For Becky

[Guest guest]

Hey Becky, even though it's been a month for me after

I made the decision to stop drinking, I hope I can put

my 2c in to give you advice.

For starters I've never attended in AA meeting. When

reading about it I never thought a good way to stop

drinking was to sit around and talk about it all the

time, especially if you're upset about it as you seem

to be. Concentrate on the fun things in life. I don't

know what your hobbies are, but when you do your

hobbies/fun pasttimes, immerse yourself in them. If

you like Bike riding, make every bike ride the

greatest bike ride you've ever had. When you do the

little things in life, just follow some advice

VanHalen's father told him about playing Drums (I'll

have to paraphrase it since I can't remember the exact

quote). " Play like it's the last time you're ever

going to play, yet knowing full well you're going to

do it again tomorrow. "

I know the irritation of being falsely accused of

being drunk. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but

didn't get into the specifics, now I will.

My brother is having a worse time than me trying to

stop. He can't moderate. When he does drink he gets

careless. When I was having severe depression, and

realized alcohol was a problem for me, I told some

people my " realization. " Including my parents. I

think, at least mom, is seeing me as bad off as my

brother. As an example, they were telling me about how

he was having trouble stopping and being careless with

stuff, and followed with " You probably can't stop

either. " Huh? Mom mentioned that when she and dad came

back from a week vacation, the freezer door was left

open from when I stopped by their house to watch

wrestling. She automatically deduced that the only

reason why I could of done that was because I was

" drinking. " MY mouth just fell wide open. Oh gee, I've

never been careless before. Dad stepped in and said

that if you're not carefull in closing that door it

won't shut correctly. Mom still had the doubting look

on her face that she has when she comes to a

conclusion on things, so I never bothered to defend

myself. You don't need to do it either since it's all

about you.

If you're looking just for something to drink other

than beer, just to get the habbit out of your system,

drink diet soda. It helped me.

I hope this helps. Keep up the good work, and don't

beat yourself up if you end up having a drink. Just

make your best effort to keep it to a bare minimum.

You're no more or less human than the rest of us.

Matt

=====

I am the Game and I make the rules!

__________________________________________________