Quitting drinking.

[Spooniest]

I am doing this now. I have pissed off enough people, let my mind go completely batcrap and wasted time I could have spent playing games and music.

Any of you recovering alcoholics? I need guides.

~ ii

[SaulKafka]

I registered to respond to this because I saw the topic while visiting to check release dates. I'll share my experience but it might not be what you consider good advice and may not even be applicable to most others.

What was your level of alcoholism? I've gone from a daily drinker to one of those unbearable people who "doesn't really drink, I mean occasionally I might but I don't really enjoy it" which didn't seem possible.

I ask what level you were (heh) because I was never a 'drink til you're wasted' type and would often only drink three pints (of typically 5% beer/cider) with two pints being my threshold and four being enough that I'd go to bed feeling a mess. It seems like most habitual drinkers were heavier whereas I simply had to drink every evening without fail - one day missed due to outside circumstance (like taking ecstasy instead) was something to hang my hat on!

Basically I've always had something I indulge in to alter my consciousness since age 14 when I discovered cannabis. I was drinking daily from age 20 (still smoking daily too) and added to that a budding codeine addiction from age 25. Here at 31, I've whittled it down to just the codeine habit with weed becoming more take it or leave it, assuming I have the former. That's the thing - I never got clean, I just kicked alcohol and let a less damaging and notably less addictive drug habit take its throne.

The question I'm working towards here is "Is alcohol your only vice?" and "Are you aware of using it to fill a certain void?". I'm a loner by nature and found early on that I enjoyed time alone with weed and my mind just as much, sometimes more, than time with friends. Partners have been few and far between and so that inward indulgence has become surrogate company and as such, will remain so unless I put myself in social situations I'd otherwise pass on.

I'll check back and see what you can tell me about the nature of your alcohol use because I can probably only help in a "consolidate all your nagging addictions" capacity. Also I only managed to flush my body and brain of alcohol addiction (literally overnight) during a path changing strong LSD experience. It's not a guaranteed outcome and this isn't a recommendation (which couldn't possibly be within any rules I know) but it's also far from an isolated effect. I felt reborn the next day and had zero desire for alcohol. I eventually found that I didn't enjoy it when I did try it out to see if I could drink casually - I can but it's not the same, I get tired, groggy, and feel pretty crap.

I'll wait to hear. I have a lot of experience with withdrawl but it's a limited scope.

[Spooniest]

I am mostly a pretty straight arrow. I smoke some ok weed a couple times a day, without really overdoing it as much as I once did or as most I know do. I don't like how sleepy it makes me. Other than that, it's coffee and cigarettes. I'm not much on drugs.

I do, however, enjoy drinking, and for whatever reason, my body, once it gets some alcohol, wants more, automatically, every time it has it. It is just a matter of "drink more, feel better, drink more cuz drinking rulez, bluuuuuuurg in the toilet/bathtub, clean myself up, clean up the blurg, clean myself up again, be hung over for 12 hours, sleep until it was gone type thing. I am so socially anxious and incapable of coping with stress (I am a timid person by nature with a rotten temper and too much book learning, think 'crazy inventor on the mountain') that the alcoholism has come to be acceptable to me. I am likely damaging my body with the cheap ass liquor I drink, but my thinking has slid to "so long as no one has to babysit me I'm not a drunk."

Obviously I am rationalizing being a drunk.

But that's not even the worst part of it, what makes me want to quit. I am WASTING PRECIOUS TIME.

16 hours from first glass of whiskey to finally feeling normal enough to sleep, plus 8 hours of sleep, equals 24 hours of incapacitation from one half pint of cheap rotgut.

Yuck. I could make four demos with full drum tracks in that kind of time. Why am I wasting my TIME? It is beginning to irk me in the extreme.

[Unknown Entity]

I say I'm not a big drinker, but the reality is that I do drink a fair amount. You know it's bad when two of your friends invite you out for "drinks" and you get to the place a little early, head to the bar and purchase a pint while you wait. And then they show up and order teas and coffees and you're like "Ooohhh... that sort of drink." It also makes you gain weight really fast too.

I can count the times I have been extremely drunk with the fingers on one of my hands. I wouldn't even say more than three. One was a leaving party on which I embarrassed myself on a strip dancing pole, another at a new-ish restaurant that does an AMAZING porn star martini and more recently, at the Ice Bar in Rome for my birthday this year to which I was as sick as a dog most of the next day and took all my will power to hold my breakfast down. Castle St Angelo was so much fun with a handover.

I don't typically drink to get drunk - I tend to avoid drinking that much, and I know when to stop before it gets to that stage. But I drink too often. I've not gone a day in the past week where I haven't had a drink or two of some sort. I have stopped before, and can go weeks. But when I start again, it's hard to stop. A case of the "I'm not eating it, I'm tasting it."

