Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

[kuya]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

hitting40;1393369 wrote: hi guys - god isnt wine a demon!! it has become so socially acceptable to drink wine that it has become the downfall of so many people. gas how we manage around problems like the clinking of the bottles so buying the cartons to disguise the noise,. we must be the topic of conversation among our neighbours as all you can hear at weekends is clink clink - my husband was so focused the other day about not drinking when he got home but all his colleagues in work were talking about what they were having red / white - stressful day etc - i told my husband to work through it and he did but there is so much pressure subtle / on tv add breaks etc that you really need to stay strong and have a plan. how do you guys work through these tough times

I just restructured my evenings when I normally drank. We don't watch the same tv programmes, I record and watch later without ads. Watch videos and sometimes just pop out for something we fancy from the shop. Doesn't have to be big, the act of driving sober is so liberating. I am single but you are not ...... Go to bed earlier DUH!! :H:H alcohol kills libido so you should now be getting some back ROFL!

Some one here can give you the list of 101 things to do instead of drinking. Change your thinking and start living again!

[kuya]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

Found that list for you, I'm not into the AA stuff but the point is clear.... There is so much to do when sober that you couldn't do when drinking.


101 Things to Keep You Clean & Sober
Use a few of these great tips in helping yourself --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Don?t underestimate your disease. Every single person does at first.

2. Take care of yourself spiritually. Be mindful of your connection to your higher power today.

3. Ignore the dismal relapse rates. You are creating your own success.

4. Make a zero tolerance policy with yourself concerning relapse. Don?t even allow your mind to go there.

5. Avoid fundamentalism, even in recovery. Rigid thinking and dogma can undermine your sobriety.

6. You are creating a life of recovery and you are responsible for ALL OF IT. Yes, others can help you. Their ?help? is mere advice. It is up to you to recover.

7. Don?t confuse enthusiasm for action. Figure out what you need to do to stay sober and then do it.

8. Listen to what the relapsing addicts keep preaching. Then do the opposite.

9. Take care of your social network. Reach out to others in a meaningful way.

10. Figure out a way to help other addicts or alcoholics.

11. If you attend 12 step meetings, find one to start chairing. Consider H&I meetings (taking meetings into jails and treatment centers).

12. Use mindfulness and a heightened awareness to overcome ego. Use meditation to overcome self.

13. Practice forgiveness. Forgive all your past transgressors. Forgive yourself. You must do this to get long term relief from resentment.

14. Be aware of diminishing returns, and spread out your recovery efforts (i.e., don?t focus on just ?spiritual? growth).

15. Rearrange all the furniture in your house. Anything to get through the night sometimes.

16. Clean your house from top to bottom. Same as above.

17. Go for a long walk.

18. Buy a pet and care for it.

19. Eat a gourmet meal.

20. Cook a gourmet meal.

21. Practice the arts. Paint, draw, sculpt, sing, dance. Etc.

22. See a therapist.

23. Work on a puzzle.

24. Connect with someone else who is hurting.

25. Start a project that is bigger than yourself.

26. Revisit an old hobby.

27. Teach someone something. (Anything!)

28. Learn something new each day. (Anything!)

29. Write in a daily journal.

30. Stretch yourself spiritually by suspending disbelief for a day.

31. Write a letter to your addiction where you say farewell to it.

32. Join a recovery forum online.

33. Start a free blog over at blogger.com and tell the world about your progress in recovery. Figure out your own tips on staying sober.

34. Reconnect with your family and spend time with them.

35. Go back to school.

36. Learn a new skill or trade.

37. Sponsor a newcomer.

38. Make a commitment to chair a meeting each week.

39. Celebrate the recovery of a friend.

40. Spend time with your family.

41. Email the spiritual river guy and tell him your problems.

42. Celebrate your clean time with a cake.

43. Write out a gratitude list.

44. Read through your old journal entries and see how much you?ve changed.

45. Try a new form of meditation (or make up your own?there is no ?wrong? here). Some of the best tips to stay sober come from within.

46. Write out a to-do list and cross each thing off as you accomplish it.

47. Always have a big goal in the back of your mind that is challenging for you, but would make your day if you met it.

48. Practice balance. Challenge your daily habits.

49. Practice humility. Always be in ?learning mode.?

50. Forgive yourself and move on with your life.

51. Sit down and write 2 goals out for yourself: one big one and one little one. Keep the paper in your pocket.

52. Inspire someone else to grow. Challenge them to be a better person in some way. Encourage them through your own success.

