Well the Great news of the day here.....
I have a guy here who kills a 5th of vodka..(the cheap stuff)..
Every night...for a number of years now...

Today he came in n announce
That he has had no vodka..since last Friday..
3 days total..n he is going to make an effort..to get off the booze...

This is a huge step..
He still has 3 tall boy beers a day..
But now not the vodka..

Hey it is a step in the right direction... :0)

I hope it works for him,,, hate to be a wet blanket but the odds are against him. But ya never know…

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I hope it works for him,,, hate to be a wet blanket but the odds are against him. But ya never know…

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He has been a project fer about the last two years...

I'm rootin fer him...

But we'll see...

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Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Well the Great news of the day here.....
I have a guy here who kills a 5th of vodka..(the cheap stuff)..
Every night...for a number of years now...

Today he came in n announce
That he has had no vodka..since last Friday..
3 days total..n he is going to make an effort..to get off the booze...

This is a huge step..
He still has 3 tall boy beers a day..
But now not the vodka..

Hey it is a step in the right direction... :0)

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I've heard quitting that kind of habit, cold turkey can kill you.

My Dad sobered up when I was a little kid. Of course I grew up and moved away. I never knew if he slipped. It wouldn't matter. He's gone now. The last time I went home, obviously things change. The town got big. I didn't know hardly anyone. But virtually everyone knew my Dad. Many had stories of how they were sponsored in their sobriety, by my Dad. I asked him if he could attend a meeting every day of the week? He said he could, but only went to two or three. When I was a kid, there was one a week. But you could attend two if you went to a nearby town. Dad wouldn't say how many meetings he helped to start.

I quit cold turkey in 1997 and I've never been nto an AA meeting.

I figured the only person that needed to quit drinking was me.

The only person that never again raises a drink to my mouth is me.My drinking or lack thereof has nothing to do with anyone else.I realized what needed to be done and did it.

Beer is just as dangerous as hard licquor.

Maybe not an alcoholic per se, but one of our neighbours had what I figure is a somewhat "odd" behaviour w.r.t. alcohol consumption.   Apparently he drank very  little, 'cept for an annual 4 or 5 day stretch [not necessarily the same specific time each year, though I think it was generally between harvest and Christmas].  His wife would take the bus and go visit relatives while he went on a bender.... at home, by himself. When it had run its course, she'd return and it was back to another year of being solid, predictable, down-to-earth, community-minded citizens.

Drinking can lead to death(s) while quitting drinking can lead to life(s).
Getting incredibly sick from it makes quitting a lot easier in my opinion.

It is also very comforting knowing that no matter why this cop is pulling me over it won't have anything to do with alcohol.

One early morning around 2010,coming back from an evening playing in Saddleback a cop pulled me over this side of Waldoboro and said he didn't like my tires being a touch over the line on the ditch side (no other cars on the road at 2:30 am).When I rolled down the window he asked "When was your last drink?"

I said "7,17,97" whereupon he looked at his watch and then looked up and said,"That's a date,isn't it."
I said,"Yep" and he said "Never mind."

I don't disagree with ^^ Steve, but it did remind me of reading/hearing about Auto-brewery Syndrome:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-brewery_syndrome

As a kid growing up it was in just about every family I knew. Thankfully my own home was 95% liquor free. The Canadian radio and TV stations were not allowed to advertise hard liquor. That didn't seem to stop many people. The postwar era had a lot of people with 'war nerves'. There wasn't really a scientific recognition of post traumatic stress. In every business I worked in liquor had a major presence. It wasn't until the 1970's when companies had zero tolerance policies along with employee support programs. At that time the drug era was just getting underway. Today we fight homeless issues. A great many of those people are homeless because they can't find landlords who want intoxicated residents.

Not to cast aspersions on the work being done regarding homelessness [and it's underlying causes], but I dunno about "we fight*" ... I suspect it's more a case of, "When all is said and done, more will be said than done."

* especially if governments are part of "we."

Edit: ^^ just my observation...not saying I have solutions.

We on the St. George peninsula had to travel 15 miles to Rockland to buy anything alcohol before 1968.
None for sale anywhere on Sunday.

Regarding homelessness some solutions might be:
Housing in the forms of mobile home parks,dormitory style complexes and villages available for community services performed.

Most homelessness is likely the result of addictions, so offering cheap housing is a nice idea but those places would be trashed in no time. Treating the addictions is paramount in importance, however, leading a horse to water …. etc

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Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

quote:

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I was a pissy-eyed drunk for 20+ years, and hooked on painkillers and sedatives. My wife was also a pill junkie,, somehow i got enough willingness to get help, she didn’t. 12 years after we divorced she passed away, after some weak attempts at getting straight. Our kids, for some cosmic blessing, are doing great. Every time i got asked by HS at the border about a criminal past when driving semi i had to tell them 3 impaired driving charges, a firearms charge, and a drunk & disorderly charge. Talk about continually eating humble pie , but i was still glad to be able to drive truck with a clear head & conscience.
To anyone struggling with addiction issues, go get help… theres a chair waiting for you!

