New here!

DrKnipe · Member

New here!

justadrunk · MIP Old Timer

You did a great thing by admitting you have a problem. Welcome to MIP - this a wonderful addition to live AA meetings for me. Can you find your local meeting schedule and get to a meeting ASAP? You will feel right at home and the shame will start to lift as you continue to go to meetings and hear other people who are just like you - good people with a disease that makes them feel 'bad' and no coping skills but to drink more when you feel bad.

Keep us posted on your progress :) And keep coming back!

Sober Strummer · Senior Member

Welcome and stick around. Nice place here!

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

DrKnipe wrote:
I have been a functioning alcoholic for about 4 years now. I get so drunk that I damage my home by stumbling around and smashing into things. Then I have enormous guilt about what I did when I was drunk. Then I drink to get rid of guilt. I am really going to try to not drink tonight. My family deserves a better man. I will be married 10 years this week and have 4 kids. This alcohol has controlled me for too long. I also take no-doz so I can stay up later and drink more. I can't keep doing this. Looking for any advice or moral support. I am anxious to drink and anxious not to.

Welcome to MIP DrKnipe, ... you're among friends here that have been where you are right now ... you hit a little too close to home with my own story here ... I know you're in the right place ... you simply need to listen to some suggestions from those here on this board and take a few steps to get well ... and it looks like you're well on your way to completing step 1 in our program of recovery ...

1.	We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.

It is recommended you find some AA groups in your area and go to 90 meetings in 90 days to get a good start ... this will change after a while, but it's needed so that we can really see that we are very much alike and that the only way we were able to stay sober is by one alcoholic helping another ... be sure to pick up an AA Big Book to read, and start reading through it ...

Oh man, Lots to share here ... ... ... I'll let someone else go next ... I'll be back in a little while !!!

Love and God Bless,

Pappy

betterthanyesterday52 · MIP Old Timer

Welcome! This is a great board and it is good to have you here!

RubyTues · MIP Old Timer

Welcome DrKnipe, glad you are here.

gonee · MIP Old Timer

"Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.
Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair
Pg 20 AA book.
THERE IS A SOLUTION

him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reasonill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctorbecomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink."

Once I got my definition right, I stayed in AA. I was neither a moderate drinker or hard drinker. I am an alcoholic with a physical allergy to the chemical alcohol. That is why I do not drink alcohol in any form whatsoever.

Philipld · MIP Old Timer

Alcohol is but a symptom of our disease.....I took the alcohol out of my life.....and had to deal with a whole bunch of shit....one day at a time.. Was Emotionally...Mentally and Physically screwed...

One day at a time things got better....and I got better...and it didn't happen by next Thursday :)

Hafta go to meetings and hang in with other pople that are and were in the same boat

Hop Aboard!!

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

DrKnipe wrote:
I get so drunk that I damage my home by stumbling around and smashing into things. Then I have enormous guilt about what I did when I was drunk. Then I drink to get rid of guilt. I am really going to try to not drink tonight.

This sounds familiar...

Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks-drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.

The Doctor's Opinin...From the Big Book of AA

Entire psychic change = Spiritual awakening

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps = Recovered

Welcome to MIP DrKnipe. There is hope...It is the steps.

DrKnipe · Member

Well I made it throught the first night with no alcohol. I have been praying alot. I have a hard time talking to people about this. So nice to hear I am not alone. I was shocked to make it through the night. First time in four years. As I can see though, small victory in a long battle. Thanks to all of you for being my friends in recovery! God Bless You!

d_willing · Veteran Member

Congrats on making it through the night! That is a great first step. As others have suggested, you really should try and get to an AA meeting today and each day after for a while. Doing this on your own may work for a while, but through the program your life can change. Removing the drink is just the first part.

