Newbies Nest

[Quest for the key]

Newbies Nest

Morning nesters !!!

Well day 2 (again) but I know (and I repeat I KNOW) I'm not going to fail today cos I'm picking 2 gorgeous kitties up at 6pm tonight. Hubby is going to have a fit - he thinks I'm only picking one up - but I'll deal with him later !!!

Kuya - I think my brain is scared of success as much as failure. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (in some areas of my life lol) and a BIG people pleaser - life and soul of the party !!! But boring and dull when sober !!! It's Friday that scares me cos its a big boozy night in our house !!! I've asked hubby to join me but he's not keen !!! I'll just take it one minute at a time.

Byrdy - I do knit - in fact I used to love knitting - ill have to dig out my needles and patterns !!! In fact I'm quite excited about that now !!!

Allan - if you've come this far on your own I wouldn't bother with any supps. Except maybe some b vits - not an expert though - just my opinion x your awesome for going it alone !!!

Anyway I'll check in later and let you know how the furbies are !! Name suggestions welcome - one gray tabby and one ginger tabby xxx

[allankay]

Newbies Nest

Good Morning all. Just checking in to say hi.

RC, it is hard to say, you are probably more familiar with your body than us. Do you often take medication when you cant sleep or when you have a mild headache? Are pills just the last resort for you? As Quest points out you have made it this far, do you feel like its getting easier or harder for you. If you wake up every morning, thinking that "wow today is a better day", may be all you need is your will power.

I feel like I am in the same boat as you. I don’t think that I was ever physically addicted to AL as I was to nicotine. I am fighting a psychological battle and there are so many triggers: stress and success, happiness and sadness, loneliness and social events, boredom and excitement. So if you are looking for an excuse to drink you will always find it. It is like a dress that fits you if you lose or gain weight and you can wear out whatever the weather is.

ALLAN

[kuya]

Newbies Nest

RunningCourage;1383384 wrote:

So, would any of youse recommend i order some good drug (L-Glut, for example?), or continue doing it cold turkey, as it were? Thanks.

Have a braw day, a'body!

Hi RC,

First you are doing great!

But alcohol strips the body of many nutrients and it is those deficiencies that add to cravings. Why not guarantee an easier quit by adding supplements.

You don't need DRUGS as such just damage repair.

Multivitamin, high dose VIt B, milk thistle , magnesium and zinc for repair. Glutamine for repair, cravings and an excellent antidote to low blood sugar cravings. You don't sound the anxiety type but if you are then GABA .

And for fatigue 150mg soft gel capsules of Co enzyme Q10

That'll do ya!

KY

[Lavande]

Newbies Nest

Good morning Nesters,

Interrupted sleep due to very loud thunder storms overnight here, but what can you do? At least I feel somewhat rested & have no hangover of course

RC, you are doing great with 10 days AF, Congrats
You really don't need any meds at this point. As you mentioned breaking the psychological addiction to AL is another & very important issue. That's exactly what the MWO Hypno CDs ar for!!!! They work on getting your thinkling about AL to change. If you don't change your thinking/belief system then you are at risk to relapse. I used the Original 4-CD set & they worked great

Wishing everyone a terrific AF Thursday!
Hope Lola has recovered from her day long party :H

Lav

[jenniech]

Newbies Nest

hey all...this sobriety thing is really taking me for a loop. Here's the thing......I grew up in an intensely alcoholic home. My father died when he was 56 from it....after leaving the family and not supporting us financially, yada yada.....a pretty typical story of an alcoholic home. the problem is, now that I am sober and really concentrating on NOT drinking, it is bringing up all of these HORRIBLE memories. I go to AA meetings and see these men in their mid 50s and wonder WHY didn't my dad make it? Why did he chose booze over me? And that got me thinking about me. I feel like my alcohol and drug use starting at about the age of 16...the age that my father simply packed his bags and left when no one was home. So I guess I have been drinking all of these years so that I could dull the pain of the abandonment....and then it turned into dulling the stress of everyday life.
I am feeling like I am 16 all over again. The pain is so fresh. I just keep telling myself that this is all part of recovery and this too shall pass.
Unlike my father, I refuse to chose alcohol over my precious family. I refuse to have alcohol rule my life. But in some ways, I feel like a child who is figuring out who I am....

