Quitting Drinking: Ideas and Thoughts
How bad do things have to get 2
What does Alcohol and Drugs Do To Me? 2
I Want to Quit Drinking…”BUT” 2
Nutrition is the one of the goals. 4
AA Links 4
AA Video 4
What is Alcoholics Anonymous 5
The Key to It All
Not drinking means that I ‘DO NOT DRINK’. It is not something that I ‘DO’, it is something that I do not do.. Odd? Baffling? You bet. I could not quit drinking until I actually quit drinking.
I found that there are two ways to stop. The first is to stubbornly refuse to drink, and the second is to loose all desire to drink.
Many Alcoholics will stop drinking when they have ‘Had Enough’. However for a truly addicted person, that happy day may never arrive. There will never be enough.
The Stopwatch
I drank every single day for decades. I threw up every single day for decades also. Drinking became such a normal part of my life, that I did not even think twice about it. I estimate that I threw up over 2000 times in my career. But I thought that the throwing up was all part of the drinking cycle. It was only part true. I had other issues. I smoked like a chimney, I did not want to eat because I thought I was too fat.
I found out that once I had ‘put down the bottle’, so to speak, that I still wanted to throw up. The booze was not making me throw up, it just made it easier. To have a good puke I needed volume. I drank gallons of beer. Often I would drink 3 dozen in a night, then order a pizza and then chuck the whole thing up. It was normal in my mind .
I estimated that I would consume 6000 calories but puke up 4000 calories, therefore I would loose weight.
This I know today is a problem.
So I am not your normal AA person who will never drink again .. ever. I am not sworn to never drink again ever. When I went to AA I just wanted to stop throwing up.
So this leaves the question. Once stopped, How long did I want to stop for? The stopwatch was set, and the clock is ticking for many alcoholics.
I heard a good suggestion. It was . If you drink every hour, then go two hours without.
If you drink every day, then go two days without. These suggestions helped me a lot. I knew that I could never stop cold turkey. I enjoyed the easy does it attitude of the AA Program.
I would count the hours and minutes and seconds. This was just to try and get One 24 hour period in. The booze store closed at 11pm so I would quit drinking at 11:30 the night before, and then ,when the next night came around I could not go and get more booze, because I was ½ hour short of my 24 hour goal. So I did not drink all night. But the next morning the store opened up at 9 am and I was first in line. Those were miserable times.
I did not in my heart want to stop. But I had a plan. If I could just get 24 hours in, then I was finally in the game. The 24 hour plan turned into a week months.
Humble Pie
One thing I am certain of is this. Addicted people can use All the help that they can get. It does not matter if it the help comes from God or Science or Religion or Fairy Sky Pixies, or anywhere else.
The only requirement for stopping drinking is that the person has to want it. A forced feeding of ‘Humble Pie‘ (to be forced to behave humbly ) never works very well.
How bad do things have to get
I never had to quit for any reason other than that I wanted to. If you are here on this page, looking for advice on how to quit, then I guess you might be one of those that are a bit confused.
To Quit Drinking , you Actually have to stop. End of Story.
I went To AA for many years, But I saw it as a chance to learn about my fellow humans. I found out that most of the drinkers were very decent people. Some were ‘Hells Angles Hit men” . And man these people still scare me today. I saw myself as a Psychologist. This is one who learns about the processes of the mind.
What does Alcohol and Drugs Do To Me?
These chemicals change the way I feel, not the way I think. I used to think that I could change who I am by using some kind of substance. But in the end I am still me.
I know people who started drinking and ended up in a biker gang and committing murder. Well. I drank more than enough but never even came Even close to ending up in a biker gang or committing murder. So I conclude that drinking does not make me someone , who in the core, I am actually not.
I Want to Quit Drinking…”BUT”
I sat on my hands for long periods of time, trying to force myself not to drink, but I was the most miserable person on earth when I tried to force myself not to drink.
