re: Adjusting to drinking not being in your life.

Seems like you're going a long way to convince a bunch of people you don't know that you don't have a drinking problem.

I think maybe you're trying to convince yourself, which in many of our cases was what we were doing too.

The first thing I had to do was accept that stopping drinking was harder for me than I wanted it to be. I had a problem. I would drink every day, but never get sloshed drunk or have hangovers. Just get comfortably numb. But every night. That's a problem.

My advice to you is be realistic and set attainable goals. But at some point when you realise that the drink doesn't own you you'll stop all together and get it out of your head that it's going to be easy. You're going to want it, even if it's just the habit of holding that glass or bottle and the elbow routine, find something else to do with your time when that urge hits. It gets easier over time but never goes away.

Baby steps is the key and don't treat yourself like crap if you fail. Just don't accept failure as a habit. If you fall, get up and keep moving forward.

Good luck to you and your going to be amazed at how good you feel when you start digging your heels into this.

One more word of caution, I got a little cocky after 6 months and convinced myself I could have a glass of wine at dinner, that doesn't hurt anything. Wrong, (In my case) that one glass of wine set me back a month. But I dusted myself off and headed back up the mountain. It was harder the second time but I was determine because I knew what the view looked like from up there.

Good luck

Total Beer & Wine has an NA beer called Penns. It’s 3 bucks a sixer

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You may not think you were an alcoholic but if you are over 25 and drink to the point of having a hangover and do this more than maybe 3-4x per year….yea you are an alcoholic.

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you are such a dork

I drank a lot in my late teens and early 20s. Became a paramedic in my mid 20s, sobered up after having young kids. 5 years in it as a medic I became depressed and had anxiety and broke the bottle back out.

Drank a pint of Jack Daniels very night I was off, smoked 2 packs a day. Quit smoking the day I walked out of my last shift and quit drinking for a year. Now I only drink half a pint on Friday night. It doesn’t bother me if I’m with friends or whatever not having a drink anymore.

In today's world I would skip smoking g and go straight to edibles, tincture or if you had to smoke, vape.


Drug tests are still skewed against Marijuana though.

GhB was great stuff. Tasted like concentrated salt water. But instantly gave the effect of drinking a six pack and taking a piece of Molly(xtc).

Sadly it affected females differently, became a date rape drug, then pretty much disappeared.

Honestly I’m just glad I was able to help. If this guy is struggling with alcoholism we need to be there to support him and offer him options

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I've never understood the obsession with alcohol.

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Me neither. The high of alcohol is just ok but the hangovers are killer. I rarely drink anymore.

I wasn't a big drinker, just a social drinker. I quit over 2 years ago. Everything that I thought was made better by drinking like all the activities you spoke about was a lie. Everything was better without alcohol.

I like both. Nothing wrong with drinking as long as it's not affecting the ones you love.

Don't have to get blacked out drunk everytime you have a drink.