Over-Confidence / Arrogance / Euphoria

[64Turtles]

Whay is this.......they have named a thread after my ex-wife......DAMN her...... she is everywhere

[Ladysnoops]

You are too funny 64 Turtles

[nettii]

Whay is this.......they have named a thread after my ex-wife......DAMN her...... she is everywhere

[cullen-skink]

I find it quite strange reading this thread. I recall last time I stopped (last July) I was feeling distinctly hellish after 5 days, so decided to make an appt with the GP.

As things turned out, I couldn't be seen for another 11 days, so just decided to grind it out. After those 11 days had passed I felt on top of the world, but decided to go in anyway. She listened with great interest, but warned I was in "a state of euphoria" and in some danger as a result. I came out thinking "what the hell is going on here - I stop completely, feel happy about it and then a doctor has a go at me for feeling euphoric???".

Well a week later, I found out in no certain way - it happened to be my birthday and I was "persuaded" (yes, I put up fierce resistance - NOT) into a bar. I only had 2 pints and came home, as the g/f was getting very wary of me. In a perverse way, that "I've cracked it" mentality makes it worse - we've probably all heard the story of the recovering alcoholic who had a sniff of a chocolate liquer and was drinking litres of aftershave down the canal 20 mins later. When that DOESN'T happen, there's the danger.

A few days later I had another couple of beers. Stil nothing very remarkable. Then 4-5 days later "a few". Then shortly after that "a small night out". By late September, even the prentence of the social aspect of the bar was gone and it was 4 bottles of wine alone at home again. That's what "euphoria" meant for me.

Thanks for reading

[snoopy]

thanks for sharing your experience cullen skink.
Thought provoking.

[ProfessorFudger]

I have just been to my first meeting after rehab and been slated for being over confident, I think it should be harnessed and used positively.

[damson]

hello Professor and welcome to BE. I'm sorry you were slated for being confident - however perhaps they were just trying to urge caution. If you read around this forum you'll find lots of us who felt powerful and strong and confident that we could "just have one or two" and for most of us it led to our downfall. Is that the message that they were giving?

Good to have you here - hope to see you around the boards

Damson

[ProfessorFudger]

I certainly will, and hope to meet and help as many people as I can, because I can't describe or put into words the complete change it has had on me.

I understand they try to say what could happen if you have another drink, I understand that. But I am no longer a drinker and so there is no temptation. I will explain this better tomorrow to them but I have no choice.

If I fail or relapse at all in the next 3 years, the following things WILL happen to me.

My liver will fail (I was 6 months off serious trouble)
I will lose my job (I self referred myself, as I noticed it affecting work, and so if I don't fully commit, I may be subject to diciplinary action if my work is not of a certain standard, as they can blame the alcohol)
My wife of 7 years will leave me, this is a promise, she put up with my for so long and loves the new me, we are starting a fresh life)
I will lose my home (i need the job and the wifes money to support the home)
I will not see my son (I see him every 2 weeks and have done for 9 years, with no home, that won't happen)

So I am not thinking about beer, nor do I want to, nor do I need to, my life has changed, and I have so much to lose for a small drop of liquid, its a no brainer, but I am sympathetic for those who don't have anything to drive them, that I can only imagine is a nightmare.



I feel 18 again, and look forward to each day. It's the ittle things I am starting to notice such as staying up later with the wife to watch a film, rather than her dragging me up off the sofa to go to bed. It's feeling a million dollars in a morning, rater than groggy. It's eating properly again, and finishing a meal, rather than giving leftovers to the dog. It's the feeling of getting control rather than being controlled. The list is endless and I am only 11 days in. Im sure that list will grow and grow as the weeks and months pass by.

I will be introducing this website at my next meeting tomorrow, as they seem to focus on the negatives rather than the positives.

I am an analyst and deal with stats daily. Since rehab I have been working hard to find credible statistics which would help people, not frighten them.

We are told that only 5%-10% make it through recovery, which to be fair is quite depressing for those who are really stuggling, it doesn't quite paint the true picture.

Dr. Lewis Baxter Sr was the keynote speaker. He is the president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine known in the field as ASAM.

