Abstinence Challenge

[Xadrian]

Abstinence Challenge

neophyte;1629553 wrote: day 12 here

went and saw the lion king, good show btw, they pulled off a lot of the stuff from the movie quite well for a musical e..g where mufasa is killed by the running of the herd, awesome.

my partner was drinking wine which cost 9$ a glass, they poured it into a plastic cup :P she was drinking it next to me with my water, all i could think was how rancid it smelt and i was much happier drinking my water.

compare that to the last musical i saw, Wicked, we had a water bottle filled with vodka and drank most of it. i dozed off and became fidgety 1/2 way through and wanted to get out. this time round, i enjoyed it more and got into the show more.

waking up each day my anxiety is clearing up, slowly. less and less negative thoughts and irrational fear, which as you may remember was a big problem for me going up in baclofen, but in reality i was messing around with benzos and phenibut when going up trying to sleep, it probably contributed. i think now my gaba system is finally getting in check.

reading a book on CBT and learning a lot, trying to incorporate that into my life, though im a bit lazy with it. this is the book if anyone is interested

Buy Change Your Thinking With Cbt: Overcome Stress, Combat Anxiety And Improve Your Life (Coping With Stress Book) by Sarah Edelman (9780091906955) Online at Bookworld with free shipping

Good to go, Neo.

I had a lot of similar experiences, when I went up the first time.

[Xadrian]

Abstinence Challenge

14 days already.

You know what the stupid thing is? It feels like cheating, because it's so easy to do with baclofen, so it's nothing to be proud of.

I really feel sorry for all those poor AA bastards that try to stay abstinent without baclofen. That must be really hard and a suffering.

[Poink]

Abstinence Challenge

I live in a small community and our AA meetings move around through several small communities depending on the day of the week, so we all know each other. I haven't been in 2 or 3 years, but thought about going a few days ago but couldn't stand facing the people who were a few days or a few weeks sober and who were shaking apart. This is my 54th day and I have had no cravings at all. In the afternoon my wife has a couple of glasses of wine and I drink coffee; the wine holds no attraction for me.

No, I'm not a missionary. I have no intention of going to the group and preaching baclofen and topomax. My group is very anti-medication, even anti-depressants or anything else that might affect mood or mind. God as we understand Him should be sufficient to fill the hole in your soul.

And yeah, it does feel like cheating. But in Lonesome Dove, Gus McCrae said " A man who wouldn?t cheat for a poke don?t want one bad enough."

[neophyte]

Abstinence Challenge

day 17 here, i think...

been taking my antabus twice a week and its been really effective as a deterrent. my friends came around for a bbq, between 3 of them they went through 4 bottles of wine and 350mls of burbon. my drinking buddy was anoyed i wasnt drinking so he kept putting the bottle of burbon infront of me and everyone kept offering me wine. if i had not had the AB i would have drank for sure. i wanted to partake in teh festivities. however the night disintegrated into an arguemnt over which dieting method was best, two overweight guys arguing from druken positions of ignorance. it wasnt a pretty sight :P i just sat back and thoguht they were both clowns.

i woke up with no hango ver and was glad for it.

i had a job interview on monday that went really well, however im not sure if i should take it. the last time i had a new job i lost my shit with anxiety, i was convinced i wasnt doing the job well and that i would befired so i quit prematurely and went back ot myold company. i justified it with all sorts of nonsense. i realised then that the booze was what caused the problem.

so i could leave again but im scared the same thing will happen. i cant come back to the same company again.

[skullbabyland]

Abstinence Challenge

Xadrian, Poink... very cool that the baclofen is helping so much to make quitting easier. That said-- it's not alltogether effortless on your part, after all you had to choose to get on baclofen and take it regularly etc, and that requires motivation and focus, so that's worth recognizing too... either way you're not indulging in poison so tha'ts fantastic

Neo- very cool you're finding the AB as a good deterrent- I too find it helpful for situations like the one you described where otherwise, we'd most likely have given in. Sounds like your friends were giving you a hard time with the booze. Do they not know your situation of not drinking? Even if they don't know all the personal details it can be helpful to take a firm stance that "I'm off booze" even if you say something like "doctor's orders" or "part of physical training" or some such. I find that a firm statement at the beginning means people just move on and don't pressure me.