God Bless

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

Have you ever been to an AA meeting DrKnipe? Might be a good day to try one.

debird17 · Veteran Member

Hi I'm Marie and I'm an alcholic. I have not had a drink in 31 days so it is still very new to me. I woke up one day and thought to myself this s--t has got to stop. I have tried to not drink before but I found out I cannot do it on my own. I go to a meeting everyday somedays twice a day. It helps to be in a room with people that are going through something similar to what you are going through. We are all different but in a way we are all the same. We drink to forget to numb ourselves from the world.

It has been 31 days and I feel like a new person. I am reading the book, attending meetings and I have realized that I will be going to meeting for the rest of my life but for the first time in my life I'm living not just exsisting. I know that there are going to be hard days ahead but meeting have really helped me.

The first step is the hardest but you are worth it. Good luck.

DrKnipe · Member

Stepchild wrote:
Have you ever been to an AA meeting DrKnipe? Might be a good day to try one.

I have never been to a meeting, I am a little anxious about it.

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

That's pretty normal...What if I told you it was a room full of people just like you...That would like nothing more than to see you get better?

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Above all, just get through today without a drink, no matter what ... ... ... Just for Today !!! ... no worries for tomorrow, it will take care of itself !!!

DrKnipe · Member

I do need to try a meeting. I know this. But I hope and pray I can come back here and report a 2nd night of sober. Need to find a local meeting place. God Bless You All!

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

The last time I quit, I could barely walk ... a meeting was out of the question ... my wife took me to a treatment center where I was in a wheelchair for couple days ... when I got out, I did almost 700 meetings in 700 days ... it was my last chance to stay alive and I didn't want to screw it up ... I surrendered to everything about this program ... and survived ...

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

DrKnipe wrote:
I do need to try a meeting. I know this. But I hope and pray I can come back here and report a 2nd night of sober. Need to find a local meeting place. God Bless You All!

Google AA meetings in your area...Go to the next one...Come back here and tell us what you think. You don't have to say anything but...I'm new and I'd just like to listen today. If you're anything like me....You'll like it...

By the way...I was terrified....I just asked God to get me through it...He did.

betterthanyesterday52 · MIP Old Timer

AA meetings are awesome! Where else can you go and be in a room full of people where, although at first you may be scared and feel different, you will find that you have so much in common with the others in the room and you won't feel so all alone anymore and so very different. I felt so much better about myself after attending them and they are like my daily therapy as well as coming to this board.

700 in 700!!! That's amazing, Pappy! And Thank God you are here to tell us about it.

DrKnipe · Member

Well I know tonight I cannot. I googled my area and I live in rural Nebraska. Nothing available until 830pm Sat. The fact I made it through one night surprised me. Two would be amazing. Just tired of being guilty and neglectful to my responsibilities.

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

DrKnipe, ... stick with us here til you can get to the meeting ... there's usually someone 'lurking' around this board 24/7 ... from around the world ... shouldn't take too long to get a chat going if you need one ...

AND BTY, ... I'm pretty sure that Stepman did the very same thing I did ... both of us were just short of a daily meeting for a straight 2 years ... (I've only known one other guy that needed that, or should I say did that ... and he's still sober too ...))

d_willing · Veteran Member

I am not sure what part of NE you are in but maybe this will help you locate some closer ones. Hopefully it will help.
www.area41.org/level1/meetings/meetingsclosest.php

