If you are serious about change, you may need to distract yourself. Do something you don't normally do. Go to a park and take a walk. Go to a mall and window shop. Go to a bookstore that also sells coffee, and buy a book and drink coffee and read a few chapters. Go to a church and pray. Something completely out of the norm. You get the idea. Otherwise, it will be OH SO EASY to fall back into old patterns.

Hope that helps.

That is great advice! Very true
Good luck to you Akintoo

Sounds like you have already convinced yourself that it's alright. are you nuts? Listen to the people here, sit down and really remember how it is. our mind lies to us all the time. I always get pictures of laughter, having fun, and all that good stuff, but it never goes that way. It might at first for a bit, because if I have one, I can have two and so on. But that frigging hammer is waiting. It's like playing with a Jack in the box. That fucker is just waiting, always. For me I need to talk to other people who know better. Other sober people, because it was my great thinking that always fucked me. I did it, no one else. Don't trust your thinking. Even coming here like you are, your going to get good responses from people who know. Listen to it. Have a great day.

Weekend without drinking are though to get through in the beginning. As sobriety time increase weekends become great adventures. You will be doing things that you never dream that you could do. When the mind is clear there is plenty to do.

I'm on day 2 myself.. I have a list of things to do when I am done with work so I keep busy at night and I always have a list of things to do for the weekends as far as house projects.

I agree that keeping busy is critical at the start so you can create new "habits" and patterns that don't involve alcohol.

If you are thinking this way its a slippery slope. In early sobriety (and still sometimes) I'd often have the great idea to have a drink. Just one. the reality is I never wanted one. I needed to get rid of any doubt that Im' alcoholic. once I fully conceded that I'm an alcoholic there was no sane way to entertain a "single" drink. Its like entertaining the idea of social heroin or crack use. Not gonna happen.
So how to get to that point? For me it was working the 12 steps with a sponsor and learning to apply them into my life on a daily basis.

So the end of the week arrives, you convince yourself you're normal, you have one or a dozen and you are back here next Tuesday. I think most of us have been there are one time or another.

You realize that you are on a cycle that is destructive. In the down moments you want to stop. on the up cycle you want to do it again. Is that not pure insanity ..

You ave to understand that you are not in full control of your actions. If you were you would not have a problem, but you are dependent on alcohol. Your body and psych yearn it and will try to convince your consciousness in every way possible that "just one won't hurt", "you're in control, just do it", "we can start again next week", "it's a bad week you need a drink", "it a good week let's celebrate".... recognize the voices

The weekend its coming. Take heed of the advice that is being given. Make a list of thinks to do, places to go. people to see. Start reading up on AA and meetings in your area. Go to a meeting... they don't bite. Get out of the groove an break the cycle.

Stopping drinking is a start, make this your first weekend

I am fully aware it is a spiral. I am fully conscious of it. I just find a reason not to care. This all has more to do with my depression, anxiety and sense of worth. More to do with needing other things to distract myself. I replied to someone else a moment ago about moderation and I think it's worth repeating, if not for anyone else, then myself.

There have been days where I could do this quite easily. Most not. On the "Most Not" days there are a series of triggers while drinking that will then cause more drinking. What makes it more difficult is that I would already be inebriated which would make it all the easier to overreact and want to continue. Most of those triggers involve depression and anxiety that already are there and become very pronounced after drinking. If it wasn't for the lack of sleep, anxiety the next day, saying things I probably want to say anyway but shouldn't and regret afterwards I would love to keep drinking. But until I can find some sort of happiness and calm within myself I am not able to confidently moderate myself. My lack of self control doesn't just stop with the consumption of alcohol. So personally I think it is something larger then simply saying there is this one thing that I just cannot handle and will never do again

But being aware there is repetition doesn't seem to be enough to stop it. Again, it has more to do with the whole then it does the one substance. Still would be nice to start dealing with this other shit instead of repeating the same shit.

Weird but when I ceased drinking I stopped having a lot of the depression and anxiety. I think they fueled each other. Vicious cycle. 1-2

Anxiety went down so fast when I cut out drinking.
Of course you are going to have bad cravings at the end of the week; if you are waiting for a time when it won't be and you can just ride out the wave into the next week, then you will never be sober.
The point is you have to cope with those tough times to get past them. Be proactive and make a plan that doesn't include drinking and keeps you out of such an environment.

Depression and anxiety were there long before my drinking. It is helpful hearing what others think. Good to take that and add it to what one already knows of themselves.

U said: Just an hour until I head home, really want to get some things done today but it is so easy just to decide its OK, that I can have a few and relax.
An example of true relaxing:
Your body is hurting from doing yard work all day so you decide to take a bubble bath. The Bubble Bath would be relaxing to your whole entire body.
The Bubble Bath Would NOT BE RELAXING if you were hungry, it would make no sence.
What I have learned is that alcohol does not RELAX U, it intoxicates you and it is a depresses you. U will not get anything done if 12 beers is considered relaxing. More than likely, you would feel very unproductive...

Now that I think about it, alcohol always got me really pumped up which was the reason I liked to drink. Definitely not relaxing. It is day number 6....so far so good. 3 days off this weekend but still haven't filled my time with things to do. No real urge to drink as of yet.....it would always happen out of Nowhere but hopefully I can distract myself .

Urges are temporary so try to let them wash over you like a wave in the ocean rather than fighting the urges by planting your feet and putting your shoulder into the wave.

http://www.choosehelp.com/topics/recovery/beat-cravings-and-relapse-with-a-mindfulness-technique-called-urge-surfing

I definitely know that feeling of about to go home and then the long drive home having that conversation with myself of don't drink and yeah its cool go ahead and drink. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The hardest part is when I have had a great week or stayed sober all week then it becomes "hey let's celebrate...with alcohol" stupid I know. For me it's learning to reward myself with healthy alternatives if I am doing good. When I was sober for a very long period of time it took a long while before I literally never thought about alcohol. I recently fell back into bad patterns again so now I will have to work on it all over again.