Posted by Kath on August 14, 2000, at 19:57:36
In reply to Re: Problems with Alcohol - Kath/Thomas/Caroline, posted by Lisa Simpson on August 14, 2000, at 10:59:05
Hi Lisa - I'm thinking of you. Lots. As they say in AA "one day at a time" or "one hour at a time" or "one minute at a time" or even "one second at a time". I drink alot of tea & sometimes & think it's bad for me & decide to cut back or stop drinking it for a while. The way I do it is usually like this:
Thought: I want a cup of tea now.
Reply: I'll wait a bit. I don't need it right now, I want to stop, so I know I can handle not having one right now.
Later thought: I think I'll have that tea now.
Reply: Oh, I can wait a bit. I succeeded earlier in not having it. I can wait a bit longer.
etc.I am probably addicted to caffeine & it's not easy not to drink tea, but the above formula does sometimes work.
I hope you re-read my post about therapy & the energy it takes to keep secrets, etc. I'm not in your shoes, so I don't know how it feels at all, but I do think counselling or therapy might benefit you greatly.
Absolute congratulations on the lemonade substitution. If there are additional yummy drinks that you like, that might help to have them on hand. I don't know where you live, but here in Ontario, Canada, there are all sorts of new & interesting non-alcoholic drinks.
Best of luck & kind thoughts, Kath
> Kath, thank you so much for your words. It means a lot to me that someone has taken the trouble to write in such detail to me. (GMT by the way, stands for Greenwich Mean Time!) And thank you Thomas for your note. It looks like you know what I'm going through. What have you tried so far? (And thank you Caroline for thinking of me last night.)
>
> Well, I spent the evening without a bottle of vodka in my hands. I drank enough diet lemonade to sink a ship. Surprisingly I managed to get to sleep when I went to bed. And for the first time, this morning I didn't feel sick.
>
> Tonight is going to be more difficult. One day is easy. I've done one day before. It's doing two, three, four days that's the problem.
>
> The other problem is, of course, that deep down I don't really want to stop. I enjoy drinking... very much. Why should I stop? After a day at work, I deserve something to help me unwind. Is the fact that it's a danger to my health, it makes me sick, it makes me fat, it makes me bad-tempered to people around me, good enough reasons to make me stop?
>
> I hope so.
>
> Lisa
poster:Kath
thread:42413
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000811/msgs/42882.html