We drank last night, but I had a distinct need to drink less than usual. At one point dear SO ordered me a glass of wine assuming I would want it b/c my glass was empty. Guess what? I had to nearly force myself to drink it. My overall consumption was at least 1/3 less than what I would ordinarily drink on a night out like that. We're heading over to a little place we frequent with friends for our traditional Sunday potluck supper in about an hour. Right now, though I would usually be having a 'pre-party drink' before going out, I have no desire whatever for one.

Cool!

That's great G4M!

It really seems to beginning to work for you now!

I have just finished my second consecutive day without a drink. I had a few tiny twinges, but there haven't been any genuine cravings at all.

It will be so interesting to see where we are a month from now.

WTE said ....." And how the hell I have gotten to this age and never gotten a DUI (driving under the influence in the US) is truly a miracle. AMAZING how stupid we can be at times. My GFs daughter just got a DUI at 22 years old. Mandatory rehab here in California that cost thousands![/quote]

Its best to avoid DUI's at all costs . At first I was plain lucky here too , then I just
got strict about it . For everyone's sake it's best to find alternatives .
Concerning that rehab...
Can such expense be justified ? Is it effective ? Is it apropriate for the girl ?
If the answer is yes it would be encouraging . If the rehab has an AA element
ie "religous" she could fight its imposition as it violates constitutional rights .unless she's happy with that .

Hi all,

Thanks for responding. Think I'm getting addicted to this MB!

SO and I went out last night for that potluck dinner, and had the best 'near normal' drinking experience ever. I did pour a 'pre-party' glass of wine, but dumped about half of it out before leaving. We sat at the bar having great fun, and sharing dinner, with our friends for three hours - he had four beers, I had three glasses of wine. (The wine glasses at this bar are only about 4 oz. - very small.) Yee-haw! We migrated over to another little pub we frequent, for 'just one more.' This has always led to two or three more. Last night, it was just one single drink more, and "Good night, Irene."

We came home to watch the 60 Minutes Obama interview (taped earlier), and I did have one more glass of wine, while SO had no desire for more. So on an evening when both of us would normally drink 10-12 drinks, he had five, and so did I - and that was over a five hour period, without any effort whatsoever.

We're planning an AF evening tonight, and I'm really looking forward to it.

That's fantastic G4M- I am really really pleased for you both!

Here's wishing you a lovely AF night tonight

G4M,

Good for you. Let us know how your day goes.

Q

Q -
Can you rewrite how to chart your progress? I've lost the thread that had the instructions. Maybe you could start a new one that the newcomers could get to quickly. I am about 6 wks. into this and have seen few changes. I need to be better about charting my drinks, but I can look at the (big) bottle and see...yes, I feel like my consumption has gone down but not my desire or the "take it or leave it" experience many of you have had here.

I sure hope I'm not one of the ones who this method doesn't work for....but I have had 2 AF free days this week (tonight being the 2nd) and feel pretty good about that. But there have been other nights even with less alcohol, I have been drunk going to bed. Felt very guilty the next day...

Just gotta keep on even though feeling a little discouraged when I compare my progress to others at this point.

Houtx- I think your progress sounds pretty good- you are not even halfway through the program


I really don't think comparing to each other will be helpful- there are so many different reasons why we drink, we drink different quantities, we drink different drinks, some of us took years to become addicted, some only took a few months, some have been addicted for decades, some not so long- I don't see how we can compare really.

Two AF free nights is fantastic- I too still have days when I get drunk, and I expect Q does too.

Houtx - I agree, don't get too bogged down with comparing results to others and looks like you are actually seeing results but they may be subtle.

I think it's helpful to chart your own progress. I keep a spreadsheet offline to track daily units, cravings, my mood before & after I dring and comments about the day. It's really helpful to look back to see subtle changes since I started. A lot of the way I drank before and descriptions about the cravings I have already forgetten and I was reading them back last night thinking, 'wow, I forgot about that - this is really working'. To track cravings I use a scale of 1-10 and try to rank the liklihood of having a drink if it were set before me. 10 would be I am actively looking for a drink...1 would be I could leave it right there in front of me the whole night.

To track in your signature you go to User Control Panel (upper right) / Profile / Edit Signature.

Best of luck to you.

Just skimming quickly and wanted to add, I too am not good at charting, but I at least am marking a calendar with numbers of bottles of wine daily.

My "old habit" was at least two bottles of wine a day and some hard Al thrown in here and there.
I had a period of the nal not drinking very much, now I find I am creeping up again. Tuesday I did two bottles through the 24/7. No big drunk, just noticed my skin did not look so nice, and it looked dry and I had feelings of allergies.

Wednesday I drank one bottle. Now it's Thursday am and I am up early and drinking wine as I write.

I will go back to sleep for a few hours, then do my day.

But, the most important thing is, I just have not gotten DRUNK for the time I have been on the Nal. That is really amazing.

The other thing I want to report is I have had a realization of HOW MUCH I USED TO DRINK! And that was A LOT! I finally today realized what "being in denial" meant.