Mod Squad Weekly Thread December 1st
Hi all,
GB, I am happy to share what I'm doing, as well as how much I am drinking (through Drink Tracker). I have toyed with the idea of posting under My Story, so the people in this group don't need to hear me repeating myself, but here goes:
I did 2.5 months AF starting in late January 2008.
I struggled with moderation April - August. I drank weekends, and often on Weds pm. Not nearly as much as before I quit, but still feeling strong cravings, drinking when I really didn't want to, drinking more than I intended. Pretty much I seemed to be doing what most of the other moderators were doing. It is hard to know for sure, many don't wish to share too many details and that is their priviledge.
Late August I read a post mentioning that it takes a week to get alcohol out of your system. So maybe I should try having a drink just once per week? That worked much better, not so many cravings. Then the rule about "no drinking alone" sank into my dense skull, sometime in September. BINGO! Most of my drinking was alone. Get rid of that, and I'm not drinking much. This sounds almost too simple, because dealing with alcohol is complex.
One complication in my life is that my husband drinks daily, moderately. But mostly he does this out of my sight now, since I quit in January, because he knows I have a problem, and doesn't want me to join him. He has a small media room in the basement, drinks from a coffee cup so it isn't too obvious. I occasionally suggest a meal with wine, but he doesn't. It will be a very long time before he trusts my judgement on how much to drink.
I'm not using meds or supps because I had already quit drinking a few days before I found this site. It never made sense to me to start using thse supports just to be able to drink again. I also want a plan I can follow the rest of my life, and that wouldn't include taking these products the rest of my life.
So there I think is a secret of moderation: depending on how much damage alcohol has already done to your body, you may be able to control drinking at a low level. After a week without alcohol in your body, I think cravings are nearly all psychological, but they can still be very strong. Drinking moderately is therefore also a learned skill: all the rules people have posted are very helpful in learning to limit what you drink, but most people can't follow them consistently. To be successful, you also need goals. You can break a rule, but still meet a goal.
I hope this information helps you, and will inspire helpful comments from others here.
Hi all,
GB, I am happy to share what I'm doing, as well as how much I am drinking (through Drink Tracker). I have toyed with the idea of posting under My Story, so the people in this group don't need to hear me repeating myself, but here goes:
I did 2.5 months AF starting in late January 2008.
I struggled with moderation April - August. I drank weekends, and often on Weds pm. Not nearly as much as before I quit, but still feeling strong cravings, drinking when I really didn't want to, drinking more than I intended. Pretty much I seemed to be doing what most of the other moderators were doing. It is hard to know for sure, many don't wish to share too many details and that is their priviledge.
Late August I read a post mentioning that it takes a week to get alcohol out of your system. So maybe I should try having a drink just once per week? That worked much better, not so many cravings. Then the rule about "no drinking alone" sank into my dense skull, sometime in September. BINGO! Most of my drinking was alone. Get rid of that, and I'm not drinking much. This sounds almost too simple, because dealing with alcohol is complex.
One complication in my life is that my husband drinks daily, moderately. But mostly he does this out of my sight now, since I quit in January, because he knows I have a problem, and doesn't want me to join him. He has a small media room in the basement, drinks from a coffee cup so it isn't too obvious. I occasionally suggest a meal with wine, but he doesn't. It will be a very long time before he trusts my judgement on how much to drink.
I'm not using meds or supps because I had already quit drinking a few days before I found this site. It never made sense to me to start using thse supports just to be able to drink again. I also want a plan I can follow the rest of my life, and that wouldn't include taking these products the rest of my life.
So there I think is a secret of moderation: depending on how much damage alcohol has already done to your body, you may be able to control drinking at a low level. After a week without alcohol in your body, I think cravings are nearly all psychological, but they can still be very strong. Drinking moderately is therefore also a learned skill: all the rules people have posted are very helpful in learning to limit what you drink, but most people can't follow them consistently. To be successful, you also need goals. You can break a rule, but still meet a goal.
I hope this information helps you, and will inspire helpful comments from others here.
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