Oh I know those “rules” too haha, I always failed all of them like a pro
3 Likes
Ya I know moderation. Moderation works great!! For the first hour or two!! Then I use to get home and start looking for the cocktail shaker and seeing what liquor I have and mixers I can use. And Voila! Another cocktail or six. And then I’d think I’ll start being moderate tomorrow. Moderation? What a brilliant idea for an alcoholic. NOT!!
3 Likes
I have tried many times. I have tried things like only drink on weekend nights. Only drink 3 nights a week. Never drink 2 nights in a row. Tried to limit the amount to one little bottle. Or to one normal bottle. Tried to write down and count how much I drank and limit it to the recommendations (LOL).
Nothing worked more than a few days.
I am now 99 days sober and I know without doubt that I have to stay away from alcohol for ever. For me one glas will always end with two bottles a night.
4 Likes
All my life I told myself I’ll just have one more.
2 Likes
I tried moderation every day. Never seemed to get the hang of it.
2 Likes
I tried moderation many times. I’ve known for years I had a serious problem with alcohol, trying moderation was less scary than pulling the trigger of abstinence. I don’t regret those painful years leading up to my honesty of what I am. It’s a journey.
6 Likes
What’s funny in hindsight is I’ve found abstinence unexpectedly easier than trying to moderate. I thought it sounded impossible.
Maybe because I’m an alcoholic. Maybe from working a program. Maybe because the line is so much clearer if the decision is to just not drink.
I dunno. Either way, moderation was always a nightmare getting worse. For sure it was hard at first, but sober the path stays clear.
7 Likes
Sorry if this bumps the post unnecessarily, but on the very first day of trying moderation I was doing lines twice as fat as I would usually do, “but it was ok because I was doing it in moderation” would chin myself if I ever find a time machine
4 Likes
Same. I would say “only one glass” of wine or bourbon…and I would proceed to fill the glass to the top.
4 Likes
Every-time and one day in epic fail…
1 Like
My moderation was basically the most I can physically tolerate without dying. Didn’t matter what I was doing.
6 Likes
If you don’t die, it wasn’t enough.
Goat on a Barstool circa 2015
6 Likes
I tried various kinds of control or moderation for probably 14 years. Each go around things only got slowly worse, accelerating rapidly toward the end.
Getting sober is tough. But I can say with confidence that being sober has been way the hell easier than trying to control something that I never, ever could.
But I had people who showed me how.
5 Likes
Everytime…
I think I started trying moderation the year I started drinking heavily. I never could successfully drink. It was always too much, or if it was “just right” it was because I was doing everything in my power to only drink a small amount. “Doing everything” consisted of me having a mental tug of war of “to drink or not to drink. And if I do drink, don’t drink too much. How much is too much? If I drink water in between drinks, can I drink more. Maybe I can drink more if I make sure to go to bed earlier” etc, which took up so much space in my mind and probably reflected in my mood as well… and usually didn’t work lol
I white knuckled things for a month in 2018, then was drinking heavily for a few more months before I hit rock bottom. That’s when I knew moderation or drinking ever again was just not possible for me.
4 Likes
It’s a good post to bring back to life.
1 Like
I’ve never really understood the idea of moderation. Prior to being involved in any type of recovery, I drank to excess every single time.
After some periods of sobriety, every time I relapsed it was with the intention of drinking as much as I could for as long as I could.
I was never remotely interested in 1 or 2 drinks. I never tried to convince myself that I was. If I wasn’t getting hammered, I didn’t see the point.
8 Likes
Good post Flo 
I think falling down trying to moderate has been part of my journey. Everytime I think about that first drink, I think about that last time I tried to moderate…a year before quitting for good! Yup. Took another year before I could handle even thinking about sobriety again.
1 Like
Some brutal honesty there. Actually sober me wanted desperately to moderate. But once one drink was inside of me, I was the same, only wanted to get hammered.
7 Likes
Yep, I fooled myself I could control it a few more times since I made this thread. 
1 Like