I tried not drinking for a weekend

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benjo0101

TMMAC Addict
Jun 13, 2016
6,452
7,106
Weird. My body doesn't like not going out. Sitting at home is weird.

All my mates are out. I'm sat at home.

In the pursuit of progression and losing weight.

Fucks with my head. I've gone out or had a beer for every weekend since forever. Feels like I've not had a weekend.

Hope it helps...
 

Inflames

Forum veteran
Oct 30, 2019
3
5
That's always been my problem. I can stop drinking, and within a few days start to feel really good physically because of sleeping better, less hangover headaches, etc.

After a couple of months, I start to feel this build up of tension or whatever. I just get incredibly bored with feeling the same way every day, never feeling immensely happy or immensely sad or whatever. I just feel kind of numb.

So, I'll give in an go on a bender just to feel that carefree, joyous feeling you sometimes briefly get when you're drunk, which - since I'm an alcoholic - leads into drinking every night again.

I'm 50, and at a point in my life where I know that if I want to live another 25-30 years, I've got to stop drinking. For those of you who have stopped successfully, how do you get over the hump here?
 

Sex Chicken

Exotic Dancer
Sep 8, 2015
25,819
59,498
That's always been my problem. I can stop drinking, and within a few days start to feel really good physically because of sleeping better, less hangover headaches, etc.

After a couple of months, I start to feel this build up of tension or whatever. I just get incredibly bored with feeling the same way every day, never feeling immensely happy or immensely sad or whatever. I just feel kind of numb.

So, I'll give in an go on a bender just to feel that carefree, joyous feeling you sometimes briefly get when you're drunk, which - since I'm an alcoholic - leads into drinking every night again.

I'm 50, and at a point in my life where I know that if I want to live another 25-30 years, I've got to stop drinking. For those of you who have stopped successfully, how do you get over the hump here?
Hey man. I’ve been sober for 7 years now. Without bogging down my response with too much of my personal history (there is a link to a sobriety thread below where a few of the alcoholics on the forum talk about it below), I was an all day heavy drinker for 20 years, and I honestly never imagined being able to get sober.
It seems to me like you’re pretty much already there. It’s a cliche but it’s true admitting your an alcoholic is the biggest step. Now it seems you just have to accept that you can’t drink anymore. For whatever reason whether it be years of abuse, something genetic or something chemical, you’ve broken your off switch. I don’t know why I’m an alcoholic. It doesn’t matter why. Stop trying to figure it out and trying to find a way to keep booze in your life. At the end of my drinking I would take a month off to try to prove to myself I wasn’t an alcoholic, but the fact was it was always still on my head and I was doing the month knowing I was going to let myself off the leash as soon as it was over. It’s exhausting doing the math and mental gymnastics ‘I can have a couple tonight because I didn’t drink all week’ (and we know that no matter how strong our resolve feels, or our best intentions, it never turns out being a “couple”), I’ll drink tonight and then go back on the wagon tomorrow’. It is such a relief when you just say “I’m done”. I don’t even think about it anymore. I just don’t drink. I don’t examine why or allow myself to lie to myself that maybe this time it will be different. I just don’t drink at all. I don’t fight that battle anymore.

I wake up clear. Knowing I took care of my business the day before, it at least gave it my best effort. It’s a great way to live. It’s like being out of debt. I wake up with a clean slate or as clean as I could have made it. I’m not overwhelmed anymore.

I sometimes think of my drinking as an ostrich sticking his head in the sand. I would get overwhelmed by life and all it’s stresses and demands and use alcohol to escape. Of course the longer you stick your head in the sand the more that shit piles up, and if you’re an alcoholic that escape can last for days, weeks, months, years. Then you stick your head up for a bit and see all the missed appointments, work that needs to be done, the way you have let people down, and now you have even more reason to want to escape. It’s like fighting a fire with gas It’s a vicious cycle and it’s fucking miserable. What you think is giving you relief is the thing that’s creating the things you need relief from.

I don’t have that shit anymore. I don’t drink and I don’t know examine why I can’t, I just don’t.

I’m happy for you man, it seems like your all there except for that last step. It really is a great way to live.

PM me if you ever want to talk.

Lifestyle - Is there a sobriety thread here?
 

Superlurk

Member
Jan 31, 2020
7
5
I am in a similar situation. I just spent several days talking down a great person from suicide over alcoholism. Got her in a facility - Im also a bad drunk - I have been told I am a functional alcoholic.

I am just slowly dinging from drinking - shakes every day etc. I am ready to stop - I have before it just doesn't stick. Its been a very rough road.
 