He provided some rather heartening statistics. But these have to be qualified. He spoke at a conference of people who have gone through a “full treatment experience”. A full treatment experience includes:

1. Detoxification

2. Rehabilitation

3. Maintenance

These are patients who received a full assessment, and an accurate diagnosis of their condition. They’d gone through proper detoxification and/or medical maintenance. Rehabilitation – means therapy and addiction counseling. Aftercare and continuing care refers to ongoing treatment with social support such as a 12 step program and/or continued therapy throughout the year.

Hear is the good news for you all, YES the the 5%-10% success rate percentage is accurate, but only to those that had tried a detox only (however short or long).

However his findings showed this increased to 33% if they had gone through detoxification in rehab only.

Finally the great news is that the success rate increased to 77% if they went through the full treatment experience as mentioned above.

This information is easily found on the internet and took just a day, I will now look for more positive studies to show that there will always be lies, damn lies and statistics, and that we should look to embrace the positive statistics rather than worry above the negative ones. I look forward to posting again, and hope to find some new friends. I love chatting via facebook if anyone would like my address please inbox me as i suspect i wont be able to post a link on here!

[sal]

Great post ProfessorFudger thanks for sharing.

It'll be handy having a statistician around too

I expect those statistics would change considerably if they were taken again 5 and 10 years after detox etc and theres the rub

[ProfessorFudger]

Again statistics can be used to say anything. I rehab clinic could have an 86% success rate, but they define success as staying sober within the first 3-6 months. Another could have a 20% success rate and define their success over a 3 year period.

There are studies out there that can prove treatment of alcohol addiction is very good and the rates of success are high, but again it depends on where you get them from.

Take AA, I read only a few percent ever return to the second meeting. Also what about the people who just quit, having never been to a GP or rehab, Do they get added to stats. Also people that dont go to meetings because of work committments, do they get followed up to see if they were successful after a year, 2, 3 etc. Do they get added to the stats NO NO NO.

The reason why in my opinion that the stats are so low and are reported as o, is that the repeat offenders are constantly going back into rehab, thus painting a picture that detox isn't successful, when it most certainly is from the brief information I have been reading.

I was also thinking of starting a forum for my area, well I have anyway, as at the first meeting they said there wasn't much support. ER SORRY to say but within 4 days of coming out of rehab, I have registered on here and several other major sites, and now have a support network of thousands, not just the ten I see 3 times a week.

I was also thinking of a forum category, such is Recovery Progress, with Sub Forums which include, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Month 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. year 2, year 3 etc. So people can relate to and speak to others going through the exact same period of rehab.

[sal]

I was also thinking of a forum category, such is Recovery Progress, with Sub Forums which include, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Month 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. year 2, year 3 etc. So people can relate to and speak to others going through the exact same period of rehab.

Well there are already 1 2 4 and 4 week ones as well as monthly ones etc where people at similar stages can chat about it.

About the AA statistics - who takes them - is there someone sitting there at every meeting for a year or more noting who is staying and who is going and how sober the stayers are and where do the goers go - I mean they might be going to a different meeting. Do they follow each individual up - could be hundreds of them going all over the place!!! I really don't know how anyone could do accurate statistics from AA - it must be the most difficult thing to measure

Anyway, never mind, its good to see you getting lots of support and hope you enjoy your visits to BE

[tk6]

I find it quite strange reading this thread. I recall last time I stopped (last July) I was feeling distinctly hellish after 5 days, so decided to make an appt with the GP.

As things turned out, I couldn't be seen for another 11 days, so just decided to grind it out. After those 11 days had passed I felt on top of the world, but decided to go in anyway. She listened with great interest, but warned I was in "a state of euphoria" and in some danger as a result. I came out thinking "what the hell is going on here - I stop completely, feel happy about it and then a doctor has a go at me for feeling euphoric???".

Well a week later, I found out in no certain way - it happened to be my birthday and I was "persuaded" (yes, I put up fierce resistance - NOT) into a bar. I only had 2 pints and came home, as the g/f was getting very wary of me. In a perverse way, that "I've cracked it" mentality makes it worse - we've probably all heard the story of the recovering alcoholic who had a sniff of a chocolate liquer and was drinking litres of aftershave down the canal 20 mins later. When that DOESN'T happen, there's the danger.

A few days later I had another couple of beers. Stil nothing very remarkable. Then 4-5 days later "a few". Then shortly after that "a small night out". By late September, even the prentence of the social aspect of the bar was gone and it was 4 bottles of wine alone at home again. That's what "euphoria" meant for me.

