Introduce Yourself

Maybe you can also find a peer group of firemen with addiction problems as well as visiting here. I chose not to go that road because I had enough of the kitchen talk and like you said who wants to ask. Here you can still be somewhat anonymous… no worries of running onto someone in the grocery store anyway. But honestly this sight has offered great support and helpful solutions. I wish you well and I’m here a lot. Dont be a stranger.

Great advice thank you. Stay safe. I wont be a strange. Thanks again.

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Hi I’m Jess.
I’m 28.
I struggle with alcohol. Once I start I can’t stop.
I once quit for nearly a year. I don’t drink as often as I did before but when I do I really do. This is my first day trying to stop drinking this time around. I was at my Uncle’s funeral yesterday and I ended up having a massive falling out with one of my other Uncles. My partner also isn’t speaking to me because he was looking after my kid and I came back really late. He rarely drinks. He hates it when I drink because I’m not like myself. I need to be sober. I don’t want to keep falling out with people because I’ve been drinking.
Also my Dad’s an alcoholic and I don’t want to be like him. I’m trying really hard to change myself. I’m going back to therapy soon. I’m focusing on my family more and stopping drinking is the biggest thing I need to fix.
I think I drink because I have really bad anxiety. But it doesn’t make it any better because I’m twice as anxious the day after I drink.
So this is my first day. I’ve found an AA meeting I can go to on Monday. So let’s see how all this works :slight_smile:

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I dont know if people are still reading this thread but, why not.
I am Taylor. I AM and alcoholic. I have been hiding this for a few years and ignored everyone around me trying to tell me. I wanted nothing to do with being that and fought it. In the past year it has become a huge issue. If I’m happy, I drink. If I’m sad, I drink. If I’m stressed, I drink. Anything happens, I drink. Nothing happens, I drink.
I was spending money I did not have to drink. Lying to those I love to get money to drink. Or I’d tell them I forgot my card and get them to pay. The lies were so bad, i couldnt keep up.
I woke up May 22, 2019 and couldnt do it anymore. It has been a hell or a ride so far, but I am sober.
This is just the start of my story, but it’s what I got processed for now.

Keep going ya’ll!

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Glad to hear you decided to get sober. Most of us here have had the same problem with alcohol. I was was like you. Everything I did I need to be drinking or was drunk doing it. Here is to experiencing things sober. Welcome and keep up the good work.

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Thank you! One day at a time. :slight_smile:

I also feel a little apprehensive to give name and location. I am middle aged and have dealt with alcohol addiction off and on since my high school years. It got really bad about 20 years ago and I went to AA. It was that or my marriage. I have 3 kids(now adults), and I couldn’t risk losing my family. For 7 years I was sober and got heavily into fitness and a healthy lifestyle. My husband still drank, but he wasn’t the one with the problem. We were on a vacation and for some CRAZY reason I thought it would be ok to have a drink…REALLY? After that drink it slowly got really bad again. I ended up going to rehab. Rehab did not help much. I continued to drink and once again it has come down to the hurt and disappointment I have caused my family. Just want to be free of it. Seems like whether it is alcohol or some other drug, we all have similar stories. In advance thanks for the support and I am here to support you all as well. Each one of us deserves a sober life.

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Similar story here Taylor. Unfortunately mine has lasted on and off for over 25 years. Definitely time to start loving ourselves. Stay strong. Here’s to sobriety.

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Hello!
I have been reading tons of posts over the last couple of months and thought it was time to finally join in.
Quit after years of daily drinking on 10th March. Relapsed after 55 days because I thought I could moderate :rofl: Now on Day 22.
Just wanted to say hi and thank you for all the incredible support I have seen on this site. What an inspiring, amazing group you are :two_hearts:

