It's easier sober, honestly.
Quitting Drinking.
- Thread starter Flynn4Heisman
- Start date
It really is. I still love the cyclones, but I don't take the losses as hard.
Depending on where you live one of the best zero cost things your can do is find a local RCO or recovery community organization. They do exactly this and provide a lot of substance free events that can feel like normal life just without the presence of alcohol or drugs.
I dunno about Cyclone sports. I'm completely sober for about 75% of the football games, and I'm an absolute bundle of nerves either way.
The pacing I do during close basketball games is great cardio
I can only do this at home. When I'm at the games I fold my hands and bite my knuckles. Yowch!
I saw this first hand with my friend. Alcohol was such a part of his social life, I don’t think he could view living his normal life without it.
He loved golf and one of his fears going sober was he wouldn’t enjoy golf as much without a couple drinks. But he wasn’t having just a couple drinks, he was blasted and couldn’t even play the back nine.
After a year sober, he golfs multiple times a week and admitted to me he enjoys it sober more. I couldn’t be prouder of him. His game still stinks though
I've noticed things like that....I don't think I'm an alcoholic though sometimes I just crave or have a drink because its become a bad habit/routine. Other times I'll just sit behind the piano or grab the guitar and then get busy doing that and forget I wanted a drink. Another thing is hunger that can trigger a craving. So this afternoon instead of being tempted I'm going to go to the gym vs. have a drink with dinner. For me, just cutting down is the goal. For money, calorie intake, and making sure I can get through the days without having to have a drink.
Many aspects of addition without an underlying mental health component come down to the routine you mention as well as associations, this can be true for many other things that don’t have the addictive power of alcohol/drugs.
It’s another reason why rewarding kids with fast food/junk food when they do well at something or get good grades can be very damaging for some. Many can start associate that food with those feelings of being rewarded, being praised, and being with family.
With the common drink after work idea this plays into an even greater effect as many view having that drink as being off work, of associating it with relaxing and the freedom to do what you want. Even for those that don’t suffer from a SUD these associations can cause a wide variety of problems.
truthfully it shocked me how constantly hungry i am since i quit drinking. Was not aware i drank so much of my daily caloric intake
demoncore1031
Well-Known Member
I never liked the word "alcoholic." Always told my friends "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings."
Anyways, I quit cold turkey right before I turned 30. It was easy for me. I partied so much for so long that it just wasn't fun anymore. That and having kids made me want to quit also. For the last 15 years I have only drank about once a year. Also kicked hard drugs the same way. I looked in the mirror one day and just started laughing because I was so skinny and I said "ok, I'm done" and never did drugs again, other than weed and shrooms on occasion.
I have never really been "addicted" to anything, so it was easy for me to quit. I think I drank so much and did so much coke, meth and acid just out of boredom. I loved coke and acid, but never liked meth. Did a lot of it because it was always around and I always got it for free. I don't talk about this much because it was such a long time ago and I never really think about it, but I do have some insane stories from my younger days.
Good luck to the OP and anyone else who struggles with any form of addiction.
Anyways, I quit cold turkey right before I turned 30. It was easy for me. I partied so much for so long that it just wasn't fun anymore. That and having kids made me want to quit also. For the last 15 years I have only drank about once a year. Also kicked hard drugs the same way. I looked in the mirror one day and just started laughing because I was so skinny and I said "ok, I'm done" and never did drugs again, other than weed and shrooms on occasion.
I have never really been "addicted" to anything, so it was easy for me to quit. I think I drank so much and did so much coke, meth and acid just out of boredom. I loved coke and acid, but never liked meth. Did a lot of it because it was always around and I always got it for free. I don't talk about this much because it was such a long time ago and I never really think about it, but I do have some insane stories from my younger days.
Good luck to the OP and anyone else who struggles with any form of addiction.
My problem is when they win, then I go into celebratory drinking mode.
My dad was an occasional alcoholic. By that, I mean he didn't drink every night, didn't drink even every week or even every month. But when he did drink, he drank all day starting before noon sometimes and wouldn't (couldn't?) quit until he was literally falling down drunk.
He didn't drive, so he would walk the six or so blocks it took to get to the closest bar. There were a couple of nights I watched him from my bedroom window coming home after the bars closed, staggering wildly and even falling down in the middle of the road. He could never just have one beer (that was his choice of drink). If he had one, he had to keep going until he was falling down drunk.
It grew worse when he took up the game of golf, in his late 40s, early 50s, which he grew to love. I suspected he loved it as much for the beer as he did for the golf, because he would go every weekend. My mom would have to drive him there and back. So now instead of the occasional alcoholic, he drank every weekend. He couldn't drink to falling down status, however, because mom would go pick him up in time for supper.
So I have alcoholism in my family and it came close to biting me in the butt too. In fact, it may have, but I seem to be different somehow.
