I think i may have a problem

[Monique]

hello, i think i may have a problem with Alcohol, i am a transgendered woman, but for me i cant stop thinking of drinking a beer and when i do its usually more than 3 a day. usually i will get drunk and pass out. i do think i am addicted and depend on alcohol to make me feel better about myself.

[Shantel]

One alcoholic to another I'd say you diagnosed that right. Get some help, if you can't afford a treatment program the Salvation Army is a good bet. My neighbor went there addicted to cocaine and he's been clean and sober for several years now and they helped him for free.

[Monique]

thank you shantel, i will defiantly seek some help for my alcohol addiction.

[Vicky]

Hi Lavinia, I'm Vicky and I am an Alcoholic

it sounds to me as if you have already taken the first STEP out of 12 into sobriety.  You have admitted that you have a problem with alcohol that you are powerless to control by yourself. That is essentially the first step put out in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.  It is important and necessary for you to recognize that to have a chance at sobriety that is happy and life fulfilling.  Yes, I am giving a small commercial for Alcoholics Anonymous, but it has helped me and been a real lifeline for the past 5.5 years.  The "rooms" of all AA meetings are open to all people who desire to stop drinking.  That is the ONLY requirement for membership, the desire, even if you are still using, the desire to stop enough.  There are meetings where Trans* people are becoming very openly accepted, and we are leading meetings and telling our stories to other people who will support us in our lives free of the booze.

There are also online AA meetings, including a couple via Skype for Trans* people and another TG site has Chat AA/NA meetings on a regular basis.

I began this current climb up the Steps after trying to drink myself to death through the Addiction Medicine Department of my HMO, who pulled a surprise on me by pulling in the help of a GT in the same HMO who coached my AM therapist and his boss (an MD) into getting me the diagnosis letters I needed for HRT and GCS.  That was something to sober up to.

Google Alcoholics Anonymous and plug in your Zip Code and it will give you meetings in your neighborhood, and you can do it for your work neighborhood also if you need help at lunch time.  Go for it girl, it is your life and the best is yet to come.

[Shantel]

Hi Vicky,
     Yes AA is good if you can find a smoke free meeting, otherwise they're going to kill you with second hand smoke. If it isn't one addiction it's another, haven't met a good looking sex addict yet, but I'm holding out.....

[Vicky]

Shantel -- Here in California, our meetings ARE smoke free indoors, and the secretary usually warns folks that one door is for smokers to go outside and do it, and the other is for free breathers. 

In my Addiction Medicine  Program though, it was a different issue, you HAD TO STOP EVERYTHING including the smoking!!  We did have smaller groups that way though!!

About the other addiction you bring up, let me know when you find one, maybe we can share him!!

[Shantel]

Shantel -- Here in California, our meetings ARE smoke free indoors, and the secretary usually warns folks that one door is for smokers to go outside and do it, and the other is for free breathers. 

In my Addiction Medicine  Program though, it was a different issue, you HAD TO STOP EVERYTHING including the smoking!!  We did have smaller groups that way though!!

About the other addiction you bring up, let me know when you find one, maybe we can share him!!

Don't want to derail this thread but think you said you live in Portland? I'm in Seattle. Well we could entice him by suggesting a menage et trois at mid point perhaps?     

[Monique]

i actually live in Providence Rhode Island, there is a Portland not to far from me in Maine. ive been mostly looking for AA groups around Providence even as far as Boston.

[Shantel]

i actually live in Providence Rhode Island, there is a Portland not to far from me in Maine. ive been mostly looking for AA groups around Providence even as far as Boston.

Hi Lavinia,
       I think Vicky lives in Portland, Oregon. You can probably google up some AA groups somewhere in your area I would think, they are world wide and have meetings everywhere.

[Monique]

i will defiantly do that, thanks again for helping me out when i needed it. i hope for the best for everyone

[Shantel]

i will defiantly do that, thanks again for helping me out when i needed it. i hope for the best for everyone

Big family here, we're here for you hon!

[Vicky]

Sorry Shantel, its the Pasadena area of Southern California, aka the San Gabriel Valley. Matter of 900 miles too far south.

Lavinia, there are some AA meetings in the Providence RI area that are GLBT.  I know, because a person I chatted with online belonged to one of them for a while. Contact the local GLBT center there and also see if there are other general addiction recovery group, or if they have the Short List of AA meetings.

[Oriah]

12 step programs can be very, very disempowering; trying to get people to believe they are powerless.  You could check out something like www.hamsnetwork.org/ 

From one user to another, just remember you do not have to admit you are powerless to get past addiction...you have the power within yourself....giving your life over to a higher power is not a requirement.  Nor is permanent abstinence.  Determine your goal (for example total sobriety, or only drinking once a month, or only having one drink per day) and work toward achieving it.  And don't be too hard on yourself if you slip up; but find the strength to dust yourself off and try again.

[Danielle Emmalee]

Don't mean to be a party pooper, but sex addiction is no joke.  It can ruin lives and can be unhealthy just as easily as any other addiction.  Okay, that's all I have to say.  Carry on.

[Vicky]

Don't mean to be a party pooper, but sex addiction is no joke.  It can ruin lives and can be unhealthy just as easily as any other addiction.  Okay, that's all I have to say.  Carry on.

You are quite right, and apologies are due for that one!!  I had a person in one of my medically supervised groups that was suffering badly from it, along with a family.  Lapse of judgment and thinking can occur even when sober.

Oriah -- you or anyone who can do things the way shown in your post, everyone in AA will take their literal hats off to those who can do it under those circumstances.  There is a quote in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous from the time it was written that clearly says if you can stop drinking and lead a sober life in control of your drinking you are a fine and wonderful person and AA will honor those folks.  Those of us in the program that cannot do it that way, will continue to do it our way and enjoy our fully empowered lives as they are given to us. 

[Monique]

i have actually cut down a lot on my drinking, i now only drink 1 beer once in awhile, but caffeine i stil have a problem with i need caffeine to wake up and it makes me sick sometimes when i drink too much of it.

[Vicky]

Good for you Hun, the possibilities for help will be there if you need them though!!