[OT] Help to stay away from alcohol needed

[hambone1]

Conny - if your friend is truly a friend, he'll understand what you're going through and meet you elsewhere, perhaps at a coffee shop.

We're all behind you, dude! (Figuratively speaking, not in a Brokeback Mountain sort of way...)

[radeon]

Hello conny Im not meanings to be rude for you so if I sounded rude its not my way to make this. I wishing you the best of power and luck to help you so please try very hard to get rid of the alcahols.
very good luck and wishing YOU CAN DO THIS

[smutek]

Now, a friend mailed me and wanted us to have a beer.
I accepted to meet him in a pub on thursday (a week then without alcohol).
I want to test what happens. Either:
- I drink water with lime
- Or take some beers and that's it
A "do I have control or not"-test.
Have not decided the strategy yet.// C

Bad idea. Why do you need to know if you have control? Especially with only a week off the booze. If you had control you would not be trying to quit in the first place.

I never, ever, ever put myself in a situation "just to test myself" - don't worry Conny, those tests will come up all the time on their own. Otherwise you are just setting yourself up for a fall. Maybe this time turns out ok, maybe not, but eventually testing yourself like that will blow up in your face and you'll end up with a drink in your hand.

My advice, if you want to quit drinking there is absolutely no reason for you to be in a pub. Testing yourself is just a reservation, a way for "the drinking conny" to get a drink back in the new "not drinking conny". Mail your friend back and let him know that you are trying to quit and see if he would like to meet for coffee or lunch.

[conny]

Take up a different habit, like smoking or wanking. Buy loads of synths so
you have no money to buy alcohol.

Hehe, it joggles back and forth. Time for a "Help me start smoking again"-thread.

But yes, part of the support I get is from my lack of money.
Just finished a phone call to the bank to postpone a bill...

Beer money -> Live 6 and NI updates -> Happy life

// C

[tgennert]

speaking from much experience, the need to drink is a symptom. generally speaking, when you drink you feel better then when you don't (it's an escape but from what), though at a very high price. If you focus on taking care of why you don't feel well when don't drink, you will find less and less need to drink. The first step for me was that I admited that I could not handle it alone and got some help. Someone earlier suggested AA. AA is good, I have friends who use it to great success, but it's not for everyone and there are other alternitives.
Dealing with this problem is not an easy task. Find out what you are escaping from and take care of it and you will succeed.
Good luck!

[forge]

or you could brew your own - costs nothing

he he....I feel like I'm the one in red with horns and a pitchfork sitting on his right shoulder, smutek, hambone etc are the white ones with halos and wings on his left....

testing himself is perfectly legitimate

Smutek the main reason you have the take you do is becuause yours was smack which is alot harder to say no to for anyone - there are many millions of people who drink alcohol just for pleasure and dont let it get out of hand - just because Conny has felt he has let it get out of hand on this occasion doesnt NECCESSARILY mean it will always be this way and he has to bar it from his life forever, of course it could be the case but I dont think alcohol is neccessarily black or white, there are plenty of shades of grey and life circumstances and experiences can determine what they are, maybe he's just had a rough patch.

He may have just needed a break to remind himself booze is not everything in his life and take it back to the level it used to be before it got out of hand

I think it's possible for people to do that, definitely moreso with alcohol than some other drugs

It's a really nice experience to have a drink with someone - it can be alot of fun and it can often shake you of your inhibitions so it is a real shame to completely remove that from someone's life, and there should be a definite neccessity to do so IMO.

I regret I never got drunk with my dad - maybe it wouldnt have been any great fun at all, and I got stoned with him which were some of the best laughs I ever had with him, but sometimes it's just fun to get pissed with someone and I would have liked that experience just once at least. Shit I even took MDMA powder and smoked salvia with him, but never got drunk! He was just one of the ones who wasnt able to. All or nothing.

Conny, you may be one of those, you may not, I hope you're not, because that good wine beckons!

I think alot more of us have our moments on the brink than we each realise, but many sort it out and get back to normal - that's why we dont realise.

I just think the fact that you've had this week now shows it doesnt rule you - no one had to intervene and force you, you did it yourself.

You can easily control yourself.

So now you can start on the long road to recovery from needing to declare you have a problem and just see alcohol like one of the dangers of life and nature - you've had a brush with it and seen it's flaws and that it can rule you if you let it, but you can be in control of it and just enjoy it for what it is and leave it if you dont want what it does to you.

You can train yourself to do anything.

[forge]

speaking from much experience, the need to drink is a symptom. generally speaking, when you drink you feel better then when you don't (it's an escape but from what), though at a very high price. If you focus on taking care of why you don't feel well when don't drink, you will find less and less need to drink. The first step for me was that I admited that I could not handle it alone and got some help. Someone earlier suggested AA. AA is good, I have friends who use it to great success, but it's not for everyone and there are other alternitives.
Dealing with this problem is not an easy task. Find out what you are escaping from and take care of it and you will succeed.
Good luck!

absolutely - that is the crux of what I was getting at

[conny]

Hello conny Im not meanings to be rude for you so if I sounded rude its not my way to make this.

