Welcome to Talking Sober. You’ll find lots of advice and experience from folks who are successfully sober. I’ve used medication (Antabuse), counseling, some required breath samples for enforced sobriety, and AA for long term recovery.
Sad to say, the best hangover cure is the ‘tincture of time’. Stay hydrated.
Blessings on your house 
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Hi, I am Emmalena, I am from Penrith,Sydney Australia. I have 3 children and I am at a war with the government to get my children back. I had been a stoner on and off for years. Now I don’t have my chn’. I am fighting a battle to get them back and as sober as a tack.
I am slowly learning how to use this site so forgive me if I post something somewhere, where it is not meant to go. God bless
Hi Emmalena, welcome to the group, good to have you here it’s a great place for support and advice, keep coming back 
I am getting on here when I can. The government have set the bar for me and all the hoops to jump through. Yeh I have set my own bar and it is much higer than theirs.
I am a good mum, and now that I (through urinalysis) have absoloutely no substance whatsoever in my system I am going to be impossible to stop.
I have to do 4 parenting courses, I have enrolled in 8. I have to get clinical assessments through the courts. I have already got two independent clinical asseasments. One with Drug and Alcohol and the other with D.V. and Mental Health.
I have passed these with flying colours.
Next I will seek to find a new house on the coast. I will make it a home.
I will get my children back and life will be better than before any of this started. It will be the best.
I am also furthering my education at University so I can earn more than I set out to prior to all of this.
My children deserve to be where they want to be, as they say every day. That is with mummy (me). They deserve the best, so thats what I will deliver to them.
Hello I’m Zack Ive been an alcoholic for about 8years. I hate it. I’ve lost so much time and don’t know where it’s gone to. Life is to short to waste it being in a Haze. I miss when I was strong and confident and organized. I always had goals and completed them. I miss feeling accomplished and good about myself. I guess I drank because I had a pretty fucked up childhood and was depressed and sad blah blah who hasnt. I have literally lost myself over time and I’m done being like this. So after many failed attempts this is gonna be the one for me. I will strive to love life and do the things that make me happy again. It sucks all the time I’ve lost and now I’m 8 years older I’ve wasted alot of time I can’t get back. Im not afraid to admit I’m gonna need some help along the way. I’m so unorganized now and have alot of catching up to do so hopefully I can find some help here getting back on my feet. I’ve been doing alot of reading on here and this app seems great. The support seems amazing. I’m going on day 1 sober it’s 3am and I have to get up for work in 2 hours. But I think it’s gonna be ok life is what you make it. So here’s to the future. I will be checking in to stay sober. I love this app already. Btw this is a big step for me I am a very bashful person and even though it’s online I feel like I’m in a room full of ppl and it frightens me but this is what I need. Thanks for taking the time to read all this 
Welp here I go
My name’s Lanhua, 13 years old and currently living in the Netherlands. I have trouble with gender and body image. My addiction is Self-harm in the form of cutting, biting and starving myself.
My home is basically very normal I’d say.
But at school people would call me weird, silent, they’d bully me for being half Chinese and the fact that I have a lot of knowledge.
Around my lasts years of elementary school I was 9-10 and then i started feeling more down and strange.
In middle school, shit started going wrong.
In my first year I started feeling more strange. Middle school is much different from elementary.
I started having derealization attacks. I made one friend. Around halfway the year i started self harm. Turned out that friend also selfharmed. We tried to recover together.
I was clean till August last year second year was About to start. In may-july my friend did a suicide attempt. That made my derealization worse.
Recently I’ve been diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder and ADD. This made a lot of things clear for me and others. I’m currently 1,5 days clean of selfharm.
So Yeh that’s me
What is your plan to stay sober? Are you seeing a counselor? Are your parents involved?
My plan is to basically keep myself busy since I mostly self harm when bored or apathic. My parents know about it but aren’t active in keeping me sober. I’m currently in therapy
Newish - been a long time! Just wrapped day 1. Long week ahead as I’ve been sick with a flu, so that certainly doesn’t help the profuse sweating!
Nothing really happened since the last time - just the same old wine although I have cut back since the holidays, which basically means Im a weekend binger instead of daily drinker. I am an older parent of young kids and want to be better for them aka totally clean, healthy, and present, esp since our community is very vibrant with a lot of social events and a drinking culture (usually family friendly things like the recent super bowl gathering, or so & so’s birthday at the cul de sac, etc). I need to be strong when all the activities are serving wine and alcohol so that my kids learn early that alcohol is not necessary or desired to have fun. I might be the only non-drinker in our network/neighborhood, and my husband is their leader. Haha.
I just finished ‘Alcohol Explained’ and feel really confident that I can do this. I can’t explain it, but feel different this time. I want to start recording my journey (for myself somewhere) so I don’t forget how hard it is to start over! Cheers to more water and tea in the future!
Sam
Hi everyone, my names Steve. I’m 30 years old and I’m a binge drinker.
I downloaded his app and decided to post on here for the first time because I’ve realised I need to stop drinking completely. I’m from northern England where drinking is a big part of a lot of people’s culture - something that I grew up around.
Drink has always been associated with having fun for me…I’m not somebody that needs to drink every day, or even every week, but doing something on a weekend usually involves going for a few drinks…the problem is that too many times I’ve had that one drink too many and then I’ve gotten blackout drunk. I started drinking at around 13 years old, and once I hit 18 I started really binging to the point where I’d blackout.
