Thanks man

Quitting alcohol is easy, I did it dozens of times! But seriously, stopping drinking is one thing, not starting again is quite another. If it were possible for me to stop drinking and not start again on my own, I would have done it when I was 20. And believe me, every single time I swore (to myself and other people) that I wasn't going to drink again, I meant it. So my point is, that the decision part is all fine and dandy, but in my experience and observation it's the actions involved in being sober that keep me sober. For me, that meant and means AA.

Congatulations to you LFS

It makes me very happy to hear that

What you have accomplished needs to be recognized and commended, it is extremely difficult

I know exactly what you mean, believe me

I can stop drinking, but then when put into the situation where I can get a beer and get that buzz rolling I just say **** it, for me the casino is the massive trigger

Think it varies, this thread helped me to quit, thanks guys! Think I'm somewhere in the middle area vs difficulty, quit four years ago. Not easy but not difficult either to keep up. Wouldn't dare to touch that stuff anyway!

The difficult part is breaking the cycle that you are used to. That takes you out of your comfort zone.

The easy part is when you are over that, and realise there is more to life.

+1.

I haven't had a drink since mid Sept. Since the pandemic started and over the summer I was drinking too much. Would only get actual drunk ~10 times a year, but would have a beer or some wine with dinner and a few drinks watching sports at night pretty much every day. I would still exercise and be a good dad and all but it was getting harder and I wasn't feeling great at all while doing it so I decided it was time to stop.

Not having a glass of red wine with pasta or a beer while watching the hockey game kind of sucks, but I just have a sparkling water now instead of a beer. It was tough to break the habit at first but now I don't crave it all.

Since I stopped drinking I feel great. I've been hitting the gym harder than ever before, personal bests in running and it's nice waking up with energy again. Looking forward to feeling good all the time and not a beer at the end of the day has really helped.

I'm 2 visits in. Psych eval on January 4th. I'm on the vivitrol path.

Good luck. If you've not seen it, check out the documentary 'One Little Pill', about naltrexone and the Sinclair Method.

I've recently started a course of disulfiram. Nasty, but effective, stuff - to paraphrase a doctor's description, 'It's killing a mosquito by going into a room with it and dropping a grenade'. Means I have to be pretty careful what I consume and the products I use, but no horrid side effects or accidents so far.

Anyways, hope everyone has a good Xmas and New Year!

i just watched One Little Pill. super interesting.

It's now been over a year since my last drop of alcohol and almost exactly 2 years since I've been drunk...planning on resuming a tiny bit of social drinking at some point but not til 2026.

43 days sober

well ****, this is a great capper to the day. congratulations man! i’m kinda jealous that you’re still gonna get to go through some of the amazing ups and downs that i’ve already experienced.

i wouldn’t have bet money on you getting this far without going to rehab. nothing personal at all, it’s just you (like, you specifically) needed to get to a number where a) you don’t want to have to start over from, b) friends/family KNOW where you’re at, so now you got the power of “we” and/or don’t want to let anyone else down, and c) you’ve experienced that life w/o alcohol might actually be livable. that last one was/is a *****, sooo many days where i wondered if being sober was even what i wanted to do. but that was before i started to feel normal while sober.

i tell you what, i’m honesty shocked you’ve been able to do all this on your own. with no condescension at all, proud of you even. and happy for you and your loved ones. i know you’ll always been angry and riled here, such is life on 2p2 forums. but in real life, sobriety really is life on easy mode. you’ll still face problems, but man how much easier it is to face them without pouring depressants down your throat all day.

happy holidays, nima. remember that there are (and always will be) lots of people that will listen/help the best they can if you reach out, and that you don’t have to quit alcohol forever, just for today. ;-)

****ing tbab, 43 days w/o any alcohol.

what a wonderful world.

any former long time beer drinkers here?

i drink daily thruout a day about 2 to 3 liters of beer.

how to stop?

hmph. given that i have a bottle of naltrexone in my cabinet, i should probably watch it too.

actually took 1/2 of one yday for the first time in many months, lots of family and lots of drinking to be around. probably didn’t need it as i never even noticed really and nobody there would have let me drink anyway lol.

i was closer to a 12 pack than a 6 pack for prob a decade and a half before i started drinking mostly liquor.

do you want to stop?

really want to. it takes most to hit rock bottom, personally i avoided that bc i really was sick of drinking all day and that was (is) my daily motivation, to not let alcohol control me anymore.

thanks for fredback

yes i really want to stop but i like the taste

no other liquors or substances

life is well and functioning solid, finances haven't veen an issue and thats one reason its easy to keep on drinking.

been there for sure.

also really like (and miss) the taste of beer. my situation is different than yours (and everyone else in this thread), but for me, being in complete control of myself along with reducing the chances of me doing stupid things by a LOT >>> beer.

been wondering about that Heineken 0%, i guess it would be interesting if i ever came across it. bc my “cravings” aren’t that anymore, it’s daydreaming about how good one gulp of a cold beer would taste.

yeah man, i lived just like you for the entirety of my 30’s and most of my 20’s. i don’t think it would have worked if i had tried to quit then bc i wasn’t ready. i could have seen the benefits obv, but… i dunno, i wasn’t ready.

ye m8 we ready when we ready.

btw heineken 0%...
about year ago i stopped beer cold with 0%heineken
did this for some week or two until wanted real beer again

so go fiqure.

I’ve always subscribed to the theory that non-alcoholic beer is for non-alcoholics.

went for blood work review today with primary. i almost said "ok doc, just give me the bad news." surprisingly i'm perfectly healthy (ok, cholesterol a tick high but whatever).

two appointments next week. i'll update after that.

Think I was/am a "mild" alcoholic, and NA beer is my hobby pretty much since quitting. But we are all special in some way.

Happy New Year

Nine years clean and sober as of 12/27/21. Very grateful to have this thread (12+ year old thread lol) to look back on, and to have shared this continuing journey with so many of you. Very conscious of the people we've lost along the way (here and IRL), and grateful to still be on the right side of the dirt.

I'm a 12-step guy, and my experience was this: I could stay sober by going to meetings, talking to other guys, and doing service. I did that for about seven years and was sober but pretty miserable a lot of the time. Things really changed for me in my day-to-day once I started unreservedly working the steps with a strong sponsor to show me the way. I am an extremely selfish and self-centered person, and the only way I've been able to change that in the slightest has been by working the program like my life depends on it (it does). "Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs." Constant thought of others? If that's true, and I think it is for me, I can't do it myself, it's just not how I'm wired. So I'm grateful to have a way to make some progress one day at a time.

Happy New Year!

Great update!