Can't stop.....

Welcome to the club...

I can't help you any more than I can myself but keeping it to the evenings would be a start. Doing it all day has to spoil the enjoyment. It's like turning your hobby in to a job.

Mike, look into The Sinclair Method.

Best place to start is:

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/useful-resources-487627

and click the TSM link on that page. Also search 'Claudia Christian Ted Talk' on YouTube and watch that.

Sounds to me like The Sinclair Method would fit what you are looking for.

I do symathise. I learned very quickly that if I start drinking around lunch-time I will still be drinking come evening. Drinking at the early end of the day has more effect because of the way our metabolism works but if I started a hangover in the evening from drinking in the middle of the day, guess what I found was the best 'cure'? Of course the amount you get through in 12 hours or so of drinking would last you for a week so doing that every day is potentially a real health issue. If you're working from home, have you tried another 'treat' instead of vodka? Something you like that is not alcohol. Good coffee and cream cake works for me and I can't really face booze after a slice of chocolate gateau. Honest!

I know what you mean - if it's there and available and you can function it's so easy just to keep drinking.  Working from home, as I do, makes it even more easy. But if I'm going to a meeting I don't drink.  Do you have a room or space where you work and don't do anything else?  So that when you're there you are "at work", you have "gone to work" where you wouldn't drink if it had meant leaving the house?  And if possible put a kettle there or make a flask of  coffee so you don't go to the kitchen while you're at work.  This might help.  Then of you want you can relax in the evening  with a small drink.  That would be more "normal".  It certainly helped me to change from working at the dining table (that's the place for eating and drinking) to setting up a study in the spare bedroom.  And then I go to work there and I wouldn't take a bottle of wine to work, would I?   I hope you are successful in cutting down before you actually go back to work, because suddenly stopping from a high level of drinking can be dangerous.  It woud to discuss with your doctor in case you need vitamin B and thiamine while you cut down.   I wish you all the best. 

Hi Mike

You sound very much like my Husband was before TSM. He tried AA, abstinence, tapering back. None of it worked. In the end he was very ill and suffered with dts and seizures.

He now follows TSM and can have a drink. It is a very strange experience. The meds are resetting his brain. You need to research it with the info Paul has given you. It isn't a gimmick it really works

Kind Regards to you and everyone on this forum as always

Your change in work will be the starting point for you.  I too don't want to quit completely.  I have over the months tapered down and down slowly.  The less I drink, the less I can take it.  2 units each night is my limit for weekdays - weekends is back to a bottle as I need to sleep.  I know when people quit smoking they very often keep mints in their pocket/bag - I would imagine that alcohol tastes pretty foul after a mint.  I know after cleaning my teeth, I could never have alcohol, the taste would be awful. 

I am surrounded by  booze at home, hubby likes a stocked bar - ironic tho coz he does not have a problem at all and can take it or leave it, except when out with his mates.

Get yourself armed with chocs and mints - it can be done - honest.  You will feel and look so much better.  I look 30 years younger (but then I am prone to exageration lol).

Thank you everyone. I am really glad I found this forum. I really like the TSM method. I am going look into that more and I will let you know if I start that and how it goes. I went out camping with a large number of people this weekend and there was alcohol there. I kept it under control though. I had a few drinks Sunday after I returned home. For some reason it didn't have the effect it normally does and was able to stop drinking after a few. There is still a lot of alcohol in the house but I haven't touched it so far today. This is actually a huge step for me because I usually use the bottom of the bottle as a stopping point. My social life and my work both have the promise of huge reward right now and I know that the only way that I will fail right now is if I drink too much.

Good luck Mike, whatever you decide to do. If you find it difficult to keep your drinking levels down and you decide you do not want to abstain ( there are meds for that too if AA is not for you) there is always the option of TSM. So good to have choices isn't it?

Regards

JulieAnne

Hiy Mike I understand exactly , I too enjoy my Gin/T I'm retired Ive always drank and enjoy a drink but when I retired I found I was drinking during the day possibly from 12 in the afternoon sometime later, I drink at home as its cheaper, but when I go to the pub I can't have a single G/T  NO I have to have a dble, now I find I have the shakes, I too are trying to cut down butttt not too successful   x x   good luck