[Prairie Fairy]

Newbies Nest

kuya;1383478 wrote: Hi RC,

First you are doing great!

But alcohol strips the body of many nutrients and it is those deficiencies that add to cravings. Why not guarantee an easier quit by adding supplements.

You don't need DRUGS as such just damage repair.

Multivitamin, high dose VIt B, milk thistle , magnesium and zinc for repair. Glutamine for repair, cravings and an excellent antidote to low blood sugar cravings. You don't sound the anxiety type but if you are then GABA .

And for fatigue 150mg soft gel capsules of Co enzyme Q10

That'll do ya!

KY

Please note all - Kuya is right - your bodies need vitamins as we have done damage to our systems that requires repair. You will need higher B's, magnesium and zinc. Glutamine will significantly improve cravings and issues with blood sugar. Taurine can stop the shakes many people get in the early days. Milk Thistle will help if you have begun to develop fatty liver....

Your body is under stress from the drinking. It's needs to heal itself. Yes, stopping drinking will help. But if you want to feel better physically - give it what it needs to repair the damage that alcohol has done specifically.

Lav is also right - Hypno's are important. I'm not as huge a fan of the original MWO hypno's unless you are getting the total Absitence ones...

I'm doing my best with a custom set I had done from the same vendor - using total Abs as part of it - but dealing with my specific triggers - Yes - insanely expensive - but it' is working more effectively than the others did - I'm calmer and at greater peace, my cravings are signficantly diminished, and things that would have sent me are barely registering on my emotional scale this time...I'm just simply more even keeled. I know it's the hypnos' as the scripts deal specifically with those triggers.

[nurdl]

Newbies Nest

Wow! What positive thoughts to read first thing this morning. Kuya, you have a good point regarding the smoke-aholics. I've just started going to AA meetings. While I enjoy knowing that I'm not alone and there are other women who share this illness it bothers me that throughout the meeting people must announce that they are alcoholics. It's kind of like banging a frying pan on your head over and over again and it just keeps hurting.

I'm only 3 weeks sober but I'm learning that drinking is not good for me or my family or friends, so I'm quitting drinking. I don't drink. I also have asthma and I don't walk around saying "hi, I'm nurdl and I'm an asthmatic."

be well and have a terrific AF day!
~a nurdl of hope~
:h

[lolab]

Newbies Nest

good morning everyone! Busy nest again today. :-)

Allan, that's sooo true - for all of my adult life I've used alcohol for EVERYTHING....grief, excitement, stress, celebration....it takes awhile to break those associations. I don't think anyone should get too dejected too early on....hang on - we've been doing things certain ways for years and years. It won't change overnight.

jenniech- I was reading your post and was just sitting here shaking my head yes...I had a complicated relationship with my mother who passed away earlier this year after years of suffering and illness. I had such a huge array of emotions at the time - and I was dealing with it without alcohol! It was extremely confusing, and almost too much to bear. I found it so helpful to ramble on in a "journal" on my laptop - about my feelings. At first, I was just trying it as a desperate attempt to make some sense out of what I was feeling - but as I kept doing it, I realized how therapeutic it was for me to get it out. And sometimes writing down something that doesn't make sense to you - somehow begins to make sense in print....Even it doesn't make sense - it lessens the burden a little - of you carrying that around all the time...

You are doing such a great job. These are things we never dealt with - we just swept them under the rug and jumped on top of it with our bottle...pretending they didn't exist. It hurts - to finally deal with them - but I'll tell you I now feel very empowered by the way i handled my situation. And it doesn't feel like something that I just have to carry around with me - it's something that I dealt with and am at peace with....:l

[kuya]

Newbies Nest

jenniech;1383489 wrote: hey all...this sobriety thing is really taking me for a loop. Here's the thing......I grew up in an intensely alcoholic home. My father died when he was 56 from it....after leaving the family and not supporting us financially, yada yada.....a pretty typical story of an alcoholic home. the problem is, now that I am sober and really concentrating on NOT drinking, it is bringing up all of these HORRIBLE memories. I go to AA meetings and see these men in their mid 50s and wonder WHY didn't my dad make it? Why did he chose booze over me? And that got me thinking about me. I feel like my alcohol and drug use starting at about the age of 16...the age that my father simply packed his bags and left when no one was home. So I guess I have been drinking all of these years so that I could dull the pain of the abandonment....and then it turned into dulling the stress of everyday life.
I am feeling like I am 16 all over again. The pain is so fresh. I just keep telling myself that this is all part of recovery and this too shall pass.
Unlike my father, I refuse to chose alcohol over my precious family. I refuse to have alcohol rule my life. But in some ways, I feel like a child who is figuring out who I am....

