If 2 drinks a day is moderate, can I just have 14 drinks on Saturday? Would that still be moderate? 
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Only if you have 14 more to cover the coming week
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I did, until I didn’t. The change happened without me even realizing it. I could moderate, but did drink to excess on occasion. Then I drank to excess more frequently, but could still moderate if I wanted. Then I could no longer moderate, but could quit for short periods, say a week or a month whenever I chose. Then it became a challenge to quit for even a day.
If drinking is getting in the way of life, you are a abusing alcohol. If life is getting in the way of your drinking, you are an alcoholic. Life was getting in the way, because everything had become something I had to get through, so I could drink.
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Drinking was my life. I’m not sure where that falls on the scale. But probably not good.
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I tried to moderate for a good year, and whilst I had success at first, probably the first 6 months, I wasn’t fooling anyone really… ended up right where I knew I would - (deep down, intuitively, I knew it was just a matter of time) black out drunk, miserable hangovers, sad, anxious, depressed, fearful. NOT worth it. So, screw moderation, i don’t want the trouble it brings.
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This made me laugh. love it 
it is a lifelong battle and it sux the big one! And people saying to me “you got this” makes me want to scream.
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I think the grass is greener because of photoshop…
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The only thing I got is a lifelong disease that will kill me if I give half a chance.
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I think it is possible to be a person who drinks excessively/parties too much/etc can make a decision to change their drinking and moderate. But for an alcoholic??? I just can’t comprehend it. We are alcoholics because we react to alcohol differently. We need it. We can’t stop. Can we really just change that? I suppose it’s possible for an alcoholic to have a few and stop but I’m pretty sure they’ll be obsessing about it the whole time, wishing they could have more.
But maybe that’s just my alcoholic brain thoughts. Because the truth is I just don’t understand normies. Can they really take it or leave it? It just doesn’t seem possible to me.
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Fools play the odds. The wise consider the stakes. Could I go pour myself a glass of wine, drink it, and stop at 1 right this minute? Most likely. And then I’d do it again sometime, and then again…each time increasing the odds that I will tilt into full blown relapse. I know I have another bender in me. I just don’t know if I have another quit in me.
With the stakes being my life and everything in it, I refuse to play those odds. I won’t drink because I don’t drink.
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I’m an alcoholic and I’m honest with myself about it, I’m also honest that I dont want to have A drink or 2 or even 3. Theres no point to it. If I’m going to jump off this wagon, I’m not going to lie to myself. I’m going to drink and drink a lot and that knowledge keeps me sober.
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I know, right?
If I’m going to blow up 5 months worth of sobriety just to go act out, I’m not going to moderate, I’m gonna go all out! Full steam ahead!
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This is the point isn’t it. The addict in us likes to make us think that we can moderate. Our ego agrees. Why should we not be able to just have a drink when we want? But therein lies our conundrum.
Normies don’t do this. Normies, to my mind just see alcohol as a thing they do on a Friday night in the pub with a couple of friends. A couple of drinks, a bit of a chat go home go to bed.
Alcoholics would be drinking double the amount, get blackout, loose money, dignity. Wake up feeling shit wanting more.
Everytime I go to the pub I get people who I haven’t told the truth to saying " wow, that’s great, I don’t think I could do that, I need this after a day like today!" Is this person an addict?
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Distractions are not a program of recovery.
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Agreed…but it can help you get the through those first few days. But I’m always amazed by the people who clean out their closets or kitchens and then scrub their houses etc. Me? I crawled into bed and stayed there until I felt less like crap. That’s how I distracted myself. LOL Sleeping and then hot baths. (I still take a lot of hot baths to get through a craving)
Still, distraction can not be maintained long term. You need to learn to face it head on. I think that’s what they mean by “you have to get to it to get through it”.
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Alcohol never did anything to me that I didn’t ask it to
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If you even have to conciously make an effort to moderate your drinking you probably shouldn’t be drinking. Just knock it on the head and save yourself the hard work
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lol. exactly
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I cannot love this statement enough.
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They are however one of the tools in my toolbox to deal with life on lifes terms- I call the toolbox my recovery program 
one of the easiest tools to use but also to me one of the least rewarding in terms of growth from use