Yes life is a million times better.

You have to want to stop. You won't be able to stop if the desire isn't there.

Welcome. Stick around and ask your questions and read others stories.

I stopped for 2 years and I handled situations much better, and than I started drinking a couple beers a day and my drinking started escalating, and now I'm down to 2 a day and want to quit all together. I felt better when I wasn't drinking.

Definitely. Life does get better. Years ago, I used to be afraid of the knock on the door because I thought I did something. Now I am careful but not afraid.

Thank you for reminding me.

Hi and welcome :) Yes you will be able to stop drinking but it will be when you are ready to give it up and make a change. When you get to that point you will see how much better you feel and it will be so worth it.

Hello bellarogers,

You are very welcome to the forum and I wish you success and happiness.

When someone has been drinking heavily for a while, that sort of life becomes normal to him or her but it is not a not a normal existence. It often gets to the stage where it is difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. At that point it can be hard to imagine that life without alcohol could be not only possible but also very enjoyable. A sober life can in fact be so good that it is beyond your wildest dreams.

“Will I ever want to stop drinking” is a very good question? When drinking becomes a problem, a decision is often made to try and control it or to quit drinking completely. For most people, this is a straight forward process and while it may sometimes be a struggle, determination and willpower will bring about a successful outcome. About one in every ten drinkers will find that although alcohol is causing great problems in their lives, they will be unwilling or unable to control it or quit. Even when they genuinely decide to stop drinking, the subconscious mind is telling them that they need alcohol in order to survive and function. These people will often need outside help if they are to regain control of their lives.

If you are in the ‘one in ten’ category, it is likely that you are on a downward spiral where your drinking will get progressively worse unless you quit completely. The good news is that millions of people have done just that and you can do it too.

it depends on if you want to stop -- or not. Life is a gazillion times better, in that its more rich, full, open, free, and the possibilities seem endless -- sober. When I started to want to stop, but couldnt, life was hard. I felt hopeless, irritable, sick, scared. I felt like I was living a lie. No matter what I tried -- I couldnt stay sober. I also couldnt imagine a life without drinking so it was pretty dark.
I had to plan my life around getting drunk, what I could, or couldnt / shouldn't do drunk.
So hell yes its better sober. I have a life I want to live every day.

Oh, absolutely! I stopped drinking 8 years ago, I live my life by the 12 steps and I have never been happier!

God Bless!

For me it was the adage of being sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Thank you everyone! It has been a rough day, but you all have helped.

Hello bellarogers,

When you feel that drinking would be a good idea, there are a couple of things you can try.

First of all, although you may start off with the intention of having only a drink or two, the reality is that one drink will lead to many more. Run the tape in your head forward a few hours and think about the trouble that drinking will have brought to you as well as the guilt and shame that follows. Ask yourself if it is worth it?

Write down some of the bad things that happened to you in the past when you took a drink, because your head will start to tell you that your drinking wasn’t really that bad.

Write down too the things in life that you can be grateful for such as family and having a roof over your head. If you lift that first drink you may lose all of those things.

Finally, if you find that you are struggling to do it alone, look for help. I was a hopeless alcoholic but I have not had a drink since the night several years ago that I walked through the doors of an AA meeting. Might work for you too.

Why do you have to ask the question? Weren't there days when you weren't drinking? Since you were born/ become self conscious? Were they better or not?
I remember those days and they keep me sane. Do you believe we were meant to become drunks since it were legal to do it? These are rhetorical questions. There are however more difficult questions to face. Post when you encounter them.

For me, alcoholic drinking stopped being fun years and years ago. To drink is to die.

Life only get better after you stop drinking, when you start fixing yourself. There is a lot of work insobriety involving change. If you don't change, you can be a miserable sober person.
Stuff bad feelings rather than work it out will only end up with an mental explosion and another drunk. I found that I kept going back to drinking after a year of sobriety because I didn't change. I was just not drinking.

My life is much better now. I got sober around this time of the year. I am not sure what year it was, but it is enough to say that I have been sober for several years. When I get the feeling that I want to drink, I use my mindful meditation to discover what it is within me causing the desire to escape in booze, then I work on solving the problem. I still have my moments but most of the time i am content. It is something that I never wanted. I wanted those high mood swings, but they brought about the low mood swing. Contentment is right in the middle.

Yes. I do not live with self loathing and anger and fear
The alcohol was just an illusion and actually poison. Not to mention hundreds of empty calories that were making me have health issues. I was addicted. It IS a drug. Maybe legal but it's still a drug
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