I’m married with a five month old daughter. They’re my world, but over the last five years my wife has had to forgive me numerous times for coming home in a ridiculous state, arguing, ruining special occasions, embarrassing her in front of friends etc.
I need to change because of them. I’ve discussed this before with my wife, the last time I blacked out in fact, and said I’d limit my drinks to three only then stop from then on. How ridiculous- id just just down about five or six pints and say I’d had three. Whilst my wife went to visit friends two days ago, I took the opportunity to lie about staying home, went out on a binge and rang her at 3am. I was only supposed to see an old friend for a couple of drinks.
I binge and then feel ashamed the next day. I’ve lost phones, money, clothing, got into fights, driven home drunk and flirted with other women whilst binging. There’s countless times I can’t remember the night, just like two nights ago.
I know I want to change. We met our friends today and went for drinks, I had an alcohol free drink whilst they drank. I always feel I can be successful in the short term but then tell myself I have a handle on it…lo and behold I then end up binging without thinking about it and have to beg for forgiveness again.
My wife can’t keep forgiving me. I reckon I’ve probably got one more chance to keep our family unit together, and that’s by ditching drink altogether.
I just need the help and support - quitting drinking is something that gets mocked a lot when you say no to people buying you one. I just hope this forum helps me in my journey.
Steve
Hi Steve, how have things been the last 7 days?
New member here! I have enjoyed the clean time counter since I started working a program of recovery two and a half years ago and recently discovered this forum feature. I am looking for other folks in longer-term recovery to help keep me motivated in self-care. I hope I have something to share that might help a newcomer as well.
As far as Intros- I have abused a variety of substances and engaged in many different unsustainable behaviors in the past. The hardest to quit and most damaging for me were alcohol/benzos, and sleeping pills. My bottom involved depression and hopelessness after multiple DUIs, jail time, and losing my job I am lucky to have family willing to provide some financial support, so I never lost health insurance or housing during the 18 months I was unemployable.
So far the work of Recovery for me has involved a month of rehab, 3 months of intensive outpatient group therapy, 9 months of weekly group therapy after-care, 700+ 12-step meetings, working with 3 different AA sponsors, going through the steps to the best of my honesty once a year, and lots of 12th step/ service work with other addicts. I also work closely with an individual therapist and meet with a psychiatrist for medication management of bipolar disorder.
Today, I have a good relationship with both my probation office and my case worker, I am financially self-supporting again, I have a healthy romantic relationship with another person in recovery from addiction, and I rarely have a craving for drugs or alcohol anymore. Life is still stressful, but I have a lot of fun and can spend more time alone in my head every year 
I’ll probably lurk for a while now to learn the social norms of this place better.
Cheers,
Owl
Hey Owl, thanks for your story! A testament to success!
Theres a wide variety of addictions on here. I thinknif anything, this forum will allow you to understand addiction better by seeing it from many different aspects.
I myself am a pornography addict. I’ve found that I relate to alcoholics very well, and I’ve never even had a sip of alcohol in my life.
I’m the real slim shady. I’m going to stand up.
Hi Ash thanks so much for sharing your story, mine is very similar. I don’t drink daily nor have the urge to but when I do drink it can turn into an out of control black out bender, then comes with it the embarrassment of the night before then dealing with the shocking hangover. I never know when ‘one of those nights’ will hit, so I’ve finally realised that I can’t drink and have a problem. I also have never been on a forum but the people on here are really thoughtful and full of helpful info. Wish you all the best.
Hi Steve, my name is Tegan. I want to thank you for your story it is almost identical to mine except I live in Australia (also a huge drinking culture) and I’m female so it’s me begging my husband for forgiveness after another embarrassing night on my part, I know your struggles all to well. I actually feel nervous and vulnerable posting on here it’s something I’m very new to and wouldn’t normally do but I have to do something to change this bad habit. From reading the posts people on here are extremely helpful and kind. Good luck.
Hello Everyone,
My name is Lydia and I’m now 22! I attended AA and used this forum frequently a couple of years ago and achieved 9 months of sobriety before I had the same mindset of ‘oh sick I can control this now!’ At the same time I lost my dad incredibly quickly to cancer and refused to see that one triggered the other.
To be honest I have no horror story and I’ve been very lucky. However for me it’s all linked in with my depression and anxiety. I’ve recently had a realisation that some things in my life needs to change, I’ve not been happy for years and I’m trying to think back to when I was last happy and content with myself and I realise it was when I sober, so for my own sanity I’m starting this journey again and tonight is day 1! I’m looking forward to re-joining this forum because it was a wonderful place for support and advise before!
Hey!
Things have been good, mainly because I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to go out and drink, kept myself busy in the gym and worked hard to distance myself from drinking!
Currently on holiday in Dubai, today is day 1 and I know tonight when we go out for a meal it will be tough…I just fancy a crisp beer in the sun with my meal. But obviously I’ll be going for the non alcohol option…10 days in, this is the hardest part though
Hi Tegan,
Thanks for the message. I find reading people’s stories on here helpful, but getting messages from people like yourself in similar situations - really peps me up to abstain.
How are you? How are you finding things?
Steve
Hi my name is Star. I have almost 2 weeks clean off meth. I was clean 11 years till i relapsed. So i relapsed 3 years ago. Now im trying again in a horrible druggy town. Please keep me in your thoughts.