do something like start running or get into an exercise routine, a couple friends of mine who've become sober said that it was pretty vital in their recovery. the reason it works so well is because drinking really fucks you up physically and throws you off your game when you're in the routine long enough for it to become a habit/part of what you do with your week. its a good way to give yourself a reason to not drink while working toward a healthy and concrete goal and you're less likely to fall off the wagon as you become more invested in it.

its as easy as just going outside and running until you get tired, time yourself and then try to further next time. if you've got gym access, lift weights starting light and add ~5 kg's each time you go until ur maxin' out with the bros. it also helps if you do stuff like that with incremental improvements and keep a log on paper to see your progress.

you know i've got your back pal

if you make it to 60 days i'll come up and visit you and we'll celebrate with some diet pepsis and some games

once you've got everything sorted out and you're back on the straight

i know you can do this!!

BECOME THE MAN YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE, JUST LIKE I HAVE

good luck jamie. idk if what I said about running and joints mattered at all, but in the end it's better to run. people run marathons for cripes sake. swimming, climbing and cycling are options too, but if you're gonna push yourself ya better swim/climb somewhere safe!! good luck jim & jimbo.

you know i've got your back pal

if you make it to 60 days i'll come up and visit you and we'll celebrate with some diet pepsis and some games

once you've got everything sorted out and you're back on the straight

i know you can do this!!

i'm gonna remember this one, sucker

Wow, Good luck man. It seems like it's definitely time to put that milk in the fridge.*


Now that I think about it, I don't think I know anyone who has a real problem with alcoholism.


*regardless of the hundreds of times you've dressed me down for being an idiot over the years, when I think of you I think, instead, of this video and how many times it made me laugh and how many times I tried to show it to friends who did not think it was funny. Occasionally, when I'm walking to the corner store or something, I'll just start saying "puh tha mulk inna frudge" over and over again.

Holy crap it's GirlBones! Welcome back!

thanks for showing up to say good luck and everything, guys. it does help, knowing that my efforts at least register. it gives me a sense of context for why i want to do this - i can check this topic just to look at the nice replies if i am begin to teeter a bit

Tonight I went to another meeting and I joined that group, cos I like the place it is in and the crowd is pretty varied. So I might become a regular at that one, showing up to set up the chairs and serve tea/coffee etc before it starts. Could be nice. 10 days. It's actually not been a bad day, so it is a start at least.

As for the meetings getting repetitive - I mean, yeah, some of the stuff is a bit dogmatic and at least for now, I don't connect with any of it at all (can't do spirituality/god), but people mostly just talk about their lives and for the most part I recognise bits and pieces in everyone. It helps, I guess.

I'm agnostic, but I follow Buddhism as much as I can. For us westerners it's a philosophy of life (for tibetans and further east, a religion), it doesn't have a god, just a teacher that teaches us the way to overcome suffering (the Buddha).
I have several books about buddhism and the dalai lama, and reading them gives me a lot of serenity and peace of mind, and stability and clarity about what things in life are important. Sometimes it's not that buddhism teaches me things, it has many concepts that I know myself already, but to hear/read these concepts being told by someone else is on one hand affirming and strengthening one's own considerations about many thing, and on the other, revealing new details.

This is just a suggestion, as I see you brought up the spirituality word.

Out of all the relgions, I'd have to say that buddism is the most... realistic? I mean forexample science has uncovered that reality might be a hologram or simulation and buudism basicly says the world that we currently inhabit isn't real.
What I'm trying to say is that It's the closest religion to what I belive in.

Buddhism basically is agnosticism, but it ain't monolithic there's a lot of varieties and some are almost indistinguishable from deity-worship.
I'd be down with it if it weren't for the aesceticism, I'm too much of a decadent hedonistic neurotic. I'll never reach nirvana with all the baggage I'm carrying.

Buddhism basically is agnosticism, but it ain't monolithic there's a lot of varieties and some are almost indistinguishable from deity-worship.
I'd be down with it if it weren't for the aesceticism, I'm too much of a decadent hedonistic neurotic. I'll never reach nirvana with all the baggage I'm carrying.

You refer to the buddhist concept of emptiness, that all things in an objective reality have no value, and that it's people and their subjective perception of things that end up giving thing value, and thus end up suffering from it. Example: a pencil for a dog is a piece of wood, but for us it's an instrument for writing, so we are giving the pencil a value of utility. Same goes with friends and people we give our affection, we create these values on these people, and when they disappoint us, we suffer.
Jamie has given alcohol a very extreme value, and he's been attached to it and dependent to it. When really alcohol is this substance that should have no significance at all, in an objective reality. It's just that us humans, inevitably end up putting value on things and then end up fucking shit up and suffer.

