I Quit Drinking Alcohol So Now What?

So I quit drinking alcohol so now what is the question I asked myself, and I am sure many people that have quit drinking have asked the same question to themselves.

Now what?  Well you are about to start and new and joyous life, BUT you have to stick to your guns and never let those alcohol demons back into your life.  This is where it gets hard for many alcoholics after they have stopped drinking alcohol.

They are bored.  They don't know what to do with themselves because they were so used to having a drink in hand and being in bars and pubs drinking them up with their drinking buddies.  At least this was the life I had, and I am not speaking for anyone else, but I am sure those that have this addiction to alcohol understand exactly what I am talking about.

WHAT IS NEXT YOU MIGHT ASK?

• You quit drinking, and you are now sober, and the next step is to stay sober.
• You  can now enjoy your life sober and start spending quality time with your loved ones that maybe you never did when addicted to alcohol.
• You will be able to start saving money that you were spending on alcohol and not on your families.
• You can now see for your eyes how you are starting to change not only physically, but mentally.
• You can start living the life you so well deserve.
• You need to stay away from things, places and people that will tempt you to start drinking again.
• There will be so many things will be able to do now being sober, such as getting behind the wheel of you automobile without any worries of getting into an accident because of being drunk, being pulled over and getting that DUI. 
• YOU WILL BE FREE!

Granted, there will be days in the beginning, and even far into sobriety, but you can not give in no matter what it takes to say NO!

I have had many times in my recovery that I just wanted to throw in the towel and take a drink. Why?
The reason was maybe that day something went wrong in my life or something just didn't work out like I'd planed it to.  I stood my grounds to my demons and say NO I can not do this!

Back in October of 2009 I made a promise to myself that no matter what happens in my life, good or bad I will never pick up an alcoholic drink again, and I am a man of my word and would never break a promise especially to myself.  Sure it was hard to say NO I can't do this, but as the minutes passed by that urge and temptation to drink passed.  I knew if I gave it some time that feeling and urge to drink would go away, and it did.

You have to be a strong person and much stronger than your inner demons.  The demons are waiting for you and I to mess up and start drinking again.  This way if you and I do drink alcohol again our demons will have full control of our lives once more, but this time if we break and drink it will be harder to get rid of this demons that are out to kill us.
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So get sober, stay sober, and start to live the clean life like I have since 2009 and will continue for many years to come.

Breaking Free Of Your Alcohol Demons

If you are someone that has been addicted to alcohol for some time, wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to break free of your alcohol demons?

I know from my own experiences with drinking alcohol that it is not as easy as many think it is, meaning those that don't have an addiction to alcohol, or those that don't drink alcohol at all.

I have heard it all in my days of drinking.  Everyone thinks it is so easy to just stop drinking and forget about everything you have done in the past. Sure. it is easy for them to say that because they are not the ones that are suffering with this horrible addiction to alcohol.

They have no idea how these demons can run and ruin ones life.  Breaking free of your alcohol demons takes a lot from you, as it did for me four years ago this month.

You need to first want to have sobriety back into your life, and not be forced into getting sober or being threatened by others. You need to want it for yourself first!

You need to have a positive attitude, and continue to tell yourself that you can and will get and stay sober.  You have to have a strong desire and determination to change your life for the better.

You need to promise yourself that once you make this huge life change and quit drinking that you will never pick up an alcoholic drink for the rest of your life, and you MUST stick to that promise to yourself no matter what happens, good or bad in your future.

This addiction is not a game, nor is it something to mess around with, such as, stopping drinking, and then you think you are cured and take that one little drink of alcohol thinking that is all you will have. Well I am here to tell you, "It will not work!"  You are about to torture yourself, and your body by thinking, Oh I have been sober for X amount of time so I should be okay to have one or two drinks. It won't work, believe me I have been there.

Don't give in and let those alcohol demons back into your life again.  They are just waiting in your body for you to mess up, and have that one or two drinks, and if you do, they are back in and I mean in worse than when you stopped drinking the first time.  Stand strong to your demons and your past addiction to alcohol.

