This idea came from another thread that converted to this question and I figured I would make it its own thread, its a interesting topic... Would you break your sobriety? Would you pour it out? Ration? What would you do? Id dump it out and use the bottle to store water :)
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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
I'd tear off most of the label but leave just a couple parts for eyes and a mouth. I'd call him Wilson. Ok that one's taken... maybe Goosey. Oh ya, I'd probably leave the Vodka in it - besides the fact that it could be used on cuts, my ego would want there to be proof that I didn't drink it if I were rescued (or after I died, whichever).
Us alcoholics drive our selves CRAZY with questions like that lol. My luck I would drink it and just when I got good and drunk the police would come to rescue me and arrest me for drinking on a no drinking island. So moral of the story..... no matter what I can NOT drink!!
I would pour it out. There are medical things it could be saved for..... there are fuel-oriented things it could be saved for.... but my brain is one that has been blessed with the ability to solve problems and find other ways to treat cuts, and to start fires. A bottle of vodka would be the last thing I would need to have lying around. Because my brain and body also have a deadly disease called alcoholism. I would pour it out and clean it out, and find some useful purpose for the empty bottle.
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
I think I would try tio find something to pour the vodka in to save it for medicinal.cuts,etc and then I would look for a piece of wood to carve a note in with a stone or other object.place it in the bottle and send it into the ocean hoping someone would find it(kind of like playing LOTTO a billion to 1).... yOU know "Message in a bottle"!!!!!(police)
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Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles.
I know that for me I wouldn't risk me and a bottle of vodka together alone on a Island.......I am not sure I would be capable of putting it aside for medicinal purposes (.....er....other than a sore throat!!!!!!) without constantly being aware of it's presence.
I would have to get rid of it and yes ...a lovely idea I could maybe use it somehow to put a message in/on..... Louisa xx
One bottle would be useless but I do understand the thinking of the alcoholic in the following joke: ------------------------------------
Did you hear the one about the alcoholic who was stranded on a desert island? He found a bottle floating near the shore. When he opened it, out popped a genie; his salvation!
The genie said, "I'll grant you two wishes", to which the alcoholic replied quickly with his first wish, "I'd like a never ending bottle of whiskey." The genie immediately complies with his wishes and provides him a with never ending bottle. When asked what his second wish would be, the alcoholic replied, after careful consideration, "I'll have another never ending bottle of whiskey!"
Larry, ---------------- A drink will only make a situation worse, never ever better
As with all 80% anything, over the years, my brain has superimposed a Skull and Crossbone on all of them. Poison, well that would be for comsumption only, but why not keep it for any cuts, or building a fire? (stil cannot figure out how that would get done....like lighter fluid???)
I do like the idea of making a face on the front, make it a friend, deserted on a dessert island, we would need something to talk to using our own imagination.....how about some strands of seed-weed for hair too.....call him Louise.....
I would dump out the vodka and break the bottle and bury it. Don't need any reminders or temptations in that situation. If I didn't do that; before long the bottle will start talking to me........... the diesase would then send out a plattoon between my ears. Not good for this alcoholic.
I wish I could tell you 100% that I would dump it, but if I'm being honest there's no way I could answer that question. I would like to think that I would dump it, but unless I'm put in that situation, I"ll never know. But that's just me...
thanks for your honesty brian, being honest and relooking the question, I probably would think, hey its one bottle and drink it and enjoy it then start my recovery over... but thats the sad state of where I am at today, I keep looking at it as if I relapse I can always start over.... the sad part is deep inside I know that I may not be that lucky too after relapsing too bad, I had a fellow AA member die from this last month, just found out, first that I have known go out and die,... its a horrific slap in the face to this disease we all share.... I am so confused..
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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
(((Steve))) I had been going to AA only about 5 weeks when a young woman called Kate (have never forgotten her) went out again and died leaving 2 beautiful children without their essentially deep down very loving and caring Mum. God it was so sad and a hell of a shock. Her death just proved to me just how powerful this disease is.
I like to in many/most respects keep a beginners mind and am as terrified of alcohol just as much today as I was in early sobriety.....maybe even more......alcohol is rarely in my thoughts today (well not often) but I respect it 1 million % !!!! My sponsor told me in the early stages to look at a bottle and just see POISON marked on it. I do that to this day..... With lots of love Louisa xx
Wow...tough question. After crafting several containers from the swim bladders of captured fish, I would put the vodka into the swim bladders and store them in a cool, dry, safe place. The alcohol would be irreplaceable as an antiseptic. Mixed with urine & brains it could be used for tanning hides. It could be used to sterilize hunting implements between uses to prevent botchulism. I'd also use it to clean my fingernails & fingertips before eating. Who knows what I'd be wiping my arse with and the last thing I'd need is e-coli.
