Clean and Sober?

[China Cat Sunflower]

I'm experimenting with sobriety at the moment. I've kind of been down a rabbit hole for a while. I expect to be posting more as I'll need something to do with myself. Just thought I'd warn you all.

Chris

 

[Nick the Pilot]

Chirs, I used to be hooked on beer. I finally broke away from it, but it took some doing. I wish you well on this endeavor.

 

[Tao_Equus]

I'm experimenting with sobriety at the moment. I've kind of been down a rabbit hole for a while. I expect to be posting more as I'll need something to do with myself. Just thought I'd warn you all.

Chris

Just bottled 43 bottles of blackberry cabernet and 31 bottles of rowanberry vermouth. So dont worry...dont feel like you will be missing out...I'll drink for both of us!

 

[dauer]

Good luck, Chris. Stay strong.

 

[wil]

I started drinking in elementary school with my dad. He was an alcoholic. We'd get drunk at weddings with my uncles. There was a time when we drank heavily at work and used to clock distances by how many six packs it would take to get there. When I first got married my wife would call hospitals to see if I was in there, as surely I wasn't such an ass to just be out drinking... Of course booze was not all I abused.

I remember planning to quit on New Years, and then driving to the first holiday party of the season I thought what a joke that is. Let's see, I'll be partying hard for the next two months and then drink till midnight one day and quit?? I didn't drink at that party and then had to explain myself for the next dozen..."No, I'm not drinking anymore" I quit for a year and a half. And then I learned to count to two. A six pack stays in my fridge for months. When I'm out and about, I may have none, or one, but never more than two. Now that isn't exactly true, in the past 15 years there have been a few times where I was at a hotel...only had to push a floor button to get home and I drank to excess. A handful of times in 15 years vs. almost every night....I'm glad I made the change. I'm sure you will be as well.

 

[iBrian]

Best of luck with it, Chris

 

[Netti-Netti]

Just remember it's a matter of mind over matter in the sense that your system may be expecting the alcohol, which is something you can deal with.

 

[China Cat Sunflower]

Well, thanks for the nice comments! I was wrong about needing to find something to do with myself. I found that there was plenty that I had been neglecting. I don't believe that I'm addicted to alcohol like I was to cigarettes. I think that I can learn to drink moderately like what Will was talking about. I just need a break. Need some space. I decided that I would quit entirely for a year and then limit myself to one ore two, perhaps with dinner or occasionally. I think I can do that. A year at my age isn't very long- they go by clickety-clickety.

Chris

 

[friendofbill]

I wish I had a dime for every time I've heard "I think I can get a handle on it and drink normally in the future" spoken in AA meetings by men or women coming back to the program shaking and obviously in need of another detoxing. Alcoholics don't die of alcohol, they die of denial. That's why the first of the 12 steps is "we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and our lives had bcome unmanageable."

Alcoholism is a progressive disease. It is a disease that tells you you don't have a disease. The experience of over 2 million recovring alcoholis in AA is, "Over any considrable period of time, we get worse, never better." But I have been alcohol free for 21 years,so I know it can be done, and I find the life I have now infinitely superior to whatever I had drinking.

 

[China Cat Sunflower]

I appreciate what you're saying, friendofbill. If I can't make it a year I'll know what's up. AA has worked for many folks, but that's not the route I intend to take at this time. If I can kick cigarettes I can do anything.

Also, AA is not a good philosophical fit for me. For one thing I don't believe in a higher power. I prefer resistance to transcendence. It's more honest.

Chris

 

[Paladin]

Well, thanks for the nice comments! I was wrong about needing to find something to do with myself. I found that there was plenty that I had been neglecting. I don't believe that I'm addicted to alcohol like I was to cigarettes. I think that I can learn to drink moderately like what Will was talking about. I just need a break. Need some space. I decided that I would quit entirely for a year and then limit myself to one ore two, perhaps with dinner or occasionally. I think I can do that. A year at my age isn't very long- they go by clickety-clickety.

Chris

So that's what that noise was

 

[China Cat Sunflower]

It's wild being vice-free, Mark. If I had as many arms as one of those Hindu gods I'd be smacking myself silly. It's weird how one falls into the habit of constantly looking for some amusement- always searching for some thing to eat, drink, smoke, snort, or jam up yer ass. (J/K on that last item) Seriously, though. I'm bored because all I have is shallow amusement and consumption, so I need to consume something, or be amused by something to fix the boredom that comes from always needing that. How perfect is that?!

Chris

 

[friendofbill]

I appreciate what you're saying, friendofbill. If I can't make it a year I'll know what's up. AA has worked for many folks, but that's not the route I intend to take at this time. If I can kick cigarettes I can do anything.

Also, AA is not a good philosophical fit for me. For one thing I don't believe in a higher power. I prefer resistance to transcendence. It's more honest.

Chris

Well, don't let the "higher power" issue scare you. I came into AA as a raving atheist and stayed sober several years before any tinge of theism enterd my thinking. "Higher power" does not necessarily mean "God."

I find AA rather like the mythical "ark" -- entered two by two, but it does get you over the flood.

I also know those who have achieved sobriety by means other than AA, so I don't believe "AA is the only way" and more than "Christianity is the only way" or anything else is "the only way." 2 milln plus folks have found it a good way,though.

Jai Ram
Art

 

[17th Angel]

Alcoholism is a progressive disease. It is a disease that tells you you don't have a disease.

I can't buy that. It's a blow off.... "oh it's not my fault I can't handle drink and over indulge. I have a disease!" Bs ;/ It's a vice that has come from a lack of responsible drinking.. Which can lead in my opinion to REAL diseases such as liver damage, heart failure and kindey failure and so on and so forth... But drinking itself ain't a disease... It's a freaking vice. If you had never met drink, you wouldn't have this "disease"? Right? But you have become addicted to a drug... So... You have a disease? Please....

Remidns me of that south park episode

"Stan... Daddies very sick stan....." *Swigs from his beer bottle*

 

[lunamoth]

17th, All,

But it is different for different people. I have heard of folks who after abusing alcohol can clean up and then drink socially without a problem. But what friendofbill says is true for others. You may think that calling it a disease is a cop out, but it is a dis-order when we abuse any substance, or activity, or relationship. I don't think I'm an usually weak person, but one drink for me makes it almost impossible for me to say no to the second drink. The first drink weakens my resolve just that much. The only way for me to not abuse alcohol is to abstain completely.

Chris, I wish you the best in your healthier lifestyle.

luna

 

[lunamoth]

Seriously, though. I'm bored because all I have is shallow amusement and consumption, so I need to consume something, or be amused by something to fix the boredom that comes from always needing that. How perfect is that?!

Chris

This part reminded me. Have you ever heard of the devil of the noonday sun? When I read about it I realized one of the reasons I started drinking too much was because of a kind of boredom, but not simple boredom. The french term ennui captures it better, and I recently also heard it referred to as acedia.

 

[China Cat Sunflower]

This part reminded me. Have you ever heard of the devil of the noonday sun? When I read about it I realized one of the reasons I started drinking too much was because of a kind of boredom, but not simple boredom. The french term ennui captures it better, and I recently also heard it referred to as acedia.

Sloth? I'll have to check my toenails.

I must go wikiing on this. It's interesting how drinking starts out accompanying activities, and winds up THE activity. "let's have a couple of beers while we fish" becomes "let's fish while we have a couple of beers. Six packs more like!

Got to go look up those words now. Nice to see you around Laurie.

Chris