SR...

AA Meetings don't work every time. The person really has to be ready to call it quits. People who are court ordered don't do very well. But I know they would help you because you are ready.

All you have to do is get in the door and your attitude will improve.
Why?
Because you had the ****ing balls to take that first step.

It's a nasty disease. I have helped two people whom I cared for who suffered from it. Both of these guys were killing themselves, their families, and their careers. Nothing to be embarrassed about, though. In fact, one of those guys is someone every Planeteer has heard of. I would wager that 90% of the posters on this board have at least one of his records. So, I can tell you that it's a disease that can affect anyone. No respecter of income, status, or fame. It's a disease, though. Nothing more. So it's treatable.

So ... here's the deal. You need to start going to meetings. You need to do 90 meetings in 90 days. Look up AA in the yellow pages or on the net. Call the main number in your city. They will tell you where the nearest meeting is. If you can't find a meeting, tell me what city you're in and I'll find one for you. I'll find several, so you can select the one closest to you.

There is only one treatment for this, Mr. Simply Red. Only one. 1. Self-diagnosis and self-help isn't it. Get your ass to a meeting and do it today. It's a small step. Just replace doing the laundry or playing video games or watching an hour of television with a meeting. That's all there is to it. Let me know after you've gone and tell me what you thought about it.

FAX

ROFL

Quite a number, Mr. Simply Red. I've been in the music business, after all. Check out my post above.

I'm quite serious, by the way. There's only one way to deal with it. Only one.

FAX

it's tough to have it all you have stress jobs busy schedules and a drinking problem, to really quit you have to put sobriety #1

Everybody goes through the shame. Everybody. It's natural.

It's beneficial, though. Because, after awhile, you get so ashamed and pissed off that, if you're smart, you finally wind up going to meetings. Meetings be good.

FAX

I do. His last drunkin night was with me. We were at work late at night finishing a huge project. He was the editor and I was his post super. We had been working hard on this. We had a bottle of vodka in the freezer waiting for us. When we were done we opened the bottle to toast our success. We ended up finishing the bottle that night and were both smashed. We both had a drinking problem. Neither of us could stop at just one drink. One drink leads to another and then another until we're drunk. If you can't get drunk, what's the point of drinking, right? Anyway, the next day he went to an AA meeting. He thought it was BS in the beginning, but then something kicked in. He hasn't had a drink since then. I am jealous of him. I still have a problem and am a functional alchoholic (at least in my mind I'm functional) He, on the otherhand has taken control of his problem. Go to a meeting, that needs to be your first step. Forget about everything else and just go. Like I said, one step at a time.

This is true. Meetings aren't magic rituals. They don't work if the person isn't ready - as is the case when you're forced to go by the courts. But they don't work at all, Mr. Gonzo, if you don't go to them.

Meetings are the only way to treat this problem. Nothing else works. AA is an inspired program, in many ways. Guys will try and gut it out and, even if they quit, they eventually get very bitter about life.

Meetings be good.

FAX

Mr. Simply Red ... you'll meet some very cool people at meetings. Doctors, lawyers, hot chicks, bums ... everybody and anybody.

I've gone with friends to dozens and dozens of meetings. I like them. People being real. Where in the fuck do you ever see that?

Get your ass to a meeting. Then, do 90 meetings in 90 days. It's really that simple.

FAX

Exactly the point. I think SR is more than ready. I hope he takes your advice sir...

read through tons and tons of drug sobriety websites, the people who manage themselves, think it isn't bad, do it on their own, always relapse and hurt themselves or others.

90 meetings in 90 days, yikes! Start with 1 meeting and then 2 and then 3. 90 meetings in 90 days seems unatainable. Which may keep people from trying at all.

Hang in there and get yourself to an AA meeting bud.

JMO, start off with 1 and grow from there.