53. Learn to relax. Find your quiet place of rejuvenation and return to it often.

54. Elevate your consciousness. Watch your own mind and see how it responds to events. Repeat often. Learn.

55. Find the beauty in life. Appreciate all of it. Be grateful for beauty itself.

56. Ask yourself with each decision: ?Is this the healthiest choice for me right now??

57. Quit smoking cigarettes already.

58. Be grateful for existence.

59. If you go to the same AA meetings all the time, switch it up and go to a completely new meeting.

60. Write a poem about how you are overcoming addiction.

61. Turn off your television and read a book. Better: read recovery literature. Best: write your own recovery literature.

62. Use overwhelming force to conquer a goal.

63. Use the Sedona method to release emotions that are holding you back.

64. Write your bucket list. Then, act.

65. Figure out your life purpose.

66. Write out a fourth step and share it with your sponsor.

67. Take care of yourself physically. Exercise. Take a walk. No excuses.

68. Keep your priorities straight. Physical abstinence is number one. Simple and effective.

69. Keep a high price on your serenity. Don?t sacrifice it for just anyone and their whims.

70. Use a sponsor for stage 2 recovery. Let them guide you through holistic living.

71. Take care of yourself mentally. Go back to school. Get that degree.

72. Find your own path. It is your responsibility to do so.

73. Practice humility and stay teachable. Always be learning.

74. Go to long term treatment and be done with it. Best decision I ever made.

75. Don?t pin your hopes on a short stay in rehab. It takes more than that.

76. Call your sponsor.

77. Get a sponsor.

78. Use a zero tolerance policy when it comes to self-pity. Never allow it for yourself ever again. Ever. It is poison.

79. Read recovery literature.

80. Join a recovery forum.

81. Use outpatient treatment if that works for you. Take it as seriously as possible and connect with the others in your group.

82. Meditate.

83. Pray.

84. Go out for coffee with a friend in recovery.

85. Find your passion.

86. Work out.

87. Join a church.

88. Volunteer.

89. Take care of yourself emotionally. Don?t get knocked too far off your square.

90. Stay vigilant against potential relapse. The disease can find many routes (gambling, prescription drugs, sex, etc.).

91. Go to a meeting.

92. Don?t pin your hopes on long term treatment. It takes a lifetime of learning for alcoholics and recovering drug addicts to recover.

93. Use long term strategic thinking. Care for yourself, network with others, and pursue conscious growth.

94. Don?t ask ?why me?? Instead, ask ?how can I create the life I really want now??

95. Call a friend in recovery.

96. Sit down and write out a gratitude list.

97. Don?t live in fear of relapse. I wasted 5 years on this. Embrace the creative life and know you are strong in recovery.

98. Get extreme. Figure out what you need to do to stay sober?then double it and add ten. That?s how hard you have to push yourself.

99. Raise the bar. Stop settling. Use your talents as a gift to the world and make a difference in some way.

100. Live consciously. Set deliberate goals and go after them with overwhelming force.

101. Embrace the creative life in recovery and live holistically.

SOURCE: Spiritual River | Addiction Help

[BlondeAFAmbition]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

Hitting 40 (by the way, I hit 40 in August...feeling good about it though...isn't 40 the new 30?!) Despite my AL addiction, I am in pretty good shape and health!

Anyway, about the wine being a killer...yup, it's true. It's so socially accepted...I think that's why it has been so hard to quit! It's every where. I've never been a hard AL drinker, just white or red wine. White in the summer and red in the winter. But now I'm on to flavored seltzer instead! Good luck!

[Doggygirl]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

54 is the new 29.

The ONLY way to fail at this is to quit trying. Seriously. When I was in a relapse state back in 2007 / early 2008 I would NOT want to come here and post until AFTER I was "back on the wagon." That was a really bad strategy. I should have just kept coming back the very next day. Isolation feeds my urges to drink, and being around people who are sober and/or trying to get sober feeds my confidence that I can do it too.

SO KEEP COMING BACK NO MATTER WHAT!!!

