Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
So I use alcohol as a means to cope with life's problems. I've always heard that I lack coping skills, but I don't know what that means.
What are some coping skills that you use to keep from picking up?
What are some coping skills that you use to keep from picking up?
Unfortunately for me, it could only help so far, my alcoholism had progressed and any willpower I had with respect to alcohol had diminished to a point that I could not get sober on my own and without help. I was the problem more than the alcohol was. I got help through the 12 Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Most of what is listed in Reply #1 above and some more.
When something was not going right, I drank to cope and when everything was going fine, I drank to celebrate. I often became angry with people, places and things and I drank in reaction to those things so I had to learn new ways to react. As I learned these new things I began to notice that I could do a lot of things that I would have been terrified to do before. For example, I would have been afraid and tongue-tied when talking one to one with someone or in a small group and the thought of addressing a large group of people even with a few drinks was very frightening indeed. Now I can talk easily to individuals and I can sit facing a roomful of people and talk to them without any nerves whatsoever.
Learning those new ways and becoming self-confident was something that was not taught at school or anywhere else so I did not have a clue about how to go about it. I knew that there were things in my life, apart from drinking, that were not right but I wasnt even too sure what those things were let alone know how to fix them.
To each his own and whatever works for someone else is just fine by me, but in my own case I needed help. Alcoholism drove me unwillingly to AA and AA offered me a programme of recovery that has enabled me to deal with many issues of everyday living. Due to learning those new coping skills and putting them to use, I have not thought about picking up a drink for quite a while now.
I kind of needed to go right back to square 1 and relearn a lot of things. Knew there was a drink problem for a long time but I kind of suspected there was a lot more to be done...so much wrong with me I didn't know where to start!
Not drinking was the first priority, taking stock came after. Turns out a lot of what I thought was true, was false and a lot of what I thought was false I had to take another look at. AA helped me to do all this, and I got to walk the road with some company, and a few more experienced guides.
Turns out my thinking around how best to 'cope' was a little screwy, like the man with a headache who bangs himself with a hammer to ease the pain. Drinking and other things, my first reaction to life was not always so helpful though I swore blind it was at the time! If I wet the bed, what did I do! Feeling alone and vulnerable? Scream and shout at my best friends, who needs them anyway! Couldn't cope with work? Get a new job with more money...he he I'd never had a great track record with life.
At just short of a year sober I had to face probably my biggest single fear, out of the blue. I survived, with the help of these new tools and perspective and TBH now can't believe I'm the same person that used to react and think the way I did. But it wasn't all bad either, some of who I was was pretty useful too.
Good luck anyway, if you really want to quit drinking I wish you well.
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Needed to hear that myself in early days!
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