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Hi everyone I’ve been on here for over a week now and didn’t really want to start my own thread to introduce myself and just found this one so here goes. My name’s Gareth I’m 38 from Manchester England I had a great childhood and fantastic parents I found pot when I was fourteen and liked it but more so being a bit of a shy person and a bit of an introvert I found I fitted in a bit more being a pothead. Things steadily progressed from there on to amphetamines (not meth,) speed then ecstacy and cocaine and benzos and then came crack and with it eventually heroin the two of which with benzos added in have pretty taken over the last thirteen years of my life. I’ve done things I have hated myself for most of which I have made amends for or at least have tried. I got clean five years ago by cold turkey which was absolute hell and I swore I wouldn’t get in a position where I would have to put myself through that again but my compulsion kicked in and I relapsed and then my obsession took over and I wasted nearly another four years of my life though I did get temporarily clean about six times in that period but I’d lost that zest for life every day is a new day and anything is possible feeling that I had the first time and I now have again having realised that I had been focusing on what I had lost (wrecked my teeth, sold my tools, probably too old to have children etc) whereas I’m now focusing on the future and the things that are possible and not focusing on things that are done and can’t be changed. Regarding alcohol I’ve always been able to take it or leave it but I understand that I can’t drink or take any chemicals again. I’m on day fifteen after a small relapse which followed two months of being clean and I feel amazing so that’s me.
On another note I’m very thankful for this app and have put so many things I have read that other members have written in to a plan for myself so I thank the creators and the members that help make it such a great place able to help heal so many people :+1:

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We do still read this, even though it took me four days to see it. Thanks for the introduction and a little background about your alcoholism. Read the posts frequently and post often. We’re all in this together. If we don’t watch out and help our own, who will?

Hello all,

It’s 2 am on the beginning of my Day 3.
My history: I’ve basically disrespected my body in lots of different ways to escape feelings. I started by cutting around 11 didn’t drop that habit fully until about 28. At 15, I found pot and instantly became a stoner for the next 5 years until alcohol became easier to get. I was a big party girl and would drink till black out 4-7 days a week. This became a problem for my husband around the 25 and I’ve been real slowly cutting down since I now usually only do this like one a month (the weekend after payday). I spent about 9 months when I was 29 playing around with coke and meth but quit that a son as I lost my job.
Last Bender was Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. It’s now Wednesday 2am and I’m still a little shaky. I am honestly a little shocked not myself or one of my two drinking buddies ended up in the hospital. I haven’t been able to sleep for more than about 20 minutes since 2am on Monday. I’ve been getting goosebumps like every 10-15 minutes. Considering the frequency of my drinking I wasnt anticipated such strong withdraw symptoms. I’m guessing that it’s mostly because the length of time I’ve been a binge drinker and how much I drank this weekend.

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Hi Rita. Thank you for sharing! And welcome to TS

Thanks, I got 7 days this morning!!

Hi I’m Vince,
I’m 29, from Montreal Canada. this is my first time doing the group chat thing… i have been using consuming and drinking sinse the age of 12 so it’s been the most relevant fact and constant in my life… it has always been my escape. when somthing came up i hit the bottle and then all hell broke loose. i went from job to job to dealing to support my habit to prison. i got out 3 years ago and swore i would never go back to that life. i was sober for a year befor going back to the bottle when life was to stressfull. the last 6 months are a total blur for me. i crashed 2 cars got a d.u.i. lost my job and just totaly lost my shit.
now i’ve been sober for 18days
And finaly figured it is time to get sober for real… not just for my sake but for my loved ones too.

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Welcome, Vince! There’s lots of good info and help here. Congratulations on your sober days your decision to stay that way☺️

