Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: This is Great!

YoungAtHeart;

Thank you! You crack me up! Term "oldie" made me feel good. Today is day 14 of hard time SOBRIETY.

Congratulations to Marcie and everyone else struggling for a better life.

Brandy

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: Hard Day!

ttfme;

Not to worry, I had to restart my clock also...Don't be to hard on yourself, the important thing is that you are doing it again! You did'nt give up and that is the main thing, you are doing it again!

Good for you...

Brandy

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: Hard Day!

ttfme,
Sorry you had a rough day, it will get better. Tomorrow is a new day, actually right now is a new minute, so if you are still drinking stop. It can only mean better things for you. Try not to keep alcohol in the house for a while that can help. I have been buying sparkling grape juice to drink and loving it. Yesterday I found alcohol free wine(it has a tiny bit of alcohol like NA beer).

Don't wait for everything to come, you can try to start this on your own before the supps and cd's come.

You can do it and we are all here to support you!

Marcie

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: This is Great!

Kathy,
LOL, I'd hardly consider myself an oldie, but thanks!

Everyone has made big steps by coming here, reading and posting. We can all do this together!
Marcie

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Thanks, Marcie

Marcie,

Thanks very much for the info. I'm going to make an appt. w/ a dr I saw a couple of years ago who seemed sincerely concerned about my problem. We talked about prescription drugs (although not Topa). I will take the Lancet info w/ me for her to review. Thanks again. I will keep my eye on the boards.

Svedka

:rolleyes

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Hi to everyone, and welcome to newcomers,

It's good to see new people, as someone mentioned there's strength in numbers.

Svedka, I'm sorry you ran into an ignorant nurse, and an unkind and judgmental one to boot. If you decide to pursue Topamax as an option you might seriously want to consider finding someone more enlightened/informed/human. What you have is a disease, not a moral failing, and it should be treated as such. God knows we heap enough blame and guilt on ourselves, we don't need smug "health care practitioners" (and I use the term loosely) doing it for us.

TTFME, congratulations on 12 days! and you might want to think about rejecting the 12-step mentality that says that because you "slipped" once, all you achieved those previous days, or weeks, or months is for naught, as though you never accomplished anything. You did! You accomplished something HUGE. You went through nearly two weeks of the most stressful time of the year without using what you have traditionally used to get you through. It doesn't surprise me that today, when everyone else went "back to" their routine, you found yourself drinking. That's exactly what I can relate to. Today would have been that kind of day for me except hubby and boys had a snow day. So tomorrow will be a test. Unlike in the past, I won't dive under the covers and wait for the package store to open. I'll get out of the house ASAP and stay as busy as I have to stay for as long as I have to. MWO has been a life raft for me but it is by no means easy, not by a long shot. It is hard, and for me it requires constant vigilance and consistent effort. It's so worth it.

Anyway it''s 7p.m., a long day and my brain is in scrambles. Hi to Steve, CS, and all the other new people.

Best,

Kate

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: Thanks, Marcie

Svedka, If you have a chance drop it off a day or two before, then you dr will have time to read it.

Good luck!

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: Thanks, Marcie

Hi Marcie,

I read your posting the other day when you mentioned that your mother-in-law is helping you. I think that's great! Both of my parents are dead and my in-laws are kinda my mom and dad(although not close as such).

The last few days have been hard, but I made through the holidays. Or should I say WE ALL DID!


Brandy

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Kate, Marcie and Brandy...
Thank you for your thoughts. I wish you all the best of luck tomorrow. Please keep in touch. Today was a set back for me, but I will not give into it...

Good luck and take care,

Tammie

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

You can do it Tammie and we're all here behind you!
You sound like a very strong woman, I believe that you will not give in......


Marcie

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

who's just started.....

Hey All!

How exciting to see all the energy on this thread! Wow!8o It made my eyes go zow! Much better than tying one on every did!

So far so good, today, at least, but I've only been home for an hour, and just another hour before going to bed! I can say that I'm missing having a glass of wine in the habit sense, but not in the craving sense, and I'm dosing up on the topa a little more quickly than it recommends in the book (going up 50 mg every 5 days instead of every week). As long as I don't get too dopey!

