[jlsRN]

Originally Posted by TazziRN

No, JLS.....what Sue meant is that the AA/NA motto is "ONE day at a time." If we reach for a goal longer than that, the chances of relapse are high. If we just focus on the next 24 hours, we have a better chance.

For me it's really not much of a goal to make it through one day of not having a beer. I didn't drink every day anyways. I like my year goal better, it works better for me. I definately don't agree with a one size fits all approach.

[Tweety]

Good luck to you!!!

A one size fits all approach to quitting alcohol certainly is a recipe for disaster for some of us.

When I was first quitting, I couldn't imagine not drinking, so focusing on the present worked best for me. Sometimes I would say "I'll put off going to the liquor store for one hour". Then the hours turned into years. The same with smoking, I knew I would never quit because I tried to quit 100 times before, so it was enough to say "I'm going to put off that ciggarette a few more minutes." With ciggarettes I had to break it down to minutes. "I will not not smoke right this second." I still refuse to take that first puff, nearly 21 years later.

[Silverdragon102]

Good luck

[jlsRN]

For me it's the opposite. I know I can easily make it through a day, a week, a month etc. In fact, the idea of only not having beer for one day makes me more likely to look forward to having one the next day.

But to make the goal of giving it up for a year is a real commitment and will be a great accomplishment, along with other general health goals of avoiding sugar and saturated fats, and sticking to an exersise program! I look at it as a commitment to both my physical and mental well being!

I'm excited about this! Thanks for the good words!!!

[danissa]

jls, I think it's a great idea to quit while you are ahead. To quit when you can see the habit forming, before it becomes a daily habit! Good luck in achieving your goal babe.

[jlsRN]

Originally Posted by danissa

jls, I think it's a great idea to quit while you are ahead. To quit when you can see the habit forming, before it becomes a daily habit! Good luck in achieving your goal babe.

I think that sums it up, thanks Danissa!

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by danissa

jls, I think it's a great idea to quit while you are ahead. To quit when you can see the habit forming, before it becomes a daily habit! Good luck in achieving your goal babe.

An alcoholic wouldn't be able to do this, "quit before it become a daily habit" because once the wheels of addiction are in motion it's not possible to quit on willpower alone.

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by jlsRN

For me it's the opposite. I know I can easily make it through a day, a week, a month etc. In fact, the idea of only not having beer for one day makes me more likely to look forward to having one the next day.

But to make the goal of giving it up for a year is a real commitment and will be a great accomplishment, along with other general health goals of avoiding sugar and saturated fats, and sticking to an exersise program! I look at it as a commitment to both my physical and mental well being!

I'm excited about this! Thanks for the good words!!!

Be sure to join us in the Health and Wellness forum thread here: http://allnurses.com/forums/f240/hea...253622-48.html

it's getting a little slow and we could use the support.

[Suesquatch]

I remember my first days in AA. My idols were the people who had gone two weeks without a drink. I really needed to know how they'd done that. Those people with years? I didn't believe it. I was just too removed from the realm of possibility.

[VivaLasViejas]

Originally Posted by Suesquatch

I remember my first days in AA. My idols were the people who had gone two weeks without a drink. I really needed to know how they'd done that. Those people with years? I didn't believe it. I was just too removed from the realm of possibility.

I'll never forget the woman at one of my earliest AA meetings, who was celebrating her 10th sobriety birthday. I flat-out asked her how on earth she had managed TEN YEARS without drinking..........I literally could not imagine it. Her answer was pretty much the standard response, you know, "one day at a time".

Now, over sixteen years after I took my last drink, I know how it's done: one day at a time, one minute at a time, sometimes one crisis at a time. Some days, it's all you can manage just to put one foot in front of the other and grit your teeth; other times you go through weeks or even months of a "dry drunk", where you do everything wrong except take a drink. And then, I still have the dreams in which I pick up right where I left off, just like I hadn't learned the bitter lessons of sobriety, only I'm wracked with guilt and disappointment in myself for going back to the booze. Then I wake up, and I'm so happy that I didn't do it, that I don't have to start all over again from the beginning.