Thanks potato. I was just down earlier this week. I get a worse hangover from 8 drinks now than I did from 16 pre tsm, but I also don't drink 16 drinks in a night anymore. So far 0 drinks this week and feeling great. It's not effortless for me, but that's no big deal: I do not believe there is any guarantee of effortlessness in life.

It is just astounding and wonderful to read about the progress some of us are making. The success stories just seem to keep coming, and that's just damn fine news.

Firebird

I know exactly what you mean as far as hangovers go...5 would be huge night for me now...when like 3 months ago it would have been 20+ but the hangover on 5 is equivelant to 20+...maybe this is how normal folks feel.

Tonight I'm celebrating the "forget factor", where I simply forget about drinking as an option. On these occasions it's not will power or mind magic getting me through, it is just that it gets to be 10 or 11 pm and I realise I never thought about drinking, and now it's time for bed. So, unless I decide to pop a nal, watch TV for an hour, and then pound shots like I don't have to work in the morning, I'll be writing another -0- on the chart, right next to the one from last night.

It's yet another of the myriad of ways TSM works to heal me. And for that I go to bed grateful : >

Well said, FB.

I had a similar experience yesterday. I received a phone call early in the morning that my mother, age 74, had passed out at her gym and smashed her head. She was unconscious, non-responsive and in an ambulance, heading to the ER -- that's all I was told. For an hour I knew nothing more. Long story short, she passed out after a sauna and water aerobics and a sleeping pill the night before resulting in dehydration. She has a four inch gash on the side of her head, stretching from her ear to over her eye. BUT all the tests came back negative and she'll be fine although they kept her for observation over night.

I got home at 9 PM after a day at the hospital -- the same hospital my dad stayed at for three months in the summer of '08 before dying of a second stroke. I saw an unopened bottle of white wine in the fridge -- had totally forgotten it was there. I thought, "Normal people" would have a drink to unwind after something like this and almost opened it. Then I thought, "Nah, don't want it or need it" and went to bed.

I am at the helm.

Nick: wow. Thanks for that.

-Ned

Hey Nick, I sure hope your mother is doing better - I know what it's like to be worried about parents. And it's especially difficult when we can barely take care of ourselves. Of course, with tsm our ability to take care of ourselves just keeps getting stronger by the day. It's yet another way tsm gives to everybody involved: it allows us to really be there when our loved ones need us. It sounds like you are definitely being there for your mother.

This morning I'm celebrating the "habit of sobriety". It is beginning to feel normal for me to be sober at 11pm, and to wake up feeling fresh and ready to face the world. This used to be the exception - my habit used to be to wake up soggy, confused, angry and ashamed. Like the Alcohol Man Bob wrote about. But habits can be cultivated and tended, and when you do this they will flourish and yield those fruits that come from living life with purpose.

So here's to cultivating the habit of sobriety (raised coffee to the sky) - -

Isn't that a great feeling? I revel in it every night and every morning!

Bob

Raising my coffee cup in approval. You can tell exactly how much I've been drinking booze by my coffee consumption. On hangover days the last thing I wanted was coffee as it made me more jittery. On sober mornings I start the day out with three cups. I am pleased to report that my coffee maker is now being used daily.

You guys are great. I recently got myself into a relationship and we have shared alot of red wine at dinners and I did not even want it but he is a drinker and I am going to end it. It is too bad because he has everything else I wanted but my body has been saying no in a big way. I guess i could try to wait if this is worth it and get him involved with the Sinclair method but he seems in denial about his problem. When I read these posts from you guys I was once again inspired to try harder and believe in myself again. Not that I didn't before. I was just side tracked there for a bit. Thanks and cool. Tater.

Awwwwww Tater - so sorry!! What a disappointment. Sounds like you are resolved to this so I wish you well. Love just seems so elusive - "lots of red wine at dinners". I know/you know/we all know the difference betweeen "let's have another one" and crossing the line. Ick - sorry your guy is not what you hoped he'd be. Rotten luck, but we gotta keep kissing the toads. :-((

The Queen of Delusion