Do recovering or reformed alcoholics substitute something else for the booze?
I have known and heard about some people who begin using drugs, overeating or sugar drinks/ foods.
Is this true.
I know I wouldn't recommend drugs as a substitue. I wouldn't be here if I did that. I know I craved sweets early on...Got to replace the sugar from the alcohol I was inhaling. As far as food goes...At the end of my drinking...I couldn't even eat....So getting an appetite back was major for me. I could actually taste the food...That was wonderful. Add in some excercise....It's like living. I think that's pretty normal.
The only substitute I have found to be the most effective is in the rooms of AA. It has been like "magic" for me. I should say it has been a replacement for me rather than a substitute. I do like my sugar, however, have found that I am addicted to it, as well as cigarettes and caffaine. Once I hit my year mark of sobriety, then I will start working on those other addictions, because I want to be healthy and none of those is going to help me reach that goal--at least not the way I use them. They all affect my physical and emotional well being and I want to be clearer headed to be able to focus even better on the message of AA and be of the best benefit as my HP wants me to be to others. Oh....and those drinks that claim to taste like alcohol and be alcohol free???? Most are not. I don't use anything containing alcohol for fear of triggering a relapse...no extracts, no cough syrups, etc. I have heard of people going out on those kinds of things.
I guess what I was trying to say above is that no matter what kind of product I would have used to curb my drinking, none worked by itself. I have to have the AA program to keep me sober.
-- Edited by betterthanyesterday52 on Monday 12th of May 2014 02:47:56 PM
Do recovering or reformed alcoholics substitute something else for the booze? I have known and heard about some people who begin using drugs, overeating or sugar drinks/ foods. Is this true.
YES, there is ... ... ... read page 152 and 153 in the Big Book ...
He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end.
We have shown how we got out from under. You say, "Yes, Im willing. But am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?"
Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous.There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you.
"How is that to come about?" you ask. "Where am I to find these people?"
You are going to meet these new friends in your own community. Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship. If you live in a large place, there are hundreds. High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them you will make lifelong friends. You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey. Then you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You will learn the full meaning of "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
If you are talking about some kind of mind-altering substance, like a drug that makes you feel high, as a substitute for alcohol, no.
Again: NO.
An alcoholic who substitutes a mind altering drug for alcohol is not recovering from alcoholism. They are still at the mercy of their alcoholism (now in the form of drug addiction) and will continue to get worse until they do what is necessary to get clean and sober and stay that way, one day at a time.
And a really good way to do that is to go to Alcoholics Anonymous and get some help from the other people there who have already been through what you are going through and who can help you. This is not something that should be attempted on your own, just using your own "willpower". If alcoholics could do that with any significant amount of success, there would be no need for AA in the first place. Help is readily available and you should absolutely, definitely, make use of it.
If you had slipped off the edge of a cliff and were hanging by your fingers, and a group of people above you said 'let us help! We can pull you up!', would you take their offer, or say 'no thanks, I'll just try this on my own and hope that it works out'?
Go to an AA meeting, and come back and tell us how it went. If you need help finding a meeting, just ask us.
When the program went to work in me everything got reformed...mind, body, spirit and emotions. Mind and mood altering chemicals were not allowed. Unhealthy eating and relaxation styles get changed also. Emotions (feelings) also get jacked up and readjusted and the spirit takes on an intention (purpose) for being sober which isn't just being alcohol free.
When I drank there was no substitute for booze...when I drank alcohol that is. Most all of my drinking was "neat" or straight up and when I stopped there wasn't even the use of a glass or ice or water and any other mix. I drank more booze more often than I drank water. Still today I don't consume water like many other people around me who seem to like water neat and straight up. I'm practicing. My substitute for booze if any was only a different label of or different manufacture of the chemical...when I started it was heady Rose wine and when I finally stopped it was strong gin and/or rum. A bullet would have been faster, not as neat or quiet...just faster. Days before finding recovery the bullet was a consideration. It was the insanity of our disease that urged me to reach out and call for help.. ((((hugs))))
Alcoholics are self centered to the extreme. Enough is never enough. If we take pleasure in something we have a tendency to take it to the extreme just like alcohol. Our alcoholic minds tell us if something makes us happy than more is better and if it makes me feel good how can it be wrong. It's called looking for people places and things to make us happy to deal with life's shortcomings. Instead we should look inside oneself for more acceptance and being satisfied with who we are. True happiness comes from looking at our own shortcomings and trying to change the way we think and act. It's normal for a sober alcoholic to look for a easier softer way to make one happy. But it's not healthy eventually these things fail us to and we are never satisfied. The emptiness we feel inside of us in which we tried to fill with the drink then people, sex, gambling, ect. Can only be filled with a God of ones understanding. that black whole of not feeling quite complete can only be filled with the spiritual nature of this program. Be very careful of these trappings it's in our nature to be addictive. It's not a healthy behavior to substitute. Your only trying to satisfy your emotional well being with something else. I hope this helps.
