[irishlady]

Hello Aqua, Yes I second all that Kate has just said, but with a few differences.. I have been AF for almost 6 months now..The first two weeks were relatively easy as I was all fired up about never drinking again, also I was taking kudzu and supps three times a day, yes, I had cravings, but I was able to ride them out....

For about 6 or 7 weeks after that I was having cravings every day so I substituted chocolate and cakes for alcohol, bad idea I know, but I thought if I can stop drinking then I can deal with the weight later and it did help with the craving for sugar...

After two months the cravings got less so I stopped taking kudzu but kept on with the other supps, it was mostly at work that they were strongest, you see I work on a checkout in a supermarket and I would say that about 1 in 4 customers buy alcohol, but we were into November and coming up to Christmas so it seemed to me the world and his wife were coming through my till with bottles of drink.... I used a lot of visualisation techniques at that time which were, on the whole successful..

A week before Christmas I had a few really big cravings so I went back onto kudzu straightaway... Went to my daughters for Christmas dinner and all I drank all day was 4 glasses of kudzu which worked....

After New Year I stopped the kudzu once more and have been okay so far, except for a few times when I have really been hit big time.. Each time it happened I would find myself daydreaming about trying to do moderation, imagining what that first glass of wine would taste like, it was so strong I only had to sniff the air and I could smell that fruity smell of blackcurrants tinged with alcohol...If the feeling had been as strong as that during the first few weeks I'm sure I would have cracked and started drinking again, but, like Kate I have come to far now to ever allow myself to go back into that hell hole that I had the good fortune to escape from...

Probably in 4, 5, or even 6 years time I will still get a call from the beast, and I imagine it will be quite a strong one, but by then I will be even stronger than I am now and I will listen to his roar but will happily ignore it....

If I do get a craving now though, the secret is not to get fixated on the thought of the first drink, but take it past that to the time when you are halfway down the second bottle, then one step further to waking up the next morning and all that entails, hangover, remorse, depression, that soon kills any craving stone dead for me....Sometimes now I can go a few days and not think of alcohol at all, even when I am on here talking about it I may feel just a little whisper as it tiptoes through, but I just ignore it and it goes away...

Well I hope that helped, and I wish you good fortune on your journey,

Love, Louise xxx