In thinking about relapsing…we haven’t yet experienced the poor decisions we’ve made while intoxicated nor the setbacks…nor the regrets.

In the reality of relapsing…we are forced to actually face the decision we made, along with alllll the stupid decisions we’ve made along the way. 🥴

I think it’s important to write down everything in our lives important to us…and “then” decide whether or not we are willing to jeopardize those people and things for a quick rendezvous with alcohol. ⚖️

Because the “thought” of relapsing and the “reality” of relapsing are two entirely different things! 😈

over a month sober and I had a drink, it let me to having another bc of my hangover. How can I nip this in the bud while it's still early without feeling like shit and giving in.

Hey everyone. I’m a 23 year old male. For the last two months, I’ve been having a drink everyday. Usually 5-8 7%ers. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Today I’ve finally made the decision to quit drinking everyday as I don’t want to live like this anymore. I want to go back to being a social drinker. The only downside is I’m worried about alcohol withdrawal effects.

I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve heard seizures can happen and I’m a little worried about that. I’m almost at hour 24 since my last drink and wanted some reassurance or experiences in this field.

Went to ER by accident with a bac of .34.5 and got myself into detox for about 3 days but they wouldnt send me home on librium because it seemed too likely id start drinking again i guess. I got myself an appt for substance abuse counseling but im afraid ill just blow it all over like i do with everything else.
Mental and physical withdrawals are killing me.
Ive been trying to taper off, but i still cant help myself, i have to drink a pint of vodka in one sitting.
Id just like a little motivation or at least some good stories about recovery to give me a little push… im so ashamed of myself

I’m 28 years old and a little over five years sober. Lately I’ve been having regrets about my sobriety, thinking things like “my alcoholism wasn’t really that bad compared to others” and questioning whether I was actually an alcoholic who needed to get sober. Part of me feels like I overreacted in cutting it out of my like completely, and feels like I could safely introduce it again. I really feel like it was an overreaction. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

The last half of the day at work I fantasized about just drinking. I got the butterflies and everything. It’s the happiest I’ve been in a while. I just moved to Austin and I’m living at a sober living here. I’ve been here for about a month. It took everything for me to even talk about this. It took everything for me to get on the bus after work and come directly to bed. I keep having dreams about doing drugs and drinking. And I’m in this big city it’s so hard. I’m not going to drink tonight but idk about tomorrow. I’ll be homeless if I relapse. But the self destructive side of me is just overwhelming. I don’t care. I just wanna get a motel room, get blitzed, and kill myself. That’s all I want to do. It’s a miracle I didn’t relapse tonight. I got a sponsor for the first time. Working on the 2nd step. He’s out of town though and I’ve never had a sponsor. I hate bothering people about my problems. I don’t believe in God but I’m praying to the universe….please help me.

Has anybody had these drinking dreams? I'm under alot of stress and fighting a cold so it probably put my brain in this dream state. In my dream I drank then wanted more then felt like I woke up in the dream and hoping it was just a dream and found an empty bottle and I was very bummed. I woke up this morning and remembered the dream and was so relieved. It's funny how even in my dreams I regret relapse. I have 5 months and a week right now. Life is challenging at the moment but hey, I put myself here and it'll get better.

To make a long story short: after a year of sobriety, I relapsed a week ago. On top of that, I just came home to a flooded basement, and the stress is piling on fast. I recently moved to a new area and haven’t built a support circle or friend group here yet. The urge to drink right now is overwhelming. How do I get through tonight?

As of right now I just sitting here spinning waiting on the plumber to get here.

I think my folks are just judgmental, but maybe I do actually have a problem? I don't think I actually drink much, but I do it in secret because my family has been judgmental about it before and I can't really just move out and do whatever I want. I do sometimes feel guilty for drinking though, I was sober for most of my pregnancy, but my kid is still young. I mostly only drink at night after everyone's gone to bed, I really would prefer if I didn't have to wait though, I feel like shit all day waiting.

Sorry if this is stupid or doesn't belong here.

Not everything needs to be exciting all the time…and I think that’s what gets most alcoholics in trouble.

