Quitting for Lent

[Miklo]

Quitting for Lent

Glad to hear you are starting again! Stay strong. I remember my day one, just laying in bed, lights out, shaking like a mad man, not wanting to get up because i know i would drink if i did. you can make it, moment by moment!

[FlyAway]

Quitting for Lent

Miklo, what are your plans after Easter?

[Miklo]

Quitting for Lent

This is the problem, this whole time my motivation to stay sober has been a countdown to when I will be able to drink. I know I will go back to how I was if I drink, but I want to drink. I try to convince myself that I will be able to moderate. I have a good streak, 43 days today, and I dont want it to go to waste. I know I am better without it, yet still want it. As of now, there is no plan, but I need one. I am not sure what to do.

[FlyAway]

Quitting for Lent

I just read another post of yours from today about how everyone loves the new sober you. I hate to say this buy honestly you are going to drink again. You want to drink. You've got "deprivation thinking" going on where you tell yourself that you're missing something. I said this same thing on another post today and this is taken from Jason Vale, but would you ever expect a heroin addict to be able to moderate his heroin use? If a heroin user told you that he didn't have a problem because he only used heroin once or twice a day and never before 5pm would you think he had a problem? Society tells us that alcohol is okay, but to your body it's a poison and a drug just like heroin.

At 40+ days sober this is not a physical addiction with you at all. This is 100% psychological. If you're interested in trying to change your thinking and possibly remaining sober I'd suggest reading Jason Vale's Kick the Drink Easily and Allan Carr's The Easy Way to Quit Drinking.

If you aren't interested then you just aren't there yet. I know that feeling and I have tried to quit several times myself. I hope that you stay safe if you continue to drink and do not drive.
Best wishes to you.

[Rusty]

Quitting for Lent

Miklo,

Flyaway is right. And believe me, everyone goes through what you are thinking early in their journey to be AF. Whenever I felt deprived because everyone was around me and I couldn't drink, I would go to this post from JohnnyH (7/6/10):

15 Points to consider when confronted with the urge to take a drink

Cultivate continued acceptance of the fact that your choice is between unhappy, drunken drinking and
doing without just one small drink.
2. Cultivate enthusiastic gratitude that you have had the good fortune of finding out what was wrong with
you before it was too late.
3. EXPECT as being natural and inevitable, that for a period of time (and it may be a long one), you will
recuringly experience.
(a) The conscious, nagging craving for a drink.
(b) The sudden, all but compelling impluse just to take a drink.
(c) The craving, not for a drinks as such, but for the soothing glow and warmth a drink or two once gave
you.
4. Remember that the times you don't want a drink are the times in which to build up the strength not to
take one when you do want it.
5. Develop and rehearse a daily plan of thinking and acting by which you will live the day without taking a
drink, regardless of what may upset you or how hard the old urge for a drink may hit you.
6. Don't for a split second allow yourself to think: 'Isn't it a pity or a mean injustice that I can't take a drink
like so-called normal people'.
7. Don't allow yourself to either think about or talk about any real or imgagined pleasure you once did get
from drinking
Tool box - Page 11 - My Way Out Forums Page 1 of 6
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f1...tml#post949245 9/1/2010
8. Don't permit yourself to think a drink or two would make some bad situation better, or at least easier to
live with. Substitute the thought : 'One drink will make it worse - One drink will mean a drunk.'
9. Minimise your situation. Others have greater problems, how joyful such people would be if their problem
could be solved by just not taking one little drink today. Think gratefully how lucky you are to have so
simple and small a problem.
10. Cultivate and woo enjoyment of sobriety.
a) how good it is to be free of shame and guilt
b) how good it is to be free of the consequences of a drunk just ended or of a coming drunk you've been
never able to prevent before.
c) how good it is to be free of what people have been thinking and whispering about you, and of their
mingled pity and contempt
d) How good it is to be free of fear.
11. Catalogue and RE-Catalogue the positive enjoyments of sobriety, such as:
a) The simple ability to sleep and eat properly; and wake up glad you're alive; glad you were sober
yesterday; and glad you have the privilige of staying sober today
b) the ability to face whatever life may dish out, with peace of mind, self-respect, and full possession of all
your faculties.
12. Cultivate a helpful association of ideas:
a) Associate a drink as being the single cause of all the misery, shame and fear you have ever known.
b) Associate a drink as bein the only thing that can destroy you newfound happiness, and take from you
your self-respect and peace of mind.
13. Cultivate Grattitude:
a) Grattitude that so much can be yours for so small a price;
b) Grattitude that you can trade just one drink for all the happiness sobriety gives you.
c) Grattitude that MWO (AA) exists, and you found out about it in time.
d) Grattitude that you are an alcoholic, you are not a bad or wicked person, but you have been in the grip
of a complusion.
e) Grattitude that since others have done it, you can in time bring it to pass that you will not want or miss
the drink that you're doing without.
14. Seek out ways to help other alcoholics - and remember the first way to help others is to stay sober
yourself.
15. And don't forget, when the heart is heavy and resistance is low, and the mind is troubled and confused,
there is much comfort in a true and understanding friend standing by. You have that friend in MWO (AA).
__________________
AF since 15th March 2010
The journey is the goal. As long as you're fighting the good fight and you're not giving up on giving up, you're
winning. It's not about how often you get knocked down, it's about how often you get up again. Sobriety the
goal for sure. But striving to get to that goal is what it's about. Not getting there. Because the journey never ends.
The journey is the goal.

Keep reading and posting for support. Wishing you all the best of luck.

[Miklo]

Quitting for Lent

So here it is monday morning... I am still sober. I have thought about drinking, but a serious talk with the old lady I am going to abstain. My plan for Sunday morning was to start drinking again, but then I started asking myself why? Why? do I want to be drunk? It seems like it would be good, but at the same time unappealing. I dont know if I will drink tomarrow, next week, next month...but I will not drink today!

[FlyAway]

Quitting for Lent

A very wise decision. I am happy for you and your wife!