No probs, some rudness may be of use!

About staying away from pubs etc I'm not sure. Maybe I am mixing things up but part of the treatment for my panic attacks was to get accustomed to scary situations just to learn anew that they are not that scary in the end.
And I have trouble seing myself not attending friends parties, restaurants and chatting at the pub, although drinking water.

// C

[conny]

or you could brew your own - costs nothing

When I am totaly recoverd, I might take the cost to let you ship some bottles..?

I just think the fact that you've had this week now shows it doesnt rule you - no one had to intervene and force you, you did it yourself.
You can easily control yourself.

I hope so but I might be fooling myself (the little demon may be playing tricks with me).

Hm, I start feeling like a character in a fairy tale. "Little Conny walked the woods of many a danger... the swamp whispered: 'Are you not a little tired, thirsty maybe?' But bravely he walked the wooden logs above the dark eyes of the bubbling swamp..."

// C

[forge]

or you could brew your own - costs nothing

When I am totaly recoverd, I might take the cost to let you ship some bottles..?

I just think the fact that you've had this week now shows it doesnt rule you - no one had to intervene and force you, you did it yourself.
You can easily control yourself.

I hope so but I might be fooling myself (the little demon may be playing tricks with me).

Hm, I start feeling like a character in a fairy tale. "Little Conny walked the woods of many a danger... the swamp whispered: 'Are you not a little tired, thirsty maybe?' But bravely he walked the wooden logs above the dark eyes of the bubbling swamp..."

// C

lol

or as Barney Gumbel from the simpsons described himself for the Bachelor Auction "A Big thirsty teddy bear BUUUURRP!"

[djadonis206]

I'm actually going through this right now - I'm just trying to take it day to day

Music helps...sit down right some beats, play some video games, walk your dogs, write some beats, play some video games etc etc

check your email, add to your beats, clean up your HD, search the web, eat lunch, check your myspace account, write some beats, check the ableton forum, sample some beats, mix some records, experiment with Operator, play some video games, go to the golf course, add to a beat, eat dinner, watch TV and fall asleep <-----------that's literally my life

then the days over and you didn't drink

easier said than done, but it's possible

a

[conny]

I'm actually going through this right now - I'm just trying to take it day to day

Are you planning for the absolute zero alcohol goal or some controllable use?
Eitherway, nice to have companions along the way!

I've been swimming today, having tea at café and will rent a movie DVD with the kids. And made some soft cheese out of yoghurt, spiced with olives, oil, lime juice, pepper and salt.
Baked cinnamon buns yesterday - never done that before!
Music is hard, it's so linked with late nights and a beer. Have to start from scratch with that.
Might be a problem though, as some things we do, we may be doing to serve us the situation where we like to drink.

// C

[djadonis206]

Complete zero - I can have a beer or two on any given night but usually the next night I'll have 3 or 4 and then I get into stuff I have no business getting into


For me it's alot more than just drinking -

Luckily I had a good weekend this weekend to clear the mind and hang out

but now it's the work week again and you know how somethings just never change...

Between you and me and over 5 trillion people I know a couple people "In the program" I might call before the days over just because going to "Charlies" and having some wings after works seems like a good idea (NOT)

here's the facts for me:

1. My music sounds horrible when I write drunk or stoned, period

2. I don't work on music when I'm drunk or stoned as often or intently

3. Sometimes I don't come home (doh) - funny story real quick. Donald was in town and he played a couple clubs and we ended up following him to this after hours spot. I don't get home until like 10 or 11 - my fiance asks me when did I realize it was so late and I said "When Donald finally stopped playing"...well it was funny at the time

4. I hang out in some real crappy places when I get drunk and stoned which some would say are dangerous

so, yeah 1 day at a time because other wise it's just a big FUCK IT ALL!

[conny]

Some bad things last year have lingered in the back of my head:

- Bying things (like AutoTune) late when drunk and regretting it forever

- In August I was going to Zurich. Made a "funny" round among pubs and peoples one night here at home. Must have stumbled somewhere on the way home. The quite new digtal camera (aimed for Zurich) was broken and I had bruises on the elbows, no memory. The next day I also found the mobile in pieaces under the bed!

- The night before taking the plane, I went to some not so nice pubs in Stockholm. Followed some people from the street into a place, more beer. If sober, I would have seen that these were guys I shold not mingle with. I didn't say much but must have offended the guy next to me - he (probably stuffed with some chemicals) hit me twice, hard, in the head and I fainted for a short time.
So going to Zurich next morning, without camera and with a ringing headache.
The price for headsless behaviour.
(And yes minimal, we had some good talking there...!)

// C

[FaX-01]

You Abletonian Knights and Dames

// C

LMAO