Starting

Jerch · Newbie

Starting

turninggrey · MIP Old Timer

Hey Jerch,
Welcome! It is great you went to a counselor. Did he mention AA to you? This is pretty much who we are:

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

Take a look at "How it works" and then read some of the personal stories and see if you do not see yourself in there. Anyhow, it is a worthwhile adventure, and you have found a great resource here and if you can find a meeting near you,

http://aa.org/lang/en/aasite_finder.cfm?origpage=72

you might give it a try. A quick way to find a number to call or an address is to just google AA in whatever town you live in. Keep us posted Jerch!

Tom

rrib · Senior Member

Welcome to the board!

Today's a great day to be sober. Glad you're here!

dolly · Veteran Member

Hi Jerch, Tom gave you some great resources; I had to read my "big book" (see link above) every night in addition to going to a meeting every day, initially, to stay sober (gives you something to do in that time when you used to drink!). The suggestion is generally 90 meetings in 90 days. I sometimes went to 2 meetings a day in the first month (if you live near a decent sized city there is usually a very early meeting and/or a lunch time meeting in addition to evenings). We're glad your here, Dolly

SoberSteve · MIP Old Timer

WELCOME!!!

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

Aloha Jerch and welcome to the journey. You have already experienced some of the things we also had to go thru with in order to get and then stay sober. Tom does offer good feedback and I hope you follow thru on it. You have already lost alot...time to replace those holes with great sober values which you can in our program. I'm in support. smile

Mr_David · MIP Old Timer

Welcome to the board, Jerch. We're happy you're here..

pinkchip · MIP Old Timer

Jerch - You sound like you are at the perfect spot to hit a face to face AA meeting. You are on the cusp of developing a really good step 1 and don't even know it. This will only materialize if you actually go to AA and get the support you need there. You have done the hardest parts of this already. Just get your body to a meeting and take it from there.

And Welcome!

Mike B. · MIP Old Timer

Welcome J! Glad to have you here with us. Your progression sounds a lot like mine. Time to take action. Thinking without action will avail you nothing. I would suggest an AA meeting. Bring the body, the mind will follow. Post back here and let us know how it goes.

Jerch · Newbie

I actually don't have the opportunity to go to an AA meeting in person right now. I am talking to a counselor on a regular basis though. I go to school full-time and work a full-time job and a part-time job as well as getting myself back into the gym and training for some short-term goals. In the summer when I'm on break from school I'll attend the meetings my counselor holds. She's really helped me out greatly with all of this.

But last night was a long stressful shift and I kept myself away from the tobacco while I was at work and I made myself walk right past the liquor my roommates keep in the freezer when I got home. So one day down.

Also I read in the links above (thank you for taking the time to post them, Tom) that a lot of the steps involve God. I'm not a christian and I hope that won't hinder me in this nor affect the community's acceptance of me.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. It was difficult for me to just show up and say hello, but I'm glad I did.

-J

pinkchip · MIP Old Timer

I am really glad you are here so don't get me wrong when I tell you this:

You have every oppportunity to go to in person meetings right now and if you don't then you just wasted time coming ot an AA board only to reject AA. I work full time, go to school, have a relationship, 6 pets and I go to meetings. There's no excuse. You had time to drink. You have time for meetings.

Frodo · MIP Old Timer

Jerch wrote:

Also I read in the links above (thank you for taking the time to post them, Tom) that a lot of the steps involve God. I'm not a christian and I hope that won't hinder me in this nor affect the community's acceptance of me.

I'm no Christian either. I'm not even sure what you'd call me but it really doesn't matter. It's not a religious program but a spirtual one. We believe that alcoholism is a disease of the mind, body and soul, so it's about healing all three. Your Higher Power can be anything that works for you. Some have a traditional style God, others something like nature, one I knew had a chair (it was the only thing keeping him up).I know of atheists (or is that agnostics - I always get them confused) that have God as meaning Good Orderly Direction. What you believe or don't believe is your business only.

The only requirement of AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. That's it. There are no ands or buts on the end of the rule.

Fyne Spirit · MIP Old Timer

pinkchip wrote:
I am really glad you are here so don't get me wrong when I tell you this:

You have every oppportunity to go to in person meetings right now and if you don't then you just wasted time coming ot an AA board only to reject AA. I work full time, go to school, have a relationship, 6 pets and I go to meetings. There's no excuse. You had time to drink. You have time for meetings.

