Anyone know of any free on line courses to help me cut down on alcohol please
Courses: Anyone know of any free on line... - British Liver Trust
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Knittings
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I’m an ex-drinker who was dependent and had to stop.
I never thought about online courses. The thing that saved me was talking to my GP. The site below might get able to offer input.
If you’re that concerned about your drinking, the best (and believe it or not, easiest) way is to stop forever. It sounds like a daunting prospect, but once you have that mindset of not drinking, it seems so obvious.
Good luck whichever way you cut down or hopefully quit.
I found this method life changing. “Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction”. I didn’t go on any courses, I just bought and read the book thoroughly. It was brilliant.
Your Gp can also put you into contact w.ith your local NHS Drug and Alcohol Centre they can prescribe medication to take away the cravings or physically deter you 🤮!! I have no experience of them personally .
That’s what my GP did. The first thing I’ll say is that the GP was really happy I told her about my drinking. You can imagine a GP having to deal with many lifestyle-related issues, so when someone is proactive, it must make a GP’s day. There was no telling off or lecturing.
The support agency was hit and miss to be honest. All I wanted was some tablets called Campral which reduce alcohol cravings. I had to see a counsellor first and it wasn’t so helpful, but maybe others will have more success.
It was a lot of effort on my part to get those tablets, and I’d pretty much decided to quit anyway. Having to do all that did bring it home that I’d have to do it all over again if I relapsed. It’s another reason to steer clear of alcohol.
I think online help only is OK but not as good as telling your GP. You’re then accountable to a professional. They’ll be asking about your drinking every time you see them. Lying to a GP is just wrong.
Hi ya what a wonderful powerful response.
I know what you mean you should of come to my local one he just wanted to prescribe medication. I went to be honest to tick a show willing box all my options had gone I just had to give up as per my profile.
The question comes up a lot on here it’s could to know the additional information.
Thanks for that !!
Sadly I’m sure some GPs aren’t so helpful, but you’ve shown what else you need - willpower, lots of. It’s hard to describe the first few weeks of stopping alcohol after years of boozing. I have full sympathy for recovering heroin addicts and the like, but that withdrawal (in the case of alcohol as I can’t comment on heroin) eases off after a couple of weeks.
On 28th Dec it will be 2 years since I stopped drinking. I’m currently on the liver transplant list and the journey to this continued sobriety has been peppered with ill health. Ironically, it’s made that journey so much easier as once I’d fully detoxed, I realised what a grip alcohol had on my life.
Like CocoChanel wrote above, my GP has been staggering in her unwavering support, guidance and care. I didn’t have any medication to help me stop but I was so poorly, as I said, this took up my time just trying to stabilise and lose the “quadruplets I was carrying aka fluid retention.”
I’ve written before of the enjoyment alcohol brought me. My addiction was to champagne and similar extremely dry fizzy wines: ice cold condensation running down the glass and losing myself as the first swallow full of delicious bubbles made its way down my throat was a thing of beauty. I’ve tried to “examine my navel” but in truth, I have no traumatic childhood nor skeletons in the closet nor bogeymen that I’m running from. Put simply, I’m an alcoholic who can’t be trusted with a bottle of champers as it leads to two bottles. For 10 years or more I drank 2 bottles, every night in life.
I decided with my near tea total, long suffering current husband, to open a savings account in jan ‘19 and to bank the money I would spend on alcohol. We are not especially wealthy but have sufficient as I worked full time as a Consultant Biochemist whilst drinking and funding #1 son through university. To my horror, I had accumulated close to £4600 when Captain Tom walked around his garden so we donated it to his efforts and closed the account. But if you told me that’s how much I spent or asked me to find£4.6k to blow on gambling for example, I’d have been unable to lay my hands instantly on such an amount of throwaway cash.
Paradoxically and perhaps perversely, as the days turn into weeks waiting for the call for the transplant, I think more often of a glass of chilled bubbles to calm me down. More so than I have thought of alcohol since quitting. To my everlasting shame, I’ve come to realise that it’s now no longer the threat of imminent death that stops me drinking, but rather it’s the prospect of losing life. My days are 24hrs long, I don’t have to worry about who I talked to the night before and worse still what I promised to do to help them. I want to move back to my home in Gods only Country, and walk those “Bonny banks”, get eaten alive by midges and have a crispy bread roll with potato scone, black pudding and egg not having to worry about the salt content.
I remember things so much more easily and can now fully recall chemical formulae and theory’s I learnt squillions of years ago at uni. I ask myself if I’m too late to seek out my burning desire to be UK Prime Minister....and is my driving ability really so bad -is it my fault that I can’t reverse or is the female brain compensated with other skills. Can I write that book I know is in me.....or learn to knit which surprisingly scares me and #1 son more.
How do I stop that chimp on my back saying in my ear “cleverness doesn’t equate to wisdom”, how could you a Biochemist pretend, Scottish Celtic genes protected you from life long alcohol damage? Drunken fool.
I’m sorry for the lengthy reply but I think I wanted to share with you 3 things and gave you the context I’ve learnt them in: stop beating yourself up; sobriety is a conscious choice along a never ending journey, respect and savour it and don’t be afraid of it; and lastly, life is for living, just do it.
I take my hat off to you, it’s an awe inspiring road that you’ve embarked upon, always ask for help and guidance along the way. This forum has been my medication in the darkest of times, there’s always someone listening.
Alicia xxx
Well said.
A few years ago I did a mindfulness course and I really learnt a lot about myself and my behaviours, not just with alcohol! I believe there are free online courses and there is loads of info on You Tube. You might need to shop around though, as Mindfulness has become very popular and there may be a few poor teachers around🙏
Not mindfulness as such, but this is related. I now do a type of yoga. It’s so important to me that I’ve continued doing it with my instructor one-to-one outdoors during lockdown 2.0. It’s not easy. I normally feel like throwing up! But whatever stress you have, and I’m in a new career now and working/studying all hours, it’s all forgotten.
One to one yoga where everything is done right for 90 minutes is a revelation. Doing it in a group doesn’t come close.
All these activities are all good.
I just watched kevin oharra's alcohol Mastery videos on youtube
The 30 day alcohol experiment by This Naked Mind.