Jen I just posted to you on the 'Alcohol' post, I hope it helps a little.

Honey this pain is what you have been drinking back all these years, cry a lot, scream if you need to, and remember that every tear represents a bottle of alcohol you will never need to drink again ......so let em flow.

KY

[Slaythefear]

Newbies Nest

jenniech;1383489 wrote: hey all...this sobriety thing is really taking me for a loop. Here's the thing......I grew up in an intensely alcoholic home. My father died when he was 56 from it....after leaving the family and not supporting us financially, yada yada.....a pretty typical story of an alcoholic home. the problem is, now that I am sober and really concentrating on NOT drinking, it is bringing up all of these HORRIBLE memories. I go to AA meetings and see these men in their mid 50s and wonder WHY didn't my dad make it? Why did he chose booze over me? And that got me thinking about me. I feel like my alcohol and drug use starting at about the age of 16...the age that my father simply packed his bags and left when no one was home. So I guess I have been drinking all of these years so that I could dull the pain of the abandonment....and then it turned into dulling the stress of everyday life.
I am feeling like I am 16 all over again. The pain is so fresh. I just keep telling myself that this is all part of recovery and this too shall pass.
Unlike my father, I refuse to chose alcohol over my precious family. I refuse to have alcohol rule my life. But in some ways, I feel like a child who is figuring out who I am....

Hi Jenn. I went through a few days where the issues were hitting the surface and I became very depressed. I'm not sure if it was the issues alone or a combination of PAWS and the issues combined. I think we have to be gentle with ourselves and not expect too much on that front to fast. I, also, think we need to learn to forgive and just leave the past where it is, the past. The present is where we live the gift of life we have and we have the power to think and do as we choose in the present. Holding onto old feelings or any kind of victim hood is bad business for healing and loving life. YOU need to love and believe in yourself. Just look what you are doing now. You are succeeding in taking this present monster out of your life.

Rainy recommended a site to me on FB when I was feeling down and thoughts were coming into my head of issues I hadn't dealt with properly and drowned out with AL. It's under Being Sober is only as dull as you make it. I like the daily dose of positive thoughts. This morning I woke crying because I was upset with the actions of my daughter and then I logged on to check FB and there in front of me was the perfect thing to put my mind back on track as if it was just waiting for me. It jogged my brain into appropriate gear and I responded with a quote and my thoughts. Food for thought.

Being Sober is only as dull as you make it ? 107 like this
about an hour ago ?

Unreal expectations from our loved ones on the recovering or active addict is the topic for today. Whats your thoughts, Opinions and words on this topic?

My reply: I like quotes and often make up my own as I learn or realize things going through pain or tough times. This is one I made up several years back. "Unreal expectations lead to disappointment." We need to take a good look at what we are expecting to see if it's out of wack with reality. It can lead to feeling victimized, unloved, unworthy, etc. Those feelings can be a trigger to self destruct with alcohol or other substances. Remember to love and believe in yourself. Life is a gift given to YOU. Keep your eyes on what you expect from yourself. Xo

Hang in there and work on your thoughts and beliefs. We often let our minds go to unhealthy places.

:l

[Slaythefear]

Newbies Nest

kuya;1383499 wrote: Jen I just posted to you on the 'Alcohol' post, I hope it helps a little.

Honey this pain is what you have been drinking back all these years, cry a lot, scream if you need to, and remember that every tear represents a bottle of alcohol you will never need to drink again ......so let em flow.

KY

I, also, agree with KUYA. Crying is a great way to release pain, but do it, get it out and then put the proper perspective on the issues. Don't stay dwelling in the negative of the past. It's done and over with. Today is where you live and today is where your choices make all the difference in your life. What other people do and have done is of their own choosing. You are responsible for what you do, think and liking yourself. Do things into your life that make you feel good about you.

