I Love Being Straight

I just spoke with my friend. She and her husband are going through difficult times and are separated. They had their last therapy session yesterday and it looks like---for now anyway---that they will continue staying apart.

My friend called me up crying which is highly unusual. The day just took a toll on her. After we hung up she had 2 glasses of wine and a vicadin. We talked today...she called up her husband and just didn't care what she said to him. She said things she couldn't say, or wouldn't say when she's straight. She even called someone she briefly dated several months ago and spoke for an hour.

I remember doing these sorts of things when I drank. It WAS easier to pick up the phone and tell someone what was truly on my mind when I was drinking. It DID make me bolder.

Boy, am I glad I'm straight all the time now......

Does God Play a Part in Quitting Your Addiction?

I was sort of taunted by something I'd written---I wrote that I believed God was instrumental in my quitting my 3 addictions. I wrote that I will believe until the day I die that I didn't do something that HUGE by myself.

Well someone wrote saying that so many "spiritual people" say that the only way to quit their addictions is with God. And what about the people (like himself) who don't believe in God?

I wrote back saying that my story is that I quit 3 addictions and I believe very strongly that God's hand was in it. I was a very weak woman when I was drinking for those 12 years. On the morning I quit drinking forever I was hungover and couldn't think straight, yet that was a morning I'll never forget---many insights came to me in my condition that day and I'll never forget them.

And with my weight: Calling out to God when I was 16 saying if there was a God I needed His help because I couldn't stop eating. I never ate uncontrollably since that night.

I told the man who wrote me that I was just sharing my story with him and that it wouldn't be HIS story. We'll all have our own unique stories to tell as to how we quit our addictions.

And I had my own unique one......and I love my story....

Will You Give Up Your Addiction?

I was listening to a radio show (Dr. Laura) and a woman called in saying she was 50 years old and didn't take good care of herself, although she'd quit drinking 15 years ago. She said she still smoked a lot and had some weight to lose, but it was too difficult to stop her addictions. She could do it for awhile, then "she couldn't."

Dr. Laura said that she would have to decide to want the healthy body over her addictions. The woman said that she did. Dr. Laura immediately came back at her with the truth---"No, you don't. You want the immediate satisfaction a cigarette gives you, rather than the long term effects of quitting your addictions."

Dr. Laura suggested she put a picture of herself when she was healthy out where she could see it all the time. She also suggested to this woman that she speaks out loud what her intentions are because we are easily manipulated when we just think about what we want to do.

But if we say it out loud.......I DON'T WANT THAT CIGARETTE! I WANT TO BE HEALTHY AND WILL HAVE AN APPLE INSTEAD." Then go get an apple. Do this many times and it will be easier to not give into your addiction.

I love this idea and think it will help a lot....

What If I Took A Drink After Quitting 22 Years Ago?

I got asked that twice this week. So I answered truthfully.

If I were to take a drink after not having one drink in 22 years I know I could probably have one drink and stop for a day. But I don't want to drink, I told both of them.

BUT...IF I took one drink the next day, I have no idea how that day would end, because I think I'm an alcoholic (even though I don't ever say those words---I just don't drink and say I'm a non-drinker).

I think the more important thought is that I don't want to drink anymore. So contemplating whether or not what would happen to me if I drank again, really doesn't matter. The fact is, I'm done with drinking.

I also said to both of the people asking me this question (one was on a radio interview) is that I wouldn't want to take the chance of stepping into that world again---the world of alcoholism----because it ran my life pretty much for 12 years.

So getting on with my life without alcohol is where I choose to live. I have a good life without alcohol. And the good news is that I never think of alcohol anymore, and I haven't in years. I'm totally free of it.....thank God!