"M$Man" <my_email@none_of_your_goddamn_business.org> wrote in message
news:9jcre.412$Pa5.8@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
>
> "Sheenah" wrote:
> > I was able to not drink for almost 8 years without
> > making use of arecovery programme.
>
> So what was your silver bullet? Where did you get your support
structure
> from? Just family and friends? Was it just a will power thing? How did
you
> cope when something hit a trigger?

Willpower. All the time I was not drinking, my husband continued
drinking at home. Also, when visitors came or we went out, if it was an
occasion when we normally would be drinking everyone except me did so.
When something hit the trigger it was very much more difficult for me to
not drink. I could get irritable, short-tempered and tearful, be unable
to settle or to concentrate on anything except the thought that I must
not drink and feel frustrated and under stress.

When I started to drink again I had the idea that having been not
drinking for almost eight years I had proved myself well able to control
my drinking "when I wanted to" and this led to me thinking that if I
started to drink again I 'd find it easy to control how much I drank.
The day I decided to drink again, I planned to have only one glass of
wine. Instead, I started with a large coffee mug of wine half of which
I drank in secret before taking my husband his glass of wine. Shortly
after giving him his drink, I went back to where I had left the remains
of my drink, finished it and immediately refilled my mug. That evening
I drank the best part of a full bottle of wine. Ten months of daily
drinking later, I became again ready to decide to quit drinking and did
so.

Today, I have just over 2 years of not drinking under my belt. In these
2 years I have found opinions about what alcoholism is and suggestions
about how it can be managed that have come to make sense to me.

I got exposed to these opinions and suggestions as a result of mixing
with alcoholics, most of whom had at least a year of not drinking under
their belt. From them I came to first have thoughts about what seemed
to work for them and then came to think it could do me no harm to try
doing what those who had the kind of sobriety I hoped to one day have,
had been doing done. So I did. Now, from personal experience, I know
that what seemed to work for those who once gave me cause to think I
ought to do what they've been doing, has to date also worked for me.
Which is good :^)

Sheenah