35 years sober and I still need a meeting

[ToddinChonburi]

Create your own meeting with a friend or 2  and there is always the phone. Stay strong and this virus is one day at a time.

[Ventenio]

i sense strength with the OP.  you posted, created the thread, you get it.  I'm not worried about you, at all.  stay STRONG.  I always tell myself during exercise, "OK, don't quit, keep going, the suffering will end soon, do it for your dad.....don't quit."   And I shut the mind off and just do it.  

 

youtube SNL skits...they are super funny.  i've found comedy really helps.  

 

in my 20's I liked going to the bars, and for the last few years I've had no interest in alcohol.  i'm definitely not a drinker, but i get addiction.  and i get the "justifiable anger."  that i get.  But I only let it fester or foster (?) for a small time, and then I let it go.  it can't be an all-day thing.  

 

you control you mind.  step-by-step, control it.  

 

nobody is stronger than you.   nobody.   do what you gotta do...gl

 

also:  find a SONG that connects you to a good time in your life.  music is extremely powerful.  

[ding]

14 hours ago, mrfill said:

15 years ago I was on 10 pints of beer a day with gin and tonic top ups. I started to get night cramps and one night woke with cramp in both legs. Jumped out of bed and immediately fell on the floor. Saw the doctor next day to get some test results. He said all my ailments were alcohol related and if I didn't change my ways dramatically, I would be dead in 10 years. I actually took his advice and stopped drinking there and then. 3 weeks later, I felt much better and in 3 months felt better than I had for many years and also found I had a lot more spare money as I had been spending £150-200/week on booze. All I needed was the desire to live more than 10 years - no meetings, no talking to invisible beings, just old fashioned discipline. I've not had any drink since then and still feel great. I still go to pubs and the locals have got used to me ordering tea. Would I like a drink now? I've thought about that a lot and decided, on balance, that as alcohol tried to kill me once, I didn't think it a good idea to give it a second chance.

That's so really cool. I'm just not that guy. Turned out good though. I'm happy and like the meetings. To each his own path I guess.

[Pedrogaz]

My son....15 years sober....also still needs meetings. It is a lifelong thing I suspect.

[cyril sneer]

On 5/4/2020 at 2:14 AM, Don Chance said:

Why not take some Baclofen now and then, why suffer so?

do Thai pharmacies stock this?

[Don Chance]

16 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

do Thai pharmacies stock this?

Yes. There is a good generic brand called Liobac.

The best place to buy is Diamond pharmacy near Siriraj Hospital. google you will find it. It is 400 baht for a box of 200. You need about 80mg per day taken gradually 1 hour between pills.

Can check this site for more info www.baclofentreatment.com

 

 

[Neeranam]

On 5/3/2020 at 11:20 PM, ding said:

Thanks. I married a wonderful Thai lady 14 years ago and we have yet to even bicker. Blame her for that!

Yep, the dry drunk is awful. I got a PhD in dry drunk my first 3 years. I took me 5 years to learn to crawl... sometimes slowly I guess.

 

I went to 3-4 meetings a day to combat that early on. Today, I figure I need every one of those meetings.

I had a good friend with business cards with his name followed by PhD. he never went to university. It stood for "Previous Hopeless Drunk".

[Neeranam]

I haven't been to a meeting in over 4 months and feel quite good.

 

I know I would feel better is I had been going to them regularly though. Helping newcomers is what it is all about. 

 

 

[Neeranam]

On 5/4/2020 at 5:33 PM, mrfill said:

All I needed was the desire to live more than 10 years - no meetings, no talking to invisible beings, just old fashioned discipline. I've not had any drink since then and still feel great.

Lucky(maybe)that you are not an alcoholic.

 

An alcoholic can't stop just using discipline. We need God, as we understand Him.

 

[Jessi]

August 17th 1980, I made the most important decision of my life.

I stumbled into AA meeting, a broken and defeated alcoholic.

I had lost most things but more important I had lost myself.

It was at this meeting that I found people that had suffered like myself

and these AA members welcomed me and shook my hand. It had

been a long time since anyone had wanted to shake my hand.

 

Over the years of sobriety I have had plenty of ups & downs and

made plenty of mistakes. Two mistakes that I did not make were

Picking up the first drink and get away from meetings.

At my 1st meeting I was to meet a man who became my sponsor 

He told me, If you don't pick up the first drink, go to meetings

and keep this program simple you will be OK. Just give it time!!

 

I was so sick when I came in I could not read anything and absorb it,

I was sober seven years before I could read the big book. I was forced

into this as i was stuck on the Island of Mindanao in the Philippines

no AA meetings and in the middle of a military coup. I had my big

book with and thought this could be a good time to read it.

 

That is just a little bit of my story. I have had 39 years of continued 

Sobriety. I love AA as it saved my life.

