
Hope you found a way to get to a meeting...like it was stated earlier....willing to go to any length to get sober is the key....No need to be embarrassed or afraid...the people that help us actually admit that we help them stay sober by helping us!!! What a great concept!!! Give it a try...those feelings of loneliness will disappear!!!

pinkchip · MIP Old Timer

Welcome Tee! I came into AA (not that long ago) having just totaled my car and having no friends. Furthermore, had a long history of being diagnosed with depression and anxiety and was medicating it with alcohol and psych meds as well. I am grateful I could drive myself to meetings (even though I was a crappy driver for a good 3 months before I could concentrate at all again), but I was at such an emotional and spiritual bottom I had to go. Anyhow, I'm sharing this with you because there is help and you have the choice now to grab hold of it. Alcohol can and will ruin your life if you let it. Pursue your recovery with enthusiasm because your life, mental health, and all the rest can only get better if you do. Call the AA hotline and the transportation issues will work themselves out if you just do that and make it to your first few meetings. There will likely be a few others in the room in the same boat as you as far as needing rides is concerned (the disease does that to us) so don't feel ashamed of that. Bless you.

Mark

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

Jane05 wrote:

Tee - if you really want to get sober you will have to go to any lengths to get sober.What lengths did we all go to get alcohol?I did have a way to meetings but I could still come up with some real good excuses for not going anyway.We are not dumb people, if we want something bad enough we will find a way to get it.I'll bet there is a person you know who would love to take you to a meeting, if you'll ask them.

And after you meet a few of us in the rooms, some of these people maybe able to help you out as well. You just have to get to that first meeting.

Keeping you in my prayers. (((hugs)))

Quoted for Truth!

Tee, you can't lay that one on us, we've all been in excuse land, when it comes to
getting sober. You're reluctance to make the call and ask for help with a ride is simply a remaining reservation to drink. It's this very reason why most alcoholics has to suffer much and loose all before the acquire the Gifts or desparation and willingness "to go to any lengths" to get sober. Think about the great lengths that you've gone to
to acquire alcohol and drink. Think about all the important things and people in your life that you blew off just to drink. Isn't this one of those things? To my knowledge, no one that I've known, has acheived a length of sobriety (a year of more) by just internet partisipation. One of biggest factors in getting sober is to stop isolating and
rejoin the human race. The fellowship of AA is the most under estimated component.
We make real friends in the meetings, and beging to do extra curicular activities with the group and individuals and acquire a sense of family, our "chosen family".

There is nothing scary about going to meeting except for our misperception of them.
There are no dues or fees and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. No rules, no assignments, no tests, no forms, just show up and listen. I would recommend that you raise you hand when the leader ask for the newcomers to identify themselves, so that you will get a proper greeting and some people will offer there phone numbers to call them to talk about getting sober ect... When you state first name only, as a newcomer, at that time let it be known that you could use some help with rides to meetings and a temporary sponsor. This will put you on your way.
If you do an internet search for meetings in your area, you might be surprised that there are meetings within walking or bicycling distance. You can do, just make the call.
Those people who answer the local AA intergroup phone are volunteers who are in the program. They are doing service work giving back to the AA community and are glad to help you. If you ask them for a ride to a meeting, one will be provided and you'll have someone to take and introduce to folks in the meeting. Many of us started out this way. I was fortunate enough to have a Mother that was already in the program and arranged for someone roughly my age (I was 15 and they guy was 21) to take me to my first meeting. Life is short, get busy with it.

Dean

Tee81 · Newbie

I know that I am making excuses. Again, I thank you for listening to me. Sometimes I need a kick in the butt. I will be online tonight at the scheduled meeting. I know that I really have to get out in the real world again. I spend all of my time isolated in my room either drinking or watching movies. Then that makes me even more depressed that I have no life and I drink more. It's such a horrible cycle.