Love,

Slay

[Rainyday]

Newbies Nest

Dottie Belle;1383336 wrote: I am looking at the hypnosos cds. Several sets to choose from. That is my confusion. Going to send them an email with questions. I exercise 3 days a week most weeks. Helps me sleep. Feeling good on day 4. Going to bed shortly. Really liking this site and this thread!!Dottie

I haven't ordered any online here. I got one called Control Drinking from Home.

You get two CDs (he has a wide selection for different issues) for $30. It really helped me last time I tried to cut back. Unfortunately I still had a drinking spouse in the house.

I tried the CD recently and it bored me! So I think I will order off this website too. I think it might help to have a selection to choose from!

Renee

[Rainyday]

Newbies Nest

RunningCourage;1383384 wrote: Morning nesters,

Firstly, I'm experiencing full nights sleep sober, WITHOUT waking up during the night for the first time in only knows how long. This feels good. Though i do still need/desire/want my full strength :cupajoe: as soon as i wake!

I was never a hard-core liquor drinker (in fact i avoided spirits most of the time for fear of waking up feeling too groggy/with a splitting headache) and I've not had the really bad withdrawals that some can and do get when starting to abstain. Although i reckon physiologically my body had become used to/dependent on it's daily 6-pack of beer or bottle of wine (more at the weekends), I THINK my fight is more psychological??

Good job! From my reading here the Topamax actually works best for people who drink beer and/or wine. If they end up drinking one of those while on the Topa the beer/wine doesn't taste very good.

But it's also a powerful drug to get used to. Hence some here affectionately call it here Topa Dopa.

Naltrexone simply doesn't allow your body to feel any pleasure from drinking.

Antabuse will make you violently sick if you drink while taking it.

I'm not sure about Bacol... or whatever it is.

Glutamine is simply a supplement. You can get it over the counter. Some say it controls cravings. I think you have to get a good quality one.

I take the following:
Vitamin B. Very important. I take a complex vitamin B and then extra Vitamin B-1.
If you don't have to do the drugs, I think you're better off.

Milk Thistle helps with Liver Repair. Take it between meals.
Multi-vitamin.
Chromium
Vitamin E
Vitamin C 1000 mg
Lecithin
Zinc
Magnesium
Caltrate (Vitamin D with Calcium)
Holy Basil (I'm out of this! but it's supposed to help control blood sugar levels.)

This all being said I have also heard that one should only follow a vitamin program for the first 2-4 weeks (per the book by Jerry Dorsman Getting Sober Without AA). Then you are just supposed to follow a healthy diet. In his case, he recommends a macrobiotic diet, although I don't know if I am falling for this, because I want to eat what makes me comfortable!

If you don't have to take medications (Topa, Antabuse, Naltrexon, Bac...) I recommend not. Try it first without.

Keep up the good work!

Renee

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Everybody already advised everybody on stuff....good advice, too....it does a Nest Muther proud to see!! Every AF day is a success....I'm so happy for us all...taking your lives back and dealing with things now. I mean DEALING with them, not numbing them over...it seems overwhelming, but I agree with Lola...once you sort them out, you catch up to today, and everything seems to even out. I'm not saying that very well, but it's like when you shake out a rug...the wave of crap comes flying out at you, but once you get it all out, those waves don't hit so hard and there's not so much crap to deal with. Gads, I'm making it worse with these crazy analogies....How about this: If you hang in there....EVERYTHING will get better. Well done, everyone! B

[Rainyday]

Newbies Nest

Slaythefear;1383502 wrote: Rainy recommended a site to me on FB when I was feeling down and thoughts were coming into my head of issues I hadn't dealt with properly and drowned out with AL. It's under Being Sober is only as dull as you make it. I like the daily dose of positive thoughts. This morning I woke crying because I was upset with the actions of my daughter and then I logged on to check FB and there in front of me was the perfect thing to put my mind back on track as if it was just waiting for me. It jogged my brain into appropriate gear and I responded with a quote and my thoughts. Food for thought.

Being Sober is only as dull as you make it ? 107 like this
about an hour ago ?

l

Yay! I'm glad you came onboard! I really like Kamaro's stuff! She really finds great stuff!

Renee "Rainy"