Giving up alcohol successfully

[Youre1]

I am a 46 yo man who has struggled with severe depression for the last 12 years. I was drinking heavily for 10 of those years. I would drink a case of beer and some wine and whatever I could get my hands on and afford, not working meant I had to get the cheap stuff. It took 3 goes at detox at a hospital but in the end it was worth it. After the first two times I went for a few months and something triggered me off and the heavy drinking started again. I only woke up to get drunk and went back to sleep. A never ending cycle. I have been off any alcohol for just over 2 years now. My blood pressure has returned to normal, as well as all my blood tests including liver function. I used to wake up and vomit and then have a few drinks, again and again. I now don't think about drinking at all, I have simply put into my mind that if I do, the last 2 years would have been wasted. Its not easy, but now that I don't drink my depression is a little more manageable. I would recommend taking the leap and going for a detox in hospital. Its about 5 days of having nurses looking after you followed up with medication. I wish I had done it sooner. As they say 'never give up giving up'.

[iamanxiety]

congratulations on your sobriety. I know all to well the destruction drinking can have on your life. 2 years is a massive achievement

[geoff]

Hello You're #1, and thanks for posting this thread on the forums and I'm sure it's been a very long process to enable you to stop drinking for 2 years, but what a great effort because anyone who wants to do this and has tried themselves know that it's not easy to stop this addiction.

Well done for persevering with detox because once you finish the time your routine and daily habits and perhaps who you want to associate with may need to be changed, and that's not easy to accomplish.

We'd like to hear how you were able to do this and there is a thread called 'battling the booze' that has been going for a while which I encourage you to have a look at.

I'm into my 7th week of no alcohol but have abstained for a few months several times before.

Hope to hear back from you.

Geoff.

[Step_Twelve]

That's outstanding! I'm so glad you've clocked up 2 years, well done.

Stories like yours also make me grateful for our country's medical system. There are many places in the world we'd have no hope of getting the assistance we need without racking up mountains of debt!

Just wondering, are you also managing your underlying depression that you said was related to the drinking? Now might be the perfect time to put some structure in place to reduce the chances of relapse. Although there's a lot of overlap, addiction and depression have different treatment approaches and options. If you ever feel like your depression taking control again, I'd recommend talking to your GP about making a plan to manage it (if you haven't already).

I'm not assuming you've taken a 12 step program, but the final step is a good one to think about: "we try to carry this message to the addict who still suffers, and to practice these new principles in all our affairs".

All the best!

12

[Youre1]

Just a follow up to my first post, I was drinking heavily to self medicate for my depression. Unlike some other people, the depression came first due to a major career loss and total emptiness in my life as a cause and goals I was working towards, and excelling in, was taken away by others involving spite. So I was just empty and had no reason to get up out of bed. So drinking was my way of forgetting about a great tragedy that happened to me. I realized that the heavy drinking was not making the problem go away and was just a case of 'sticking my head in the sand'. Not much has changed, I still have no reason to get up, but at least I'm not drowning my sorrows in alcohol. I got out of the routine. I realized that drinking was affecting my life in other ways, weight gain of 30kg and financial debt. Now I just walk past bottle shops and ignore them, before I would buy something every time I passed one. I hope that others can also give it a go.