Never give in, and always love and believe in yourself!!

How To Help An Alcoholic Quit Drinking

HERE ARE THE TWO BEACH CHAIRS MY WIFE AND I SAT IN MANY TIMES LOOKING AT THE OCEAN AND THANKING GOD FOR MY SOBRIETY.

There are so many families that have one or even two people (husbands and wives) that are are addicted to alcohol.  In many cases that I know of, and one case was my past addiction to alcohol that my wife wanted to help me try and quit drinking alcohol, but anything she said, I just wouldn't listen because I thought she didn't know what she was talking about.  After all, in my mind, I had no problem whatsoever with my alcohol, and how much I drank of it. I guess I was living in denial for sure.

That being said, there are, I am sure, millions of families going through the same thing as I did.  The spouse wants in the worse way to know how to help an alcoholic quit drinking, but doesn't know the right way to go about it without getting into a huge argument with the alcoholic.

It is like walking on eggshells in a sense.  You want to help the alcoholic, but worry at the same time that you my light a fuse and make things worse than they really are.  Some spouses just say nothing and deal with the tortures the alcoholic puts them through, until one day, they just have had enough.

That is when things could get ugly in a sense, because they have been holding back saying to the alcoholic what they really think and feel.  They just want to help the alcoholic get sober again and remain sober, but in many cases lost for words.  And suddenly they start to spurt out everything they have been holding back for so long.

Sometimes arguments and fights may start because the alcoholic knows the truth deep down, but they still don't want to be helped.  They may say, (as I did) "I can stop drinking alcohol anytime I wish."  Well you know, as well as I know that is a false statement, at least for me it was.

Sometimes the alcoholic needs to be threatened, such as the spouse threatening to leave and not come back until things in the alcoholics life changes for the better.  Sometimes, as hard as it might be to do, you need to light a fire under the alcoholics butt and let them know you mean business in every word you speak.

Many times this will work and make the alcoholic think twice before drinking another alcoholic drink.  It worked for me that's for sure.  Those words, "I WILL LEAVE YOU IF YOU DON'T STOP DRINKING!"

Words such as those are not to hurt the alcoholic, they are to help them.  Those words of meaning business may save the marriage or relationship and will in turn save the alcoholics life. Tough love as they call it!

I guess the whole thing here is, if the alcoholic truly loves their spouse, parents or relationship enough, they will stop drinking alcohol and start their recovery process towards long term sobriety.  That is what will make the difference of continuing to drink or quitting drinking.  Love, and what is more important in their life.  Their spouses, families and friends or alcohol?  It is not a hard decision to make!

If you really want your spouse to get sober and stay sober try sitting down with him/her while they are sober, (with no alcohol in them) and try to explain in a calm way what they are doing to them self and how their drinking is effecting the family and friends they have.

The alcoholic has to know this unless they are totally blind to the whole situation.  I knew and agreed that every word spoken was correct, BUT when a alcoholic lives in denial it might be a bit hard to convince them to stop drinking.

The alcoholic has to be ready to change his/her life on their own and not be forced or threatened into sobriety, because if the alcoholic is not ready, no matter what you say will make a difference. I can relate, because I had those talks many times and might of stopped drinking for short time to let the fire burn out and then, bang, right back at my old habits.

In the case of my 2009 experience drinking my beer in the garage all alone, a voice came into my head and it was a voice that changed my life forever.  While the talks I had with my wife helped me understand what I was doing to the family and myself, the voice that came about me convinced me I had to get sober and to do it at that moment.

HERE IS THE ARTICLE I WROTE ON HUBPAGES
 A LIFE CHANGING WHISPER

I wish that every alcoholic could experience what I did. Many people will not believe me and what I have written in this article, but I know what I heard and that is all that matters.  I am a SOBER guy once again and will remain clean and sober for the rest of my life.  I never want to go through the hell of alcohol addiction ever again.   

