do you ever get to the point

[Deena]

do you ever get to the point

Suze makes great suggestions. They are all ones I learned when I quit smoking using the ALA online program. Of course we joked around about the F.A.R.T. approach, which was "Food and Alcohol Replacement Therapy". How true that became for me. I quit smoking and started drinking more.

The list of things was really helpful to me. If i wanted to smoke, I had to do 10 things first before I could smoke. If I did all 10 things and still wanted to smoke, I could. One of them was call my husband and tell him I was going to smoke (once I called him and he was so mad at me that day he said "FINE SMOKE!"...almost backfired on me). One of them was to stare at a picture of my kids for 60 seconds, one was to post 5 messages on the ALA message board...etc. etc.

It was really helpful to me to have that list. I had forgotten about that strategy, THANKS SUZE!!!

[satori]

do you ever get to the point

Hi Greeneyes,

The answer is yes - for me anyway - I have got to the stage where I very very rarely think of alcohol at all during the normal course of a day.
I don't think about it in the morning when I get up and - I don't normally think about it in the evenings now either (used to be my worst time).

But - I still do get the occasional craving - some very strong - to drink (last one was on a recent overnight transatlantic flight - flying and drinking used to go together for me in the past! - that particular craving was about the worst I have experienced in the last six months - and I was still able to do the sensible thing and talk myself out of it!).

By occasional - these days I mean two or three times a month - but most cravings are not particularly strong - and I can just swat them aside with a mental
"er....don't be daft - we are not going THERE!"

I suppose it is a little like having a memory of some past event triggered by a certain smell or a certain piece of music.

You can hear a piece of music and the memory just pops into your head of a long ago night of passion with an old lover.
It doesn't mean you have to immediately snog the poor unsuspecting lady that happens to be next to you on the bus - does it!
(Well - not unless she is REALLY fit! :H )

You just have to sigh and think - yep that WAS nice - but - it is in the past - we can't go there again!

After the specific urge is past - I go back to being pretty much "normal", in that I do not think of drinking - by that I mean it simply doesn't enter my consciousness 99% of the time!

Talking to some ex-smokers, it seems some of them are like this too - most of the time they are "normal" and very occasionally something still manages to trigger an urge - even years later.

But - compared to the HELL that was drinking uncontrolledly, I can live with an occasional urge!

So from where I am - I am beginning to feel that I am simply a non-drinker.
I would say it took me about 90 days to begin to think this way.

Keep on keeping on - you WILL get there.

Love

Satori

xxx

[satori]

do you ever get to the point

GE,

Sorry - just realised you were talking about moderating!

As far as I am concerned - I know I can't moderate - it has to be AF for me -
Many here moderate quite successfully - so some of them might be able to answer your question better from a moderator's viewpoint!

Love

Satori

xxx

[greeneyes]

do you ever get to the point

No, Satori. I wasn't talking about moderating. I can't moderate with cigarettes. If I had one puff I would bum one here and there, eventually buy a pack and then smoke my brains out. I'm think it would be like that with alcohol. Have a glass of wine and then be back to drinking 24/7 sneaking, etc. Point is, cigarettes don't even tempt me now. It's been 12 years though. I'd like alcohol to not tempt me. I guess we all would. But alcohol and nicotine are different things. Nobody talks of nicotine addiction as a disease like they do alcoholism. Or maybe they do but I don't notice because I am removed from it. So I wonder does one get to the point like I am with nicotine? Is it physically possible?

[Long Road]

do you ever get to the point

My Epiphany

Dear GE, Satori etc, etc,

I had done all any man could do to get over AL. I went to meeting for 2 years, I moved back with my parents, I locked my money with a trustee.

I went to rehab under the guidance of Jesus, The Salvation Army and the Australian Government for 8 months.

Yet the only thing that has worked for me is half a little pill. Naltrexone at 25mg per day has virtually nullified my cravings even though I am surrounded by alcohol. If there was a cure for this disorder, then this is the closest I can imagine.

I am blessed