When I was in my late 20s, early 30s, I started drinking more heavily. I would drink four and five times a week heavily. My job at the time, we had deadlines for work on Wednesday and once that work was done, which it always was at about noon, we were free to leave. On top of that, Thursday was always a slow day, which made Wednesday seem like just another weekend. So I started drinking on Wednesdays and some days even Thursday evenings. It was like a five-day weekend, almost, and I'd be drunk every night. It was that way for nearly two years. I also drank very heavily in college before that.
It got really bad, but then I got married. I could no longer afford to drink that often. Then I had kids and really couldn't afford to drink that often. My wife, however, thought differently and wanted to continue to be the party girl. So we'd go out occasionally, but not to the extent that we used to, which didn't sit well with her, which was part of the reason we were divorced.
Then one day, I just quit. There was no big "ah ha" moment, no hitting rock bottom situation. I can't even say it was a conscious decision. I just lost interest in it and didn't even recognize that I had lost interest for quite a while. I just stopped going to bars. Part of it may have had to do with growing older and dreading crowded bars with too loud music where you couldn't hear what anyone was saying, part of it may have been growing tired of feeling bad the next day.
The reason I think I may be a different kind of alcoholic is because I can still have a drink now and then with my supper if I go out to a restaurant. But it's only one, never any more than that and not even every time I go out to dinner. I can't remember the last time I even had a drink at a restaurant, but it's been over a year. I have a bottle of bourbon that I bought five years ago that is still three quarters full.
So was I an alcoholic? If I wasn't, I was sure headed that way. But I'll never go back to drinking heavily, even on a special occasion because I like the way I feel when I wake up in the mornings now.
I dipped for 15 years prior to those coming on the scene heavily. I’ll get a real can maybe once a month but outside of that, it’s those little pouches. So much better and cheaper since I haven’t kicked the habit completely.
Wow.... The response has been a bit overwhelming to be honest.
Correction: I turned 21 in 2007, not 2017.
Had a good night last night (though my Magic lost to the Clippers). Only had 4 drinks (so that means 3 tonight) and slept well and woke up feeling good.
Also the night I had my brief seizures I I had gone from roughly 6 - 8 drinks a night for the two weeks prior (I was leaving my hometown of 30 years, so I was very emotional) to literally one and a half my first night in my new house, I poured a drink, it tasted fine, then poured another, and decided "Screw this. I want to go play with my home theater", so I dumped it. I'm not surprised at what had happened as my brain had been wired to expect booze, so it was running 1000mph without it.
I have so many distractions available (games, home theater, basketball), but I have so much to do in regards to getting everything organized still, that I don't really get to enjoy them at the moment. Hell, after the first week my home theater room has essentially become a temporary storage room while I keep getting everything organized (my god do I own so much stuff.....).
My liver and other organs are fine as I specifically requested those to be looked at when my blood work was done at my last check up. No elevated enzyme levels. Heart is fine too via x-ray.
Like I said, I very rarely crave alcohol anymore, and I only drink now just so I don't die, and this slowly weening myself down is already working wonders.
And I am supremely confident that once I finally get this huge house done, I'll be too overwhelmed by my entertainment options to even think about anything else.
As my best friend said (and a few on here as well), I just need a distraction. Trust me, when this house is done, I will have hundreds of options.
Correction: I turned 21 in 2007, not 2017.
Had a good night last night (though my Magic lost to the Clippers). Only had 4 drinks (so that means 3 tonight) and slept well and woke up feeling good.
Also the night I had my brief seizures I I had gone from roughly 6 - 8 drinks a night for the two weeks prior (I was leaving my hometown of 30 years, so I was very emotional) to literally one and a half my first night in my new house, I poured a drink, it tasted fine, then poured another, and decided "Screw this. I want to go play with my home theater", so I dumped it. I'm not surprised at what had happened as my brain had been wired to expect booze, so it was running 1000mph without it.
I have so many distractions available (games, home theater, basketball), but I have so much to do in regards to getting everything organized still, that I don't really get to enjoy them at the moment. Hell, after the first week my home theater room has essentially become a temporary storage room while I keep getting everything organized (my god do I own so much stuff.....).
My liver and other organs are fine as I specifically requested those to be looked at when my blood work was done at my last check up. No elevated enzyme levels. Heart is fine too via x-ray.
Like I said, I very rarely crave alcohol anymore, and I only drink now just so I don't die, and this slowly weening myself down is already working wonders.
And I am supremely confident that once I finally get this huge house done, I'll be too overwhelmed by my entertainment options to even think about anything else.
As my best friend said (and a few on here as well), I just need a distraction. Trust me, when this house is done, I will have hundreds of options.
Feeling all the feelings instead of numbing those that are uncomfortable makes life a richer experience. Out of that its easier to find perspective. Its one of the many things about sobriety that has enhanced life for me.
I'm with you. I'm not throwing and breaking **** anymore. Taking it way less serious these days.
Someone very close to me is sober almost 4 years. His liver shut down. He had a 30% chance of living 90 days his doctor said. Permanent liver damage, instant unexplained fatigue is a side effect. There is no cure for this, coping is the only way. Employment is proving to be impossible. Why I didn't intervene will haunt me for the rest of my life. Don't be like me.
