Alcohol

[Meadowsweet]

Hashi, I relate to that style of drinking alot at the moment. I've gone 4 weeks without therapy and 3 of them were spent with a very intense work schedule.

The past two weeks, I've had a drink every evening because I'm not coping, but knew I had to keep any trauma thoughts away so I could get through the next day's schedule. I don't drink loads, just enough to numb my mind.

I've managed to get through work, but figure if I'm drinking every evening to do so, I'm not coping with the added pressure.

I've finished that job (it was only temporary), so now I've got to stop drinking. And hopefully therapy will be available again soon.

 

[ericaboo]

In the longer term, though, it has made it harder. it's taken me away from the habit/discipline of doing other things to cope.

Hashi - Thank you for saying that. I just had a realization about the same thing, and how I relate to my meds currently. For 20 years I was a heavy drinker and drug user, and would self medicate with anything put in front of me to kill the pain, memories, loneliness and insomnia.

Now, I notice that my automatic approach with meds is that I should be able to lean on them to completely eliminate my symptoms instead of working as hard as I should on therapy, coping and just plain realizing that life can be hard/sad/painful/uncomfortable, and at times I can just endure that and pay attention to the experience without doing anything about it except learning what I can from it.

For now, I still feel I need the meds in order to get through the hard stuff and continue to function and take care of myself. They work better than the alcohol ever did. Maybe I'll always need that to some extent.

Still, I think, substances are not the ultimate answer - learning and healing is.

 

[missmary]

For those of you who quit drinking- what did you do to stop?

I want to stop drinking and be a non-drinker. But I associate with heavy drinkers who will pick on me, (granted, all in fun and they would be supportive if I told them but I also don't want them to know what I'm dealing with so...) and also when I start drinking- I can't stop. It is always a binge. Just like the comment about drinking a whole bottle of wine and opening another if it's in the house.

My BF has taken to no longer purchasing the beer and wine as I've expressed a desire to lay off the liquor- yet at 5pm when work is over- my little brain is craving a cold one! And it can never be just one... I try to stop and get maybe a week into it and break.

What to do!? It's definitely a coping tool. I drink to calm down, slow down the thoughts, drain the anxiety- relax a little. It helps me sleep even though I take Clonidine for that too. But then I just feel foggy and crappy all the next day. The cycle sucks.

 

[ericaboo]

I was able to stop without having to go through rehab, but it depends on how bad your withdrawal symptoms are. It could be dangerous to quit cold turkey. You might want to consult an MD.

My hard drinking friends miraculously vanished, and I started hanging around with a new crowd. Therefore - nobody was picking on me, in fact they respected tha fact that I made a good decision for my health...

I went to AA, although I'm not a religeous person - it was still a really useful program with a lot of non-judgemental support.