Alcoholism Support Group

Ok, so this morning as I sit at my desk and try to work I find myself doing a Google search for online support groups. I then find myself here, and am really not sure what I'm doing. I suppose I'm at the point where it's time to face reality and admit I've got a problem.

My name is Michael. I live in Atlanta, have a good job, a fat furball of a cat named Winston, and I drink myself stupid 6 out of 7 nights a week.

Maybe this is the first step...

Thanks for listening.

Hi Mike,

well congratulations...you found the perfect place for good, safe and caring support. I'm sorry for what you are going through with the heavy drinking. Wanting to get sober is a big event. You are doing the right thing. You are here asking for help.

I got sober through rehab (31 day) and then attending AA groups 2-4 times per week. This is a disease of the brain. Generally, once you become addicted to alcohol it becomes an obsession/compulsion disorder of the brain...even when you don't want to drink, you do against your own will.

Feel free to tell your story....again it is safe here and we are real people with real problems.

hugz

Ange

Thank you for the hugz Ange. I honestly wasn't expecting a response so soon. It's comforting to know there are actually folks out there.

There's probably not too much to my story. Mom is an alcoholic and has been since I was little. Dad literally takes it sitting down. I swore up and down I wouldn't end up like her, yet here I sit, hung over for what is either the 6th or 7th day in a row, and pretty deep in debt because I steer my vehicle into the local pub rather than go home and pay bills. And every morning I wake up and say "I'm not going to do this today." Usually around noon I start thinking about having just that one beer. The guilt starts building and building, and I can't wait to get to the end of the day so I can have a drink. So that's it in a nutshell, I suppose. Don't know how specific I should get. Thanks again!

Wow, I'm Michael too, and my story's so similar. Amazxing. Not really, we're all more alike then we can imagine. Its life. It happens. It play out in seemingly different ways but we end up in the same place and time. Congrads on taking the first step, an amazing step. Realize then respond--most don't unfortuately. Sobriety is doable if we do it. I'm a 100 daze of living proof. There's a world of support out there as you reach with. Glad to have you with us.

You're welcome Michael. I know debt is a mounting thing for alot of people these days with the economy the way it is...

Let's talk about the good things though...

1. You have a job

2. You have options to get help

3. You are reaching out for help and support

4. You have your health?

Put your sobriety first and go to a support group today. People there will understand you and you will have the opportunity to be honest there. Instead of turning in the pub turn into the club of AA.

Thanks Michael,

100 days is absolutely incredible to me. I can't remember the last time I went more than 3 days without a drink of some type. Just incredible!

Absolutely. There are plenty of good things. Such as:

1) I do have a good job

2) I do have my health

3) I have also, despite my shortcomings, managed to find a wonderful girlfriend

4) Everyday I can take what money I would spend in beer and apply it to my credit card. Bet the balance would dwindle pretty quickly

Hi, Mike, welcome to the group. It's nice to meet you. You do have a lot of good things going on in your life and you can hold onto them. I would also suggest you get some face to face support such as AA. That is how I got sober, going to AA meetings. Those meetings saved my life. I know that the prospect of walking into a meeting can be scary at first but it is really worth it. Good luck on your sobriety and once again welcome to our group.

Welcome to the group Mike, good to hear your story. I relate to it quite a bit. I am 22 years old but have been sober for 3 and a half months, my drinking spiraled out of control at a young age when I still had (and still have) good things in my life. There's a myth that your not an alcoholic unless you lose your house, job, car, loved ones, etc, but some people don't seem to realize even those alcoholics who lose everything didn't start out like that, and certainly didn't plan to end up like that. There's also this myth that alcoholics live in parks and drink mentholated spirits, but that's just a certain type of alcoholic- one that has progressed to the later stages of alcoholism. I realized that type of life was very possible if I continued to drink, inevitable even.

I've seen, read and heard that alcoholism is a progressive disease, one which I decided to take control of before it took too many more years away from my life. It's hard, especially at my age when it feels like everyone just wants to party, even though I preferred drinking at home, alone. Sobriety is amazing though- a day at a time. I have a clear head and don't have to worry about what awful things I may have said or done the night before, I don't have to be in denial anymore and live in a fantasy world, entirely revolved around alcohol and thoughts about when and how to get my next drink. The alcohol may not have completely beaten me to the point where I lost everything, everyone and my health- but that's only because I realized it could and would do that if I didn't take this disease, and my sobriety, seriously. Now I try to live a day at a time, stay away from the first drink, I get to meetings, have a positive support system around me, and I remember that anything I put in front of my sobriety, I will lose.

Good luck to you, try going to an A.A meeting and reading some A.A stories.

If you keep on drinking you will lose all the positive things in your life, I have seen it happen so many times. Now is the time to stop while you still have positive things in your life that you want to save