 

[ding]

On 5/5/2020 at 11:52 PM, Neeranam said:

I haven't been to a meeting in over 4 months and feel quite good.

 

I know I would feel better is I had been going to them regularly though. Helping newcomers is what it is all about. 

 

 

Great to "see" you again Neeranam. I think of you from time to time, wondering how you're doing in remote meetings (as I recall).

[ding]

On 5/7/2020 at 6:08 PM, Jessi said:

It had

been a long time since anyone had wanted to shake my hand.

 

I was so sick when I came in I could not read anything and absorb it,

 

That is just a little bit of my story. I have had 39 years of continued 

Sobriety. I love AA as it saved my life.

 

My hand was shaken all on its own... ????

 

I was sleeping on our guitarist's hardwood floor, shaking like a dog poopin a peach seed, trying to read the Big Book. I had to re-read the same line over & over and couldn't comprehend very well. Just tracking along the sentence was sketchy. Similar, it sounds, to you.

 

It'd bet money you'll make it to 40... and I REALLY like money.

 

It used to be more focused on not taking that first drink, no matter what. I guess it's a little more 'advanced' now, at least where I live. Going to meetings in SE Asia feels like coming home to my early years and meetings.

 

Thanks Jessi.

[Neeranam]

4 hours ago, ding said:

Great to "see" you again Neeranam. I think of you from time to time, wondering how you're doing in remote meetings (as I recall).

I'm doing well, thanks Ding!

 

No meetings where I am anymore.

 

I think I'll go to a Zoom meeting today. 

 

 

[UbonThani]

never found alcohol addictive

only food

[ding]

On 5/14/2020 at 10:41 PM, UbonThani said:

never found alcohol addictive

only food

Food is tough. It's everywhere and every day. I went to some meetings in the mid 80's with bulimics and anorexics and felt lucky I only have alcoholism. It's easy for me to joke about my "addiction" to sugar and carbs but real food/body-image stuff is a mother.

[ding]

On 5/14/2020 at 8:53 PM, Neeranam said:

 

 

I think I'll go to a Zoom meeting today. 

 

 

hmmm, I've still not nutted up and done one of those. I used to go to 3-4 meetings a day and talk all I could. In recent years I tend to just listen - they never call on the old timer either so it works out. I'm just not sure about online meetings after researching them. Do you like them?

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, ding said:

hmmm, I've still not nutted up and done one of those. I used to go to 3-4 meetings a day and talk all I could. In recent years I tend to just listen - they never call on the old timer either so it works out. I'm just not sure about online meetings after researching them. Do you like them?

Yes, they're great. Can go to a Bangkok meeting and meet old friends, or go to a meeting anywhere in the world. 

 

They are much better than I had thought. 

[mr mr]

would it not be better to just call it all substance abuse ? 

 

personally i have struggled all my life with different ones. smoked ciggies for over 20 years.  i drank for about 12 years very very heavy but quit many years ago. i have been high since i was 16. i'm now 43. 

 

 

[ding]

On 5/23/2020 at 8:21 AM, mr mr said:

would it not be better to just call it all substance abuse ? 

 

personally i have struggled all my life with different ones. smoked ciggies for over 20 years.  i drank for about 12 years very very heavy but quit many years ago. i have been high since i was 16. i'm now 43. 

 

 

IMHO it is precisely a substance abuse issue - which is a symptom of a disease I'll call Mr Ding here.

:)

[ding]

On 5/23/2020 at 8:06 AM, Neeranam said:

Yes, they're great. Can go to a Bangkok meeting and meet old friends, or go to a meeting anywhere in the world. 

 

They are much better than I had thought. 

Just finished my 1st Zoom meetings today. Hadn't been to a meeting since March 1, 2020. Not recommended, but no pronounced symptoms of the a-holism I've been prone to. I liked it and of course wondered why I avoided the change in format for 3 months...

It was like when I was very new and sitting in the back, not saying anything, afraid to scratch my nose in fear the chair would call on me. Didn't turn on my camera until 1/2 way through the 2nd meeting LOL.

[Neeranam]

5 hours ago, ding said:

Just finished my 1st Zoom meetings today. Hadn't been to a meeting since March 1, 2020. Not recommended, but no pronounced symptoms of the a-holism I've been prone to. I liked it and of course wondered why I avoided the change in format for 3 months...

It was like when I was very new and sitting in the back, not saying anything, afraid to scratch my nose in fear the chair would call on me. Didn't turn on my camera until 1/2 way through the 2nd meeting LOL.

Yes, I was the same but got used to it very quickly. 

[mr mr]

6 hours ago, ding said:

IMHO it is precisely a substance abuse issue - which is a symptom of a disease I'll call Mr Ding here.

????

i am jacks complete lack of control.