How did you beat a drinking problem?

I never started.

I was an everyday drinker, not binge drinker, so for me stopping had an immediate affect on feeling better (once I had detoxed). Bingers have more trouble as they can go weeks without and forget the hangovers and behavioral changes. (I do attend AA, 4 years)

There's this medication that I use to take that you take during the afternoon that when a person would drink, that pleasure that comes w drinking is neutralized. It helped curb the enthusiasm that comes w that first drink.

I am in the same boat. I stopped all drugs and I used to be a full blown alky. I stopped the constant drinking but I would say about once a month maybe more, I binge drink and then wake of full horrible regret.

Lifering - a secular recovery program & read the Alcoholism & Addiction Cure

Stick to low-alcohol beer. The taste will keep you from chugging it, and the low alcohol content will limit the impact.

Stay away from frozen drinks... they're way too easy to inhale, especially when it's hot & you're thirsty.

Force yourself to alternate between alcoholic & non-alcoholic drinks to slow things down even more.

Don't drink OP. And if you cannot stop- get help. AA.

AA is one of the biggest scams going. Invented 80 years ago for a bunch of drunks to sit around and compete for attention.

Doesn't work.

The problem is, any fixes people will give you are just finger plugging in the dyke. You drink to excess because you are depressed and want to forget. You need to get to the root cause. The drinking is just a symptom.

Getting to the root cause might involve seeing a shrink, or religion, or whatever works best for you. But the drinking is like water making a stain on a floor or wall because of a leak in a pipe. If you clean up the stain, that's nice, but the pipe is still leaking, somewhere behind the walls.

I drank daily, with the last couple of months justified by drinking beer, thinking it was less harmful (never mind that it was 7.5% large bottles of craft beer, and I would start in the morning and continue through the day). I understood that I had a massive dependence on booze that spanned for quite a few years, and sought therapy first of all. When I fashioned a noose in my bathroom because I couldn't take this sort of useless life anymore, I knew that alcohol and I could not have a relationship anymore. Then I detoxed--an absolutely awful process I wouldn't wish on anyone--under medical supervision and with the correct meds to ensure I wouldn't have seizures from withdrawal. I am now taking medication for untreated clinical depression / anxiety (Cipralex in Canada, I think it's Lexapro in the US), undergoing regular talk therapy, and like one of the above posters, adhere to the principles of LifeRing and read as much as I can about alcoholism.

I never make sweeping statements, so I will not say that I am sober forever; I can only say that I am doing and feeling much better, but every day is a victory for me. I look ten years younger and have money again. Oh, the many THOUSANDS of dollars I wasted. And frankly, I think about things like the agony of pancreatic cancer and cirrhosis and it kind of helps keep me on track, too.

Much of the time, regular alcohol and drug abuse is due to underlying, untreated mental health and / or psychological issues. Many of mine came to the surface and thanks to the correct chemical help and talk therapy, my self-esteem and family issues are steadily being resolved. I wish you and anyone else with a drinking problem much support and faith and strength, because it has fuck-all to do with luck.

r2 do you go to 12step or just speaker meetings? thanks for the info

AA will tell you all drunks are alike and you can only be cured by using their pseudo scientific-religious-bullshit program (that cures almost no one).

You ca only cure addiction by getting at its root causes, which are often linked to anxiety, childhood trauma and low self-esteem issues.

R11 both. I go about 4/5 times a week. People call it a cult or scam , but I find it helpful and have met some good folks and they're the only people that understood how, why I drank.

r11 thanks. i have been in and out of the halls and just need encouragement. i agree with your sentiments

i mean r 13. agree i feel like i can relate to my own kind. be that as it may

OP doesn't sound like an 'alcoholic', OP sounds like a socially-insecure introvert who goes out, has one or two drinks for medicinal value, then keeps drinking because he's encouraged by others or needs to have a drink in his hands so he'll have something to focus on besides how bored/uncomfortable he is.

AA works well for extroverts who can't be alone without being miserable, so they either spend all their time at bars, or drink at home alone because they can't go to a bar. AA does nothing for introverts who drink rarely... but binge when they do. What the latter needs is a mechanical strategy to slow down their intake to a rate that keeps them from accidentally over-drinking until they finally get bored or go home.

