Is moderate drinking possible again?

I’ve heard of this but my opinion is that one may as well go full tilt and just stop. All the hassle with remembering to take a tablet and pressure that creates to my mind can be put to just working on creating a new mindset.
But as I said, that’s just my opinion.
And we all do what we can.

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Excellent advice !:+1:

I understand what you say, but from my personal experience I’m on a small dose of antidepressants have been for a year. They are kept on the scales by where I do my food prep for work, for dinner for everything really.
Yet I still forget them. It’s been 4 days I think since I took my last one. I usually remember when I’m driving down the road on the way to work. Then forget when I get home.
And I agree with @Becsta.
To my mind one might as well retrain the brain once, instead of having bro do it with tablets and then again coming off the tablets.
But this is just my opinion.
We all do what we have to.

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Yeah tried them all. The alarm tends to go off when I’m not near the tablets :joy:
Then I forget when I am near them.
The only way I can think is to actually carry them in my pockets. And again I forget to pick them up.
I’m not trying to be silly hear, just I’m quite forgetful. I can think of something then by the time I get somewhere have totally forgot what it was.
I need to tie them around my neck.:joy:

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Hahaha Becs’ I’ll take that!
Yeah I know. I’m making excuses. I could do with loads stashed all over the place :joy::heart:

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If you aren’t sure in yourself and have to ask this question, from what i’ve learnt at least, the answer is generally no. I have been back and danced around this question plenty of times and I always ended up back where I started. That’s not to say that there isn’t a person on the face of the planet that could do it and succeed…but i think the odds are heavily stacked against you if you try, and if you fail? Well that’s a pretty risky gamble to take. As the saying goes with alcoholism - most addicts end up dead or in prison sooner or later.

Very interesting point!

I’m late to this thread but I thought I’d share my 2 cents. (Oh God….this post is 10 months old!! :joy:. Oh well, my response is still the same, but maybe it is now directed to someone else struggling. :heartpulse:)

When I have had “success” with moderation it was not really successful (and it NEVER lasted before full relapse). It is so much work. You are forever thinking about alcohol. How much have I had, how much should I have, how much am I missing out on, how much, how much, how much.

While complete abstinence was hard at first, overall it’s been a great relief. I hardly think of alcohol (of course I do still sometimes think about it). I’m at peace with it.

Moderation is just not worth it. Alcohol gives nothing, it only takes.

YOU CAN DO IT!!

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I’ve to wondered the same thing. I’m 11 months sober. So I just decide not to drink today. Yesterday I wanted a drink really bad. I lost my mom to covid six months ago. I was thinking about her
I just stayed busy. So just take it one day at a time

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Much been said here, but that is always been my hope too, moderation, drink runs deep in the fabric of all I’ve ever known, from the UK, my family all did, pubs… it is in me as much as anything is… I literally don’t know how to be in certain places and with certain people without a drink… literally. And am bored out of my mind in certain places if I don’t have one and just want to be elsewhere, or obviously have one… and the excitement when I do… it’s just the best feeling… at first… I guess, it’s a whole life shift… and that’s a big ask… but I guess that’s just it…

Alcoholism is a progressive illness, complete abstinence is cruicial for survival and to avoid anymore damage already done. And from my experience with “true” alcoholics there is no such thing as social drinking or just having a few drinks and being done. Its the complution to drink that makes us alcoholic.

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Right, :100:!

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Believe me, I tried it all, more than once, in my 40+ year drinking career…there is no magic recipe that makes us ‘successful’ drinkers. The party is over. It has been for a long long time, we are simply those annoying ones who won’t leave or passed out on the couch and maybe pissed it.

There is absolutely zero that will ever be new, exciting or fun regarding drinking. That ship sailed eons ago. We know exactly how it ends up.

The exciting part, the new part, the part we don’t know…that is a long sober life…what does that offer us? Idk about you, but I am loving finding out. Drinking holds zero surprises. Sobriety…it is all new and exciting. :heart:

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I actually did get down to “moderate” drug use. (Using only two or three times a year.)

Maybe it was better than heavy drug use…but it still was not good. I was still using drugs in the same way I used them before–just less often.

So it still impaired my life and relationships. It made emotional and physical intimacy impossible. It made me feel emotionally crippled.

Moderation was not enough.

I realized I had to stop completely.

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I can totally relate. I was much more a binge drinker than anything. And it was such a shit cycle. I would binge drink a few days in a row, be black out drunk by the 3rd night, then abstain for the next day or two, only to start it over again. Constantly hung over. That was my idea of Moderation. I never could do it, it was always on my mind, I was always thinking about when I was going to be drinking or how I would get my next drink while still drinking the one in front of me.

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Yeah, I did that with cocaine after a long time of heavy use…cut down to a few times a year, but those times were wretched. Ugh. So glad to have put that behind me.

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I love this sooo much. It’s the gift that keeps giving :heart:

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I wish I could wave the magic wand for you, I know this rewiring our brains is hard. I so admire you working to find what works for you.

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This was me 100%. Always always trying to figure out how to drink. It was so incredibly mentally exhausting and just fucking debilitating. Letting that all go is true freedom and liberation. Who knew? Certainly not me.

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I am all right for sure. I meant simply I appreciate following your journey and how hard you work at building the life you want.