Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

[DeeBee]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Afternoon Squad,

Had a hectic day and I've just managed to get on-line and catch up on the thread, and boy was there a lot to catch up on.
You know, I was thinking whilst I was reading, that when this thread started not so long ago, we didn't really share anything meaningful other than what our modding goals are. This thread and all of us who are apart of it have come along way. We encourage, support and respect one another.... this thread is amazing.

Zed, it is so great to hear a mans perspective on this. I hear you on feeling down but you know that is one of the triggers for AL. Think H.A.L.T... are you maybe feeling Lonely and Tired?
You are such a joy to have around even when you are feeling SAD, stick around and we'll be sure to cheer you up:-)
I am so enjoying your daily OM lesson. I have very limited knowledge of India but I read a book a little while ago "Eat, Pray, Love" that really got my interested pipped and it is now on my top 100 list of things to do.

Lila, you are sounding so chipper this morning.... I can feel it coming thru in your post. Good on you for stepping up your programme to the next level. It is always a good idea to re-evaluate when you are not reaching you goals and put a new plan in place.

Vera, I am waiting on tender hooks for you to finish reading your book...lol. Seriously a good friend has suggested that I have a chat to hubby about how I am feeling. Seems so obvious now that she mentioned it. So I am going to give it a lot of thought before I approach him. He must understand that this is an issue for ME and not about him so I want to have my thoughts and intentions clear in my head before having a chat with DH.

J-Vo, I feel just like a newborn, experiencing things for the first time.... it's exciting, daunting and oh so wow. So yes, I love the support and understanding from all of you here - we are going through it together.

Peri, you know I was a bit hesitant to put in on the boards what is happening in the bedroom so to speak. I am so relieved to hear that I am not the only one experiencing this... makes me feel kinda normal... only kinda tho lol! BTW I have always looked at the pic of your baby mountain goat and wondered what the meaning was - thanks for sharing.

Sun, for me personally I hope to stay close to this site years and years down the line. Although I have a wonderful loving family and a network of friends, there isin't anyone that understands what I am going through nor would they know how to advise me if I was not coping. It is too readily acceptable to drink in my society and they're idea of AL Addiction is a homeless person on the street - they don't believe it could happen to a nice young girl like me.

WIP, "alcohol dependance" and "alcohol abuse".... it reminded me of an argument a friend of mine always agrued. He always claimed that the drugs he took (mostly cocaine and pills) were "mind enhancing" and not "mind altering" like AL is - his reasoning as to why drugs were better for us than AL. Funny how this has always stuck in my head. I have always viewed AL as an enhancer to my personallity until after a particular rough night DH told me what I said and did the night before. That's NOT ME! Was my first thought. That was the day I found MWO. invaluable. Thanks for your input WIP... always gets my brain matter moving.

Eve, BH, Panadol, Vlad, St John and anyone I've forgotten, I hope you are all well and living the life!

[zed]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

The Bright Gods

Hello W.I.P., so nice to hear from you!

I am well, living...breathing. Will write to you about some things you referred to shortly. First though, wanted to send you one of my favorite verses: you must be familiar with this, from the Dharmapada (Dhammapada), chtpr 15 i think, entitled Happiness:


197. Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us! among those who hate us let us dwell free from hatred!

198. Let us live happily then, free from ailments among the ailing! among those who are ailing let us dwell free from ailments!

199. Let us live happily then, free from greed among the greedy! among those who are greedy let us dwell free from greed!

200. Let us live happily then, though we call nothing our own! We shall be like the bright gods, feeding on happiness!

201. Victory breeds hatred, for the conquered is unhappy. He who has given up both victory and defeat, he, the contented, is happy.

202. There is no fire like passion; there is no losing throw like hatred; there is no pain like this body; there is no happiness higher than rest.

203. Hunger is the worst of diseases, the body the greatest of pains; if one knows this truly, that is Nirvana, the highest happiness.

204. Health is the greatest of gifts, contentedness the best riches; trust is the best of relationships, Nirvana, the highest happiness.

205. He who has tasted the sweetness of solitude and tranquility, is free from fear and free from sin, while he tastes the sweetness of drinking in the law.

206. The sight of the Chosen is good, to live with them is always happiness; if a man does not see fools, he will be truly happy.

207. He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way; company with fools, as with an enemy, is always painful; company with the wise is pleasure, like meeting with kinsfolk.

208. Therefore, one ought to follow the wise, the intelligent, the learned, the much enduring, the dutiful, the Chosen; one ought to follow a good and wise person, as the moon follows the path of the stars.

[zed]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

going into the second & third state...

folks,

so the day is done here in china. almost midnight. i received a lovely message from the Better Half, and so feel nice about that.

