Informal Poll on Quitting drinking

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

Informal Poll on Quitting drinking

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

I'm definitely in the #3 column. It took quite a lot meetings and trying to get sober on my own prior to, along with consequences, to break down my denial and become willing to make getting sober "My primary purpose".

Larry_H · MIP Old Timer

I am a 2

I wouldn't call it a one night wonder however. Very very difficult in the beginning to not drink but I stayed the course.

My sponsor told me he had never seen a person come in that was more ready to accept the program than me.

Alcohol totally defeated me. It was the best thing that could have happened to me.

33 years one day a time with no relapses YET

Yet = You're Eligible Too

Larry,
-----------------------
God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me. ~Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from "The Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Neibuhr

AGO · MIP Old Timer

I am a threepeat number 2 or number 3

I have 3 periods of long term sobriety but none were possible without working the steps in AA

3 years, 7 years, 2 years+ (present day)

First sobriety ended by introducing alcohol into my system inadvertently triggering the obsession and craving, I continued going to meetings for 6 months? a year and I just. couldn't. stop. until the wheels fell off.

Talk about powerless...worst 5 years of my life, I couldn't stop no matter how hard I tried or what I did, the "window" wasn't there, that revolving door of AA that they say goes both directions actually doesn't ...... it's like playing with a combination lock and like has been said, it's easier to stay stopped then it is to stop, my experience is once we click that lock closed by drinking there is no telling if we can open it back again, I have seen too many people with decades return to drinking, decide they don't like it, and not be able to make it back, I was almost one of them.

Sobriety 2 I stopped working the steps and going to meetings, after 2 years one of 2 things was going in my mouth, a gun or a drink, I took the drink and was able to stop after "the first nip of the wringer", took about 6 months and all of the sudden I saw my future, it wasn't pretty, I got lucky

jonijoni1 · MIP Old Timer

I am none, Dean, no fair!! But at several points in my life I have been a #3, if that's what u are trying to get at??

By the way, I'll take the #3 with no onions or cheese, and please Supersize it!

mikef · MIP Old Timer

Hey Dean! how ya doin man! I fall into #1 after early ,sporadic drop -ins at both fellowships,..... after 20 years returned to fellowships to work recovery not abstinence!Only by the grace of God!

louisa · Senior Member

3.) It's been a process and I didn't get sober on the first try but have been able to remain sober for more than a year by working a program in AA or other support group.

Louisa xx

Dave Harm · Senior Member

I'm a #1 - I quit for five and a half years, in which time I went to maybe three meetings. I taught myself that self-knowledge would not keep me sober...

Now #3 - I haven't had a desire to drink for a few years... but I'll keep going to meetings cause I want to stay that way...

angelov8 · MIP Old Timer

Never seem to be able to definitively pick from multiple choice, but love to participate.

#2 is closest, but not a full year, YET.

I tried many times to quit drinking on my own, without success.

On April 30 2010 I will have 11 months of continuous sobriety after my first visit to MIP, after which I fully embraced AA at the advice of the thoughtful and experienced folk here.

bikerbill · MIP Old Timer

I'm a #2 so far - and long may it remain so.

- but for the first few months it was just out of arrogance, a belief that all I had to do was not drink for a bit and then I could teach them all how to 'drink like a gentleman!' Then I started to hear people with more than 6 months continued abstinence and sobreity, So i thought I'd better do a day more than them, then I heard people say they'd racked up 5 years, 10 years, 20 years - Bastard, there ain't no get out clause is there?

Then my sponsor asked if I realised that we are talking about life long sobreity for the rest of my days? Oh shit! But then he explained one day at a time. Thanks for that.

His phrase, not often used,, is we have a life sentence in AA.

I like to apply the as opposed to rule. In this case as opposed to a death sentence in a bottle.

FlyingSquirrel · Senior Member

I'm kind of in the middle between 2 and 3, I think. I haven't had a drink since 2/16/09 but did not attend my first AA meeting till 4/11/09, and I tried to quit drinking several times before 2/16/09, lasting usually one day to one month at the most, before convincing myself that I didn't really need to quit or whatever BS I sold myself. The only reason I quit on 2/16 was because I got a DUI - at first I said I was quitting forever, then I decided I'd quit just for two months which would be long enough to convince the courts that I didn't have a problem. lol

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

Secret squirrel, if you've been sober since your first AA meeting then you're a #2.

jonijoni1 · MIP Old Timer

Dean, in reading #2, it looks like you are asking if people went to ONE meeting and stayed sober (having never gone back, due to the "one night wonder" part).... ???

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

I'm a twoer doer. smile

SoberSteve · MIP Old Timer

Is there a option for less than 24 hours and never going a year? That would be me :(

FlyingSquirrel · Senior Member

Steve, you're just a future #3.

smile

slugcat · Senior Member

i thought i had posted but i dont think i have. Im a 3 took me a while to get that i was really an alki.

Mike B. · MIP Old Timer

Number 3 for me. It was definitely a process.
Daily drinker.... To-
Denial- I will control my drinking.... To-
Admitting I was an alcoholic but not willing to do anything about it... To-
Accepting I was an alcoholic but would run my program.

To-
Alcoholic finally won and I surrendered and became honest, open and willing to get sober. Sobriety became and still is my # 1 priority. But for the grace of god.....

pinkchip · MIP Old Timer

#2 at this point...a day at a time.

Reffner · Senior Member

#3 here, and grateful to be sober!

carlasober · Senior Member

#2 By the Grace of God and his mercy. I didn't think that I was a alcoholic when I enter the rooms of A.A. I went because the treatment center took us. I kept coming back and one day at a time a moment of clarity hit me( by going to Step Study and Big Book study meetings) I am a alcoholic. I too must have this thing! I am grateful for the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Keep Coming Back!

Rob84 · MIP Old Timer

I'm a #3, although AA did help me right from from the start

MDC · Senior Member

I guess I hope to be @#3 some day. how about #5 I know I need help. but not sure I want help?

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

Well we had more #2's than I expected but the majority are #3's (myself included) which goes to show that this is a process not an event. Don't be discouraged if you didn't get it the first couple times around. Many of your old timers didn't either. Just keep starting over until you get it.