Alcoholism Support Group

ktharp428
I have not gone to AA. I will not rule it out if I cannot stop on my own. I am not sure how close one is because I am in a very rural area. The other downside is my husband is a local businessman and everybody knows your business in these small towns. But we will see how it goes

Wow! Thankyou so so much for all of your responses. I do think I have a problem but I have never taken real steps to sort this out. i don't think I think I have control over drinking and one is never enough. i don't want to be an offical drunk. so Im thinking what steps to take from here. Im scared of setting a goal of giving up as I tend to fail and things just get worse.

In AA you learn to focus on today and today only. I have made a decision every day since 11/15/94 to not drink for today. I know what your talking about with the fear of failure, that's why I don't ever say "I will never drink again." Just for today....

If you're scared of setting a goal of giving up and you're anything close to an alcoholic you're in for it.It's the first drink that gets us drunk.Once an alcoholic takes the first drink,the craving for more is put into action.Try going one day without anything to drink at all and see what you feel like.Once you get through one day,try it again the next day.See how long you can go.You will know where you're at then.

I have made the choice not to drink today x

That's a great place to start Lynz, here is some food for thought about our 24 hour non-drinking attitude.

Why do I kid myself that I must stay away from a drink for only one day, when I know perfectly well I must never drink again as long as I live? I am not kidding myself because one day at a time is probably the only way I can reach the long-range objective of staying sober. If I determine that I shall never drink again as long as I live, I set myself up. How can I be sure I won’t drink when I have no idea what the future may hold? On a day-at-a-time basis, I am confident I can stay away from a drink for one day. So I set out with confidence. At the end of the day, I have the reward of achievement. Achievement feels good and that makes me want more! Best wishes

Hi, Lyn. of course your worthy enough to post here, and I tell you right now, if you want to be happy, get out of that,"Poor me," attitude. God doesn't make no junk, and he created you. Now the first thing is start beleiving that. Tell it to yourself until it feels good saying it. I mean that. when you get up in the morning, go to the mirror and tell yourself,"God loves me. He doesn't make no junk, and I am worthy of recovery." Now I don't usually answer for people that are wondering if they are alcoholic, but I do make acceptions when I read things like this. Yes, you are alcoholic. 1-3 bottles of wine is not normal drinking. Now you can stop wasting time with that, and get on with, "What can I do about it?" I drank the same as you. I drank for the effect. I liked what it did. It numbed me out, and I didn't have to feel the emotions I had. Usually we are trying to medicate emotions that we don't know how to deal with. I never knew what an emotion was, so I made excuses for why I drank. Had a hard day, just want to relaxe, I love the taste. Hell, booze doesn't taste good. Now with your husband, people that are close to us sometimes can't be honest about things like this. Their too emotionally involved. He doesn't mean to be, it's just the way it is. You need to be asking somebody that hasn't got an emotional bond with you. They can tell you the truth. I have been in relationships where I was asked if I liked a new hair style or something, and I seen that I couldn't be honest because I didn't want to hurt their feelings. What was I supposed to say? "No, honey, I think it looks like shit." So being emotionally involved doesn't work if you want the truth. Your better off comming here, like you did, and asking. So now for advice, well I don't like to give advice, but since you asked, I would put myself in recovery. You can do that in many ways. The most available, and easiest to get into right away, is Alcoholics Anonymous. I'm not sure if your familiar with it. it's a great support group of other recovering alcoholics, that together try to learn to live with their alcoholism. Sometimes people have misconceptions of it. Try not to let these rob you of an opportunity to live sober. I learned after many tries, that I can live sober, and that it's really living. Drinking is really a dead end, that eventually brings missery both to you, and all those around you. Your drinking affects your children, your husband, and anyone else around you. A.A. is not a cure all. You still need to deal with life and it's problems, but A.A. can teach, and help to do it sober. I recently developed a differant addiction to pain medication while sober, but at least I can deal with it, because of the help I did receive in A.A. If I was still drinking I couldn't deal with it. Recovery is a life long journey that we all are entitled to. When I was drinking, life was so limited that I saw no way out. It was hopeless. Recovery from alcohol has given me so much hope. I've experienced happiness, peace and joy that I thought was impossible. Although I may still struggle with differant things, at least I know that recovery from alcohol is possible. Without that, I can do nothing. I hope you decide to grab onto it, and start living. Your family is worth it, and you are too. Stay on here. This site is a fantastic means of support. Try doing the journalling, respond to others, tell your problems. I guarantee you will feel much better. All the best, James