April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

[Guitarista]

April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

jenniech;1299917 wrote: thanks to all for your contributions to this thread...I can really relate to it all...it is early here and my mind is a bit foggy but want to post......Lilly, I am the same as you....I know I cannot moderate but pure abstinence is hard for me to accept. The good news is I have cut down on number of times i drink (e.g. went two days AF but then last night succumbed) but the amount is always the same.....too much.

I am going to keep reading and try to get this brain to the point of no more drinking. I think a lot about my age, health, weight. I am 48 and could stand to lose 20 pounds. If i stopped drinking the pounds would come off - I am sure of it! I have a close family friend who is only 54 but is a heavy heavy drinker (keeps vodka at job and drank all day and night) Now he has congestive heart failure and can barely walk. He is in and out of the hospital all the time and has been near death. He can't drive anymore because his feet are so swollen and he can't really write because of swollen hands (all due to the heart condition). He developed pneumonia and had been in intensive care for a couple of months but has finally been moved to a rehab place that is very depressing. Plus while in hospital they found he is now diabetic. I don't want that to happen to me!!! It seems that the heavy duty partiers start to fall apart in their 50s and i am getting close to being that old. It is time to turn things around....I am just trying to figure out how to get my brain to choose common sense over that alluring drug alcohol.....

Today I am going to think a lot about my triggers and what i can do about that. Seems i always fail just when i am starting to feel good (a/k/a not hungover).....need to focus on how to avoid that pitfall....

Hi Jenniec,

Sorry to hear of your friend. I hope he can recover. This is what alcohol will do to us before it takes us to an early grave.

There is only one antidote and way forward to better health, happiness, and our true selves/path. Pick a day 1 to stop, and keep going. We eventually learn new habits/lifestyle and we shine.

We just have to take the leap and do it.

[LillyE]

April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

Guitarista;1299905 wrote: We have to have faith and take the leap. A musician mate of mine goes to the beaches of Bali a couple of times a year. He is a 24/7 drinker rock star type, but when he gets to Bali, he doesn't drink. He jams with the band, swims, and reads. He calls it Bali re-hab. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just remember you don't have to drink to have a good time. If the company is good, you'll have a great time anyway, and you will look stunning dahling, as you walk tall, sober healthy and happy in the glistening moonlight. :h

Awh, thanks for that lovely post Mr G - that really made me smile.

And you're right, about answering my own question and also about the parallels in quitting smoking. That's something I've been thinking about a lot. I was reflecting tonight on the 11 months of on-off 'quitting' I had before I finally ditched the fags. During that time I never went more than 20 days without 'slipping' but here I am.. a year later.

If I could go back to the start of those 11 months with what I know now, what would I tell myself?

Just launch yourself and don't look back
It will get easier the longer you go BUT
You have to cut it off altogether or you'll never get free
The stop-start is simply torture. Stop doing it to yourself

Hello? Parallels much?

With smoking, the misery of it just eventually outweighed the perceived 'pleasure' of it. It still didn't make it easy to quit - not by any means - but I'd had enough and I wanted to be free far more than I wanted to smoke. The same is not, clearly, entirely true of this for me with drinking yet as there's still too much perceived pleasure in it for me - despite the fact there's also often a lot of misery and even my short stints AF have shown me how good that can feel given time. (And I'm sure far more than I know given more time.) So, what, I want to wait until I'm TRULY miserable - perhaps like Jenniech's friend - before I pack it in? Now wouldn't that be rather stupid?

Another thing that really helped me quit smoking was a shift in attitude... learning to see all the positives in not smoking and be grateful for not smoking rather than constantly feeling deprived of my little friend.

Hello? More parallels to mull over.

I'm going to keep meditating - figuratively I mean - on the idea of not drinking in Thailand being a huge positive, rather than a deprivation, and hope I can get there. In the meantime, one small goal at a time. The rest of the week, 10 days, two weeks, then I fly away...

Jenniech.. hello, I believe you are new here to restarts? Welcome and keep posting. Share your triggers and solutions to them with us as you work it out.

Lilly x

[patricia]

April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

Bit of cross posting going on but since I started this first I am going to continue but just dropped in to post that now on day 10 having nine AF evenings under my belt. Good luck to you all xxxx

[LillyE]

April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

Hey all,

Don't want to abandon this thread but have headed over to Newbies Nest more just as there's more activity there. See some of you there - hope to see more. Will keep dropping in.

Patricia, you sound like you're doing great! Well done.

L x

[patricia]

April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

Hi all, hope all is well. Day 12 which means 11 AF x

[patricia]

April Restarts - Lets's do this thing!

Since this is the first thread I returned to just thought I'd post Day 13 which means 12 AF x