its all part of recovery jim bargaining with yourself, it will pass as you get more into sobriety take care x

It's almost impossible for me to be a social drinker too. I just go into a crazy craving mode if I try to drink once and awhile. If I drink once I better plan on falling off the wagon at least a week...which turns into two.

I like to golf too, but haven't gone in acouple years. I learned my lesson golfing in the heat while drinking.

Knowing I wont be happy with one is part of what keeps me at 0. I know if I say yes to one or two, it will be a case and then another. I have come to far to let that happen now. I just hope I stay this strong!!

Once, to quit smoking, I quit drinking for a year. I was amazed at how much better I played when I wasn't concentrating on how quickly I could drink a beer before it got to hot! Next week I'm coming home for a month and my dad and I are playing in a fundraising match. Wow--I cannot wait to hit the ball again. How white am I???

Jill,

My fist pass out incident was last year after a big night drinking. I was on the 8th fairway about 85 degrees or so. Stepped out of the cart laid down and next I remember I was lying in the club house.

You would think I would have thought I had a drinking problem them. Ha Ha Went home in the a/c and started drinking again.

My game has improved this year, sober golf is much more consistant.

I spent a long time trying to be a social drinker. I never wanted to have to come to the realization that I would have to stop drinking all together. But yeah, at some point I finally admitted to myself that in the end this is an all or nothing kinda deal.

I with jen on this one. I dont' just want one or two. It is easier for me to not have any at all. Beer I can leave it. My room mate keeps a six pack there and it doesn't bother me. Now if a bottle of Vodie or good bourbon was around I don't know I would trust myself for long. I don't mind being around light social drinkers but a full blown party is out for me. I don't care to be around those who are drunk beyond being their normal self. I know I down want to fall in that catagory again.

I know alcoholics and the near beer thing works for them. Not me I like the buzz to much.

In college a professor said that the difference between an alcoholic and a drunk was that the drunk wasn't hooked. He wanted to get drunk. For years I thought that I was a simple drunk. I never drank socially, I always drank to get drunk. I don't know when I crossed that fine line where I was drinking not to get drunk but because I had to drink,

I am in this whole process at the moment. Since I did a month sobriety, went to AA and brought things out into the open with my partner and one friend, the stakes are high and I'm having to reconsider a lot of things. One, like the fact I may not for the forseeable future be able to drink. At all, full stop. I have tried counselling a few times before but what I never really talked in depth about was my drinking. At some point my drinking changed from being frequently drunk to having to drink, and on my own, and not wanting to go out because I felt so down on myself, so kept drinking etc.

I have been up and down struggling with this. I did a month, then have drank some days and not over. Worst day was when we all went to the pub and I only thought I could handle it because I thought we were going to have a cuppa outside, but then friends turned up and it turned into this big bank holiday drinking session. I only had a couple of shandies but that was enough to break a few days sobriety. I probably need to go to AA again to make things seem more real as I keep making excuses to myself. I need something BIG to get me on track again. I've asked my partner to work the steps with me.

I found this:
http://www.proactivechange.com/12steps/and/12stepsworkbook.pdf

Interesting!

Oh, so sorry, I have realised I can't be a social drinker.

I'm a "So Shall drinker" (pronounce it close to "social drinker")

When someone says, "I'll have a drink",

I say, "So Shall I".

--------------------------------------------------
The above is funnier when someone says it the right way than when one reads it.

My SOAG (Sort Of A Girlfriend) thought it was funny (though she didn't think it was funny after I said the first line and then paused a long time).

-------------------------------------------------------
Another good one heard at an AA Meeting:

I can control my drinking,
OR,
I can enjoy my drinking,
BUT,
I can't do both.

(For those of us who think we can control our drinking with a ton of will-power -- perhaps so, but will you enjoy the experience? Probably not, it will be an ordeal to maintain the self-control. Defninitely not fun. Anyway, this is what I remind myself when I think I can "moderate" now).

AnhMinh, there's a similar joke: The difference between an alcoholic and a drunk is the drunk doesn't have to go to all of those meetings.

The non-alcoholic beer in recovery topic comes up again and again. I have heard story after story of alcoholics relapsing from drinking nier beer. I love ice cold beer when I'm thirsty. I don't love it enough to chance being thrown back into that hellish misery, though.

I'd have to say, I tried the low alcohol, no alcohol beers and wines. Worked for a tiny bit but inevitably I wanted the real thing. I think sticking to long drink of orange ane lemonade or something is thirst quenching, gives you the sweetness of alcohol but doesn't make you want another 5 pints of the stuff.