As John & Paul and Ringo & George said, which sums it ALL up for me: "all you need is Love!"

had a good laugh just now

So... tomorrow is another day and we live to fight on. I read some interesting, very powerful posts on other forums, threads, tonight. Been lurking. I try to leave a message on any thread I've been on though... consider that courteous!

Ok folks, have a good DAY you all, and Deebs, have a GREAT EVENING.

Hugs.

[DeeBee]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Thanks Zed, loving the Hoff lol!!

I loved the verse - I am copying and pasting it with the OM's to print out.

[zed]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Cheers Deebs, over & out. Chat soon. take good care of yourself! Z

[periwinkle]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

zed, thank you so much for the om lesson 2. I had to make the font very small to get everything on the back of the tile. Later I thought I could have just folded it up LOL! Yes, the tile is powerful, I had to laugh when I saw it at the shop where I purchased it, the tag said "ohm" which of course has something to do with electricity, oh well I was attracted to the tile, not the store keepers spelling ability. I also enjoyed your Happiness quotes from the Dharmapada. I may have missed this if you have already told us. Have you read the MWO book? What are your mod goals? Are you taking any supplements or meds? What about the hypnotherapy cd's? I think many of us to find the supps and cd's to be very helpful. It sounds like you are doing well moderating whatever you are doing. If you are drinking less than before something must be working. I'm a pusher of checking the motives before having the drink (or 2). I haven't gotten past my 30 day AF period yet though so time will tell for me.

Lila, glad to hear the l-glut and kudzu are working for you. What are you doing to flatten the tummy? Sounds encouraging!

OMG j-vo, don't make me go back to puberty again! This peri-menopause business is the closest thing I've experienced since that - maybe worse! If I had to do that again... I just don't know :H :H :H

Hi WIP, glad that you check in on us. Your wisdom is always encouraged. I might not always like what I hear but that probably just means that I really need to sit up and listen. Bummer!

DeeBee, I actually thought about starting a thread on the general discussion area about my sober sex issue, then I went, naaaa... Then I thought I could go under an alias, naa, too much work. It really is an issue for me along with my age, as I was loosing interest (as my husband puts it) even before the AF days.

Has anyone heard from Vlad? I'm worried about her.

It's hard to say a personal note to everyone each time. So Hi to everyone else. Not trying to leave you out, will catch up next time. You all mean so much to me! Your posts are all a necessary part of my healing here.

I pulled up a world time zone map from the internet last night just because I was curious to see where everyone is around the globe. It showed the day and night too, so it was helpful.

Have a good one all of you!

periwinkle

[Sunbeam]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Hey all,
Now it's my turn - just lost my post! Accidentally went to another page. That's why it's so hard to reply to everyone. I love you all here.

Zed, thanks for the Yoga philosophy. I took some Yoga last summer: a 5 week class in gentle Yoga, and a 3 hour class for people like me with health problems. It was great, just scratched the surface. My brother was really into Yoga for a long time. He lived for awhile in an ashram in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. He also travelled to India and Tibet.

My mind is still on Eve's question about what we need for long term support. Part of the answer might be found in WIP's post called something like, Do you deserve a drink? I think people who feel deprived when they don't drink (moderately or AF) will need a lot more support. I feel I've reached the grateful mode, where I'm grateful to have put alcohol abuse behind me, grateful for each new day. In that light, I want to include something for which I am grateful in each of my daily posts here. If anyone wants to join in on this, welcome! Today, I am grateful I am enjoying reading books again. After even a glass or two of wine, I used to find it too hard to concentrate. I did read magazines, paged throught catalogs a lot, watched more television.

Take care, all!

[j-vo]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

What's up Modders,
That's what happens when you work with teenagers. You start talking like them! Sorry.

Lila, first of all, your positive energy is coming through my computer. Thank you. And you asked me about my goals. Well, I started my modding a few weeks ago, and I've been meeting all of my goals except one. Two of the three nights I modded, I surpassed my 2 drink limit. I still feel as though I'm moving forward, and have not felt better in years. I'm living life and not afraid of it ... so much. I think it was much more difficult living through daily hangovers and depression from alcohol abuse. Are you doing crunches for tummy control. The low-carb diet, although I can't stick to it, decreases the middle very quickly.

Zed - sorry that you're feeling low. Actually, I've been blessed with SAD (seasonal affective disorder) along with my long list of other disorders. I seem to add a new one each year. I look for trouble! Then I read and read about these things. My whole life I've read self-help books. Gosh. I just took loads of them to the second hand store.

