just a thought.
I keep myself really busy especially if I am craving a drink. If I am at home, I do housework, or go out with my child and play tennis. Then, I come home and force myself to read even though I may not comprehend cuz I am pissed and want a drink.
Maybe not the best answer, but it has worked for now.

I agree with Aussie. I also have to think about something else so that I don't justify myself into having a drink. (Alcoholics are really good at this.)

As the days go by you start to realize how much of your life you have wasted by getting drunk and this is motivation all in of itself.

Hopefully you will find this helpful. You can only know by taking one day at a time.

Hang on and ride out that wave. It does seem to pass. Although I am constantly surfing. Good luck~

lolo

you and me both!!!!!!I exercise seing how since my drinking got bad i gained 30 pounds i have since lost 20 pounds hope since i'm not drinking to finish losing the "baby weight" ( my baby is now 6 lol)

Hi Priness - I see you have one day behind you - well done that's great

.The first day after stopping is the worst - it gets easier

I occasionally crave - usually about 6.30 in the evening, that's when I would open the first bottle of wine - I tend to drink a minerla / snack - I find something with a strong taste -(tonic water or apple juice does it for me)and as the others say - preoccupy myself, before you know it, it's an hour later and the craving has passed.
At the same time - I pray - I can pray up to 20 times in the evening..always the same "Please take this craving away - do what you wish with it - but please take it away" - He has not let me down yet..

My best wishes to you - it is SO worth it...

I was unable to conquer those cravings and that was the main thing that kept me stuck time and time again. I prayed to GOD all the time to release me from my insatiable craving for alcohol. In Sept 05 I met Rhonda Lenair http://lenair.com and after my first visit with her I never had a craving again. EVER! GOD answered my prayers!

I have absolutely NO FEAR of ever drinking again, I can honestly say I HAVE EVOLVED.

I wish you wings.

I agree with Les - pray in earnest for God to protect you and remove this compulsion from you. Before I got through the programme of recovery, I had times when the craving was unbearable so I would do as these other good people suggest and keep busy until the craving passed (and it does) but it is not easy! Sometimes I would find it so awful I would get into my nightclothes and go to bed with a sweet drink so I felt safer from temptation. Sweet things to eat can help to allay the craving too, alcohol is packed with sugar and the body misses it. I wish you well.

I use ask god to take them away.I don't get the darn cravings anymore.I just wokeup one day and they were'nt there anymore.It has been months since they stopped.chew gum it helped me.

I think through when a drink will get me. I think how I won't be able to stop at one or even two. I think how I will end up getting my booze, drinking until it's all gone, or till I pass out. That makes me realize that "one drink" just isn't worth it.

Oh it is sooo hard at the beginning especially princess. At that point I prayed and talked to other alcoholics on the phone (called AA hotline-was so sick could not get out of house). Know that the "crazies" will pass if you tough on threw it. It took me about a month to think straight and not feeling like I was jumping out of my skin. There is no way to get threw the beginning sometimes without enduring physical and emotional pain-especially if you drank a lot. This is alcohol's way of sucking you back in-of course a drink will make you feel better RIGHT NOW. But you must endure short term pain to get better-please know that it will pass.

Cravings are once the alcohol is in you. I think what you're talking about is the mental obsession (when we're sober). The more we obsess on something, the more power we give it. The Big Book says on step 10, "By this time we will have ceased fighting anything., for sanity will have returned. The temptation has just been removed. We have not even sworn off alcohol." What you're experiencing is the restlessness, irritability, and discontentment with life, while you're off alcohol. You'll either treat it with alcohol or you'll work the steps since those are the only solutions a real alcoholic has to treat this internal unmanageability. And working the steps is not something a person does once, something they just talk about in meetings, just going to AA and saying, "bla bla bla," it's something we do the minute we wake up and throughout the day. IN ALL OUR AFFAIRS! The real strength is in surrender. Surrender to a different way of life and the program. The more we fight, the more we fail. We just take an alternate course of action.

i believe it is all about asking God to remove the obbession and go to alot of meetings and be around sober people 24\7 if need be

I don't know how to get rid of the cravings really, but I guarantee if you eat a huge hamburger, it'll blow your buzz if you do drink.

When I first started in AA, I was told if the obsession kicked in to H-A-L-T, and look and see if I was Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. As I began searching for my weak spots the obsession will target, for me it became B-L-A-H - Bored, Lonely, Angry, Hungry. Eating something (healthy) like fresh veggies or fruit helps quell the obsession for me. However, the Boredom - - well, alcohol had become my best friend, my hobby, I ran home from work to spend as much time with it as possible. I also have a tendency to isolate, particularly when drinking, so I force myself to get out of the house and do something useful.

And, hey, if you get a little sobriety under your belt, look in the mirror at your complexion. There is no product you can buy that erases the signs of aging like sobriety. My friends could always tell when I'd been drinking just by the creases in my face and the circles under my eyes. (Not to mention the how-did-they-get-there bruises.)

Best of luck. I'm gonna go eat something now - -

Thanks Corilou!
Your response is food for thought!
I drink when I am lonely too. I race home still to grab the bottle.
I messed up again today!