The 'phenomenon of craving' - Has anybody gotten past it?

Has anybody personally solved the 'phenomenon of craving' problem and moderated their drinking? Or do you know somebody who you've observed do so successfully?

I don't mean drinking successfully a few times in a row, but rather having gone from drinking alcoholically and be driven by the 'phenomenon of craving' to being able to 'take it or leave it' and not drink every single day and not binging when you do drink.

I understand that AA and other outlets preach total abstinence and that an alcoholic can never drink safely again, but let's be open minded. If you have decided for yourself that you can never drink safely again, so be it. Do what works for you. But for the sake of this thread, let's be open minded.

-Brian

Unfortunately, I haven't. But If you plan on introducing small portions of alcohol back into your life, try buying just ONE bottle of beer at a time. I also don't recommend ever drinking alone, but make sure whoever you're drinking with understands and respects your situation.

The longer I stay sober, the less cravings I get for it. If I started drinking in small amounts again, I would probably get cravings to binge like I used to so I know better than to have "just one drink" because I know it wouldn't end that way. Even when I do get a mental urge to buy alcohol I just distract myself so I won't think about it, it's a very slippery slope to reintroduce drinking into your life.

this worries me personaly as i my self spent 8 years in recovery. i drank to feel beter not because of a craving. i felt alot of emotional pain and i wanted to drink to get rid of the pain. in recovery i was taught that it was a craving. ive since left and im totaly fine. i drink now and again, im happy with the one drink. some times ill have two or three or maybe a whole bottle. i probable drink on average ones a week or even less. i dont need to escape from my reality anymore and i dont have a craving. bill willson and whats his face made that up i recon. i cant be the only recovering alchie to have got it sorted but i cant seem to find any. A.A seems to be top up the top when it comes to recovery methods.

positiveaffirmation wrote:this worries me personaly as i my self spent 8 years in recovery. i drank to feel beter not because of a craving. i felt alot of emotional pain and i wanted to drink to get rid of the pain. in recovery i was taught that it was a craving. ive since left and im totaly fine. i drink now and again, im happy with the one drink. some times ill have two or three or maybe a whole bottle. i probable drink on average ones a week or even less. i dont need to escape from my reality anymore and i dont have a craving. bill willson and whats his face made that up i recon. i cant be the only recovering alchie to have got it sorted but i cant seem to find any. A.A seems to be top up the top when it comes to recovery methods.

Thanks for the reply. I understand and relate with what you've said here. But when you said "maybe a whole bottle", I hope you meant wine, because a whole bottle of liquor (whiskey, brandy, vodka, etc.) is not within reasonable limits ever!

It seems that you have decided to have alcohol in your life and i truly respect your decision.If you have your emotional problems under control and dont feel the need to dull the feelings that these problems gave you by using alcohol abusively ,i would question myself as to why i want to drink again.Is it for social reasons?,is it so that i can fit in?,is it because it relaxes me?is it because it helps me sleep?Is it because i feel that im denying myself pleasure ?Would i drink alcohol if it had no effect ?

mick112 wrote:It seems that you have decided to have alcohol in your life and i truly respect your decision.If you have your emotional problems under control and dont feel the need to dull the feelings that these problems gave you by using alcohol abusively ,i would question myself as to why i want to drink again.Is it for social reasons?,is it so that i can fit in?,is it because it relaxes me?is it because it helps me sleep?Is it because i feel that im denying myself pleasure ?Would i drink alcohol if it had no effect ?

I'm not sure who you were addressing, but there are definitely reasons people drink besides trying to self medicate. Trying to self medicate with alcohol is actually the wrong way to drink. Some people actually like alcoholic beverages and it certainly loosens people up a bit and aids in relaxation. Sitting around and having a few beers while listening to music, having dinner, or socializing can be a pleasurable experience.

Brian, for me, the cravings didnt subside as long as I continued to drink. Even if I tried to limit my intake, eventually, I would ratchet up the qty and end up in a binge. Went round this cycle a few times. Finally had some ultimatums put in front of me and decided I would try the "one is too many" approach and take every day at a time. Now the cravings are seldom.

Workaholic101 wrote:Brian, for me, the cravings didnt subside as long as I continued to drink. Even if I tried to limit my intake, eventually, I would ratchet up the qty and end up in a binge. Went round this cycle a few times. Finally had some ultimatums put in front of me and decided I would try the "one is too many" approach and take every day at a time. Now the cravings are seldom.

Thanks for the input. I definitely understand what you're saying and where you're coming from. I also went through a cycle like you describe over and over again, which I assume was quite similar to yours - basically drinking 2 or 3 times successfully and thinking I had it down, only to have it come back and get me. If you had any more success than that in your cycles, I'd like to know. If the "one i too many" approach is what works for you, I'm glad you finally came to that solution.

Despite my history as a seeming full-fledged alcoholic getting the phenomenon of craving/uncontrollable compulsion to continue drinking most of the time when I drank (or at least what seemed to be that), it now doesn't happen. Well, it did happen twice in the past year - once after drinking a lot of beer really fast, and once sober running from a bad emotion (upset) and wanting to escape. Both of those drunken episodes were rather mild compared to my past, but much more severe and out-of-control than I ever care to have. But those couple of times were 2 of MANY drinking episodes of an average of 2-3 drinks over the past year, or really over a year. One thing I have found out for sure is that I can't drink anxiety away. If I'm not comfortable somewhere sober and drink - that's risky because anxiety seems to drive a compulsion to drink too fast and can lead to going out of control. So it's a must that I be comfortable sober wherever I am if I am to drink at all. It's very strange having so much success after 4 years of not being able to drink more than a couple times in a row without having a severe binge that sometimes lasted multiple days and involved waking up in the hospital, drunk tank, etc., and especially since AA which I had gone to for 2+ years says the phenomenon of craving never goes away and that the drinking only gets progressively worse.

I would like to clarify that what I mean by "phenomenon of craving" is specifically the craving that one gets once they've begun drinking, not any urges or craving to take the first drink.

Workaholic101 wrote:Brian, for me, the cravings didnt subside as long as I continued to drink. Even if I tried to limit my intake, eventually, I would ratchet up the qty and end up in a binge. Went round this cycle a few times. Finally had some ultimatums put in front of me and decided I would try the "one is too many" approach and take every day at a time. Now the cravings are seldom.

I would really like to hear more detail about the cycle you experienced. While it sounds like you weren't ultimately successful, I'm curious about just how much "success", in your cycles each time before you would end up in binges.

....One thing I have found out for sure is that I can't drink anxiety away. If I'm not comfortable somewhere sober and drink - that's risky because anxiety seems to drive a compulsion to drink too fast and can lead to going out of control. So it's a must that I be comfortable sober wherever I am if I am to drink at all....

I'd like to expand a bit on this excerpt from my last post here....

I find it interesting that when observing my experience one thing I've been able to clearly identify as a driver of the phenomenon of craving is anxiety. I'm not saying it's the only driver because I don't know. I also don't know if it is just thought processes related to anxiety that create and drive, or if there's an actual physical aspect. I do know that anxiety can be seen in brain scans and that there's an array of body and brain chemistry involved. I'm no expert, but I do wonder if the sort of chemistry associated with anxiety could somehow physically induce the phenomenon of craving. Of course, I suspect it's always required that a person have a strongly held conviction that alcohol is an option to "run to" in order for this all to play out. You might call it the "flight" in the fight or flight response. I think that deeply-held conviction is a deeply and intricately-manifested psychological phenomenon that people unwittingly train and instill within themselves. This is something I think can be reversed just the same way it was acquired.