Hi Jerch,

PC is telling you the truth above. Alcoholism untreated is a serious terminal illness. It ends in one of two ways, permanent insanity or death. It can be arrested and the most successful method of doing this by far is through attendance at AA meetings and the application of a few simple principles (which you will learn there) in your life.

What would you think of someone who had a life threatening but operable tumor who said "I don't have time for surgery, but I am talking to my life coach and keeping fit at the gym. Would you think they had their priorities a little mixed up?

God bless,

MikeH

New day · Member

I began reading your post and my heart sank wondering if you were my ex husband. Nearly identical story for me -- 10 years, divorce, little sips during the day, then oblivion each and every night. After 18 months of this, I'm tired of being chubby, swollen, forgetful, unreliable, etc. Here's to life after divorce and alcohol. We can do this. Thanks for sharIng. Makes me feel so much less insane and alone.

justadrunk · MIP Old Timer

Hi. Welcome.
I'm fairly new to the program. I started the same way as you, on this message board first. Everyone here, along with my husband, pushed me into going to an AA meeting after about a week. People like PinkChip above - are pushing you with what might feel more like a shove, but it's because they know what you need. It's true, you must treat this as if you had cancer or something, and need treatment/medicine. You're probably not only going to have to go to a meeting, but you're probably going to have to go to LOTS of meetings, every day for a while maybe! I learned the hard way, that when I took this illness lightly, It would creep up on me. When I didn't truly think of it as an illness that I would "battle" for the rest of my life, it would begin to "spread/progress" again. And it does spread. It spreads throughout your life, and ruins it if you give it time. And it will take time away from you. Just as if you had cancer... make the time to get better. I made excuses, and that didn't work. This week, after a lot of hard lessons, I finally quit most of my jobs (as a piano teacher), got a nanny for part of the day, and am now able to focus on recovering. I'm not saying you have to go to that extreme, but I needed to. And it's working.

I'm not just staying dry, I'm learning how to want to stay dry.

I hope there is something you can take an hour away from in your day so you can go to a meeting. We are so lucky our recovery doesn't involve puking and hospital beds like some diseases! That our disease is more like that, and recovering in AA can actually be, dare I say, FUN sometimes!
Be brave. Listen to the old timers on this board. Remember I'm new too, and about all I really know, is I don't know a lot! Listen to the old timers.

-- Edited by justadrunk on Tuesday 3rd of April 2012 07:14:55 AM

Jerch · Newbie

I still haven't had time to go to an AA meeting but I am 4 weeks clean tonight at midnight. My schedule right now is 7am-4pm school, 4pm-1am work, and I work 6 days a week and school 5 days a week. I train 2 days a week and babysit my niece on sundays, there are only two AA groups that meet in my area and neither are at times I can go to. I live in a very very small town in eastern kentucky (the closest airport is 2 hours away if that tells you how tiny). After the 2nd week of May I'll be done with school and plan to attend a morning meeting then. I'm not making excuses, I'm making a life and right now school and work come first because they're the rails my train travels on currently. I found time to drink during school and work and at 2 am when I laid in bed at night.

So when I say I have no time, there is literally no time to be made right now but once there is time in May I fully plan to go to a meeting. Right now my training helps me because I know if I drink I can't train. Pain has become my new drug I guess, but yes I plan to attend a meeting once this semester ends in about a month.

And New Day, there's always a life after anything so long as there's still breath in our lungs. Whiskey was the last chain holding me back from climbing out of this hole I dug for myself and I'm not bearing that weight anymore. I'll break my back and die before I let another thing hold me back or limit what I can do.

Fyne Spirit · MIP Old Timer

Well done Jerch, 4 weeks with no outside help, amazing. Perhaps you are not an alcoholic of my type after all. Maybe you don't need AA. Our Big Book talks about the "hard drinkers" who can stop or moderate if they have a good enough reason, perhaps you are in this class? If so, more power to you. Alternatively, you could be like many of us who just did not realise the seriousness of our situation. If that is the case John Barleycorn will rearrange your priorities sooner or later.

God bless,
MikeH.