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My Experience with Alcohol

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RobPhillips79

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I quit drinking for one year now. Before that, I quit drinking for about a year and a half. Before that, I was one of those people that got up in the afternoon and immediately felt a compelling need to have a drink in order to feel comfortable and less anxious. Social situations were the worst. In the middle of someone talking I would constantly think about getting a drink. Then of course, I would not have heard what they said. It sucks when you just had a sip and you put down your drink to feel like you want to put it right back up to your lips. You can't exactly quench your thirst and have it go away either. No more drinks for me.Thank goodness...
 
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woodpecker

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thank you for sharing this, I am drinking, repenting, drinking repenting. The longest I have gone without is a week. Around 4:30pm everyday I become anxious, restless, alone, even if people are around, the only thing that calms this is a drink,...prayer may hold me back, but the anxiety stays.

How long before this 4:30 feeling goes away if I stop drinking? Will it go away? I think I am on my way to hell if I do not stop.

I do not like AA.
 
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Curtis.Hilliker

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I abused drugs and alcohol for years, and I recieved deliverance from God. It is a very serious problem that most casual drinkers/users tend to joke about. When I was still in the Army, I could drink a fifth of whiskey and a case of beer and still make it to formation (roll call) in the morning. I made those choices in the past, and I am currently living with the consequences today (one being removed from the army). All I can say is cast your burdens on the Lord, he is mighty to save
 
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Peacedove

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Thanks for sharing this with us. You are right Curtis, it is no joke but sadly we are becoming, or rather have become a place where the more you drink the more you are liked (it is the same this side of the pond too). People often do not realise until it is too late the damage which excessive alcohol consumption causes, andnotonly to the person who is drinking the alcohol. I pray God will free you from this addiction woodpecker and that He will use all three of you mightily as a witness to what He can and does do in our lives.
 
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Curtis.Hilliker

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woodpecker said:
thanks for sharing Curtis, I will cast my burdens on the Lord, and hope I will be delivered, and I am still His child...were you a Christian during your drugging and drinking?
Click to expand...

I was saved at a baptist church as a young child, but I fled from faith . I was born again early 2008, and wonderful changes took place
Thank you God!!! Thank you Lord Jesus!!!


Amen!!!!

You are welcome! You are right, I didn't realise how bad I was until I was strung out on drugs and alcohol. I had damaged myself and burned many bridges. But God is good, and he cares very much for us
 
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Chaplain David

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Hi Woodpecker,

You don't have to like AA. You just have to go and work the program if you want a good chance at sobriety. It really works! Everyone doesn't like it in the beginning but find that it works if they work it and their feelings change. I'm going to an AA meeting tonight.

If you find after giving AA a real chance (which is really just giving yourself a really good chance at sobriety), you are still having problems, there are other recovery programs. The point is that you need help with your drinking and there is help available.

Alternately or concurrently you could also see a licensed professional counselor who has experience working with substance abusers. I've also done that.

There are also inpatient and outpatient intensive treatment programs available. So brother, you really have a lot of options here. You have AA, a counselor, an inpatient or outpatient treatment. Plus you should always pray, talking with the Lord and asking for His help to stay sober.

If you'd like to pm me or start a thread in Ask A Chaplain forum you are more than welcome.

Once you really start helping yourself I am convinced that your guilt will diminish and you will no longer have these thoughts about going to hell because of your drinking. God bless you.
 
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madison1101

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I did not like AA at first. I resisted it like crazy, and tried to find fault all the time. Problem is, after 8 years sober, I relapsed. Then, I went back to AA, and got 6 years of sobriety, only to relapse terribly. After 20 years in, and out of, AA, I ended up in outpatient treatment, and then in a rehab.

The AA program is simply the 12 Steps, as outlined at www.aa.org. The meetings are where I learn about how people work the steps, and how people stay sober when they really feel like drinking.

I don't like all of the people I meet in AA, but I find them very helpful in maintaining my sobriety. I was in rehab for two weeks, and have over 18 months of sobriety.

If you drink everyday, you may need a detox program. DO NOT detox without medical supervision. It is extremely dangerous and people have died from detoxing without medical supervision. Call your family doctor for a recommendation to a detox.

One of the things I learned while in rehab was that I had to be honest about my alcoholism, open-minded about working the 12 steps of AA, and willing to take suggestions, no matter what I think of the person making it. Having that new philosophy has radically changed my attitude about AA, and has helped me be free of the obsession to drink.

God bless.