The need for more!!!

It’s okay to just walk around the house and make something to eat…or read a book…..

…..or run a few miles…or take a shower…..

…..it’s okay to just be calm and happy that you aren’t sitting on some park bench somewhere pouring whiskey and beer down your throat.

It’s okay to just chill and relax for a while. 😎

Ok.. here goes..

I'm Irish... From the age of like 7 I remember my parents drinking to relax and unwind.

My first ever job was in a bar at 16 collecting glasses... But that was long after my first drink.

I openly drank in front of my parents by 17. (The legal age in Ireland is 18)

And as is the Irish way, it was just something I did along with any other event. Wedding? Drink. Birthday? Drink. Barbecue? Drink.

But then it became more.. Watching a movie? Drink. Playing video games? Drink.

Bored? DRINK

Moved to Canada a few years back, where the mentality around alcohol is very different..but that has just kind of caused me to be secretive, rather than stop.

I work from home.

I day drink when I don't have meetings, because it actually makes me more focused (good old ADHD) and then I lie to my partner when she smells it on my breath at the end of the day..

I hide the bottles and the cans because I've told her in the past that I drink too much and want to stop..

By God I've tried to stop...

I've tried to get leaner, lose the body fat, gain muscle.

I know that it's all getting slowed down by my inclinations.

I know it hurts, I know it's poison but I just... Keep going out in the middle of the afternoon and buying it anyway.

My post in another group. Seeking support helping an alcoholic.

Any advice would help. I don't smoke either.

I'm an adult living with my parents and sister. I've never drank alcohol and don't plan to.

My dad has always been very stubborn and closed off. It was always especially bad in the evening. He would yell, get mad about something (he'll always find something to be mad about, even if he had to make it up), slam stuff on the table, etc.

For most of my life I thought he was just very stressed about making dinner. However, a few years ago my mom told me he always drinks in the evening, and it all makes sense now.

During the day, he's fairly pleasant enough. Polite, usually calm. In the evening, he completely changes. Blames everyone else for everything, saying that mom just sits and watches TV all day (conveniently ignoring the fact my mom works a 9-5 all week, and dad isn't working at all ATM). He blames us for him being miserable, gets mad when we help make dinner because we did it "wrong" but also gets mad when we DONT help, because "we never do anything".

Talking to him like this is like talking to a brick wall. And then the next morning, he's back to normal, and we just act like the previous night didn't happen.

My mom once showed my records of purchases he was making, and almost EVERY day was at least one purchase from LCBO, the Wine Shop, or the Beer Store. He knows we don't want him to; he doesn't drink in front of us, but my mom says she smells the alcohol on his breath.

Tonight was the worst it's ever been. He's normally a very passive aggressive drunk, but tonight he angrily claimed "I'm gonna kill that fucking idiot" in reference to me. He's never hurt me before, and I'm pretty big so I could probably defend myself if it came to that, but still...

I don't know why I'm writing this. I guess I just needed to vent.

Sorry if this isn't the best subreddit for this.

i’m a bit irritated by my situation. i ended up needing to go to detox, and i was given the phenobarbital up until last night, thursday 10/15. it always knocked me out immediately. i was discharged today at around 9am.
i went in on tuesday 10/13, and told my boss i’d be out for the rest of the week. she asked me to let her know what was going on by friday (today 10/16) by noon and that she’d need a doctor’s note. i told her i would, which promptly was yeeted from my mind after starting the phenobarbital.
she gave me until 12:38pm to respond, then said my silence was resignation.

it’s just hard to go from getting discharged from detox, then 4 hours later getting fired over text.
makes me wanna drink.

a side note: i was never drunk on the job. i drank nightly and was sober at work, so that was not an issue for me.

