Tips for coping with temptation

JackieBauer

I need to knock the drink on the head, my life is in bits. I find it very tough after the hangovers clear up and I'm feeling fresh. That's when I find it impossible not to go down the offie. It's like I forget how bad the hangovers are, I can't function with them. What advice would you have to cope with the temptation? It's too much.

Irish_rat

Do you exercise? I find its the one biggest thing that will keep the mind at rest. I have an injury for the last week and a half and finding things tough mentally. When you're finished you'll be gasping for loads of water not alcohol!!

Plans things and set goals. For example I'm aiming to go back to college part time in September, also in the process of buying a house and My third goal is to run a marathon which is not going so well at the moment but it's a challenge!!

good nutrition and learning more about it with new recipes, it's interesting when the weather is so bad outside to go off and cook something new when your mind is lingering.

Good luck with it :-)

JackieBauer

This week I have done a lot of walking and feel better but my problem is so serious that tiredness doesn't stop me drinking. Today will be a big challenge, I just woke up after a lengthy and good sleep. I feel good again, clear headed, being unemployed makes it tougher but there's other stuff to do than drink.

Amazingfun

JackieBauer wrote: »

I need to knock the drink on the head, my life is in bits. I find it very tough after the hangovers clear up and I'm feeling fresh. That's when I find it impossible not to go down the offie. It's like I forget how bad the hangovers are, I can't function with them. What advice would you have to cope with the temptation? It's too much.

Might want to try an AA meeting. They are free "reminders"

Canadel

Memories.

JackieBauer

I will respectfully decline the bait that was handed to me in the two previous posts (mods, have a look, if these people can't elaborate, they shouldn't be here)

Anyway, let's forget the mandatory folks. It's Sunday, I can't get help. I called AA - it's Mon-Fri only. I don't want to post here, I've nowhere else to go. I'm fighting a losing battle, it's as simple as that.

Canadel

JackieBauer wrote: »

I will respectfully decline the bait that was handed to me in the two previous posts (mods, have a look, if these people can't elaborate, they shouldn't be here)

Anyway, let's forget the mandatory folks. It's Sunday, I can't get help. I called AA - it's Mon-Fri only. I don't want to post here, I've nowhere else to go. I'm fighting a losing battle, it's as simple as that.

My post was in response to the thread title, not your post. I'll elaborate. It's often hardest to listen to what you don't want to hear. You say it's like you almost forget about how bad the hangovers are. My advice is to stop forgetting and start making use of those memories of the hangovers and the emotions they evoke in you, whether they be feelings of despair/regret/shame/fear/depression etc. Then ask yourself, do I want to continue on experiencing these things? If the answer is no, which you seem to insinuate it is, then the only way to make those memories/hangovers a thing of the past is to stop making them possible in the future. If you can't do that by drinking in moderation, then you can't drink. And you should stop immediately. Forget temptations and focus on the memories, and on creating new ones which don't involve drinking. You'll never fully forget the hangovers or the horrors, but you won't fully feel the effects of them ever again. And that is an incredible feeling.

Amazingfun

JackieBauer wrote: »

I will respectfully decline the bait that was handed to me in the two previous posts (mods, have a look, if these people can't elaborate, they shouldn't be here)

Anyway, let's forget the mandatory folks. It's Sunday, I can't get help. I called AA - it's Mon-Fri only. I don't want to post here, I've nowhere else to go. I'm fighting a losing battle, it's as simple as that.

Here is the AA website, meetings are 7 days a week, and in some places there are even multiple meetings a day:


http://www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie/Information-on-AA/Find-a-Meeting

Also, here is a free site with hundreds of recovered alcoholics sharing their experience.

https://www.youtube.com/user/OdomtologyBooks

Plenty of help available Jack, if you really want it.

Best of luck, and feel free to pm me if you want. I am happily sober and have been for many years now, thank God, but it wasn't always that way.

Take care.

Clampdown

A counselor once told me that when I am craving a drink to 'fast forward the tape'.

You know yourself where alcohol will get you so instead of trying to remember, try to predict. Where will you be when you wake up? In a heap, depressed, without a chunk of your dole you can't afford to lose? That's where it usually got me. Or worse, waking up in a hospital bed or jail cell.

Social situations are hard, everyone getting loose and you aren't. But I have 2 quotes for that as well:

From Chris in the Sopranos, "When I was drinking I was a disgrace, now that I'm not I'm a drip (US equivalent of dry ****e). Feck ya want from me Paulie?"

From a Bukowski novel, talking about a sober person, "She suffered a bit tonight watching us get drink while she sipped water. But tomorrow it would be our turn to suffer and we would suffer much worse."

Another thing I do is take off my shirt and look at my beer belly. Puts me right off (though it has shrank a good bit since being off it)

Alcohol makes me broke, makes me fat, makes me act like a moron, and gets me in trouble. For those who can enjoy responsibly, have at it, fair play to ya. Unfortunately for me, I tend to act a lot less responsibly when I'm on drugs, and alcohol is a drug. A harmful, dangerous, overpriced drug.

Clampdown

A counselor once told me that when I am craving a drink to 'fast forward the tape'.

You know yourself where alcohol will get you so instead of trying to remember, try to predict. Where will you be when you wake up? In a heap, depressed, without a chunk of your dole you can't afford to lose? That's where it usually got me. Or worse, waking up in a hospital bed or jail cell.

Social situations are hard, everyone getting loose and you aren't. But I have 2 quotes for that as well:

From Chris in the Sopranos, "When I was drinking I was a disgrace, now that I'm not I'm a drip (US equivalent of dry ****e). Feck ya want from me Paulie?"

From a Bukowski novel, talking about a sober person, "She suffered a bit tonight watching us get drink while she sipped water. But tomorrow it would be our turn to suffer and we would suffer much worse."

Another thing I do is take off my shirt and look at my beer belly. Puts me right off (though it has shrank a good bit since being off it)

Alcohol makes me broke, makes me fat, makes me act like a moron, and gets me in trouble. For those who can enjoy responsibly, have at it, fair play to ya. Unfortunately for me, I tend to act a lot less responsibly when I'm on drugs, and alcohol is a drug. A harmful, dangerous, overpriced drug.

JackieBauer

Thank you so much people, I mean that. I CAN DO IT. I will use this thread as a reference point, there has been some great advice here. I want you to know, it's a two way thing. I'm not just a taker, I'm a giver too. Feel free anyone to PM me.

Sunnyisland

So how are you doing OP ?

JackieBauer

realies wrote: »

So how are you doing OP ?

This is the NON drinkers forum, I can't tell you. The great thing about the internet is you can lie about stuff but I respect this forum enough not to. I hope to stay sober again, iv'e been looking up a group online.

Internet Ham

You need to quit that job of yours.