However, when the desire to drink actually left me, drinking was not even an issue. An amazing difference. The end result was the same, I was abstinent. It was much easier to stop when I had lost the desire, than it was to force myself not to drink.
The problem was that I really enjoyed my booze and dope. Putting my hand in a meat grinder does not seem like a fun thing to do, so the thought of doing that never entered my mind. But having a beer and a smoke did seem like a lot of fun. Therein lies the problem.
Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive Therapy is a rational way to think about my thinking. I had to find out what was going on in my head.
I had to challenge myself to find out what I was actually thinking: My thoughts would be something like this.
- I like it too much
- It is a reward for working hard
- It never caused me that much harm. If drinking caused me as much grief as smoking, I would have stopped long ago.
- It does not cost that much
- I do not drink hard stuff. I quit that 30 years ago.
- I never got into trouble while drinking
- There is nothing else to do
- I need it to keep myself feeling normal
- It’s a good source of carbohydrates and calories
- A good source of instant energy.
- Just leave me alone. I’m okay.
- It the elixir of heaven.
- I’ll quit tomorrow
- Sure I drink, but at least I don’t do hard drugs.
- It’s a working mans right to have a few beer after work.
A Dietary problem
Drugs and booze were are all part of my diet.
I consume these items.
I drink, inhale, or eat all kinds of detestable, and pleasurable things.
The best book I found on the ‘nutrition side of things was”
http://www.healthrecovery.com/HRC_2006/Depression_06/D_AlcoholTreatment.htm
Nutrition is the one of the goals.
When I use and drink and eat all kinds of crap, to excess, I am not doing nutrition, I am following some dietary plan that makes no sense at all. Where did I learn all my bad habits? The answer is that I never learned good habits to start with.
For example. In my youth, my cereal bowl was a bowl of sugar with two or three cheerios floating on top. A total Carbohydrate meal (Sugar)` Who let me eat like that? Why did no one try and stop me? I think it was because that was just the way things were done. It was normal.
When I got older I found that a 6 pack of beer had around 800 calories. It was a tasty treat that gave me get up and go, with a bit of a buzz.
Big Book Quotes
Big Book of Alcoholics Annonymous
“Love and tolerance of others is our code.
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone- even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned.”Page 84
“Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection.”Page 95
“This book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to I and to us.”Page 164
AA Links
Bills Story. Original Manuscript: http://gsowatch.aamo.info/1938/manu38/manu38.htm
Big Book Published 1939 http://gsowatch.aamo.info/1939/manu/manu39.htm
AA GSO Watch http://gsowatch.aamo.info/index.htm
LDP AA-bibliography http://www.aabibliography.com/sitemap.html
Silk-worth . Net http://silkworth.net/sitemap.html
Bare-foots-world , net http://www.barefootsworld.net/aahistory.html
Biochemical aspect. http://www.healthrecovery.net/Biochemical_Restoration.html
Akron Manual for AA (1940)
http://www.justloveaudio.com/resources/Assorted/Akron_A_Manual_for_AA_1940.pdf
Hinds-foot Foundation (AA History) http://hindsfoot.org/archives.html
Serenity Prayer was written here http://www.serenitystonecottage.com/
Cyber-City http://www.rewritables.net/cybriety/aa_history.htm
AA Video
Video Bill Wilson talks about singleness of purpose
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5003690050958526939
AA Commercial Drunk Driver gets stopped by Drunk Cop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDENg-bLc4Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meqLUGmQy08&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceoB-tE5yWI&feature=related
Karl Jung
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceoB-tE5yWI&NR=1
Bill W meets with Dr. Bob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwIrecwfTy4
What is Alcoholics Anonymous
AA is People. Whenever anyone deal with people, there are going to be problems.
I found that AA is not a cure for drinking, rather, it is a support group for people who want to stop drinking.
And I noticed that many people do not suffer from alcoholism. Some just need a place to hide away and feel like they belong to something.