Drinking low-alcohol drinks, and alternating them with non-alcoholic drinks, works well. Dark beer bottles can be discreetly refilled with water in the bathroom, letting you have your cake + eat it too... you can "drink" nonstop, but save money + avoid unintended excessive consumption.

If you don't drink alone, and you'd rather not go out at all than go out & abstain from alcohol where others are drinking, AA is likely to just be a waste of your time, because you'd achieve the same non-consumption of alcohol by staying home & playing videogames by yourself.

I don't think OP is an alcoholic but may be predisposed to becoming one. OP, some people don't have a "shut off" switch when they drink. I'm like this. It's best that I don't drink at all. If I do want to drink socially, I stick to one glass of sparkling wine or a very dry red wine that I just sip very slowly. If I start feeling like I want another, I switch to soda immediately.

Here's my story - hope it helps!

I had always been a daily drinker - glasses of wine after work and hit it heavy during the weekend (also pre-gamed it every time I went out with friends to the point that they knew too). There was talk of doing an intervention (which didn't materialize) but I didn't find out until after I was sober (knowing me, I don't think that would have gone well).

In 2008, I was laid off from a job/company that I loved (part of a business unit sale) which was the beginning of the great recession. I then started drinking more, throughout the day and pulled away from friends. A year and a half into my unemployment (financially I was okay which probably contributed to everything) and drinking daily, I knew I had a severe problem on my hands and a couple weeks later went to the ER for pancreatitis. I was i the hospital for about 3 days detoxing and my plan was to go into rehab after which I tried but they won't except me because I had severe swelling (edema) of my calves and ankles (my thought was to deal with that and then go into rehab). Over the next couple of weeks, I dealt with my edema (still have it to some extent now) and thought I can do this on my own and I didn't want to spend $6,000 on rehab (the jew in me). Everything seem to fall into place as I just excepted that I am now sober and I can never drink again.

For a second, I thought about AA but never followed up because it seemed to me that those people were just stuck in misery....I'm a happy person and I can't keep reliving the bad parts of my life. I've accepted it and now on with a new chapter. Granted, I know my approach is not for everyone as I am very independent and when I make my mind up it is done. Also, I think being gay comes into play as for a lot of us, we need to be our biggest supporters and motivator (for a variety of reasons). Again, my approach is not for everyone but worked for me...

I hope my story helps anyone with this struggle and I know (as well as the others who have gone through this) it is a challenging but you can get through it!

I binge drank, too. I'd buy a fifth of vodka and a 2 liter of Fresca on Friday evening after work and finish them off sometime during Saturday.

I got scared when drinking alcohol became a visceral desire and started happening a few times a week.

I quit cold turkey a little over 5 years ago, I had just started a new job and decided not to drink. Associating the new job with stopping drinking seemed to help. I did attend a couple of AA meetings and found the gay AA meeting excruciating and the straight AA meeting very depressing. The major change I made is that I avoid socializing as much, I don't go out to the bars every weekend.

Oh and copious weed helped a lot during the first few years of no longer drinking although I quit that, too a couple of years ago.

Pills

I just stopped by myself. I used to drink 3-4 times a week, up to 2 bottles of wine or 1 bottle of wine and a half bottle of vodka each time. The first week was rough, though I didn't need medical health, after that it was fine. Stayed quit for 6 years, then got back on it, tried all the tricks like drinking spritzers or low alcohol wine, buying premixed cocktails, only drinking every 3rd day, etc, but it was starting to get out of control again so I quit again. I might have one or two drinks on Christmas day, but that will be it again. To be honest, drinking irritates my stomach now and I just don't enjoy it any more.

My drinking had gotten out of hand, OP; perhaps not to the degree that yours has but out of hand nonetheless. I confided in a friend who's an MD and he suggested Antabuse. Taking Antabuse took the decision to drink away from me. If I drank I'd be sick and I sure as hell didn't want that, so I just didn't drink. I wasn't drinking enough to warrant DTs or anything like that, so I was never tempted to drink while on Antabuse. My main complaint the first alcohol free week was boredom. I really think you'd benefit from Antabuse.

