January - a bad time for recovery

[gerryBScot]

It's my experience that more drunks go back out drinking in January than at any other time, especially those who have survived Christmas and New Year. I have no scientific evidence to back up this assertion but it is based on personal experience and that of others. It seems we become less vigilant after being very careful throughout the holiday season. So if you have survived Christmas and the New Year this is not a moment to relax but rather a time  to up whatever it is your doing to stay sober. Of course the truth is any time can suddenly become a bad time, problems emerge from nowhere. It's my experience that I get through the big stuff: deaths, illness, getting fired but I can get knocked for six by the simplest irritation - the scenario when  tripping over your shoe lace can turn you into a homicidal maniac. It's also my view that there was nothing rational about drinking myself into alcoholism and so it follows from this that the way out is equally irrational - this is a way of saying that  for me my alcoholism is these days essentially a form of mental illness which is characterised by an ability to distort reality, for instance, to allow myself to believe that I could safely have a few drinks. As I contemplate my seventh decade on the this planet, yup I hit 60 this year, and, subject to doing the days, my fourteenth sobriety birthday, it will be without doubt the most challenging one in my life to date during which my children will come of age and my working life will likely end at some stage. The only thing I know is sobriety makes the uncertainty manageable and I owe my continuing sobriety exclusively to the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Hopefully I'll see some of you guys as we trudge onwards. If you're thinking about it, please feel free to get in touch or post here. As I have said many times here, I'd stick with sobriety if I was told I could now drink safely. I am so grateful that I am not coming to after a festive season bender that had been ongoing for the previous 25 years. Good luck to all and may your God bless you and yours in 2018 and beyond.

Edited January 1, 2018 by gerryBScot

[sanemax]

I am just coming up to my third week without a drink , dont know whether I could have been classified as an alcoholic or not .

   But I was drinking everyday , tried cutting down , only drinking in the evening , but that just caused me to drink later into the night , sometimes drinking until sunrise .

  I just cannot have one, or even a few drinks , once I have one drink, I drink until I collapse .

I was either drinking or hung over .

Three weeks ago , I just stopped .

Another friend dying from drink , another one who drank himself to death , neither of them made it to 50 years old and it would have been my turn next .

   After going dry for a few weeks is a dangerous time, you think to yourself *See, I can give up drinking , I will just have the one drink*.........four days later, you are back in the gutter , craving alcohol .

   As , Ive now started to talk and think about drinking .

Im going to go and do something else , the worse think that I could do is to announce that Ive stopped drinking , 

[impulse]

When you've had enough, you've had enough.  I came in on December 21.  4 days before Christmas and 10 days before NYE.  And I haven't looked back.  That was 1988.

 

BTW, I wasn't a "classic" alcoholic, either.  I could go for weeks and months between benders.  My symptom was that after that first drink, I didn't know if I'd stop at one, or stop next Tuesday.  It didn't seem to be up to me, after that first one.

 

So I simplified my definition.  If drinking is causing problems in my life, I have a drinking problem.  I'll leave it up to others to discuss the semantics and definition of alcoholic.

 

[Hamuraii]

When we are all dead, they'll invent 'New Booze' where you get even more merry drunk and never have to piss or poop only problem, you'll cum rainbow confetti. 

 

 

[sanemax]

4 minutes ago, Hamuraii said:

When we are all dead, they'll invent 'New Booze' where you get even more merry drunk and never have to piss or poop only problem, you'll cum rainbow confetti. 

 

 

Hopefully it will also be able to stop you being "merry" for the first few drinks , then decide to solve all the worlds problems and then tell everyone what you REALLY think about them , then walking home in  foul mood and meeting other drunks along the way , then having a "merry" , before you realise that you have a different opinion about something with them , then arguing and fighting with them , and the next thing you know , you are waking up in bed with no recollection about how you got there and then  checking your body to make sure that everythings still working and too make sure that theres no cuts and bruises , then going out feeling rough and go and opoloise to everyone that you annoyed the night before 

[gerryBScot]

2 minutes ago, sanemax said:

... and the next thing you know , you are waking up in bed with no recollection about how you got there and then  checking your body to make sure that everythings still working and too make sure that theres no cuts and bruises , then going out feeling rough and go and opoloise to everyone that you annoyed the night before 

 

This was one thing at the very start that really made me appreciate the benefits of not drinking - I never had to find out if I had been bad. 

[Neeranam]

On 01/01/2018 at 11:44 AM, sanemax said:

  I just cannot have one, or even a few drinks , once I have one drink, I drink until I collapse .

Non alcoholics don't get this.

What makes you think you might not be an alcoholic?