Thanks for reading

I can completely relate to this. For me the euphoria passes and I feel normal. Normal enough to have a glass, which then turns into the bottle, which turns into three bottles, which turns into three months and I'm waking up wondering how I ended up back in this state again and what I've been doing for the past three months?

[Call me Dave]

A good thread this one and one which has been discussed many times in meetings iv'e been to in the past, when can anyone celebrate in the full knowledge that they have beaten this illness?

Im not sure there is a defined time when we can say thats it iv'e beaten it for good, or if it even exists!

The nature of the illness is IMO so complex that emotions can alter from one minute to the next, for me its about enjoying the moment, neither looking back nor forward, i have found that this is the only way to achieve sobriety to date.

Over confidence, arrogance and euphoria are certainly feelings that I have experienced from time to time, but then again so has lack of belief, questioning if controlled drinking is the way forward (AKA stinking thinking!), and also wondering if it will all be worth it, but then its back to the place where as previously mentioned living for this moment is the best option personally.

[Soulwax]

Hi
Just found this thread
Thought if I write summi k it might move up the list
It's great reading and something I never thought about
This got me last time
7 days and then into 8 th I think my last post back in Jan was
Something like
'feeling sooooo great ..... See you all in the two week ....
That night I had my first and about my 15th, got absolutely wasted
My decline was instant, until 3 days ago.!
This is very important I feel, especially for early birds like me

[imrevankessel]

I can relate to the over-confidence. I was sober for 10 months last year, then went home to see the family. I live a 11 hour flight away so do not see them often.

I had not clearly explained to them that I should never have a glass of alcohol again, and that they should stop me if I asked for one. So I had one glass of wine. I was over-confident and thought I could handle it. That 1 glass turned in to 6 months of drinking. I finally stopped again last week.

It was all my own fault, and I learned my lesson. I simply cannot drink, not after 10 months and not ever. I have told everyone, friends and family this time, so that next time I am over-confident, they will tell me so.

[George]

Hi imrevankessel

That's my method too - tell everyone, make sure that they all know the position. There's no mistakes that way. Doesn't work for everyone and some just ain't comfy handling it that way but each to their own, eh

[spencer13]

Totally identify with this thread, I managed to stay sober for 6 months in 2009 after a spectacular case of crash and burn. My life was pretty much in tatters and both physically and mentally I was done. My GP was very supportive and prescribed librium and through fear of my husband putting me out and not letting me see my girls I stumbled through the doors of AA.

For 3 months I went to meetings and got a sponsor but I never felt "worthy" enough to share my story as my share seemed so meaningless and trivial compared to some of the stories in the room(I know...total insanity!!!). I managed a further 3 months on my own, went back to work and felt euphoric. Although I did not go public at work with my alcoholism my family and friends know and boy did I feel smug that I had beaten the EAF, everyone told me how well I looked and my family praised me for doing so well....then one Friday driving home I thought to myself " you have got this beaten so of course you can drink again...you can control it because look how fantastically well you have done for 6 months".

My arrogance and over-confidence won the day and en route for school pick up stopped at the shop for some booze. Only problem was thatI hadn't bother telling anyone else my plans and so the secrets and the lies started again destroying my soul and consuming my life!

Day 2 again this time and I'm scared because not only do I need to stop but this time I actually want to stop for me.....I know I've probably rambled a lot but I guess my point is that as an alcoholic I can never be complacent and always need to remember the dark days....thankfully now I have found the support that I need to work through this...a day at a time..


Lisa
xx

[imrevankessel]

Hey Lisa,

I can totally identify with that. At AA also. Lots of guys seem to have stories to tell and I feel my own story is pretty boring. Turns out those guys have been going for 25 years or whatever so they've had lots of time to practice. Still, I find them inspirational and very therapeutic. Going just once a week surely works to keep me humble.

[melo]

This is my second day and while i have managed another day without alcohol i can totally identify with the thought processes that cause us to fall back into regular drinking. I'm trying so hard to reprogramme my brain so that no matter how in control i may feel in the future i MUST remember this will never be the case. It is all too easy to have one drink then rapidly fall back into a pattern of drinking every night. Any advice on how to mentally change thought patterns and challenge the voices that try to persuade us all to succumb greatly received. I know this is where i've fallen down many times before.
M

[belle]

Hey Melo, I find walking a great way to relax and resist temptation. Not wakig feeling awful is also something to remember! Focus on being strong .....