BJTT_Kiwi

My member is more well known than yours
Jun 25, 2015
3,268
5,866
I am in a similar situation. I just spent several days talking down a great person from suicide over alcoholism. Got her in a facility - Im also a bad drunk - I have been told I am a functional alcoholic.

I am just slowly dinging from drinking - shakes every day etc. I am ready to stop - I have before it just doesn't stick. Its been a very rough road.

I've always had an interesting relationship with drinking - two speeds are "go" and "faster".
Taking a month or so off is a good way to reset, but that doesn't change things forever.

I'm highly functioning, but that was slipping.
The need to check my call log/messages/sent emails the following morning was a strong sign that it was having more of a negative impact on something I pride myself on.

I've just done Dry July again for the 4th time - usually with another month during the year to "prove that I don't need it".
In truth, taking the month off was nothing more than "holding my breath" for a month. It's easy to do to get short term benefits.

This time around though I had crashed and burned prior with depression caused by the death of my mother and a close friend inside a few months of each other.
My behaviour was poor towards my friends, employees and family - and I had other issues with grief that needed to be addressed.

I started SSRI (antidepressants) for the first time in my life, as lifting, seeing a shrink and being dry weren't going to fix things this time.
It has been a massive help, and currently I don't have the desire to drink like I did.

In summary, asking for professional help is a great way to start the process - even if is just your GP.
This applies regardless of whether you want to 100% stop, or just get things under control again.
 

Thuglife13

✝👦🍕🍦🍩
Dec 15, 2018
20,385
27,213
I am in a similar situation. I just spent several days talking down a great person from suicide over alcoholism. Got her in a facility - Im also a bad drunk - I have been told I am a functional alcoholic.

I am just slowly dinging from drinking - shakes every day etc. I am ready to stop - I have before it just doesn't stick. Its been a very rough road.
Screen name checks out^
 

Miesha's Taint

Miesha's Taint
Dec 3, 2018
5,352
11,794
I am in a similar situation. I just spent several days talking down a great person from suicide over alcoholism. Got her in a facility - Im also a bad drunk - I have been told I am a functional alcoholic.

I am just slowly dinging from drinking - shakes every day etc. I am ready to stop - I have before it just doesn't stick. Its been a very rough road.
Best of luck
 

Jesus X

4 drink minimum.
Sep 7, 2015
28,766
31,291
I have been sober for 19 months I think. I don't remember the exact date I quit.

might have been earlier but I had a relapse I first started trying to quit booze in 2017. a lot of the people here sound like they have withdrawal symptoms they aren't recognizing.

quitting is the easy part that takes maybe 3 days to get over with drawls. the hard part is reinventing your day to day routine and lifestyle with out booze it is sort of like dieting for fat folks.

it is easy to lose a ton of weight but keeping it off with a new lifestyle is the hard part.
 

sparkuri

Pulse On The Finger Of The Community
First 100
Jan 16, 2015
34,420
46,562
I got wasted back in May or June; I think I almost died.
I think I had some bad weed and puked my brains out. It took every ounce of power I had to get myself off the lawn.
I thought "I'm gonna Jimi Hendrix myself".
I could not even come close to walking.
That was the first time since last September.
I don't accept "alcoholic" personally, although every awesome time and every super f'd up time surrounded booze.
But I don't miss it or need it.
I miss meaning.
 

kristian82

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2020
488
507
Get a rewarding hobby that isn't drinking. Your current situation sounds like you are on a path to alcoholism.
 

Jesus X

4 drink minimum.
Sep 7, 2015
28,766
31,291
Get a rewarding hobby that isn't drinking. Your current situation sounds like you are on a path to alcoholism.
I think the alcoholism really ramps up when you need to drink before even doing any of your hobbies that begins a nasty cycle.
 

Eric Trump

he/him
Nov 21, 2017
3,176
3,213
I can drink when I feel like it, I can not drink when I feel like it. I can start drinking whenever I want and stop whenever I want. Booze has no power over me. Not to brag, but its true
 

Tuc Ouiner

Posting Machine
May 19, 2016
1,816
1,467
Mr. Eric Trump, It appeared during your father's unfortunate effort to win the 2020 election, that you were on national TV coked out of your mind rambling nonsensical conspiratorial nonsense. Kinda like an 80s yuppie on a mountain full of primo Peruvian flake. Props, dude.
 

Eric Trump

he/him
Nov 21, 2017
3,176
3,213
Mr. Eric Trump, It appeared during your father's unfortunate effort to win the 2020 election, that you were on national TV coked out of your mind rambling nonsensical conspiratorial nonsense. Kinda like an 80s yuppie on a mountain full of primo Peruvian flake. Props, dude.
thank you, that does sound like me