Thread: Falling off the wagon

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

so we are not having a beer this afternoon at the golf then?

I'll just watch.

yeah thats what i said to FF too

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Dii gwa

weren't scooter and i there when that pic was taken?

thanks for cutting me out at any rate

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

weren't scooter and i there when that pic was taken? thanks for cutting me out at any rate

scooter was in the photo slim but sadley you where not,or maybe you where to slim to be seen

I sometimes think that I may have a drink problem, but I only had 5 pints of Guinness last night and went home before the pub closed, so I know I can stop after only imbibing a small amount.

Nope, not everyone is evangelical, I am and always have been and was raised an atheist, but I know that I could not have made it without the help and advise I got from AA.
Everyone of us seems to think that we are different from our fellows, but we are not and thats what I learned there the very first time I went and really listened to what others had been thru and it was so familiar to me as I had done it all.
But that is just my personal experience and no one else has to do it, but if you keep trying and it doesn't work and you are not happy then I suggest that you go and give it a try, keep and open mind and just take from the meeting what you want and leave the rest.
No one is there to save your ass, if they say they are then they are not telling the truth, they are there for the same reason that I am if I am there, I am there so I can spend another day sober, I give a rats ass about you really, but it does help to be around recovered or recovering alkies and maybe help them too, but it is really me that I am worried about.
If I had a beer now, before dark I would be drunk and doing shit that I shouldn't and be drunk again tomorrow,
Just like CMN, went to have a drink, not to get drunk, but shit happens, no matter how long you have been off, it only takes one to be right back where you were, only for me, my alcoholism has got 25 years worse since my last drink and I would not start where I left off but would be the same place had I continued to drink, and I was almost dead so thats where I would be and I would not live thru another go at it.

Now that has been proven to me by people that have been sober for long periods of time and went out again.
There is a Thai friend of ours, my wife cousins husband, he has always drank, been getting worse almost daily for the last 7 years that I know of, and in the last couple of months his brain has went wet and now he is almost an idiot, talks to him self all the time, has anger attacks and really goes off,Hollers and screams and he is by himself,, going to kill his wife and 2 sons, trys to burn their house down,, damn he belongs in a loony bin.

Originally Posted by blackgang

There is a Thai friend of ours, my wife cousins husband, he has always drank, been getting worse almost daily for the last 7 years that I know of, and in the last couple of months his brain has went wet and now he is almost an idiot, talks to him self all the time, has anger attacks and really goes off,Hollers and screams and he is by himself,, going to kill his wife and 2 sons, trys to burn their house down,, damn he belongs in a loony bin.

Are you sure that's the drink? Just sounds like a normal Thai bloke to me.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

I think a lot of people are being very harsh on blackgang.
I for one am very grateful to his advice.

AA has a place. It's origins are humble and simple. Bill Wilson was a blackout drunk who dedicated his life to helping other blackout drunks. He did so out of necessity. One of the tenets of AA is you must freely give what you have received.

BG is just offering his humble help, (IMO) however imperfect. People like FF choose to perceive his actions according to their own really, however intoxicated. If one were to adhere to the spiritual principals found in AA and which can be found underlying all religions, they would reserve judgement.

Life is difficult! Once you accept that it's a piece of cake.
Focus on the problem the problem is magnified.
Focus on the solution....(well even our butterfly can figure that out!)

AA talks about how alcohol is but a symptom of a living problem.

Anyway I've just been ridding my big fat bimmer very soberly and like it.
I think I'll stay sober today.
CMN thanks for doing some of the field research on Singha. I'll be less tempted by those tall cold bottles of Chang covered with beads of fresh condensation!
I think I'll ride down to Hat Yai this week. I've heard good things about the hookers down there!

please don't take the following comment the wrong way all, but with the amount of members on this forum who are either dry or are trying to be dry, maybe someone should ask DD to add a dry room to the forum so that you can discuss these issues a little more seriously or light-heartidly, as you wish.

For example, although CMn says he may not agree with AA, etc., he clearly could be helped with some form of Sponsor angel - something someone else may be willing to provide him in such a forum

just my 2c

You are ever so correct, it does help to just be able to talk to another alkie, thats why AA works and recovery detox programs do not, thats why they force you into AA so that they can brag that they have a good sucess rate.
There are also online meetings that some go to to help them stay sober, I have been sober long enough to do OK without meetings, plus the fact that I have no desire to drink anymore, I drank all I needed to find out that it is not for me.
when I was drug outside and into the fresh air when i was trying to kill my self tha last day I drank is proof enough for me.
I have helped some folks even on this forum to be able to stay sober for a month or so also proves it to me, even tho they come back and mean mouth me and the program because they think I don't know who they are, silly bastards.

