Has anyone here successfully given up alcohol?

Well, I managed to quit drinking for three weeks, then when things were going very well, binged on it for three days and now feel like utter sh%%t.

By god, its so seductive, the warmth and tranquillity that flows over your body when you drink, but the the mental devastation it incurs if you abuse it is so abominable.

I'm back at the beginning again. I feel so weary.

Lanka wrote:Amusing, isn't it. I'm still trying to figure out how to read whatever she says; mostly because she seems to completely change her opiniom between every appointment..

Maybe she has mental problems of her own...

I relapsed for, luckily, a brief period this June. I'm back to being clean and sober though. Non-manic me doesn't actually enjoy the feeling as I discovered. I came back from the hospital and had two glasses of whisky and... I didn't even like the taste. The rest of the whisky went in the toilet. I really want to say I'm done with alcohol forever but that might change if I get the same sort of mania again.

For some of us, bipolar ups and downs and the (unknown?) addiction to alcohol (or anything else) is lethal

-- Sat Jul 05, 2014 11:39 pm --

For some of us, bipolar ups and downs and the (unknown?) addiction to alcohol (or anything else) is lethal

I barely drink any alcohol at all, only for occasions when i may go out. But marjuana.... oh i would rather live with that

I don't drink that much. Just maybe a glass of vodka or bourbon. and that is rare.

My only way to stay sober is to take antabus. Sometimes I am very motivated and can take it myself, other times I have to have someone else give it to me. Still I have occasional relapses. I am going to check into an antabus implant, which they rarely use anymore, but I am determined to get it. Would enjoy talking more on this subject because alcohol definitely makes my bipolar worse.

sheanette wrote:My only way to stay sober is to take antabus. Sometimes I am very motivated and can take it myself, other times I have to have someone else give it to me. Still I have occasional relapses. I am going to check into an antabus implant, which they rarely use anymore, but I am determined to get it. Would enjoy talking more on this subject because alcohol definitely makes my bipolar worse.

Hey,

I'm considering taking antabus. Do you get any side effects from it?

Its very sad but I just don't think I'll ever be able to drink again. I shall miss a glass of red wine with a steak terribly...

My drinking history began very young, and for a long time it was a weekend, social type thing. Or an unwinding from work method.
Then I took a job in retail, worked up to management and things became high stress. That's when I really started to put the beer away. First it was a six pack every morning after working my midnight shift. Then it was a couple beers before my shift as well. Then, my days off could be an entire case or even 30 pack. Then I lost/ quit that job after being sent home for reeking of alcohol.
I kept up at the case per day pace until a fateful morning when I lost my sister (a recovering alcoholic) to a drunk driver that hit her head on, on the highway in November of 2006.
Because of that I decided to stop. I went to a doctor who put me on a medicine called Campral. I have no idea if it actually worked or if I just powered through because I wanted to stop so badly.
My last drink was December 23, 2006. Unfortunately this same doctorhad me on a pretty large prescription of xanax,and a growing depression put me in the hospital in June of 2007 for a suicidal plan that I almost carried out.
I had one slip in 2011, wherein I put down approximately 3 fifths in 36 hours. That also put me in the mental health ward, and the attending psychiatrist deemed my binge to be a suicide attempt.
I have been drink free ever since. I guess my point is, treatment and recovery isn't a straight line for most people. The desire to quit is paramount, and stopping won't really happen without it. I call myself a recovered alcoholic, and I know that goes against a lot of the 12step dogma. But honestly, I haven't craved it at all. I laugh when I have these tiny moments in front of the beer coolers at so many locations. Tiny moments where that little voice says go ahead, one won't hurt. Maybe in those brief encounters I really am a RECOVERING alcoholic.

darkroses wrote:I'm curious: have many people with BP here managed to give up drinking? I'm on Prozac and have been drinking and blacking out regularly recently. I went through a very dark period about two years ago which led to me drinking every day, managed to give it up for a month last year, but have been drinking nearly daily for months now. I feel very sad - its so much wasted money and time, but its so hard to stop. I swore to myself this morning I'd stop, but am writing this while drinking a can of cider...

I'm not really looking for any answers here - I know the usual ways of quitting: AA, exercise, replacing the drinking with other activities etc... I'd just like to hear from a few people who managed to quit drinking and how they managed to do it. Or if anyone else is struggling with quitting, please post also.

I decided it was time to get my butt back in the gym and get in shape. Once I start exercising, my body automatically rejects alcohol and junk food.

Brutally honest.

lilodian4ever wrote:I decided it was time to get my butt back in the gym and get in shape. Once I start exercising, my body automatically rejects alcohol and junk food.

Brutally honest.

Brutal honesty is fine by me I've been reading a lot about neuroscience and it seems that, if one has mental health problems and exercises, one is better off doing skill-based sports - e.g. climbing, martial arts, dancing etc... as these are so taxing to the brain that the conscious bit has to "switch off" so to speak. This is apparently one of the reasons rock-climbing is so addictive - one goes into a state of attention / flow rather than consciousness.