I found the supplements, a low carb diet, exercise and the hypnosis CD's (all as outlined in the My Way Out book) very helpful - even though the really rocky parts of getting to tha last drink.

Good luck - all of you here can do this. You are not alone!

DG

[hitting40]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

hi guys - yes i agree change the routine - i have started to go to bed earlier and watch movie in bed, the living room is where my trigger is between 8 -9pm as that;s when the kids are in bed, and i feel like rewarding myself, however i must say that at 4.20pm today my resolve is still strong, and i have loads of work to do after a busy meeting this morning so i will be kept going. i really enjoyed today and felt normal like everyone else and not ducking and diving avoiding people. i want to continue to feel like this so i am here for the longhaul - please god!

[Mom21961]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

So, I had my first month follow up meeting with my 'sympathetic' addiction doc today to discuss My Way Out and Topamax. I got hammered! (not the drunk way, I was stone cold sober, just the being abused way). Apparently one month of Naltrexone was suppose to fix all my issues and since it didn't, and I was looking into the MWO program, I wasn't serious about quitting and was just trying this and that and it wasn't going to work and I was certain to fail. I apparently have many deep seated psychological issues and need to see a psychiatrist. His answer was AA 6 times a week, and told me that my children already were thinking 'Mommy loves wine more than me'. He told me to go home, think about that, and cry really hard because I needed to. (I don't drink around the kids). He wants to put me in an inpatient facility and when I told him I thought there was another way, he told me he was going to drop me as a patient. Apparently I have one more month to toe the line. He did give me a prescription for Campral and some other antidepressant starting with an S that I never heard of (the pharmacy didn't have it). I have to get on the AA bandwagon or he's not going to waste his time with me. Wow. Way to be supportive. I'm going to succeed in spite of him. I'm still waiting for my supplements/CDs from MWO, but with the Campral and Naltrexone, combined with the MWO program, I'm going to succeed regardless of what he says or thinks of me. I think I'm an addict, I have a problem with alcohol and I need to quit drinking, but i am NOT crazy (and I asked my dh to confirm that just in case )

[kuya]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

Mom2JTx3;1393848 wrote: So, I had my first month follow up meeting with my 'sympathetic' addiction doc today to discuss My Way Out and Topamax. I got hammered! (not the drunk way, I was stone cold sober, just being abused way). Apparently one month of Naltrexone was suppose to fix all my issues and since it didn't, and I was looking into the MWO program, I wasn't serious about quitting and was just trying this and that and it wasn't going to work and I was certain to fail. I apparently have many deep seated psychological issues and need to see a psychiatrist. His answer was AA 6 times a week, and told me that my children already were thinking 'Mommy loves wine more than me'. He told me to go home, think about that, and cry really hard because I needed to. (I don't drink around the kids). He wants to put me in an inpatient facility and when I told him I thought there was another way, he told me he was going to drop me as a patient. Apparently I have one more month to toe the line. He did give me a prescription for Campral and some other antidepressant starting with an S that I never heard of (the pharmacy didn't have it). I have to get on the AA bandwagon or he's not going to waste his time with me. Wow. Way to be supportive. I'm going to succeed in spite of him. I'm still waiting for my supplements/CDs from MWO, but with the Campral and Naltrexone, combined with the MWO program, I'm going to succeed regardless of what he says or thinks of me. I think I'm an addict, I have a problem with alcohol and I need to quit drinking, but i am NOT crazy (and I asked my dh to confirm that just in case )

That's what I like to hear, feck him!

Wasting his time!? It's his bloody job! My doctor admitted to me once he had alcohol issues, yet he is soooooo judgmental of others. Remember this man is ONLY an educated human, not a god.... Even if he thinks he is.

There is more than one way to skin a cat.....as the saying goes. You must trust yourself to find your OWN way out.

[paulywogg]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

hi mom2,what a mess,that is heartbreaking how your dr.acted! mines the same way,the heck with him!

[pixie]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

Sorry to hear that your doctor was less than helpful. You have all of the successful people on MWO as living proof that there are alternatives that work. Good for you for sticking with what you believe in.

Hope to see you around the forums.

[Alcoholic]

Gathering supplies in order to quit, but I'm scared.

Sorry about your psychiatrist being so mean. Female psychiatrists are usually nicer.