With all respect, Charlie, what we have got is a progressive, ultimately fatal disease. Successful recovery from it is probably less likely than succumbing to it. Certainly, recovery powered by the self alone has almost never worked. It sure didn’t for me.
After half a lifetime of drinking, I put all I had into getting and staying sober. The first thing I recognized is that I would not be able to get and stay sober on my own. At first, the most help I would accept was a prescription for Antabuse. Then I returned to AA (not pushing AA here, this is just my story), to individual counseling, and then to an intensive outpatient program. I also had enforced sobriety, so that every day I had the very clear and immediately enforced choice to drink or go sit in jail until my trial some 5 months out. If I were going to not drink, I would need help.
We all need help in varying amounts and differently at different times. The attitude of “I;ve got this” damn near killed me, and I want you to avoid that same false sense of immunity. In fact, for me, the feeling of “I got this” was always accompanied by a flutter of panic - I felt like a young kid whistling in the dark as he walks past a graveyard - trying to keep his fears at bay.
It’s excellent that you have made it through this far, and that goes for @Stupidrummer as well. There are excellent newcomer threads available, here are a couple I recommend frequently:
Resources for our recovery and 2 years sober and what helped me to get there:.
If I seem like a curmudgeon raining on your parade, that’s poor communication on my part. But I do want to disabuse you of the notion that you got this. You don’t, I don’t, none of us do. That’s why we’re here.