Stand up to your addiction and save your own life.  Your life is worth a second chance, so give it to yourself.  You will never be sorry you made the decision to quit drinking alcohol!

Quit Drinking Alcohol And Start Living Life

Are you in control of your life or is your addiction to alcohol controlling life for you?  Quit drinking alcohol and start living life with doing what you want and doing it sober.

Don't let your demons control your life, because they will certainly do just that, and even more.  They will ruin everything you worked so hard to get in you life.  Alcohol can and will destroy you slow, but sure if you let your drinking get out of hand.  An addiction just doesn't pop up over night.  It takes time as you know.  There is no time frame that you will become addicted to alcohol, because these addictions sneak up on all of us slowly and before you know it, you are asking yourself, "what just happened to my life?" Your life will become out of control.  You will start to think unclear and make bad and hasty decisions.

Things start to happen such as missing work because of a bad night out drinking alcohol.  You begin to argue with your spouse or boy/girl friends.  You begin to get distant from you family and friends so that you can drink in peace with not being hassled by those that love and care for you.

Your addiction starts to take over your life and before you know it your addiction to alcohol is your first priority and everything else becomes secondary, including your own well being and your families and friends.  I can say this because this is what happened to me.  Don't let your addictions run your life, because an addiction will if you are not strong enough to say no more.

You may think it is impossible, but it is very possible to quit drinking alcohol if you have it in your mind and heart to change your life and live it clean and sober.  You need to admit that you have a huge drinking problem, and if you can get out of the denial you have been living in and face the facts you are an alcoholic and need and want help, sobriety will follow.

Granted, it will take much work and strong determination to get and stay sober, but what in life doesn't need hard work to make something good come out of it?

Having a positive attitude in life will indeed help you in quitting drinking.  Many people live their lives in a negative way and think they mean nothing in life, so they drink alcohol to ease the pain of feeling useless.  They are doing this to themselves.  Alcohol certainly helps get you into a negative mode and you then lose your self esteem and feel helpless to your addiction, but the thing is, you are not helpless or useless.  You are a human being and people do love and care about you.  The problem is you are beginning to be blinded by your addiction to alcohol and can't see past your addiction.  You might want to try sobriety out and see just how life can be lived without your addiction being with you.

You have to learn to love yourself and do good for yourself.  Respect yourself and believe in yourself.  There is a life after an addiction, believe it or not.  I thought there was no life at all without carrying my crutch everywhere I went and I am sure many alcoholics feel the same.

Drinking Alcohol In Moderation

For all those that are addicted to alcohol, is drinking alcohol in moderation the way to go?  Can drinking alcohol for the alcoholic be controlled or should they just not drink at all?

For myself, I was not the kind of person that could have two or three beers or mixed drinks and call it the night till the next time.  No, I had to drink until I got that buzz my body longed for.  As many people that are addicted to alcohol they can't drink in moderation because once they start there is no end in site until the booze is gone or they are plastered.

It takes great will and strength to know when you have had enough and to limit yourself before you even walk out the door to go to a party or meet some friends at the local bar.  You need to set your limit of how much alcohol you will consume that evening. 

If you set your alcohol intake to 3 or 4 drinks, than that is all you can have, but many of us have great intentions to stick to our 3 or 4 drinks, but once we start having a good time and realize that we have hit our limit for the night we tend to cheat and say, "I'll just have one or two more drinks.  Well, if that's the case then we can not drink in moderation because if we could we would of stopped at the limit we set before we went out for the evening.

I truly believe that people, including myself are just fooling ourselves saying we have set our limit, but if you are not going to stick by your word then there is no reason to even set a limit at all.  These are the people that just should stop drinking all together, in which I did.

I could never stay true to my daily consumption, so why even try.  I knew in the back of my mind it would never work.  It didn't work in the past and would never work now, so I simply surrendered and quit drinking all together in which I might add was the best thing I have ever done in my life.

