I'm an alcoholic

Tapering myself off slowly--hoping to be at zero by the end of August. Not quitting forever, I don't think--but I'm not in a position to fully control my drinking right now, and that has to change.

godspeed, HOOS!

good feels to you, hoos. Hit me up anytime if you want to meet for non-drinky distractions!

be well, hoos

i wonder how yeahloggedout is doing

courage hoos

gl hoos

it's been almost a year, feel like it's probably permanent, grateful i didn't need aa meetings. the stability has been essential to me becoming half of the mess i was. good luck hoos.

rooting for you hoos, i don't think there's one royal road to getting control so weigh up your strategies and go with whatever works best for you

http://www.amazon.com/Responsible-Drinking-Moderation-Management-Approach/dp/1572242949/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434397008&sr=1-1&keywords=responsible+drinking

^^^worth a look while you take a break (or don't)

Good decision, hoos. Much better to reassert control while control is still in reach. Good luck. Just stay focused on the goal and the reasons for it and you'll be fine.

Responsible Drinking Paperback – 21 Jul 2003

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Two Stars
By puremince on 23 May 2015

Useful pints but never worked for me

hahaha that is too perfect

but for real some of my fellow social work stoodents have worked in the substance use disorder (aka SUD, the term now replacing "substance abuse" in professional circles) field and harm reduction/other non-abstinence-based methodologies are a viable, evidence-based alternative to AA and the like.

:)

it does look like a useful book though

good wishes of course.....

thanks, everyone.

Recent interview-based research indicated that tobacco was the most common gateway for alcohol and other addictions. I found that quitting cigs made quitting booze much easier. Did go more or less cold turkey re both, but not simultaneously. But, booze-wise, I was pretty much a weekend warrior/fule anyway. As indicated upthread, v. dangerous to go cold turkey on your own, in many cases (Townes Van Zandt died of a heart attack that way).

"useful pints" made my day

Somebody pointed me to SMART Recovery, and that's given me just the kind of framework I'm looking for--I've got a plan now that's gonna lead me to a period of sobriety starting in September. To, through & from there I'll figure out how to deal with the things that make me drink. Once I've made that something I can control confidently, no matter how long that takes, I might welcome myself to a beer again.

This is an excerpt from an article on James Taylor that I've kept around to help me with my own demons:

"Well, when I cleaned up some 17 odd years ago, I felt terrible inside my own skin for about six months," Taylor says. "And the only thing that gave me any real relief was - was strenuous physical activity. It made me feel good for a while. Maybe it's endorphins, or whatever. I sort of swapped addictions and got into...physical exercise."

Today he at least appears to be a poster boy for the 12-step road to recovery.

"When you say I - I seem like a, you know, a - a sort of solid, rock-solid image of sanity, you know, it doesn't feel that way to me, especially when I wake up at, you know, 5 o'clock in the morning, you know, you know, anxious," Taylor reveals.

He describes his anxiety: "It doesn't seem to - to matter what it is."

"(Itseems to be, yeah, free-floating anxiety that'll attach to anything," Taylor explains."The difference, essentially, is that I know that it doesn't last forever."

Echoing the good wishes for hoos (though, just sayin, it might be easier if your name didn't rhyme with booze).

From what I read lately, the current wisdom does seem to be shifting, allowing greater space for tapering and moderation as possibilities (vs. the all-or-nothing MUSTness and in-yo-face religiosity of AA).
This recent Atlantic piece is an example.

Yeah I read that great article a while ago, it's part of why I sought out other approaches.

Big Booze AKA The Harddrinker

Sorry

you could atone w/ a good 'designated driver' hoosjoke

thanks for linking that article xps

The Finns are famously private

lol

haaaaaaaa

Big Booze AKA The Harddrinker

― supreme problematics (D-40), Wednesday, June 17, 2015 5:28 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Does hoos really rhyme with booze or have I been saying one of those wrong for awhile

gl btw hoos

how else would u say hooz

Hoose, like a Scottish house

or hoh-uhs like noos

(best wishes hoos)

hoos like the gow

^^^ the correct way, based on Hoos's explanation of its origin.

if you say it with the Spanish s it is soft, like "hooss" instead of "hooze"

a hoos by any other name

go get em hoos; i quit drinking a few years ago and am happier for it.

I've been through the desert on a hoos with no name

fie, xpost

hoos, your're gonna turn into forks, do with that knowledge what you will

celebrate and live happily ime/imo

hey hoos, how do u feel abt pottery

wouldn't trust it as far as he could throw it

teeehee

best of luck, hoos.

hey hoos, how do u feel abt pottery

― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, June 18, 2015 3:35 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

um i dunno...its cool to put stuff in?

that's the spirit

or, you know, lack thereof

haa