Does anyone experience a really fast heart rate? I’m so desperate to get better. I’m only 24, stay at home mom and I already have insane anxiety, it’s so bad that I had like a full cardiac workup about 3 years ago because it would get so fast during anxiety episodes. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, I never have any time by myself. I’ve been drinking like 3-5 8% white claws daily for about the past year to try to mask the anxiety, sometimes I only have 2, and sometimes I have 10. Originally, I started drinking because it was the only time I didn’t feel anxious, but I think now it’s just turned into boredom. I’m stuck in the same 4 walls every day and nobody my age understands what it’s like to be a wife and mother. I’m so terrified of withdrawal and never have time to go see a doctor. I did a virtual visit and she said my drinking isn’t consistent enough to have withdrawals, but I dont think she was really hearing me. I wake up, make it until around 2 pm so I can get my oldest from school, and then drink until I go to bed. I’m so tired of it. I dont ever get super messed up until my husband gets home, my number one priority is still making sure my children are safe. But I feel like I’m losing my mind and the alcohol quiets the anxiety and depression so it’s so hard to stop. I feel like a piece of shit and just need to rant.

Edit: I feel like I should mention it didn’t turn into this until we moved in with my in laws. Being a stay at home mom with no friends, it was just me and my in laws all day every day and my husbands mom just took over every responsibility I had. I stopped being able to clean and cook and things like that and that made the depression so bad. We moved out (finally) about 2 months ago and now I’m just depressed and bored all the time and the alcohol takes away the stress. My liver enzymes have been high for about 6 months now, and an ER trip for an ovarian cyst told me I “could have fatty liver” (genuinely what the dr said) I feel that nobody is taking my cry for help seriously and I don’t know what to do. My heart has been racing like it does during panic attacks and I’m scared I’ve damaged it.

I took 2 mg of Xanax on an empty stomach along with one beer, and then took the rest after eating. It’s been exactly 3 hours, and I don’t feel anything—aside from a very slight numbness, I have no other symptoms. Why do you think that is?

Alcohol is like an evil little trick in disguise…leading us to believe it’s harmless and helping us cope with boredom or depression or whatever…..

…..while it’s slowly making us more dependent upon alcohol to fulfill our psychological needs.

Anyone struggling with alcoholism is more than welcome to ask questions or share experiences.

I have years of experience with alcoholism and would love nothing more than to help and support those struggling with themselves…and alcohol. 🥃

I’m a little over six months sober but if anything it’s getting harder, not easier, to not want to drink. The more time that gets between me and the incident that led me to be sober the more I think that maybe I could moderate and keep something like that from happening again. I know it’s not true and that I just need to not drink but I think about wanting to more and more frequently, and have even started having dreams about it.

Is this normal? Is it just the pink cloud stage is over and now is when it becomes real work, or is it unusual to struggle more later than at the beginning?

I know sometimes we screw-up and get carried away while drinking…and it’s perfectly okay to still be learning about ourselves and patterns.

Alcoholism is rarely a quit entirely habit.

I think most people need to weigh the pros and cons repeatedly until the mind is finally made-up.

I lost a little self-respect I will admit…but, I am also aware that it was something I “chose” to do during the time and really didn’t think much of it.

I made a series of bad decisions and evidently I still have some growing and re-enforcement to exercise.

I came clean to my doctor today about how much I drink, like painfully honest, and I feel very hopeful that some medication might finally help my alcoholism. I am 33 and was sober for 6 years in my 20's and four years ago I thought I could experiment with alcohol. Before I knew it I was back to half to full bottle of vodka with beer chasers every night. I went to the dentist two days ago to get a cleaning for the first time in years and when they took my blood pressure it was 180/109. Then they took it again 177/125. I was very anxious from being hungover and at the dentist which I hate so they couldn't do the cleaning for a bleed risk. I realized I was in serious health risk and called my doctor who saw me yesterday. After checking my blood work I was prescribed naltrexone and gabapentin. After taking them last night I drank 3 beers and felt no reason to drink anymore because it just wasn't making me feel how it normally does. That was my first day without vodka in over a year. I am very hopefull that I can make a positive change in my life and I just wanted to share this with people who understand and ask for support on the journey. Thank you for any encouragement, I can use all the help I can get.

I left rehab after detox aka off librium priory was shit place poor quality staff but have drunk alcohol for 17days and still going up dont want to look back good luck everyone wish you all peace and happiness in life im starting to enjoy real life (sober) hope you all do too