Congratz. What kind of techniques helped you quit?
Thanks man—I appreciate it.
- I was lucky to walk in one night when they were having a men’s meeting. I STRONGLY recommend if you go to go to one of these. There are chads in the world who will veer off into monologues about sex having, or randos getting off on self pity, but a good mod should cut them off or kick them out. I am one such mod and I do so with pleasure. The focus should be alcoholism and how to recover from it, explained by people who did it.
- Dudes walked up to me, shared their phone numbers with me and I did likewise. That they take such initiative was big; I don’t walk up to people and talk to them. Since then they have become more than acquaintances and dare I say friends. Every now and then we drop a text or call to another, randomly. There’s a little bit of the accountability element. And, less lonely.
- I grew up religious, and still am. In other words I believed in God while drinking uncontrollably. My greatest mentors in the program have been atheists. For them the higher power that helped them was the group. I got open minded and so did they.
- lots of dumb little slogans people make fun of in there actually helped me … like HALT — before I pick up, think, am I Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired? Can I just solve one of those directly instead? I don’t know why dumb stuff like that helped me while sitting in the parking lot of a liquor store.
- taking it easy … some days in sobriety, well, I’ve put pants on … but stayed sober … in an earlier go when I started freaking out about getting my life together I went back to drinking after a few months in.
Some half-willingness, & open-mindedness in pretty small quantities got me in the door and I got kinda carried forward by the program itself.
