Health & Family Quitting alcohol and social life

Well done,just over 9 months now for me,and while sitting in the german club yesterday and watching everyone around me at different tables drinking pint after pint at $13-25 a pint then falling over i'm glad now to be a teetotaller ..The urge will always be there but I manage it now as you have..

 

5 Months sober today.

How's everyone else travelling?

 

Still not drinking so it's just over 10 months and the hint of vulnerability is still there every now and again..

 

I've been in Karumba now for 3 weeks, with temperatures in the mid thirties.
Can't wait till Friday to partake in a few cold ales.
Well done to those who are resisting the temptation. Still believe self discipline is the key!
So many campers here drink every afternoon. Alcohol sales would be through the roof!
Haven't witnessed any unruly behaviour, so all good. Must say though the majority of people here are retirees, so 60+.

 

Sure, it's great if you can but try telling that to a heroin addict, a chain smoker or someone that's lost the lot to a gambling addiction. It's really not that simple.

 

Nice work!

Had a thought today. Many years ago I stopped having sugar in tea and coffee. Now if someone accidentally puts sugar in my tea it tastes terrible to me and I can’t drink it. Anyhoo I was out with some drinkers yesterday and they were drinking Bourbon or some dark spirits. I was very conscious of the smell of the alcohol and I remember thinking wow that stinks I’m glad I’m not drinking that. So perhaps my taste buds are no longer attuned to alcohol.

 

Is there not an underlying problem for people to fall into such traps? The warnings are everywhere. Every media outlet outlines the inherent dangers of over indulgence, so does every medical practitioner.
I obviously don't understand the purported "Addiction". Please enlighten me, how can this be so? I'm not being smart, simply curious.

 

It's nothing to do with warnings or being sensible. It's in built into you if you are an addictive person. Why do people take up and continue to smoke knowing there's a very good chance it'll kill them? There are warnings everywhere, probably about the most warned vice there is, yet it doesn't stop people.

 

@TAJ there's also the fact the drug (yes, alcohol is a drug) in itself can be addictive.

From my personal experience, I have drank all my life and never thought it was a problem, indeed it wasn't until I hit my 40's and went from a weekly/2-3 weekly binge to drinking less but more often, which led to daily, which led to a bit more than just one or two daily and before I knew it the hooks were in and I could not stop.

I'm a pretty normal person, it frightened me that I was unable to stop myself having a drink.

Thankfully ,after 3 tries at quitting, this time it has taken (hopefully).

What is stopping me going back to a few here and there is knowing how easy it was for it to become a problem for me, and having known several alcoholics through the course of my life (including family) that were unable to moderate or get sober, the fear of ending up in that situation is enough to warrant not touching it again as far as I'm concerned.

You're lucky, you are one of the many, many millions of people that it inst an issue for and hopefully never will be but it really is not as simple as just being self disciplined or there having to be an underlying psychological problem or emotional or mental issues.

I'm as self disciplined as they come, I have incredible will power and I am very strong minded, yet somehow I ended up on the verge of being an alcoholic. On some scale I probably technically was one, but if I had not managed to get over that first month dry earlier then this year who knows where I might be a couple more years down the line, I dread to think.

 

I am very fortunate that the feeling of a hangover, or even sobering up is not a good feeling, that if I have a big night, I can go without a drink for a week or two ,

if I didnt have those feelings, i would be drinking more in life

 

Alcohol use disorder - Symptoms and causes

 

I have been pretty much all those things, and still do at times. Gamble till I nearly loose the house, some bets were $30k plus on a single sports game, some nights I have crashed cars blind, lost a career etc. The moment I told myself to stop feeling sorry for myself, the world doesn't owe me anything, and accepted that only I was making the decision to self destruct. That's when things started changing. So I agree with you its self discipline

All types of self abuse is an escape, we aren't genetically wired to gamble. That's a cope out.

We are chasing something, escaping something, or masking something. Saying its genetic or is "nature" over nurture is removing accountability from ourselves IMO. ​

 

How's everyone going with the no drinking,not long till i go past the one year mark now..good luck..

If you stand back and look at drinking ,as we watched the abc about a Young Country Base Lady who would go to different bottle shops in the country town maybe drinking 4-6 bottles of Vino on a good day to try and hide the problem from the public in the small country town then stop and turn her life around then there is hope for everyone ..

 

Awesome going there @willair.

For me I'm just lucky I think. Last time I had a drink was a glass of red wine in April this year.

Haven't had any physical craving since I basically stopped close to eight years ago nor does the thought of wanting a drink. It's simply not there as a part of my life.

Others are probably not so fortunate in that regard.

 

Celebrated my retirement with soda water, my go to bubbly.Spouse needed something stronger however.

 

I hope you enjoy every second,plus between ginger beer and lemon soda water is all i need now..