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.
I have noticed the last couple of days that their is some people on the site that went back out and tested the waters or are struggling. Surely there has to be a reason what ever it might be, but I would like to share something with you that helped me in early recovery and I read it every morning.
Keeping sober is the most important thing in my life. The most important decision I ever made was to give up drinking. I am convinced that my whole life depends on not picking up the 1st drink. Nothing on this planet is as important to me as my own sobriety. And I am about everyone because if I am not in recovery I am no good to anyone anyway, period.
Everything I have, my whole life depends on that one thing.
Can I afford ever to forget this, even for one minute??
If your considering taking that 1st drink that will get you drunk you might want to copy this and read it before you do!!!
Do yourself a favor and do the 1st step.
Keeping sober is the most important thing in my life. The most important decision I ever made was to give up drinking. I am convinced that my whole life depends on not picking up the 1st drink. Nothing on this planet is as important to me as my own sobriety. And I am about everyone because if I am not in recovery I am no good to anyone anyway, period.
Everything I have, my whole life depends on that one thing.
Can I afford ever to forget this, even for one minute??
If your considering taking that 1st drink that will get you drunk you might want to copy this and read it before you do!!!
Do yourself a favor and do the 1st step.
It also proves the unmanageability of the choice NOT to drink.
This is purely my experience - I needed my relapses to undertsnad and therefore admit powerlessness and unmanageability in step 1.
repeatedly. We should regard self-control as a skill. It is not a character trait or a thing
you have to have that lets you control your behavior. (or a thing that not having it
prevents you from doing so.) If someone says, "I have no self-control over my drinking
or drugging, or eating sweets or whatever," it might be asked, "Are you well practiced
at resisting your urges or opportunities to use or to overeat the wrong things?" The
answer would likely be, "No." This person is well practiced at giving in to those urges
and opportunities to use. (No criticism from me! I did this for years and years.)
Getting control over your urges and opportunities is like getting control over a bicycle
or roller skates or anything else. Youre not going to start out as an expert. You will get
control of it only by forcing yourself at first to act differently than you feel! (It looks like
the bike should fall over.) And it may feel very difficult or strange. But by practicing
over and over, you learn to ride the bike! So the reason people correctly "feel" that they
don't have self-control is because they haven't been practicing what would give it to
them. In this case, the skill is in resisting urges or opportunities to use.
Along with other related strategies like life coping skills, postive self-esteem and healthy choices we learn how to stall,
distract and resist those urges. If sometimes we dont succeed, we keep trying and resist
discouragement, like getting back on the bike if we tumbled! Those who do practice
resisting urges, after a while report that it becomes easier and easier to continue. They
have been exercising and building their self-control and now have begun to show a fair
amount of skill. In every day language, thinking that you must first have "self control"
before you can acquire a change in your behavior is "putting the cart before the horse."
In one famous study, children were left with a candy bar and told that if they didn't eat
it they would get two candy bars. The children who resisted the temptation while alone
were secretly observed using verbal self-reminders and distracting activities. Children
who didn't resist were later able to do so after being taught new strategies for better selfcontrol.
Things like learning that urges are time-limited, and they will crest and subside
if we stall and divert the thoughts to something else. We should practice doing this to help you be prepared for when you are tempted. Learning about what
self-control really is, and using it to deal successfully with an undesired habit is an
important example of a tool. I hope this knowledge gives you new insight about
ways and means you can utilize to overcome problems, even very difficult ones like
dependence on or misuse of substances.
I got to a meeting, call a friend. Call my sponsor, read the Big book. What ever I can do.
I get weird around family issues,full moons, monday, the weekend.. lol.. it doesn't matter.
Maybe, if more of us shared our experience and knowledge of the actual DISEASE instead of focusing 'SO MUCH ON OUR OWN WAR STORY" the newcomers would actually have a chance at sobriety.
If anyone reading this post IS THINKING OF DRINKING RIGHT NOW, please placate me and listen to these old boys EXPLAIN THE DISEASE OF WHICH YOU SUFFER.
Click here and then click on Joe and Charlie on that link:
http://www.londonppbbs.com/websitesofinterest
God bless
botbotcoco