BigBet
Been clean 48 days today, booze was/is my vice, everytime i drank it would be blackout. Meetings have been a huge help, i go everyday somewhere in Chicago. They really are everywhere depending on where you live, open discussion meetings are really cool, you don't need to say a word just listen and see where it takes you. Some meetings are better then others depending on what you are looking for, some energenic and funny, some slow and somber. Shop around meetings like you shop around lines you will find a good one. It's not at all like what i thought they would have been, I was thinking poor me shit, and everyone thinking they have black clouds over them, not the case at all. I have heard more stories and laughter in those meetings the last 48 days then i ever have heard in bar rooms. No GA yet, one miricle at a time. GL
Been clean 48 days today, booze was/is my vice, everytime i drank it would be blackout. Meetings have been a huge help, i go everyday somewhere in Chicago. They really are everywhere depending on where you live, open discussion meetings are really cool, you don't need to say a word just listen and see where it takes you. Some meetings are better then others depending on what you are looking for, some energenic and funny, some slow and somber. Shop around meetings like you shop around lines you will find a good one. It's not at all like what i thought they would have been, I was thinking poor me shit, and everyone thinking they have black clouds over them, not the case at all. I have heard more stories and laughter in those meetings the last 48 days then i ever have heard in bar rooms. No GA yet, one miricle at a time. GL
Whoson1st thats a cop out. I have read about your alcohol problem over the years. You don't want to quit, it is quite obvious, thats ok.
But to say it is age restricted is comical. Try a different meeting if one doesn't work. Age has nothing to do with it, but ignorance does
But to say it is age restricted is comical. Try a different meeting if one doesn't work. Age has nothing to do with it, but ignorance does
I am 31 and last week i learned from a kid that was 22. He was a mess, DT's, frantic, and rambling in circles. Looking at that kid taught me that if I choose to jump off this train that's what i will have to go through again. So don't say you can't learn from young people b/c you can't relate, you very well may learn from them.
i went once to a GA meeting... when i was like 24 or 25 and in grad school and in large credit card debt (about 40k) due to gambling...some of the people were really pathetic degenerates...one guy bet on sports..didn't matter what game....just wanted action on basically any and every game....i thought to myself..i'm not as bad as these guys....others were casino junkies...slot machine (some women) and some black jack players.....I never went back...started to do well w/ sports betting and have had 8 straight winning years since...though i'm down a bit in 2009..but hopefully will end up in black by the end of the year
My sister forced me to go when I was 21 or so, else she'd tell my parents. At the stage I'd had 2 quite bad losing years (novice) but was learning and getting better. I kept saying to my sis (much older) that I can beat this and was just turning things around to be small loser to break even.
The GA meeting was full of degenrate slot players, bingo and addicted horse racing players with many other vices. I thought there is no way I'm like these people or will ever be like them.
I had to give up betting for a couple of years to apease my sis but kept studying and have won 16 years straight. She laughs about it now.
The GA meeting was full of degenrate slot players, bingo and addicted horse racing players with many other vices. I thought there is no way I'm like these people or will ever be like them.
I had to give up betting for a couple of years to apease my sis but kept studying and have won 16 years straight. She laughs about it now.
Went to a GA meeting with a friend who needed help and we both agreed that must of the GA guys and Gals need to be at a AA meeting instead. Funnest thing was the guy that bet us we wouldn't make the second meeting. He won but I guess you can say we stiffed him because we never went back and my friend is not gambling anymore he is addicted to strippers.
In my case it was The VA (Veterans Administration) and AA that saved my life.
The VA then followed up by AA saved my life back in 1990. Booze had got hold of me but to make a pretty long story short (the long version I have told at hundreds of meetings in front of groups sometime over 200 or 250 persons strong).
Anyway being a Vietnam Vet I was able to at almost the last minute get admitted into an intensive care ward of a VA Hospital suffering from extreme alcoholism. Doctors told my family I got there in a nick of time.
Around 60 days later after nearly a week in intensive care, then a week on a regular ward, another week on a detox ward and 30 days in a in-patient sobriety program I was released by the VA and sent to AA where I went to 2 meetings a day for a year (around 700 meetings).
The second, third, fourth years I still went to hundreds of meetings but as the years went by I was able to cut back some. Today I have over 19 years sober (my sobriety date is in April of 1990). thanks to both The VA and AA.
I still go to occasional meetings and maintain what is known as constant vigilance but the urge to drink has been gone for quite some time.
I know however that I can't let my guard down and say "one beer won't hurt". I know better and have seen guys 30 years sober have that beer and end up in the hospital (if they were lucky) a week later..
Alcohol is a killer if you cannot drink only on a social or casual level.
GA is another story for me. I like to gamble like the next guy but have always been able to take it or leave it..I have never experienced a gambling problem even remotely close to the alcohol problem that I was able to one day at a time put on hold for nearly 20 years.
Believe me don't believe me, up to you, I swear that AA works if you let it but you have to do the work that causes it to work for the rest of your life.
wil.
The VA then followed up by AA saved my life back in 1990. Booze had got hold of me but to make a pretty long story short (the long version I have told at hundreds of meetings in front of groups sometime over 200 or 250 persons strong).
Anyway being a Vietnam Vet I was able to at almost the last minute get admitted into an intensive care ward of a VA Hospital suffering from extreme alcoholism. Doctors told my family I got there in a nick of time.
Around 60 days later after nearly a week in intensive care, then a week on a regular ward, another week on a detox ward and 30 days in a in-patient sobriety program I was released by the VA and sent to AA where I went to 2 meetings a day for a year (around 700 meetings).
The second, third, fourth years I still went to hundreds of meetings but as the years went by I was able to cut back some. Today I have over 19 years sober (my sobriety date is in April of 1990). thanks to both The VA and AA.
I still go to occasional meetings and maintain what is known as constant vigilance but the urge to drink has been gone for quite some time.
I know however that I can't let my guard down and say "one beer won't hurt". I know better and have seen guys 30 years sober have that beer and end up in the hospital (if they were lucky) a week later..
Alcohol is a killer if you cannot drink only on a social or casual level.
GA is another story for me. I like to gamble like the next guy but have always been able to take it or leave it..I have never experienced a gambling problem even remotely close to the alcohol problem that I was able to one day at a time put on hold for nearly 20 years.
Believe me don't believe me, up to you, I swear that AA works if you let it but you have to do the work that causes it to work for the rest of your life.
wil.
