Not going to lie, going cold turkey would be really hard. Especially when so many of my family and friends drink. Most of them though can handle drinking, which actually makes it harder. No need for vigilance from anyone else. It's also tough to talk about it with that crowd. They can't relate.TabascoElvis wrote:when you drink or use can you control how much you drink or use EVERY time? And if presented with some reasonable cause to stop completely; legal issues, marital issues, job issues, health issues, could you never do it again?
But for me its not so much "can I control how much I drink after I've started every time?" When I drink too much it is more of a conscious decision ahead of time. If that makes sense. I rarely ever go into a night of drinking not knowing how many I might have ahead of time. If I decide ahead of time I'm going to have a lot, then yeah, its tough to stop after only 2. But most times I decide I'm only going to have 2 or 3, and I stick to that. Actually, most of the time I decide I'm going to have zero, and I do. I always give up alcohol for Lent and don't have a drop that whole time. My biggest problems are:
1) I struggle when I'm happy and things are going well. I feel like I can let my guard down and slack off I guess. I do not get the whole "drown your sorrows" thing. I'm the opposite of that. I have zero desire to drink when I'm sad. Instead, I exercise more and eat less when depressed.
2) The other one that was disturbing was one time I drank during an extremely stressful time at work. I think I wanted myself extracted from the situation. I felt trapped in a situation where none of the outcomes would be good. So, hungover, I called in sick. That's the only time I've ever done that.