ROCK BOTTOM
I apologize if you don't agree with my assessment of antabuse. As far as my analogy if you really believe drinking is a nightmare why would you "impulsively want a drink"? As far as your contention that if it were that simple alcoholism would not exist. I really think we make the solution much harder than it really is......I know, I almost drank myself to death until I found my solution. I was physically addicted as well as mentally obsessed with drinking for 27 years.
I contemplated each program, and researched antabuse and the drugs that others use to try to beat it. Although I don't subscribe to AA, there were a couple main points that I learned that helped me. First I had to accept the fact that once I started drinking I had no power to consistantly control it, second I had to get over the notion that I would ever be able to moderately drink again. Most people who quit for good come to grips with those 2 ideas. Antabuse in my opinion only lengthens that process. If you were allergic to lobster would you need to take a drug that would make you even sicker if you ate it...or would you find ways to mentally come to grips with the fact that lobster makes you sick and depressed and do stupid stuff, (even if it was your favorite food) and take lobster off of your menu?
Now I know most peoples lives are not build around eating lobster, like mine was built around drinking, but when I looked at my pro and con list they went something like this.
Pros of drinking: I've always done it. Makes me more socialable.
Cons of drinking: sickness, depression, DUI, failing health, embarass my family, embarass myself, divorce, waste of money, ruin plans with my family, early death, put my family in financial peril, jail, bad example for my children, wife and kids will eventually hate me, i don't like myself when I'm drunk, etc etc.
I know it seems simple, but if you can truly look at the pros and cons everyday, the daily decision to stay sober made sense, and I quit drinking one day at a time. If I felt like drinking I would basically make myself physically ill and read over my list. Once I got though day one, I did the same thing for day 2 and so on. If you really want to quit drinking it is very simple.....not easy mind you but very simple, quit putting the bottle to your lips and learn to love the results of sobriety. Anyone who tells you any different is lying to you.
GingerDust;1277749 wrote: For your analogy to work, alcohol would have to equate to freedom when in reality is a nightmare.
What the antabuse does for me is buy time between the hot button moment when I impulsively want a drink and the moment when I can safely have a drink. It's not a couple days to think about it. It is at least a week. The other great benefit is that since I canNOT drink no matter what (for at least for a week), the thought of drinking quickly subsides and other thoughts and ways of thinking are allowed to flourish.
It's great that writing out the pros and cons worked for you but, frankly, if it was that simple, alcoholism would not exist.
What the antabuse does for me is buy time between the hot button moment when I impulsively want a drink and the moment when I can safely have a drink. It's not a couple days to think about it. It is at least a week. The other great benefit is that since I canNOT drink no matter what (for at least for a week), the thought of drinking quickly subsides and other thoughts and ways of thinking are allowed to flourish.
It's great that writing out the pros and cons worked for you but, frankly, if it was that simple, alcoholism would not exist.
I contemplated each program, and researched antabuse and the drugs that others use to try to beat it. Although I don't subscribe to AA, there were a couple main points that I learned that helped me. First I had to accept the fact that once I started drinking I had no power to consistantly control it, second I had to get over the notion that I would ever be able to moderately drink again. Most people who quit for good come to grips with those 2 ideas. Antabuse in my opinion only lengthens that process. If you were allergic to lobster would you need to take a drug that would make you even sicker if you ate it...or would you find ways to mentally come to grips with the fact that lobster makes you sick and depressed and do stupid stuff, (even if it was your favorite food) and take lobster off of your menu?
Now I know most peoples lives are not build around eating lobster, like mine was built around drinking, but when I looked at my pro and con list they went something like this.
Pros of drinking: I've always done it. Makes me more socialable.
Cons of drinking: sickness, depression, DUI, failing health, embarass my family, embarass myself, divorce, waste of money, ruin plans with my family, early death, put my family in financial peril, jail, bad example for my children, wife and kids will eventually hate me, i don't like myself when I'm drunk, etc etc.
I know it seems simple, but if you can truly look at the pros and cons everyday, the daily decision to stay sober made sense, and I quit drinking one day at a time. If I felt like drinking I would basically make myself physically ill and read over my list. Once I got though day one, I did the same thing for day 2 and so on. If you really want to quit drinking it is very simple.....not easy mind you but very simple, quit putting the bottle to your lips and learn to love the results of sobriety. Anyone who tells you any different is lying to you.
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