Where to go?

[impulse]

A couple of general observations in Thailand| which I don't think are as prominent in some other places:

1) Socializing and making friends between foreigners seems to be based around drinking or meeting in a drinking establishment. I can't think of many people who do other things together such as bike rides, house visits, etc.

2) When I go out to restaurants or bars there's an unfair amount of pressure to buy alcohol from the serving staff and establishment owners. Avoiding alcohol is often met with glares, assumptions that you must be short of money or simply mean with it, or even in one case I was accused of being gay for ordering a water then an orange juice!!

I am not a big drinker and many times I don't feel like consuming any alcohol but I've sometimes ended up buying a beer just because of pressure from either people I've opted to meet up with.

I tend to agree on both points. There are sober people in Thailand who meet on common interests other than drinking, but they're not easy to find.

Although it is possible to get sober in Thailand, I'm not sure I would have succeeded here. Stopping drinking left a huge hole in my "social calendar" that filled up rapidly with sober folks doing sober stuff like hiking, biking, skiing, fishing, movies, and just hanging out. I don't see as much available here.

Frankly, if I were to slip, I'd probably go back to the States to start over again. Of all the things I miss from the USA, cities with 1000+ different meetings a week is what I miss the most. In So Cal, it's over 1000 a day, with hundreds of groups to hang out with- any time of day or night. Even a misfit like me found lots of people that shared an mutual enjoyment of each others' company. Sure made it easier to stay away from slippery places.

[ding]

Smilesfly - hope all is well.

To save your ass get your ass to AA - if you're an alcoholic.

Sober 29 years never went to detox or treatment center. If it can work for me it can work for anybody. Especially someone with the ability to be honest that you posses. You never have to drink again. No person, no place, and no thing can EVER make you drink again.

[daiwill60]

As some on here have highlighted the Thai AA groups, they have also highlighted Wat Tamkrabok in or near the Korat region ( i may be mistaken , but it is up north of BKK somehwere) where, in addition to primary treatment carried out there, you can go on to The New Life Foundation, who are a voluntary organisation , that can provide an alternative additional support and also provide advice etc in changing your life, where it is now and where and what you can do with it in the future. In other words it will help you find ways to fill the void that you can feel in your life when you stop drinking. This place started as a result of successful treatments gained in Wat Tamkrabok.

http://www.newlifethaifoundation.com/

Hope you find the right path out of this situation Mate .

[tominbkk]

Join us at the Stop Drinking Reddit Forum. Best support around!

http://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/

Read, Post, Learn, Support.

[gerryBScot]

Yeah smilesfly well done and good luck. Not many get that moment of clarity when they see things as they really are.

Be careful in your first few days. This is when a hopsital detox or some sort of medical supervision could really help especially if you have a history of DTs and palpitations. This business of withdrawal can and does kill but in terms of a life it is only really a few days. So if you have the resources, no reason not to book yourself in somewhere nice for a clinical detox.

The problem is that two weeks later you may either feel so good or so crap or so ornery that, errrrrr, you might fancy a drink. Welcome to alcoholism. Many of us find a long term solution in AA. There are other ways too. Good luck and let us know how you fare, good, bad or ornery.