The cap would become a scraper, bug-trap, the front lip of a fishing lure, a cam or just a tiny cup.
The bottle itself I would break on the long side.
The biggest side-shard would become a knife or hatchet. The neck & opening would become a spear-tip or if it was big enough (gallon) I would use it to collect condensation for drinking water. The bottom would be used to refract sunlight to start fires and as a hand-held lense to amplify & direct torch-light. During the day it could also be used in conjunction with the cheek-plate of a fish or inside of a crustacean shell for a signal mirror.
I wouldn't DARE get drunk in a survival situation. That's just stupid.
What I would do would depend on whether I was an alcoholic or not and if alcoholic, whether I was recovered or not.
Since I'm a recovered alcoholic, I wouldn't worry about drinking it. I like some of the responders that said they would do other stuff with it besides drink it, like use it for cuts and medicinal purposes, use it to start a fire, etc. Maybe some non-alky would come along and I could offer them a drink or two.
I have booze in my house right now; a Waterford Crystal full of Jack Daniels in the spare bedroom and my wife has about 4 or 5 bottles of wine and a bottle of Baileys in the kitchen and some beers for guests in the fridge.
Alcohol is not my problem today. I'm sober and recovered through Alcoholics Anonymous. We are not reformers, teetotalers, nor are we a Temperance Movement. It's a neat program. I wish more would try it.
-- Edited by McGowdog on Friday 23rd of July 2010 02:04:39 PM
That's one of the things that scares me about relapsing, honestly. If it didn't turn out to be a horrific ordeal for me (possible--I could come to my senses quickly and get myself back on track the first time), I'd be afraid it would work in my mind as a rationalization try it again, leading to more experimentation with maybe a not-so-easy road back. Or maybe NO road back.
We are all GENIUSES when it comes to our ability to rationalize and lie to ourselves--that's how we managed to drink as long as we did in the first place.
For me, at least as bad as the direct consequences of drinking (and maybe, in some ways, worse) was the daily exhaustion of the struggle with drinking. I was sick of worrying about having "enough," sick of having it control every minute of my waking life (and a substantial portion of my non-waking life), sick of having to plan, plan, plan around it. Sick of being disgusted with myself. I was capable of exercising JUST ENOUGH control that I didn't go off on wild binges doing crazy stuff, but I was exhausted from the effort. That, for me, is the biggest deterrent to drinking thoughts.
Lexie took the words out of my mouth (or keyboard fingers in this case)...That is also what scares me about relapse...I know myself I would have the same line of thought "that was not so bad, I didn't die. I can relapse again" until the consequences just got worse and worse. I will buy my own bullcrap in a hot minute so I try to stay in the middle of AA so that I wont be prone to sabotaging myself like I did all the way up to coming into AA.
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
So happy to hear that you FEAR relapse so much, but as you said Mark, sticking in the center of AA and not on the Perimeters is the way to feel some assurance.
I say that cause I relapsed for over 7 years, and it was not a place I would want to see my worst enemy in....well I dont have a "worst enemy" other than Alcohol....but I do respect it, for the hellaious power it has...
After amost 20 years there is still a fear, so so so many Alcoholics that have a lot of time, go back out, and sadly the odds of them coming back, really do get slim....I had the dearest man, one that came to my noon meeting almost everyday, he loved Recovery, had many Sponsee' and was always the most Postive person you could find on the Steps, and His Higher Power.....it was about two weeks that he was missing, came back in looking like a different person, looking like a man that was completely broken, yet he talked everyday about getting back to all the Steps, working directly with his HP.....
Than he stopped coming and did not come back.....
Broke my heart.
All we have is today, tomorrow is unknown, only by the Grace of God, will I stay sober, it was ONLY the Grace of God that allowed me to be free and join AA.....I always look at it clearly that it was God first, then AA, I did not get Sober, God got me to a place,helped me with the willingness and showed me the desperation that only the dying are at, where I could begin this awesome Journey.
Hugs, Toni
-- Edited by Just Toni on Saturday 24th of July 2010 09:12:20 PM
) without constantly being aware of it's presence.