It's pretty sad when one can not even trust their self.  This is when you must decide what is best for you and your health.  I wish, and I am sure many alcoholics wish they could drink in moderation, but unfortunately it isn't possible for all.  I love my drink just as much as the next person, but it tends to be hard to stop and know when enough is enough, so in that case I must not drink at all.  I recommend to those with the same problem to not torture yourself and destroy you life with the tease of alcohol.  If you can't drink on occasion or in moderation just quit as I did and believe me you can have more sober fun that being that alcoholic drunk that doesn't even remember the night before.

So, if you think and know for a fact that you can not drink alcohol in moderation then you should consider doing what I did and that is to surrender all together and start living a clean and sober life.  You will not regret living a life a life of sobriety.  You will begin to start feeling your old self again and much happier and healthier.

Always stay positive and continue to keep a positive attitude in everything you do in life and by doing so things will start to look up and you will overcome your addiction to alcohol.  Stay focused, determined and have the willingness to change your life, and by doing these things you will find your sobriety once again.

Is There A Secret To Long Term Sobriety

Many alcoholics that want to get sober ask the question, "is there a secret to long term sobriety?"  My answer to them from my own experience with drinking alcohol is if you want sobriety to be back into your life and have admitted you are an alcoholic and need help, then you have a great chance of long term sobriety because you are taking a huge step in the right direction.

So many people that quit drinking alcohol do well in the very beginning until something upsets them and they can't handle it and revert back to the bottle thinking drinking may fix what ever problem that has arises. They have done so well in the beginning, but not well enough to stay sober.

There will always be things in our lives that will upset us and things that you think will never be fixed or resolved,, but you can't let those things make you go back to drinking.  You need to stay strong and be firm to your promise to yourself to stay sober no matter what life throws at you.  You need to have a positive attitude and continue to tell yourself nothing in the world will ever make me go back to my old ways of being an alcoholic.

Drinking alcohol will never fix anything in life.  It will only make matters worse in the end.  I always thought by me drinking alcohol any problem I might of had I could figure it out because I always felt that I had great ideas while being drunk and all of those ideas made perfect sense, but that was the booze thinking for me and not my sober mind. 

Alcohol does exactly what it is supposed to do, and that is to mess you up and get you drunk.  It makes you think you are indestructible and most people think they think much clearer and make more sense to them self while being intoxicated.  I'll tell you what, I thought of all those those things while I was drinking and when the next day came and I sobered up, what I thought was a great idea turned out to be the worst idea when thinking about it sober.

So what is the secret of getting sober and staying sober?

Through my experience from drinking to getting and staying sober is all in your mind.  Your mind is a powerful tool and you can train it be be negative or you can train it to be nothing but positive and that's were positivity is needed to stay sober.

By thinking positive thoughts will help you to stay sober.  It helps by continuing to tell yourself that you can and will beat this addiction you have.  Positivity helps you think of all the wonderful things life has to offer being sober and up beat.  It helps you to be happy.

Can you imagine walking around thinking negative saying to yourself, "I will never be able to beat this alcohol addiction I have.  Thinking this way and being negative, you can rest assure that you will remain addicted to something that in the long run will kill you one way or another.

Find out the secret within yourself to help you with long term sobriety.  The secret lies within you and only you can find out what will help you remain clean and sober for the rest of your life.  Always stay and think positive.  I truly believe that by me staying positive and telling myself I will have long term sobriety no matter what it takes help me to achieve my sobriety.

Remember, one step at a time and one day at a time and before you know it, weeks, months and then years will have passed and you will look back being so proud that you have achieved long term sobriety and did it on your own.

Understanding What An Alcoholic Goes Through Each Day

Do you think being an alcoholic is fun?  None of us set out on a giving day and just decide to start destroying ourselves with alcohol.

Understanding what an alcoholic goes through each day is what I have to try and explain in my own words, and possibly speaking for all those that are addicted to alcohol as I was over two years ago.