TTFME, I think that you really have guts to come on here and were able to admit that you feel like you messed up and ask for support. That takes courage. I really agree with what Kate says, and it is part of what can make AA so difficult for some. Also, there is a big difference between a "slip", which is not such a big deal, and a relapse! You still accomplished all those days sober, and drinking during one day doesn't erase that. I have been to some AA meetings in the last 6 months, and I have noticed that in the beginning of some meetings they mention that the only requirement for membership in AA is the desire to stop drinking OR WANTING TO HAVE A DIFFERENT LIFE. I think this indicates that, in some meetings at least, there is a growing awareness that they need to be less rigid about how they define success. Anyway, I will climb down off my soapbox now! So keep on trying, and try not to get too discouraged. It's really hard at first. I'm sure I will have my trials in the days ahead, espec, when I have more unstructured time.

I'm completely pooped, so I'm going to read a few more posts, but I'm so glad you are all here. Thanks for all the support!

Kathy

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

who's just started

Oh and Gina, congrats on 30 days! That's terrific!:rollin

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

I'm joining you guys

Hi, there!

I'm starting the program as soon as the meds arrive. In fact, I'm already cutting down a lot. I found I'd been taking many of the vitamins lately, trying to stop the shakes, which I didn't connect to my wine drinking until Sat. when having overdone things on Friday night were so bad I couldn't type. I suddenly thought "I wonder if these are the shakes?" and got a glass of wine and they came under control. I don't drink in the daytime unless I'm at lunch with someone and order a glass of wine. And,that's rarely.

Wine has been my good friend for years in the evenings. I never drank in H.S. and was a casual drinker in college. But, when I was 30 and was alone at night, with my husband at the college library, I began to have a few glasses of wine while I read or did craft things. Then after he finished and we moved things changed. He'd come home from work and have a Scotch or two and I'd have a Rum and Coke with him then and pour a glass of wine to fix dinner. It was not unusual for us to have more drinks after dinner. Our marriage was on the rocks and had been for years, but we both wanted to get the kids out of H.S. before we addressed it. We divorced after 25 years.

After we divorced, I saw nothing wrong with having 'my old friend' at night, and did it for 5 years, not every night, but those when I was alone. Then I remarried a lovely fellow who had been thru a rehab program and was a solid AA member, and I moderated my drinking.

Then he died and again I looked to my 'old friend' to keep me company. In the last couple of years I've begun to have fragile blood vessels in my lower forearms and have been tested for everything imaginable and nothing shows up. When I realized what the shakes were from, I was scared to death and did a search and found this program. I've printed out the book, ordered the vitamins and ordered the Topomax from Mexico. I'm tapering off the wine...1 or 2 at night and I go to bed sober, but I'd be scared to go cold turkey right now. I've started being careful not to gulp it and make it last. I drink a lot of water with it and hope to avoid the serious withdrawal problems by tapering and allowing my body and brain to get used to less in my system and by the time the CD's, vits, and med get here to be at a low level. Meanwhile, I'm reading the message boards and know that I can go to AA if I have to or need that support, but I prefer the anonymity and lack of criticism on slips that I see here. I do attend a 12 step program and have for many years that helps me with my reactions to a very sad childhood. Neither of my parents were alcoholic, but my mother was anorexic and very obsessive and compulsive and truly didn't like me. Not relavant to this discussion, but I can find support thru my friends in that program if I need it.

It's so good to see that there are so many wonderful people here who are struggling AND succeeding with this program. I hope to be one too.

Thanks for listening!

[Guest]

Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

Re: I'm joining you guys

Piddytat;

Welcome! Wow you've had a hard time, hopefully coming here where we are always supporting each other will help!

Brandy

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Who's just started or really starting in the New Year?

I'm joining you guys

Welcome Piddytat!

It's really great that you are tapering down before the medications come! I admire you for doing that. The medication will make it much easier. I'm only on day two of not drinking at all, and it's not too bad yet. Hope it continues at this level. I miss it a bit, the old routine. I did see a couple of wine glasses that I left out on the counter tonight that I'm planning on giving away (everyone loves to give me wineglasses because they know how much I love to drink wine--now they're gonna be stumped:rollin ) and got a big urge, but it was a habit, not a craving, so it passed! I was glad.

Anyway, Piddy, you've had quite a few losses, starting out with your mom not liking you. My mom didn't really like me much either when I was a kid, and it is a very painful way to grow up. I think that drinking can be very linked to early pain in our lives, whether or not we have a biological predisposition. When we face pain in our adult lives, alcohol makes it not hurt so much; then, over time, alcohol becomes the problem. That's certainly what happened to me!

Anyway, glad you're here.

Kathy