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Ever so glad you beat it too...

None better to watch how to play tunes than Chucks videos... ! :0)

 

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Thank you, Al 

I drank to excess pretty regularly in the Navy, 1970 to 1974. I smoked cigarette too. I just never could get into pot. I tried, but it wasn't my thing. I went to college on the GI bill and drank on the weekends. I quit smoking in college. I think I took up jogging and rec basketball or something at some point. Then I got into a career that required random and periodic drug testing, so I cut back on the drinking quite a bit.

When I retired I picked it up a little, I was never a heavy drinker, just a steady drinker. By then, I was hanging around and playing music with several people who I'm pretty sure were on the wagon, so to speak. A few of us non wagoneers would often go out for a beer after a jam or a gig, but recently one of our group of merry drinkers was told that his new medications were not compatible with alcohol consumption, so it seems I'm probably going to curtail most of our social drinking in support.

So I've cut back so much that I could almost be cassfied as a non drinker. Probably a good thing at this point anyway. Through it all, I've never felt that I just had to have another drink. Even at its height in the Navy, it was because there was nothing else to do. It has always been a social thing for me. 

Saying don't try a possible solution based on "It probably won't work" isn't giving it much of a chance.
Some people just need a hand up to get away from bad stuff.
Those seeing someone else's success might be encouraged to try that for themselves.

Some just need other choices.

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Originally posted by slammer

Love my Kessler whiskey and a brew or two. Used to be a huge beer drinker when I was young and was sick a lot. Found out I was allergic to hops. My doctor told me to switch to hard liquor instead. (Seriously)
So I drank whiskey and coke for most of my life. I’ve partied it up more than the average Joe and not proud of it, but never went over the edge where it became a problem.
A few years before I retired, I realized I was close to the edge, and blame it on stress, my father being ill and dying, worried about retirement and a bunch of other stuff. I saw a pattern and it was getting out of hand , where one was too many and a hundred wasn’t enough. Luckily I was able to pull in the reigns and I gave up whiskey for two years. Had one beer a day with my dinner, which I still do. Now the whiskey is for special occasions like deer camp and beer camp. I don’t have that NEED anymore and that’s a good feeling.
I can certainly see how falling off the edge can happen to folks and not an easy climb back up. There’s a big difference between LIKING to have a drink or two and HAVING to have a drink or two. I think at t first it’s a mental thing that eventually becomes a physical thing.
Slammer!!!

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Funny Dale, but I am allergic to beer to, guessing it is the hops.  Alwaysd, after a couple fo Coors Lights my chest used to start to feeltight, pretty uncomfortable.  Then one day after a round of golf drinking a Heiniken and eating a sandwich, I was having a hard time swallowing.  The cure was easy .....quit drinking beer.  Both white and red wine give me an instarnt nose clog and headache, particularly red.  Same with colored whiskey, so my occasional drink is Vodka.

I never could drink vodka...
1 or 2 sips..n I could not get any sensible words outa me mouth...
But me head was still clear...
Gofigger... :0/

Re. leading a horse to water .....

I assume y'all have heard tales of horses finding their way home through storms when given free rein, and at other times maybe it's just that the driver is in no condition to drive. 

This isn't my idea, but ...... maybe, in regards to combatting addictions,  letting the "horses" show the way [or ways, in that one size doesn't fit all] to the extent possible, could be worthwhile??

Addictions can only be cured by the addict.
The addicted ones must come to a realization that they control their own destiny.
The choices made today dictate tomorrow's outcomes.

I had my choices explained to me by my doctor that diagnosed my porphyria.
He said I had serious liver problems ahead of me if I didn't stop drinking immediately.
So that's what I did.
I remember saying to myself back then,"Drinking is killing you and quitting doesn't hurt a bit."

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Originally posted by Owen

Re. leading a horse to water .....

I assume y'all have heard tales of horses finding their way home through storms when given free rein, and at other times maybe it's just that the driver is in no condition to drive. 

This isn't my idea, but ...... maybe, in regards to combatting addictions,  letting the "horses" show the way [or ways, in that one size doesn't fit all] to the extent possible, could be worthwhile??

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Now, 'splain yerself, pilgrim.  Who are doze horses yer referrin' to? 

A know that an addict alone can make the big decision to quit,,,, then it’s up to him/her if they want to get help with it or go it alone.

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Originally posted by chuckv97

Now, 'splain yerself, pilgrim.  Who are doze horses yer referrin' to? 

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The ones that found their way through storms are part of prairie lore.

The team that got their temporarily incapacitated driver home [after a winter afternoon/evening at the bar of the Empress Hotel in Togo*, SK] belonged to a friend/neighbour of my parents ... RIP G.M.

The ones that might be able to provide some direction in addiction treatment are the ones that you mentioned that could be, "led to water...  ."

* birthplace of Ted Hampson, btw. 

Owen Yes, that’s how AA works,, peer groups that are comprised of many who were led to water and drank…. no pun intended.

I'm thinking Ted H. hoisted a few at this honourable establishment