Life isn't easy being an alcoholic.  You can ask anyone that has or had any kind of addiction, whether it be drugs or alcohol.  We fear not having alcohol in our system for any length of time.  We constantly worry what people think about our addiction to the alcohol.  We fear if we stop drinking, will something happen that will harm us such as the DTs, shakes, tremors and anything that would effect the body by the absence of alcohol, or should we continue on our path to self destruction to avoid any health problems as such.  But, we know deep down we are doing wrong and sooner or later our addiction will catch up with us and it won't be a pretty thing for sure.  We are planing our own death in a sense and really on our own terms.  We know we are killing our self slow but sure, BUT it still isn't enough to make us stop drinking alcohol.  Sad, but true.

We wait for the right moment until we can have that first of many drinks of the day.  The minute we awake from our restless nights sleep, if we sleep at all, and if we do sleep, I would call it passed out instead, when we can open that can of beer or take that cap off our bottle and start the process all over again.

Many of us are great in hiding our addiction, so we think.  We want in the worse way to live a normal life and not be drunk each and everyday, but the addiction and the demons inside us grabbed us for good.   We are trapped in our own bodies and don't know how to get out.  We suffer each day with our addiction and many times wonder where we will get the money to support our everyday addiction to alcohol.

When we go out on a drunken evening of fun and morning comes, we often wonder to our self if we said anything bad to anyone that would offend them or did we do anything that might of hurt someone the night before.  We wonder these things because of being so drunk and not caring what we said or did until we sober up the next morning and try in the worse way to remember the evening before, but many of us just can't remember anything.  So, we may ask some of the people we were with that evening and hope and pray they don't tell us anything bad that we may have done.  Some of us are even afraid to ask that question for fear inside our self that we may have said or did something that wasn't right, but really didn't want to know the true answer, so we ask nothing.  we figure if we did do or say anything someone would most likely say something to us right?

We wake up in the morning feeling like crap and swear we will never drink alcohol again, until a little bit later in the day when we get our senses together and start feeling somewhat back to normal, if that's what you call it.  We wonder to our self, "should I have a drink or not after the night I had?"  Of course, it doesn't take long for the alcoholic to make up his/her mind to drink or not.  We take that first drink of the day in hopes it will help straighten us up and it does somewhat and guess what, we are right back in the same boat we were in hours before and drinking the day and night away.  A constant cycle, day after day, week after week, month after month.

If you never had the experience of being addicted to alcohol, then you are one lucky person, and saying that, clean and sober people should not down those that have this addiction and in fact they should try to comfort them and help them realize that there is a better life out there being sober.

For anyone that hasn't experienced an addiction in their lives I would suggest watching the TV show on A&E called "Intervention" and you will see first hand what a person that has an addiction goes through each and everyday of their life and how the families suffer right along with the addicted person and how they, the families try there hardest to get their son, daughter, spouse, friend, etc. the help they need to get their lives back on track and surrender to their addiction.



I have heard so many people stating that, " this guy or gal is an alcoholic and is worth nothing in life."  They are a total mess and a menace to society. If you could only walk in an alcoholics shoes for one day you will then realize that being an alcoholic is a horrible thing and anyone that is one can tell you that their life is for crap.  They don't know how to get out of the addiction that has grown to love them.  Their demons are very well settled in their bodies and it will take a lot to get rid of them once and for all.

Clean and sober people have to understand what the alcoholic is going through in order to feel their pain.  As far as anyone that is addicted to alcohol, we the alcoholics certainly understand, and always remember your not alone.

If we all decide to quit drinking alcohol we will see that there is a real life out there to enjoy.  So, let all of us that have this horrible addiction start to prepare for a life of sobriety.  I did it, although it was tough, but not as bad as I thought it might be. I did it and so can you. 

Get focused, get determined and get positive for the new life that you are about to start.  Never let anyone or anything stand in your way of getting clean and sober.  Be stronger than your addiction and get sober once and for all.