Nell Wing, Bill W's Secretary, Passes On


By Mel B., Toledo, OH



Many of us in AA feel that God brings the right people into our lives, at the right time and in the right way. This was certainly true of Nell Wing, who died on Wednesday, February 14.
She came to work at GSO in a temporary job in March 1947 and stayed until her retirement in 1982.
Though a nonalcoholic, her devotion to AA became nearly absolute, and as the years passed she formed friendships with members throughout the world. She never married, and AA really became her extended family, with Bill and Lois Wilson as her surrogate parents.
Nell was 29 when she reported to work at GSO (then called the Alcoholic Foundation).
She had attended Keuka College in central New York state and served two years as a SPAR (a female Coast Guard sailor). She only wanted short-term employment until leaving for Mexico to study sculpture under the G.I. Bill. But as she recalled later, “From the beginning, I was caught by the A.A. Fellowship, particularly by the caring. It was not so much a general 'caring for our fellowman,' but a one-on-one caring, a love for one another without thought of any reward.” Mexico faded into the background, and she spent 35 years at GSO!
Nell served as receptionist and did other clerical work at GSO before becoming Bill's secretary in 1950. Highly competent as a secretary, she also became Bill's staunch defender, giving him support and reassurance when members wrote angry letters or when he became plagued by self-doubt and depression.
More than almost anybody, Nell knew how much Bill suffered when attacked by the very people who should have been grateful to him. After his death in 1971, she said she lost “my close friend and confidant, the big brother/father figure of my middle life.”
She then became AA's first archivist, with responsibility for organizing and filing all the documents and other records of our history.
Though not trained in library science, she quickly learned the essentials of archiving and set up a logical system that works extremely well to this day. She also continued as Bill's loyal advocate and carefully documented his specific contributions to AA's origin, growth, and success.
Nell and Lois became even closer after Bill's passing. Nell often spent weekends with Lois at Stepping Stones and became concerned that the older woman insisted on living alone though becoming increasingly frail. Lois's passing in 1988 was another great loss in her life.
With a loving nephew as her guardian, Nell was a resident at a Sunrise Assisted Living home in New Jersey.

Originally Posted by [COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Mel B[/FONT][/COLOR]

Many of us in AA feel that God brings the right people into our lives

That turned me off straight away.

Many of us in AA feel that God brings the right people into our lives

That turned me off straight away.

yeap me to . sounds like changing one addiction for another

starting drinking at 11am is definitely a sign that you have a drinking problem.

Good to know CMN that you decided to change. Didn't remember it was that bad when you first talked about it.

drinking soft drink at the bar could be a start

Originally Posted by Butterfly

starting drinking at 11am is definitely a sign that you have a drinking problem.

I usually leave it until 11.30

I sometimes wonder if I should drink less, and less frequently.
I am not a total drunk by any means, but I would probably be medically classified as an alcoholic.
Probably the main barrier to me attempting this seriously is a fear of boredom.

Hi, my name is Andy and I am not an alcoholic

I have no experience of alcoholics except when they bother me in bars

I also have no experience of God, not even in bars

that's it really

Shit, just goes to show that you do learn something new every day.....I had always thought Drandy was a strange name

I throw this offeriing onto the table for your consideration:

The following is a brief description of the Life Game Alcoholic from Games People Play by Dr. Eric Berne.


In game analysis, there is no such thing as alcoholism or "an alcoholic," but there is a role called the Alcoholic in a certain type of game. If a biochemical or physiological abnormality is the prime mover in excessive drinking - and that is still open to some question - then its study belongs in the field of internal medicine. Game analysis is interested in something quite different - the kinds of social transactions that are related to such excesses. Hence the game "Alcoholic."
In its full flower this is a five-handed game, although the roles may be condensed so that it starts off and terminates as a two-handed one. The central role is that of the Alcoholic - the one who is "it" - played by White. The chief supporting role is that of the Persecutor, typically played by a member of the opposite sex, usually the spouse. The third role is that of Rescuer, usually played by someone of the same sex, often the good family doctor who is interested in the patient and also in drinking problems. In the classical situation the doctor successfully rescues the alcoholic from his habit. After White has not taken a drink for six months, they congratulate each other. The following day, White is found in the gutter.
The fourth role is that of the Patsy, or Dummy. In literature, this is played by the delicatessen man who extends credit to White, gives him a sandwich on the cuff or perhaps a cup of coffee, without either persecuting him or trying to rescue him. In life this is more frequently played by White's mother, who gives him money and often sympathizes with him about the wife who does not understand him. In this aspect of the game, White is required to account in some plausible way for his need for money - by some project in which both pretend to believe, although they know what he is really going to spend most of the money for. Sometimes the Patsy slides over into another role, which is a helpful but not essential one: the Agitator, the "good guy" who offers supplies without even being asked for them: "Come have a drink with me (and you will go downhill faster)."
The ancillary professional in all drinking games is the bartender or liquor clerk. In the game "Alcoholic" he plays the fifth role, the Connection, the direct source of supply who also understands alcoholic talk, and who in a way is the most meaningful person in the life of any addict. The difference between the Connection and the other players is the difference between professionals and amateurs in any game: the professional knows when to stop. At a certain point a good bartender refused to serve the Alcoholic, who is then left without any supplies unless he can locate a more indulgent Connection.
In the initial stages of "Alcoholic," the wife may play all three supporting roles: at midnight the Patsy, undressing him, making him coffee and letting him beat up on her; in the morning the Persecutor, berating him for the evil of his ways; and in the evening the Rescuer, pleading with him to change them.

Life Games: Alcoholic. From Games People Play by Dr. Eric Berne

In his book Berne goes on to describe AA as an extension of the game, in which participants take turns to relapse so that the game can continue.

thanks for the golf lesson CMN.

nice of you to suffer and watch me have a couple of beers

and at the Pirates Cove afterwards.

i am feeling a bit the worse for wear but my son wanted me to bring him to play something called DOTA so i am just accompanying him at the internet cafe.

hic...

surprised you would indulge in a bit of the hair of the dog. yes, very surprised.

Originally Posted by obsidian

surprised you would indulge in a bit of the hair of the dog. yes, very surprised.

surprised you would post something so utterly unintelligible.

Originally Posted by obsidian

surprised you would indulge in a bit of the hair of the dog. yes, very surprised.

Didn't the dog mind?