Hello

[godschild]

Hi everyone on the boards, I am a 39 year old woman, married with 2 kids, 17 and 10. I found this site by accident and am glad I did. I'll give some history, sorry if it gets long. After struggling with alcohol problems my entire life and going to 4 different rehabs, picking up hundreds of 24 hour chips at meeting, I finally committed to AA in February 2, 2002 and stayed AF for 5 years by going to lots of meetings, working with a sponsor, working the steps, doing service work and anything my sponsor told me to. Even though most of the time I was OK I still wanted to drink sometimes. We moved to another town and I just couldn't get myself to start going again. I stayed sober for another 2 years on my own just not drinking, living my life, being involved with the kids and using the tools that I had learned and at 7 years AF I was hit by a truck that ran a red light and have had major neck, back and jaw injuries with excrutiating migraines ever since. For the last 23 months I have been going through hell physically. I have had chiropractic, physical therapy, 18 months of splint therapy for my jaw, injections in my back, 8 sets of injections in the back of my head and I also gained 50 lbs, I've never been overweight in my life. I was prescribed narcotic pain meds throughout this entire time, which I had never taken before and was able to take as prescribed for 18 months and I still didn't drink any alcohol. In September 2009 my pdoc prescribed me a controlled diet pill, something else I had never taken, after a few months, this along with the pain meds starting a craving in me to drink like I hadn't had in 7 1/2 years so I drank along with the meds and was on a 3 week binge. I went off the meds cold turkey and I went AF for December 2009, went on a 4 day alcohol binge in January 2010 and was AF the rest of the month, had to have neck surgery in February 2010 and had been on a 10 day binge since being home and having to take pain pills again. Not sure if we can talk about things besides drinking on this site and I apologize but that has become a big trigger for me, so no more narcotics. Since finding this site last week and lurking I have become very interested. I loved AA but I wanted to try something different and the thought of picking up another 24 hour chip wasn't appealing. This has been my course of action since stumbling on this site last Tuesday. I took my last pain pill but still drank. I continued to drink but cut back everyday to avoid alcohol and the med withdrawals at the same time. I switched from vodka to beer and drank 9 on the first day, 6 on the second, 3 on the third, 1st day AF today. I got my book in today and am going to do the 12 week program, my goal being at some point to try to moderate but abstain if necessary. I have been on a low dosage of Topamax with my neurologist for my migraine treatments for a while so I am going to continue that along with Lexapro that I have been taking since the accident. I spoke with pdoc and and going to increase the Topamax per the books suggestions. I ordered the supplement starter pack from the site today along with the cd's and since I have been released from my surgeon I am able to do light exercise so this part works for me too. Time to return to my Life but better, thanks for reading!

[mario]

Hello

Hi & welcome Godschild to mow,you have come to a great place with lots of advice & support,you will find here that you are not alone in fighting this fight,Also very well done on 7 & half years sober,that's brill,but it does show that we are fighting this problem forever and we can never get complacent about it,hope you keep posting and sharing your journey with us.good luck

[Gold]

Hello

Welcome Godschild,

What a lot you have been through, and you still sound so strong. I wonder whether the diet pills upset the balance of your metabolism in some way and started the cravings rather than the painkillers alone. Either way I am sure that following the programme will do you a lot of good at many levels, the shock of the accident and the recovery process must have taken a lot out of you.

I guess you know how to live sober, and so as you say time to return to your life but improved.

Good luck to you, and you can talk about anything here, the chances are that there will be someone with some insight and experience that helps.