Alcohol - wine

OK before surgery I was a big beer drinker, but never considered myself an alcoholic. Now 10  months after surgery,  and almost at goal I have switched from beer, which I can not stand now to wine.  After 2 glasses I am wasted, sometimes I stop and sometimes I just keep going.  Then I usually eat, too much and too fast and throw up. Oh what fun! Point is. What tools did you use to just stop drinking all together?  Or to keep yourself at one glass and thats it. Or is that an impossible goal and I just need to have 0 drinks? I need insight to my new problem. Web sites? Adivce? Thanks Dana

I tried the following to control my drinking: only bought small amounts (ended up going back out to the store) hid my booze (ended up going back to the store) started drinking later in the day only drank on certain days only drank at restaraunts only drank at home told others not to "let" me drink that day mixed weaker drinks spaced them out with diet cokes between stopped drinking earlier at night only drank on weekends only drank beer All of these failed dismally for me.  For me personally, I cannot control it.  If I have one drink, I want another.  As the inhibitions fall away, my self will also slips and two becomes three and three becomes four and I've shot the day away drunk again. I learned in a class that drinking above our tolerance for a long period of time can trigger something in a person to lead to alcoholism.  With my lowered tolerance, every time I drank it was beyond my tolerance.  It wasn't long before I was drinking every day - at first to cure yesterday's hangover, and then just because I couldn't stop.   After making my life totally unmanagable and nearly killing several people in a dui related accident, I realized I seriously did have a problem and needed to address it.  I joined AA.  I learned there that there are many people like me who cannot seem to stop once they begin.  If I don't begin - I'm cool.  I never got bad enough with the drinking that I had dt's or anything, but I had indeed developed an emotional need for alcohol.  AA taught me how to get by one day at a time without it and develop some other coping skills. Only you know if your drinking has become a problem.  My sponsor suggested the following to me.  "If you aren't sure there is a problem, just try some controlled drinking for two weeks.  Set a plan and a schedule and then report back whether or not you stick to it".  Um, I didn't/couldn't/wouldn't.  But that is ME.   Only you know yourself and what is or is not impossible.  It's really nobody's place to tell you that you can never drink at all, or only one glass etc.  I can however say that it's a dangerous game to try to "trick" yourself into having just one or two drinks.  In my experience, normal drinkers do not have to do this.   I don't really have any websites or good tips, but I certainly have been there and done that.  Kudos to you for your self-awareness and thoughtfulness. hugs, Michelle

Thanks Michelle for the kind and honest reply.  Just the insight I needed for today.  I am just going to quit all together for now - one day at a time. And then MAYBE once I fully adjust to the new me, I will try moderation, but for now I think its best to have none.  Lets see if I can stick to that 'plan'.  HUM, that might clue me in to if and/or how big a problem I have - if any. Thanks again for your wonderful reply.  Just what I needed on a day where I am beating myself up for the night before! Dana

I stopped drinking before my surgery.  I go to Alcoholics Anonymous, because it deals with the threefold aspect of alcoholism, spiritual, physical and emotional.  It is a 12 Step program and the steps and the social support are what I need to stay stopped.  I have not had a drink of alcohol since 2001, and I pray, that with my active participation in the program, I will not have another. The neat thing about AA is that the only requirement for membership is a DESIRE to stop drinking.  You don't have to quit to join.  You just have to want to quit.   Good luck. Hugs, Trish