Buddhist monks take this concept to the extreme and real significance, and follow asceticism. But the regular buddhist person don't follow this to its extreme. What I'm trying to say is that for us, normal people who fall in love and may have addicting tendencies to whatever, it is very useful to understand the concept of emptiness, to avoid great suffering once these things we give value betray us.


Also Buddhism is monolithic itself: it's the Buddha and his teachings.
Thing is that to make it accessible to people in the past, it has been combined with the religions/traditions at the time. In Tibet, the deities that we see in their gompas belong to the previous Bon tradition. When Buddhism was introduced in Tibet, it was made cohesive with the religion of the time.
It's also true that even in Tibet there are 4 branches of Buddhism... the Dalai Lama belongs to one of them, the yellow hats (in western slang). I don't know where the differences lie. If it is a historical dispute, an interpretative dispute, etc.

Also Buddhism is monolithic itself: it's the Buddha and his teachings.
Thing is that to make it accessible to people in the past, it has been combined with the religions/traditions at the time. In Tibet, the deities that we see in their gompas belong to the previous Bon tradition. When Buddhism was introduced in Tibet, it was made cohesive with the religion of the time.
It's also true that even in Tibet there are 4 branches of Buddhism... the Dalai Lama belongs to one of them, the yellow hats (in western slang). I don't know where the differences lie. If it is a historical dispute, an interpretative dispute, etc.

it's not any more monolithic than Christianity, which bases itself on the bible... but you've got catholics, eastern orthodox, LDS, witnesses, evangelicals, etc. Same with Islam which is based on the Quran but you've got Shia, Sunni, Sufism, etc.

Point being, Buddhism as 'practice' is varied regionally and historically; my wife is a Korean Buddhist and from what she tells me there are sects that pray to Buddha like a god or something which is vastly different from a lot of other interpretations and practices.

IMO, it's bullshit. I like being attached to things, falling in love, indulging, etc. I can't be bothered to mystify any of that shit. materialist 4 lyfe

yo j boy i am totes supportive of you havin' this recovery topic!

i'm so glad we've started talking more recently, because you really are a funny, intelligent, and rad dude! unfortunately, alcohol gets in the way of those great aspects-- so i'll be very glad for it to not be part of your life anymore! seeing you struggle with alcoholism has been difficult for all your pals, and i've been one of many who has worried about you recently.

i'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you're having with quitting... but i am 100% POSITIVE that you can get through it!! once you get past all this, and get your life in order, i guarantee it'll all be worth it! just remember that conversation we had about how one day you're gonna have a stable life, being an awesome dad and making music and playing with puppies and doing everything you love. you are young and talented, and i just know that someday you're gonna have a very happy and successful life. right now, you're taking the first steps to get there! maaann i'm not even a super positive person or anything, but this is all completely the truth of what i think, and i'm so excited for it to happen, and so i just wanna encourage the HECK out of you!! aaaaa!!

addiction suuuuccks. i know how difficult it is, both through witnessing addiction in people close to me, and in having my own share of substance problems (i've been addicted to both DXM and Xanax). my sister almost lost her life because of being addicted to heroin (and other substances), and it was a struggle for my whole family during the years when she was in the thick of battling those addictions. ugh, i don't even want to think back to those messed-up days... bad times, yo. but now, my sister is totally sober, and her life is so much better because of it! it's awesome to see how much things have changed since she overcame her substance abuse problems. of course, i know she's still an addict on the inside, and every day can still be a struggle-- but now, she's well-equipped to deal with her issues (and even potential relapses). aahh, i'm so proud of her for turning her life around~ :D and i'm proud of you, jamie, for starting to do the same~ :>

what my sister did when she was first starting recovery was to do this whole "90 meetings in 90 days" thing. right after getting sober, she forced herself to go three months without having a single day where she didn't go to a meeting (AA/NA/etc). it sure kept her busy, which was exactly what she needed. and she met some very helpful people. she still occasionally goes to meetings nowadays. she also got help from individual therapy, a few in-patient and out-patient rehab programs, and of course from her friends and family.

recovery is all about building up those support systems! and you've already got a great network of online friends who will support you and do whatever we can to help. you can do it bro!! keep on keepin' on~! n_n

addicted to DXM? how'd that go? how addictive is that?
im curious because sometimes i like to fuck around with that :>

best of luck, jamie. also strength.