Another Try

[steveusmc]

Friends.....After trying on my own to stay sober I have found I need something MORE than just ME. I have resolved that starting on Monday...no beer, no pepsi, no sweets....gym every morning early and then run/jog/walk 3 - 5 miles.
Will find a good AA meeting like I should have done all along. I will be giving up some old friends until I can truly say I can stay sober. I really believe that IF I can make it for a month, I can make it much longer after that milestone. Thanks for all your support before and I will keep you posted. I know the ball is in my court.
Semper Fi,
Steve

[Waffen]

Originally Posted by steveusmc

Friends.....After trying on my own to stay sober I have found I need something MORE than just ME. I have resolved that starting on Monday...no beer, no pepsi, no sweets....gym every morning early and then run/jog/walk 3 - 5 miles.
Will find a good AA meeting like I should have done all along. I will be giving up some old friends until I can truly say I can stay sober. I really believe that IF I can make it for a month, I can make it much longer after that milestone. Thanks for all your support before and I will keep you posted. I know the ball is in my court.
Semper Fi,
Steve

A Marine can do anything... Stay strong.

Semper Fi


W

[vindex1963]

You can do it Steve and we are just a PM away.
Good plan and the meeting should be the top of the list.
Keep us up to date.

[firetronix01]

Good luck Steve.Meeting makers make it.

[swmnkdinthervr]

Originally Posted by steveusmc

Friends.....After trying on my own to stay sober I have found I need something MORE than just ME. I have resolved that starting on Monday...no beer, no pepsi, no sweets....gym every morning early and then run/jog/walk 3 - 5 miles.
Will find a good AA meeting like I should have done all along. I will be giving up some old friends until I can truly say I can stay sober. I really believe that IF I can make it for a month, I can make it much longer after that milestone. Thanks for all your support before and I will keep you posted. I know the ball is in my court.
Semper Fi,
Steve

We were here when ya needed us (I was wondering how things were going)...we'll be here again...just make the call, the softer easier way rarely is successful be we often have to fail at it before we realize that truth...you won't have to leave your friends if you truly intend to stay sober...only the real friend will remain through out your efforts.

If ya want my phone number "PM" me for it...you can call when ya need someone to offer support or just need someone to bounce sh!t off of...

[vindex1963]

Originally Posted by swmnkdinthervr

If ya want my phone number "PM" me for it...you can call when ya need someone to offer support or just need someone to bounce sh!t off of...

X2........

[Gunny4Sawx]

The Pensacola Group helped (started) me on my path. Give them a call or look them up online. One day at a time my brother

[twopffenig]

A Vision For You
For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the great moments of the past. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt -- and one more failure.

The less people tolerated us, the more we withdrew from society, from life itself. As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down. It thickened, ever becoming blacker. Some of us sought out sordid places, hoping to find understanding companionship and approval. Momentarily we did -- then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face the hideous Four Horsemen -- Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, Despair. Unhappy drinkers who read this page will understand!

Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, "I don't miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time." As ex-problem drinkers, we smile at such a sally. We know our friend is like a boy whistling in the dark to keep up his spirits. He fools himself. Inwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them. He will presently try the old game again, for he isn't happy about his sobriety. He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end.

We have shown how we got out from under. You say, "Yes, I'm willing. But am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?"

Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you.

"How is that to come about?" you ask. "Where am I to find these people?"

You are going to meet these new friends in your own community. Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship. If you live in a large place, there are hundreds. High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them you will make lifelong friends. You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey. Then you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You will learn the full meaning of "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

...................booze beat me to a state of being reasonable.........twopffenig..................

[hurricaneduane]

Glad to hear your going to meetings, not many get this thing the first time.

I hope you find a good sponsor, it made a huge difference for me.
Please call those that offer their number, you will be helping them as much as yourself.

[jurneyman]

It took a long time for me to get it. I was taught from when I was very young not to give up, if you quit you loose. I came from a place where you and your brothers are one. I believe you understand when I say that you will leave nobody behind. This is how I feel when a brother in spirit goes down to alcohol, you know if a brother in arms goes down you go in and get him, and maybe sometime in the future just like in the program he goes down again you are not going to leave him out there just because he had the misfortune of going down in the past.This is how I see how the program has worked for the last 18 years. In the beginning I found men in the program who showed me the difference between quitting and surrendering your fight as an individual, to accept the strength and power that can be found in numbers when you make that decision. I used to think I was a traitor to myself be giving up. my ego fought me with every step I tried to take, telling me not to let them break me, no matter how much it hurt don't quit, don't give up, keep fighting don't let them beat you. You are in control of your own life don't give anyone or anything else control, it is yours don't give it up, you don't need help you can do it alone. Because your ego driven disease knows if you bring in the calvary for little help its not going to win the battle on this day, by using the help offered by men who can show you the way, they will not in any way think you are showing weakness, but that you are using your intelligence, there is power in numbers. No matter
which way you decide to go you surrender your will either way, to the alcoholic way of life run by your disease, were you have no other choice but to drink, where I was at the end, or to the life that allows you to make your own choices about your life, where I am now, Which choice allows you more freedom. Try to stop by at least once a day, just to touch base, It helps.

[steveusmc]

Thanks to you guys the weekend is going very well......I have read your posts several times today..and will some more later..and tomorrow too.

[cootertwo]

ODAAT AA works, if you work it

[ericwhit]

Atta boy! My thoughts and prayers are with you, brother.

[vindex1963]

How about an update Steve.

[jurneyman]

Steve, I said what I had to say, to share my experience, Just don't pick up a drink today, is what you have to do, and if you can give us a word to let us know how you are dealing with it, we can, and will, support your effort,