I need to stop drinking. Any former drunks lurking who actually managed to quit? How'd you do it...

I need to stop drinking. Any former drunks lurking who actually managed to quit? How'd you do it? What finally stopped you?

I went to Alcoholics Anonymous. 2 years sober now.

Smoke weed instead, youll get too high to remember to drink

But then how else will you escape the crippling depression of existence?

Momma didn't raise no quitter

But he will get cottonmouth. That could lead to more drinking. Perhaps opiates are the answer.

No way man. That makes me drink 10 times more. I hate that stuff.

I would like to jump in on OP's thread.

Is it necessary to hit rock bottom before you stop drinking? Or can you avoid that? I have a problem, but not 'that horrible'. Should I go full court press to force the issue and get this quasi-alcoholic state over with?

Totaled my car and got a DUI. Kinda just lost the desire to after. Plus the withdrawals were hell so 2 good reasons to stop.

I think the booze is making my existence depressing as fuck.

Honestly, I took up a well-managed (1 dose every evening and never, ever more than that) opioid habit. Haven't had a drink in 5 years. People will hurr durr about trading one addiction for another, but alcohol was ruinous to my health and I am actually functioning very well as an opioid user. No hangovers, either. Also cheaper.

Did it take a while though? I fucking hate AA.

Maybe I need to go to prison or something.

That's because alcohol is a depressant.

Sounds nice but I have a strong desire to get totally clean. Tired of being half dead all the time.

im curentlt drubk and friends just thrru up im becomnig an alcoholic and i dont know how to quit

Yeah the thing I don't understand is why I keep doing it. It doesn't make sense. It's not even enjoyable anymore.

I was willing to do pretty much anything to quit. They told me don't pick up the first drink, one day at a time.

Good for you if you can do it. I quit the booze first, but life was just boring to the point where I was going to an hero. I started opioids, got to enjoying life again, and have not looked back.

Psychological dependency to just be sedated. It alters brain chemistry

I'm starting to think that all the how in the world is bullshit and it's really just a matter of if. In fact I'm thinking that dwelling on hows, going through "programs" and what have you can make it worse and complicate it. Like the AA I'm powerless thing for example. I really don't think that's a good mantra to brainwash yourself with. It's all about free will. I say that but I'm still struggling like fuck with it. Maybe it's that there is only if but that doesn't make the if easy.

OP if youre actually serious then you need AA

Chek'd
Its also extremely addictive.

Yeah that's really what I've been thinking. No more of this trying to moderate it. It doesn't work for me. If you don't take one drink it's guaranteed that you wont wind up drunk and then hating yourself the next day again.

That's the strange thing is it's the opposite with me. The booze makes my life boring because I can barely function. When I'm off it I'm productive and have a pretty alright life. It's that baffling thing with self sabotaging behaviour.

I disagree. They have something like a three percent success rate and their pseudo religious pyschobabble drives me nuts.

True. Another thing they say is One drink is too many; a thousand are not enough.

I don't know why, but I just cannot unwind without a substance. When I am clean I am bored, tense, and sleepless. Having that hit every evening not only relaxes me, but it brightens every day because I know that I have an opioid waiting for me on the tail end. But I am able to limit myself to that single dose. I see other people who dose throughout the day and they uniformly wind up junkies.

I just can't stand it anymore.

Do you think you need a hospital detox?

I think I'd pretty much be guaranteed to wind up a junkie if I tried that stunt. Frying pan to the fire. It's weird because the drinking and weed smoking that usually comes with it actually keeps me up. I often have insomnia for a few days after a binge. It's fucked up and masochistic. I remember someone telling me that I keep doing it because I'm punishing myself for some reason. Like a cycle of self loathing that you get so used to you don't realize you're doing it again and again.

I've thought about that before but I think that would just be more for the psychological factor in that I'd be kept away from it physically for a while.

Then look up AA meetings in your area for tomorrow. You can google it.

I absolutely had awful sleep when I got really hammered. That exhausted nervous sleep where you pass out and wake up over and over every 30 minutes and get no rest due to no true sleep cycle phasing. Opioids don't have that problem for me. Every one of my highs ends with a deep and genuine tiredness and I sleep like a baby. This does not apply to tramadol: that shit kept me awake bad. Everything else does not.

I wouldn't last with those. Too much mumbo jumbo. What I need to do is first catch up on sleep and get myself more busy. I went that way before and it almost made it worse for me I think. I want to get sober not join a cult.

That's exactly what happens to me. I hate that. It's like chinese water torture.

Right on. AA meetings only work for the type of people for whom organized religion works.

Oh I tried that too. The religion thing. Sort of went AA then Catholic. When I go into something I tend to go all in. But then as I said it just seamed to make it worse in the end even if I found some comfort there initially. As if having a drinking problem isn't bad enough without fucking yourself up with superstitious mumbo jumbo.

Its not a cult, but ok. Best of luck to you, user.