Peri- peri-menopause! I'm going through that too! Ya see. That's my new one for this year. I had out-patient surgery in Sept. to reduce the problems I was having and so far, it's working out well. If you want details, let me know. I don't need to bore everyone with that.

Sunbeam and everyone that reads this - I'm grateful for new friends and a new life.

[j-vo]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

It's me again dawgs (sorry again),

As I mentioned I'm a reader, and can be quite obsessive. Ok. OCD, another one of my blessings. Just this past year, I've ordered several books from Amazon. They're all memoirs of mostly people that have beat alcoholism. At one point, I couldn't stop reading them, as they helped me to connect. I just went into my closet because from time to time, I like to reread, so I don't forget how bad things can get but also, how good life can be. I'm going to list the books here just in case you'd like to look them up and read reviews.

Blackout Girl, Growing up and Drying out in America, Jennifer Storm
A Drinking Life, Pete Hamill
Rolling Away, My Agony with Ecstasy, Lynn Marie Smith
What Did I Do Last Night, Tom Sykes (his sister is a great author too!)
Whiskey's Children, Jack Erdmann
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
Dry, Augusten Burroughs (excellent writer)
Parched, Heather King
Smashed, Koren Zailckas
Drunkard, A Hard-Drinking Life, Neil Steinberg
Drinking, A Love Story (really connected with this one), Caroline Knapp
Broken, William Cope Moyers
The Other Great Depression, Richard Lewis
The End of the World As We Know It, Robert Goolrick

I've read Rational Recovery, but didn't like it much - Jack Trimpey

I just read a fictional book, Rachel's Holiday, which was quite funny about a girl that realizes she's got a drug problem and goes into recovery.

Ya see, a little obsessed.

I can't give a review of each one, but very inspiring, thought provoking books. We're all so much alike, yet so very different, special individuals.

[periwinkle]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

j-vo, I guess you missed my post a few weeks ago when I was threatening to start a thread and call it peri-menopause by peri-winkle. We all got quite a laugh on that one for a while. What kind of surgery does one have for that? Please do send me an e-mail or pm with any info you have. I read in Dr Northrup's book that alcohol cravings can increase (or start for the first time in some cases) during this interesting time in a womans life. So I am not making yet another excuse, but I did find that an interesting piece of data when I read it.

[j-vo]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Peri,
I did miss that post. Who is Dr. Northrup? What is the title of the book. Yes, I'll let you in on the gory details!

[Eve11]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Hey gang,
I had a real tough night for some reason.

Started with 1 glass of wine offered at a friend's house. Realized after the one that I REALLY wanted a 2nd so that crazy craving set in. Thankfully only had the one as I had to drive home but then I got into the wine (left over from the week-end) as I knew the bottle was opened and was there. Then to make matters worse, reverted to the old behavior of "I have to drink the whole bottle!" So had a total of 4 and felt like poop today. Didn't have to work or that would have helped stop me but was still very disappointed in myself.

Talked to an inspirational friend who talked football to me.

Individual success starts with the huddle. With that being said, the huddle helps me be accountable. Think I was saddest about needing to post 4 drinks as I was letting my team down as I really want moderation to work for me and to be a good example for my team so I was beating myself up today.

Was then reminded of the fact that "we all fumble" and then my friend reminded me
of Vince Lombardi's quote "The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling but in rising every time you fall."

I know I need a winning formula for success and I've been trying to figure out what that formula is by reading the posts, sharing with everyone here and figuring out a game strategy with my BFF.
Someone here talked about not planning drinking.

Every week I'm planning drinking as I'm thinking about Fridays and Saturdays as my drinking nights with a weekday added in for emergencies.

I think I need to plan on going AF and drinking in moderation when the opportunity arises and get off of this thinking about when I'll be drinking.

Anyway, I'll still be posting here but will be trying to go AF for awhile.
Hugs to you all!
Eve11

[periwinkle]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

She is an expert on women's health Christiane Northrup, M.D.. There are references to her books there. Sorry zed, probably doesn't interest you in the least.
peri :nutso:

[j-vo]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Peri,
Let me know if that came through on the mail. I never sent one, just replied, so I don't know if I did it correctly.

[j-vo]

Mod Squad Weekly Thread 10th Nov

Eve,
Hang in there. I liked the quote, and that says a lot. After I surpassed my limit on Sat. I was afraid to post it here because I felt like a loser. But then I realized how far I've come, and so have you. Take it easy on yourself. Can you go for a walk and get some fresh air? Something I'm doing because I know I need it - in my plan, I've incorporated two weeks a month of AF time. I think those long stretches of AF will be necessary in my long term success (although I haven't modded for long). Did you take Kudzu or L. Glut? I think I'm going to start carrying some with me just in case anything comes up. Take care and get some rest.