I think the first step is to admit you may have a problem. Second step is to realise that it's still going to be a problem unless you actively do something about it. For starters, I gather some will power and I steer away from the alcohol isle in stores, I don't pick up a bottle or two when I pick up dinner on the way home and I pick Pepsi over cider when eating out. Once you've made that order, it's committed. I don't find it hard steering away from drinking, but it's so easy to just pick up for me.

Another thing to do is think about why you're drinking in the first place, and ask yourself if it's entirely worth it. It's not usually worth it. I think I drink more for stress? Or to be more social? Because I enjoy being tipsy? Is that stress I'm feeling now going to be something I'm going to stress about next week, or next month, year, decade? No? Don't drink. Am I already having fun in this social situation, or will alcohol improve it? Don't drink, or limit - mirror what a responsible friend is doing. I'm at home playing fucking Destiny - do I really need that beer, or should I just play a decent game?

Legit inspired to see how long I can go without a drink now. Starting now.

[loaf]

I'm not a big drinker but I'll down a 12 pack in one night if the opportunity arises.

That being said, I've gone weeks without drinking. Drinking is bad for my no gal bladder having self since it requires my liver to work overtime

[Spooniest]

:/ This is not something I'm proud of to say, but it is true. I don't want to damn him, but fuck George Thorogood for making this song.

I tried to deal with the isolation produced by my quirky personality, rotten temper, and thin skin by drinking.

You can see the bind I was in.

[che]

:/ This is not something I'm proud of to say, but it is true. I don't want to damn him, but fuck George Thorogood for making this song.

I tried to deal with the isolation produced by my quirky personality, rotten temper, and thin skin by drinking.

You can see the bind I was in.

That is a great song, and Bad Santa is also a great movie. Both will always be there, but you might not be. George was singing out about he just drinks alone and he's lonely, but the song comes off as badass. I guess some badasses do drink alone? I wouldn't know. Bad Santa is about a guy who plays Santa in order to get the in on retail stores in the mall so he can rob them, he's just a drunk and it's a problem in the movie. Even the little person he's with wants to leave him because he's become such a problem. Can't even rob anyone no mo.

You know people are willing to help you, right? Have you ever played FF9? Nobody's alone, man. The posts I make on TFF are just for entertainment, really. Sort of a like a drama. But if you ever need to talk, don't feel bad hitting me up.

It's a brand new life out there, like you just woke up, when you stop drinking. You're free and life is there for the taking. You should find a hobby though, because as soon as you are free, you feel like celebrating with drinks. And you'll find you can do so much shit after you stop drinking. You'll find something you really love, the real you, belie DAT. Overcome it, man. I know you can do it.

[sneakerstudio]

As some guys above said, I'm not a big drinker as well. However, if decent opprotunity happens, i just chug one beer after another. Just to regret it the next morning.

[Spooniest]

There really is only one problem and that is that a lot of people don't want their kids drinking, and it sets a bad example.

Highly visible ninjas like me (rock guitarist/singers) probably ought to be better about not making their neighbors stumble. Americans aren't exactly cut from the cloth of ascetic monks.

Older folks who've given up the bottle need care given to them as well. If I am inspiring people to drink, perhaps I deserve my ass beat a bit. Figuratively speaking, that is.

... I'll keep working on it. Sigh. I do like alcohol very much. Too much I think.

[LANA]

There really is only one problem and that is that a lot of people don't want their kids drinking, and it sets a bad example.

Highly visible ninjas like me (rock guitarist/singers) probably ought to be better about not making their neighbors stumble. Americans aren't exactly cut from the cloth of ascetic monks.

Older folks who've given up the bottle need care given to them as well. If I am inspiring people to drink, perhaps I deserve my ass beat a bit. Figuratively speaking, that is.

... I'll keep working on it. Sigh. I do like alcohol very much. Too much I think.

Our amazing LORD and Savior can help You. Out of huge love that He has for us :-)
You need repent, to turn to Him and beg for the forgiveness for the sins You committed against Him.

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

Isaiah 55:6-7 - Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Matthew 11:28-30 - Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

[Spooniest]

Now I know you're an idiot. You didn't bring up my body being a temple at all.

[LANA]

Now I know you're an idiot. You didn't bring up my body being a temple at all.

That's because it's not. If You are still a reprobate, then You are a wretched sinner, with corrupted sinful flesh, not a temple.
But the good news is that You can be a temple, when our awesome God transforms You. But first step for that, is repentance.

[Spooniest]

So you are going to complain about people insulting you.
Then you are going to call me a 'reprobate.'

Dictionary.com defines 'reprobate' as

noun

1. a depraved, unprincipled, or wicked person: a drunken reprobate.
2. a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation.

You are still trying to get me salvation even though you have used a word which implies it is beyond hope. You are an idiot for speaking in a way that shows you know nothing of the meaning of the word you have used, and a hypocrite, because you have insulted me, after claiming that insults are wrong.

Now argue further, idiot hypocrite.