Your overweight, drunken friends arguing about best dieting methods made me laugh-- I've totally been that guy probably soooo often. Lol

As for the job-- is it a job you'd enjoy? Is it a job of significant value, personally or monetarily or otherwise? Or is it really just a lateral move to a similar job? Or what's the deal there? Depending on how bad you want the new job, my two cents is that the deciding factor should probably be how solid and balanced you feel emotionally day to day and in particular with your sobriety. I'm of the opinion that the conventional wisdom of not making major life changes (of which a job change definitely can be) while still in early sobriety is well-founded advice. But, if you're feeling pretty confident and balanced, and motivated to make a significant change, maybe it's a good move. Let us know what you decide.

[BetterAndBetter]

Abstinence Challenge

Day 41 here. Longest time AF in probably 15 years. I haven't checked in before now because I was feeling a bit superstitious about it. Keeping it under my hat.. lol. Anyway, I've been on 80mg and that seems to be doing the trick. I haven't really ever made it to "indifference" although I was up over 200mgs at one point. After the liquid bac source was gone I decided I had better use what I had left judiciously and resign myself to paying a bit more for the tablets, but at an affordable/maintainable dosage. I still have issues with, mostly boredom, but for the most part I'm doing good. I've learned to meditate daily, mostly using online binaural/isochronic recordings... damn... sometimes a couple hours a day! It can't hurt as science shows practice causes physical improvement in the brain. I lurk a lot here and am encouraged by your accounts. Skullbabyland's return to more passion for his art is really cool, as I am a musician, and for the past 5 years my passion really dried up as I was always sauced when not at the day job. I feel it returning, slowly, and knowing Skull has made strides with prolonged sobriety helps a lot. What's cool is that although I've had some AF stints and then "relapses", the longer I do this baclofen thing, the more I know I can be sober if I want to be without any great discomfort. It's a big fucking relief if you'll pardon my french!! Now, I am interested in prolonged sobriety to nurture growth in my life in places that were suppressed due to the alcohol. All of you are very inspirational to me. Thanks!

[Poink]

Abstinence Challenge

Welcome to the thread B&B, and way to go on the 41 days.

[neophyte]

Abstinence Challenge

day 19

not drinking thanks to baclofen is the easy part, i still have anxiety issues, it seems not related to boozing, so i need to work on that. the anxiety is worse in the morning and gets better through out the day. its like when iwake up all the problems seem 10x worse than they really are.

[Xadrian]

Abstinence Challenge

neophyte;1632782 wrote: day 19

Same here, also day 19.

I think Accell is also on day 19, but I haven't seen him posting on this thread.

Three times hurray for us.

[skullbabyland]

Abstinence Challenge

B&B, thanks for posting and welcome- sounds like things are progressing well for you. 40+ days is fantastic. And yes I can attest that as you continue your AF time, your passion for music will most likely return with a vengeance- I'm finding myself in artistic bliss lately and I'm almost in tears sometimes when I think about how I feared it lost forever... but booze couldn't kill it completely and now that it's back on the rise, I can't tell you how grateful I am.
Good luck and keep up the good work, and keep us updated.

[Xadrian]

Abstinence Challenge

Three weeks already. Time flies.

[dundrinkn]

Abstinence Challenge

Haven't checked in for a while. Had major anxiety last week followed by a major funk this week. The joys of crappy biochemistry. I am 44 days AF today. Seriously thinking about not drinking and dropping BAC way down. I am currently at 150mg. SEs are still pretty intense. Who knows.

[StuckinLA]

Abstinence Challenge

Jesus H., I need to sober up. Lent's as good an excuse as any - it's Lent now, right? - how long does that last for? 'Till Easter or something like that, yeah?

Sorry, kidding about all of that - sort of.

Day 1.

[Samandkatharine]

Abstinence Challenge

Dun, don't go way down on your dose too fast. There are stories of members titrating down too quickly and ending up quite anxious or drinking again. 5mg a week maybe would be my dose going down. Some would go down more but I would go down slow....

Sam
.

[dundrinkn]

Abstinence Challenge

47 days, but who's counting... oh wait, I am. Good advice Sam. I am currently at 140mg, and will continue down a bit slower. It seems like cheating -- not drinking with BAC. After being AF for this long, the drinking has faded so far to the background that my mind starts to play tricks on me. "This is so easy, why take all that medication if you aren't even drinking anyway?" I know from last time, however, that once I was down to 70mg, I was able to drink over that switch and got the train rolling toward every day drinking. Anyone else counting AF days?