Can an alcoholic really just stop?!
Question: ongoing probs with a friend she has been sober for 7 days and has been heavily drinking on and off for a year. i gave her a number for support groups AA etc and i feel she wont get better without medical proffessional help but now she said i cant go to any meetings for 4wks because of work i have backed right off anyway but do u think u can stop bein an alcholic just like that?
Answers: ongoing probs with a friend she has been sober for 7 days and has been heavily drinking on and off for a year. i gave her a number for support groups AA etc and i feel she wont get better without medical proffessional help but now she said i cant go to any meetings for 4wks because of work i have backed right off anyway but do u think u can stop bein an alcholic just like that?
If someone is a full blown alkie they need more help than you can give or just go to AA. AA is a great program but your friend needs some re-hab first then to AA as often as she can. If she said she can't go for 4 weeks she's probably lying there are AA meetings all over in any city and they have weekend meetings too. She won't quit after 7 days with no help and you were right to back off and not be an enabler or baby sitter. It's her life she has to figure it out.
She will still have craving but as long as she stays out of situations where drinking may occur, it will help her. I was able to stop cold turkey for a long time. After the craving goes away, it gets much easier.
There's a difference between being dry and being sober, as they say. By just stopping, she may be dry, but she's not sober. Support groups are for more than just quitting drinking. There's much baggage an alcoholic has had for years and will have for a long time to come. It's not just about the drinking.
Usually it takes someting really tramatising to quit a habit. I used to be a huge drugy, but once I tried meth and chewed a hole in my face. I never did that again.
Some people are just plain stupid though and they don't realize that they have good health until they ruin it.
My stupid self has ashma now, and if I never messed up my body in the first place I wouldn't have problems.
Be smart don't start!
My father did. I'll tell you tho, I think that he still has some issues because he didn't seek any help. He treated the vice and did not address the 'reason' behind his drinking. Now his personality is more like a 'dry drunk', if you will. Keep pushing her and supporting her to seek help. You still can't MAKE someone do something that they don't want to do, but you can support. Her excuses for not going to meetings are just that, excuses.
Once you are an alcholic your always one. But you can stop drinking on your own, if you have the mind for it and realize what it is doing to you. Be three for her just by listening and talking and calling, that will help until she can go to the meetings. Good luck to you and your friend.