Have you ever heard these two words in succession:

Ben.

Affleck.

?

Naltrexone.

When you think of drinking, find something else to replace it with. Believe it or not, coffee works for me. If I get an urge, I go out for a run or jog.

Incentivize yourself: after an accumulation of a number of days and weeks without drinking, I add up all the money that would have gone down the drain from purchasing alcohol, and buy myself something nice instead.

Also, try Kava. It is relaxing, is good for sleep, and can help relieve anxieties.

Also, it is legal^^

I drink like you OP or R22. Not every night or every week but drink until I'm blacked out and passed out and wake up to find the wreckage and regret. I am euphoric when I'm drinking and I drink alone mostly but it takes me a good 2-3 days to come out of a low level depression and resume my life again. After that 3 days I'm happy and productive and can go for weeks. But then I buy another bottle and I'm off to the races. I'm essentially a loner which makes it hard for me to stop completely. But I'm becoming more and more isolated. I'm feeling sad right now because I just came of a Fri/Sat binge. Tomorrow I'll feel better.

Not what you want to hear OP, but--after a long-term relationship ended I started drinking a lot. Like I would sometimes look forward to weekends so I could buy a large bottle of vodka and polish it off and stay drunk all day Saturday and Sunday (I also never left the house.). And I'd drink to put myself to sleep. Wake up at 3AM-- a couple swigs of vodka to knock me out again.

I went to visit some relatives in another state and found an open liquor store on my way there so I could buy a bottle of vodka to stash in my suitcase so I could "go to sleep." I'd duck into the bedroom when things got boring to take a few swigs and then brush my teeth or chew gum to try and mask the odor.

About a month after I got back I woke up one morning and decided I didn't really like drinking anymore.

So I stopped.

I felt a lot better, got back into exercising and eating (I was one of those drunks who didn't eat because it slowed down the alcohol absorption)

I will occasionally have a drink or some wine, but I kind of stop at one because I don't like how I feel when I get drunk.

No AA, no desire to get plastered again, no feeling weird when I'm at a bar or party.

^^^^ You're lucky.

I went to AA regularly for 6 years. It's been 10 years since my last meeting and I'm still sober. If I hadn't had the support of others in the beginning, I would not have stopped drinking. Do what works for you. But first, "put the plug in the jug" and don't drink no matter what.

So if AA isn't a good startido ng point what you anti-AA folks recommend?

smart recovery is a good group. less god talk and more pragmatic advice.

This is lame, I know, but when I was polishing off bottles of wine during stressful periods at work I weaned myself off red wine by making a mock glass of wine with concord grape juice, mineral water and a bit of supplemental magnesium stirred in. It took the edge off so I could finally relax and go to sleep.

There are some good suggestions here. OP I hope you find something that resonates with you that will help heal the root cause.

[quote]Stick to low-alcohol beer. The taste will keep you from chugging it, and the low alcohol content will limit the impact.

It’s odd but I think carbonated water tastes like beer.

What r7 said

AA

I got back together with Elaine.

Try to find something you'd like to buy with the money you'd save from not drinking. It might take a little effort, but I'll bet you could find something you'd enjoy more than drinking to your heart's content.

Vivitrol is an injectable medication that prevents the euphoria associated with drinking. It is given monthly but usually only for chronic drinking that causes withdrawals when stopped. You could talk to your MD about it. Alcohol abuse is extremely common, so you should not feel self conscious about discussing this with your doctor.

I enjoyed a glass of wine now and then but found myself looking forward to being tipsy, so I stopped. There is heavy substance abuse history on both sides of my family so I’m high risk. I had an uncle who was a very heavy drinker and credited AA alone for keeping him sober, and my aunt was in Al-Anon. It was literally like a religion to them but seemed to work.

Try having a dying parent who you have to help take care of. I used to drink once a week on the weekend and take a day or two to recover. Right now, I am so distraught that drinking just makes me feel worse plus I can't properly care for my mom when I have a 2 day hangover.