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Dry

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06:40 / 29.04.03

Good for you Flyboy, I hope your successful.

11:05 / 29.04.03

Best thing to do is not think about it, will happen without you even realising I swear!

Oh, and tests are stupid. I mean, you might have an alcohol problem, sure. But alcoholic...? 'Cos I'm sure most people think of alcoholics as the people they see in the street and wonder if they ever had a decent life and threw it all away because of drink and now they sit there endlessly scrabbling together money for their next bottle of white lightning. And I think you're a long way off from that. There's a difference, to be sure. Both alcohol-based problems but I know where I'd prefer to be...

I’m not sure if I fully understand what Suedehead is saying. If s/he is saying ‘as long as you’re not swigging cheap booze on the streets, then don’t worry about it; things will sort themselves out,’ then I disagree. Alcohol can give rise to a huge range of problems, some are trivial and probably not worth worrying about, some are utterly devastating, and a great many more are somewhere in between. Destitution should not the point where one starts addressing problems.

Flyboy, you have obviously given a great deal of thought to the effect alcohol is having on your life. Good for you. In my earlier post I forgot to wish you luck. Best wishes and good luck.

17:23 / 29.04.03

Best wishes Flyboy!
Shit. I just got 3 on that quiz. And I cant even legally drink for another year or two.

17:27 / 29.04.03

I sometimes wonder how much would be different if alcohol had played a different role in my life. If I hadn't missed this, avoided that, fucked that up.

Leaving Glasgow was probably a good thing because it took me away from the friends who I could happily and regularly get extremely drunk and bad with. Having newer relationships where I am wary of making a bad impression means I drink less and have a better life. Overall.

I dunno what an alcoholic really is though.

autopilot disengaged

17:49 / 29.04.03

hey fly:

know we've talked about this in the RL, but thought i'd add supportive words, plus couple questions... having recently cut the head off my own alcohydra (well, trimmed a couple of heads, at least) i'm feeling a lot less, um - let's go with 'bipolar'. too, too many nites that i don't remember, too many conversations straight wiped from my memory - and a whole lot less regret.

that said, i have an *alternative*. which you know about, won't go into... suffice to say my personal experience has been one of 'disinhibition without intoxication'(TM). not saying you shd follow suit - but know my own in between period was characterised by awkwardness and paranoia.

maybe i'm just stuck on a self-medication trip... could be, quite possible... but wondering if one-man prohibition is necessarily the best way to go. could you not just cut yr intake? stop somewhere after blurring edges but way before unravelling?

when you're sober in the centre of a gaggle of drunks, the sitch can be alienating (and profoundly boring).

anyway, whatever - good luck.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:37 / 29.04.03

autopilot: The thing is, whilst the idea of "just cutting down" is very seductive, I know exactly how bad I'd be at it. I may not be an addict, but I do have a personality that leans towards excess. It's like Leo says in the West Wing: "I don't understand people who have just one drink..." So for the time being, this is the only way to go.

As far as being awkward goes... maybe. I dunno. Right now, I'm feeling ridiculous positive about this whole endeavour. I just met up with the Haus for a coffee, and came away thinking that if we'd been drinking, I would probably have spent something in the reason of five times as much money, and twice as many hours, and got roughly the same amount of decent conversation and human interaction out of it. Seriously. And maybe there are times when it will be hard, but I doubt it. The only time I feel awkward when sober these days anyway is at large social events filled with people I don't know and don't really want to be with, and in those situations I can always, y'know, leave.

That being said, I'm not swearing off all intoxicating substances, and you'll be unsurprised to know that I am aware of yr luminescent alternative and have given it much thought. Apart from anything else, I need to dance more, not less.

Suedehead: I'm afraid I agree entirely with H.I.R. - looking at the guys on the street drinking Super at 8 in the morning and saying "I'm not someone with a problem; that's someone with a problem" is a really good way of normalising and rationalising one's own behaviour. I don't want to over-dramatise things - this isn't really about being worried about alcoholism per se. It's just about weighing up the costs, the pros and cons - I mean seriously, what's in the 'loss' column if I quit drinking for the immediate future? When I look back at the good times I've had where alcohol was involved and wonder if I would have had them without alcohol, the answer is "yeah, at least some of them, and at least to some of the extent". When I look back at the *bad* times where alcohol was involved, the bad shit probably wouldn't have happened at all without it. So I figure why not try this, because, hello, done the other thing already.

Thanks for all the support etc, people, both in this thread and elsewhere. I may end up posting here a lot more again as a result of this...

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:21 / 29.04.03

fly and H.I.R.

You misunderstood me. Sorry if I wasn't very clear. All I was saying was is, yeah, you might have a problem. But you're *not* like those guys, who are pretty much at the point of no return and could have lost any semblance of a normal life they ever had. Cos you're not like that, you've still got a problem sure, but I think it will be pretty easy for you to sort yourself out. Looking at those guys in the street and thinking "shit, I really don't wanna end up like them" and wondering if they ever had a normal life as opposed to drinking every day, now that should make you wanna sort yourself out. And I meant that those are the kind of people that are thought of as proper *alcoholics* wheras anything else is "nothing to worry about". So, both alcohol based problems, but I know I'd prefer to be in your position.

Remember what I was saying earlier in the thread after all, I was in a position which seems pretty similar to your own to me, and I managed to swing that round. I was pretty worried for a while there, though.

Sorry if I'm making too many assumptions, being general or just plain not making sense. I don't seem to translate well to actual posts.

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