Alcoholism Support Group

You break my heart. I am so sorry to hear that. Do you live in an assisted living facility? Who is there to support you? I am glad you found DS as there are many friends you will meet at different stages of their struggles with the same thing you are dealing with. You have to find a way not to take the first drink. I am still trying to figure out how to do that myself.

Hello badtimes61,

Although going to AA meetings would certainly help you, the meetings are but a support mechanism. What you really need is some means of changing your way of thinking or a personality change where alcohol is concerned and there may be several ways of bringing about that change.

I am not familiar with Smart Recovery or Rational Recovery so I cannot tell you whether they work or not but you should check them out as I understand that they don’t have many meetings. Do not discount AA just because you cannot attend meetings. The Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous) was written at a time when there were few AA meetings and the idea of the book was to get precise instructions about how to recover from alcoholism to people who were maybe hundreds of miles from the nearest town and pretty much on their own. The disadvantage of this approach is that you won’t have a face to face sponsor but you can get around that difficulty too. There are now plenty of online meetings and forums where you can get information and explanations about what is in the Big Book.

Try the links below for online meetings. You may have to copy and paste the links to your browser.
www.aaonline.net/
www.intherooms.com
stepchat.com/chat/room1.htm

For someone in your position, the Joe McQuany DVDs “The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous” would be a valuable resource. You can purchase these from various places online for about $60 and they are well worth the price.

You won’t stop this devil by yourself so ask God for help – He’s dealt with the same guy before and sent him packing.

Thanks for your help PJ54, I will try those links, one of the problems I have now is forgiving the two peple that put me in this wheelchair is why I have trouble with Jesus.

Hi citychick, no I live alone. I wish you luck.

AA does not have Jesus as a church would...AA has something called a power greater than yourself or Higher Power.....which could be whatever you think is greater than yourself...for me some time I chose to use Good Orderly Direction or Group of Drunks as my higher power...

I am sorry about your being stuck in wheel chair but that does not cause you relief from whatever it was that put you there....if it was individual who put you there perhaps by gun or car accident then the forgiving of them is going to be hard I am sure....I think that if you were to go thru the 12 steps of AA you would find some help with knowing what or how to perhaps let that issue go as it seems there is nothing to change the past...we also do not predict our futures and to say I will be sober in ten years would be stupid as I live only today and might get run over by a herd of zebra excaped from the zoo...LOL but seriously each day you continue to put poison of booze into you is another day you will not know the freedom I have from being sober today....so really try to put the plug in the jug with AA and keep it there...As PJ suggested AA has online meetings...At intherooms,com they are video meetings with speaking and video feeds from web cams...if you do not have a web cam you pretty much need to try one of the other sites pj listed....

good luck...keep putting your sobriety first in your life and find a power greater than you that will help you do that....perhaps it is the nuclear plant down the road that gives you lights and AC that power is greater than me too but for me it does nothing to help keep me sober...my higher power does keep me sober.....I will let you find and decide on your own higher power....hugs bill

Thanks guys, I'm trying. Hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, I may need to call on you guys, is that ok??

Hello badtimes61,

You can certainly call on people here for support and I am sure that everyone on D.S. would like to be helpful. What you have before you now could be likened to a treasure hunt where there are some clues to be solved before you reach the great riches that are to be found at the end. There can be some false clues that throw people off and some people give up just as they are about to reach their goal.

The best thing to do is to start at the very beginning and not make the mistake of skipping ahead. However, since you have raised a couple of difficulties that many see on the horizon as they are starting off, there may be no harm in dealing with those. The first is the Jesus or God question and this is one that causes much confusion. In AA, a Higher Power can be whatever you want it to be and it had to be like this as many of the founding members of AA were atheists or agnostics so they wouldn’t stand for having religion in the Big Book. Consequently they came up with the term “A God of your understanding” and this allows you to choose your own conception of God. This works very well for people who believe in religion and also for those who are atheists or agnostics and there are plenty of those people on D.S. who successfully use the AA programme.

The second thorny question is the issue of forgiving the people who put you in the wheelchair and right now that must seem like an impossible goal. That is why it is so important to start at the beginning and to gather information and understanding as you go along. As you do so, your thinking about many things will change and what now looks impossible will become a lot easier. For now, it may help you to bear in mind that the person who will benefit in a big way from such an act of forgiveness is YOU. It is you who will be free from the emotional hurt which has been caused and it is you who will gain a new freedom.
It is probable that nobody chooses to become an alcoholic and I am certain that nobody chooses to be in a wheelchair but things happen in life that we cannot control. Sometimes these circumstances that we would rather not find ourselves in can throw up opportunities that other people never have and this programme of recovery from alcoholism is one such opportunity. There is gold at the end of that rainbow but it takes a bit of work to get there. Stick around and you may witness the miracle of recovery from alcoholism in your own life.

Hi PJ54, I'm beginning to see what you mean now after I rose out of the fog a few inches. 3 days sober today, longest in a year, I feel like my head is going to explode and I have locusts in my ears, so weak I can hardly set up but I'm sober!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess I'll try again, drunk as a dog tonight.

This only works for people that have already quit, so they can talk about it. People that are in the sturggle get no help from this because the people that have quit are to busy bragging on themselves. It's ok, I don't hate you, I been on other social websites, people are selfesh azzholes and only think of themselves. This I already knew when I joined DS and expected it. I'll deal with my problems in my own way. I'm good at that, since I was 10. I won't be here anymore, you asshole seem to be a click, I hate clicks.