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My name is Christine.
I’m 21 years old and I’m addicted to Heroin.
Growing up I moved around alot. And when I say alot I mean every single month. I’ve been around drugs, alcohol, partying, my whole life. My dad was a drug addict and alcoholic. (why we moved so much) my dad was on the run from the police and ministry and honestly he was running from himself too. he didn’t wanna go to jail, and he didn’t want my little brother and I to get taken away from him. I can’t even count the times we were woken in the middle of the night getting told to pack a bag and that we were moving. By my dad and sometimes it was my mom telling just my brother and I to pack a bag that we were gonna move and daddy was just gonna stay but that never usually seemed to happen. My dad was a very mean drunk. He would abuse my mom, and my brother and I. When I was 8 we went to a fair in Chilliwack, BC and we got separated from our mom and dad and a woman approached my brother and I and she took us to what I guess was a first aid portable or something and started asking us questions about us and our family. Offered us anything we wanted. (Mcdonalds, toys, stuff like that) and then asked us what our parents were like. If mommy or daddy drank or did drugs, if daddy every hit mommy or us and my little brother who was 6 at the time told the lady the truth so my brother and I got taken by the Ministry. we were lucky enough to get to live with out grandparents and got supervised visits with our parents seperately. that lasted a couple months then my dad and mom went to court to get us back and then they did and moved right away even though we weren’t supposed to. when 11 or 12 we moved to Ladysmith BC and I came home from school and my dad was gone. He had moved my mom decided enough was enough my brother and I were about to be teenagers and she wanted us to be able to make connections with other kids and do normal kid things. So my dad kept moving which destroyed me. It broke my heart so I stopped going to school started wearing make up and started hanging with the wrong kids. Started smoking meth, and then when I was 14 I moved into a shitty apartment with 4 people who were 19 in Nanaimo and started doing heroin then stopped doing heroin when I was 16 I moved back home to my mom’s for a short time, and my dad showed up and asked me if I wanted to come visit him which I was not down for but ended up going to his house in Sayward, BC after a couple days I started to warm up to my dad again and I was actually having fun. He taught me to drive standard, how to shoot a bow and arrow, we watched movies then he got to drunk and snapped on me threw the house phone at me hit me acouple times and held me down on the floor till I stopped crying then my mom came and got me the next day.a few years later I got a boyfriend. I was 18 he was 25, I started doing recreational party drugs (cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA, ect) we dated till I was 19 then I moved into a party house for a couple months, then I graduated highschool doing an adult dogwood program and my dad showed up to my graduation which kinda broke my heart again cause I was just kinda getting over it but I was very resentful and mean to him. It took acouple months of him trying to be in my life that I actually let him in again then I moved back in with my mom. my dad and I would talk on the phone all the time I was gonna go and visit him things were ok then I started always going to Duncan sleeping in my car cause I got this job as a personal care attendant to a quardraplegic and I was hanging out with this guy I was sort of seeing started doing meth again with him turned 20 and a month later got some weird calls from my grandma and ended up calling my mom and asking about them and she told me not to freak out but apparently my dad had hung himself I was in Walmart at the time and started freaking out called 911 and told them they had to send someone to my dad’s address asap that I thought he was gonna commit suicide. And I didn’t hear anything for a few hours so I started to drive from Duncan to Sayward. And I made it to Ladysmith and my mom caught up to me at the Shell gas station and told me that it had been confirmed my dad had hung himself. All I remember after that is falling to the ground crying my mom brother and I went up there the next day to pack up his house and I built a cross where he had done it. My mom moved to Nanaimo a month after that and I moved with her but I was still in Duncan all the time. And I had started seeing a new guy who was 45 ended up getting engaged to him lost my job at a care attendant was still doing meth, then some stuff went down that I wont write about on here. But stuff went down and my “fiance” went to jail. And lost his house and I started sleeping in my car again in Duncan cause I had made some friends down there I broke things off with the 45 year old start doing GHB and a couple months go by I my mom had kicked me out because I was doing drugs I meet this guy we start dating and we were both living on the streets and he did heroin surprisingly I didn’t start doing heroin till after he was put in jail for petty theft charges. But I was still doing G and meth ended up losing my license and car and I started shooting up and he got out after a month and he was saddened by it but couldng be a hypocrite so it’s been a year now and I just quit shooting up 2 weeks ago and ive been clean off heroin for a day I plan on going to a treatment center and I’m excited to start my new life on day at a time.

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Hi Christine, I have a son at 22 and my heart breaks that you have lived this life in your 21 years. No one should have to be tested and put through so much. I am proud of you that you have the wisdom to know this is not how life should be. Please God you are guided through this addiction, and the next 21yrs is filled with true love, joy and happiness. Hugs sent your way.

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Dear sweet Christine,
Thank you for sharing your story, it has brought me to tears, I am so very sorry this has been your life experience thus far. No one should have to go through such circumstances. I am happy you’re here, this community is wonderful and full of support. I praise your courage for sharing and look forward to hearing more from you on your journey to recovery. Have you thought about going to AA/NA? I think it would be a blessing on the path you’ve now choosen. Please know, you DO matter, and you ARE worthy! Of joy, love, sobriety and peace. Sober life = our best life :blush::pray:
Stick around, and read a lot. This forum is amazing x

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I feel the same. A year feels so impossible but it’s worth a try right? Stay strong

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