Hugs,
Trish
 
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RobPhillips79

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My apologies for the late reply everyone and thank you all as well for sharing and being supportive.
All I'd like to say it that there are many things that will help you get over alcohol addiction. I never believed or do believe that alcohol addiction is a disease and I don't believe it is helpful to think it to be either. Categorizing it that way seems to put people in a victim mood and can cause you to feel like it is helpless or that you are stuck in some rut. It sure feels like a rut so people can start believing they are stuck. It feels like a rut because your drinking becomes a cycle, a roller-coaster ride with free tickets (free tickets being the temptation to another ride). What you need to come to terms with first is the fact that you do in fact have the power to stop. You are able to stop drinking. You do have the power to not drink. It is a human ability to make decisions and everyone has it inherently. This is not hypnotism, preaching or criticizing or anything like that. It's a fact.

This is a list of the things that helped me:
(NB: Also, know that it took me many tries and many years to finally do it for good so when you fail somewhere, just remember where you failed and if you don't remember, remember next time until you finally know. Then, if you will, exercise your power.)

  • Being flexible with Rules to Quit but because of it, not binging
{By Rules to Quit I mean the limitation on drinking you make for yourself. E.g. "I'm only going to drink 3 mugs of beer at this party but if I have 1 more, I will not have failed my goal."}
​

  • At first, quitting completely!
{When you've made the decision to quit, don't get a drink. Don't even put white wine in your fish by your own will. If your wife or girlfriend cooks for you and she puts it in, it's okay because you will not have put it in yourself. Oh yeah, don't tell her to put in lots either. If your friend brought some rare liquor from Spain, don't drink it. Don't make the motions that go on before you make the mistake of drinking. By that I mean saying stuff like "Oh man, I'm really craving a drink" bla bla... You can always interrupt yourself in the middle of saying something like that or in the middle of your motions or whatever. I PROMISE YOU, you will know later that you have made the right decision and you will be glad you made that choice and also realize that you were right you had that power. I don't like close calls but if you find yourself in one, you will feel even stronger when you pass it down.}

  • Finding and knowing your reasons to quit that are personalized
{By personalized, I mean that they are your reasons. The health related reasons are of course there and true but it's sometimes hard to care or very hard to visualize yourself in the situation you would actually be in; you can only hypothesize, however close. A personalized reason for me was that back in the day I was somewhat popular with everyone at school and I believe the alcohol drinking and my mind, body and soul together, were cooking up a new concoction, post-alcohol me. About a year of mixing me up later, I was getting more angry and silently depressed. I would get into fights and bad arguments with my parents, friends and other people. Years of more mixing later, I found that I disliked myself very much (especially when I looked at myself in the mirror because of alcohol's effects on my internal organs and henceforth my looks, I would sleep late because I drank till 4 or 6 AM and so my immune system would weaken, my inclination towards looking at my ugliness that built up over time and through self-denigrating comments and beliefs) and I had to drink to feel normal, to feel at ease, momentarily relaxed. Another two of my personalized reasons that were crucial deciding factors to quit was friendship/social and the will/hope to have a good future/accomplishment/achievement}

  • Knowing how to handle friends
{This means that if you have drinking friends, party friends, parties and so on, you need to know how to deal with situations that may arise (refer to NB above). Alcohol is a drug. If your friends at a party are going to take a drug, you will most certainly feel left out without taking something if you are in the midst of an addiction to inebriation. I say take up a healthy hobby that you love like strength training, boxing or some martial art where you do a lot of physical exercise. You might feel less inclined to drink and be tired or recovering when you want to get stronger and healthier. It takes different amounts of time to get the results you may want so keep with it, eat well (more low GI in the day and gradually less till almost none at nighttime, protein is the opposite; less in the day and more in the night) because working out happens also in the kitchen. Also, your friends will usually have both helpful reactions (that make you feel good) and unhelpful reactions (that tend to make you feel bad about not drinking). BOTH can make you feel like drinking. This all comes down to willpower and knowing your goals and past failures of similar situations.}

I'm sure there are more things that have helped me out of the dangerous loopy behavior but since I wrote this all in one session, I'm feeling quite tired now. I'll add in a later post if necessary. Life ain't perfect but you sure can recover to great heights even from the lower reaches...
​

​
 
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woodpecker

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wow, I am in tears over the love and support I have received here, you all give me hope that I can change.

Day one for me, a good weekend to start, no parties to attend, a pretty quite weekend, please pray for me.

luv you all thanks.
 
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