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

Aloha DrKnipe from the Pacific...There is alot of experience being shared with you from our own journeys and each one here who has shared with you know how your shoes fit. We've been there and done that and getting sober we didn't do alone. I knew how to drink. I had to learn how not to drink and that didn't come easy. This is a major disease we suffer from and not a moral issue even though very nice and moral people will do very unacceptable things under the influence. I went to college to understand alcohol and alcoholism because I came into recovery not knowing anything about it and I didn't know that I didn't know. I was born and raised within our disease and "drinking" was as normal and acceptable as breathing. I learned that I have an incurable disease which cannot be cured and only arrested by total abstinence. It is progressive in that If it is not arrested it will end in insanity and or death. I reached the insanity part and attempted suicide the last time with alcohol. I learned in recovery that I have a Higher Power and that my Higher Power didn't wish me done until I came to meet the members of AA and MIP. I didn't like AA at first...even hated it and "them" and went back out for a while not drinking thinking I could do it myself with myself and faced the insanity without the anesthesia of alcohol to block out my reality. "They" let me back in and after a while I was able to say, "My name is Jerry. I am alcoholic". The only earliest requirement for me was to sit "with and open mind" and listen...all before taking the next drink and when I did that I forgot the next drink and then refused to take the next drink and now I don't even think of the next drink because I attend face to face open AA meetings and come to MIP to read and sometimes share...just like you have done here. You are a Newbie and I am grateful because I get to see what "it was like" and then listen to Pap and Betterthan and Stepchild and Dean and the others in this sober family and it feels like I've paid my insurance policy. They done give me a guarantee they give me love and support and encouragement.

Alcohol isn't koolAid or Orange Soda or Diet Pepsi or Milk. It doesn't quench thirst in fact it causes thirst and I drink more and more and my mind, body, spirit and emotions dissolve. That's not in the advertisements. I got intoxicated...poisoned...and after a while it didn't matter...I got intoxicated anyway. I don't know if you are a real Dr or how that works with your signin. To our disease it doesn't even matter this chemical and disease has no prejudices its taking you and your family and others.

Stick around with us and find a face to face meeting...you're very life will depend on it. smile

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

Consider this your meeting room till you can get to one....If you need to talk...Talk. We don't drink here...No matter what. I found it helpful for me to start my day asking God to keep me away from a drink today...And I thanked him at night for doing so. I didn't have the solution of the 12 steps yet and that worked for me till I did. I'm asumming you don't have a Big Book yet...This contains clear-cut directions on how we take these steps. Here it is online till you can get one.

http://anonpress.org/bb/

Start with the Foreward, The Doctor's Opinion and the first three chapters...These contain the directions for step one...As well as offering hope with the solution. You have a question...Or comment...Fire away. I saw myself in that book...Maybe you will too.

Zoomtopz · MIP Old Timer

Yes Drknipe , welcome & Well done on ONE Day . We All had to start with Our

1st day . Yes as you guys are having dinner & going to meetings , it's 0600 east coast

Australia . Lunchtime homegroup meeting for me then a drive to Brisbane for an interview

for my son for College , he has been accepted in one , 12hrs away , that is his 1st , but

he is looking at his options . By 17 , I had dropped out of school , worked , started a business ,

lost a business , joined th Navy , been to war . And Had NO options . I was Well on the way to

Alcoholism . I just trashed my life , not th furniture .

DrKnipe · Member

Ok so I found a meeting 10 miles away tomorrow night at 8pm. I need to go. Got to get through tonight first! I have no online access at home so I will have to be away for a bit. But will check in in the morning. Thanks!

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Be strong, ... you can do it !!!

betterthanyesterday52 · MIP Old Timer

DrKnipe....
I hope you made the meeting you mentioned and also hope that you continue to post here and let us know how you are doing. We care!

gonee · MIP Old Timer

Great stuff.

Stepchild · MIP Old Timer

Hope you're hanging in there Doc...Let us know how you're doing.

betterthanyesterday52 · MIP Old Timer

Great postings everyone and Marie, congratulations on 31 days and d_willing, for how many days you have--congrats to you, too!

Sober Strummer · Senior Member

Keep coming back!

Hope you enjoy the meeting. The walk from the parking lot to the front door felt like a half mile to me the first time :)

Sarah P · Member

You sound a lot like me! I just got my 2'nd DUI and have decided to give AA a try. After wrecking my daddys car (for the third time!) its time to turn my life around I think. God bless you and have a wonderful day!

Butterfinger · Senior Member

Welcome.