Stop Drinking Support Thread

Bumping to keep this topic active.

Hi, I bumped your topic because I understand the issue you are having. I have also tried to give up alcohol without great success.

When I was first diagnosed with bc I gave up 'cold turkey' the same day and did not drink for several months but restarted after that.

I've tried counselling but the fact is I enjoy alcohol. I also got to the point of requesting medication (Revia) which acts on the brain to remove the sensation of enjoyment associated with drinking, but I have never actually taken it!

There are other discussions here on the topic. If you search for the word alcohol you may find them. I'll have a look and bump one that may be useful.

If you want to give up or limit, I suggest talk to your doctor about it in the first instance.

I have decided that I am absolutely not going to give it up. There are a zillion things we can do or not do, but really, would you invest your last dollar in any of these theories. I went crazy initially trying to learn everything and do everything right. I just drove myself crazy. I do weigh much less and am in excellent physical condition, which I hope to maintain, but the wine is back on the table. Moderation is key of course, but I push that button too. A glass or two is part of who I am and will always be. Now that does not help the persons here who wanst help to quit. The help will depend on specifics like how much you want to cut back. It is very specific to each person. If you provide specifics, I have lots of suggestions that worked for me the first year before I had the "reverse" New Year's Resolution. Lol

I've carefully watched my intake since my diagnosis. I wasn't a huge drinker before, but I too enjoy wine with dinner, or beer. In the two years before my diagnosis I had taken up the hobby of homebrewing my own beer. I haven't wanted to continue that hobby since diagnosis, the equipment is just sitting in my basement. I automatically associated the hobby with BC. I read a bunch of studies and talked to my MO and now am very careful to have no more than 5 drinks per week. The fact is that moderate consumption reduces heart disease (a common killer), but too much alcohol raises the risk of getting BC.

Here are a few interesting studies I found: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20805458

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23150063

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23569314

I am not a huge proponent of drinking, especially if you already do not. But I rarely hear anyone on these boards admit that they even or ever drink and here we all are with breast cancer. Beesie was a master at interpreting study results and believe me, that is no easy art. I miss her dearly. Search Beesie and Alcohol and you will find the one study that shows two drinks a day and your life long increase is about 1%. There are many things we do that increase our odds much greater than that. Now if you want to unturn every pepple on the beach like I initially did, you may think that by leaving just one pepple will cause your cancer to come back. Like I said, I made myself sick thinking this way and it took my amazing oncology psychiatrist to put me back together, even with a little wine. And I was looking for support for my drinking, so I do understand your fear. I have just controlled my drinking much more carefully, eat lots of natural form folate, exercise and breath. Like my psychiatrist stated, they are so quick to ban alcohol, but how about monitoring your weight just as closely and exercise, which has shown even greater benefit. He must like wine too

I like wine (or is it I liked wine?). I used to have a glass almost every night (maybe 5 or 6 nights a week) and on fairly rare occasions 2 so I put 5-7 drinks a week on my medical forms and nobody mentioned a thing. I in fact am scared because other life stuff got bad over the summer (soon after diagnosis) and I drank way more wine than that for a month or two.

It wasn't until I felt like I could crawl out from under and breathe about a month ago (3.5 months post diagnosis) that I read up on it and stopped.

I've not found it hard to stop but I do miss how it tasted and the act of sitting down with a glass and a book or a t.v. show once the kids were in bed and the dishes done(warm milk or a Diet Coke just doesn't cut it yet) and I am worried and don't know just how to bring up with my dr (or even if it is worthwhile to bring up now I know better and have stopped) that I've made things way worse.

Anyhow, anew normal I suppose.

I'll admit I drank like a fish through my 20's and 1/2 of my 30's. In all honestly probably a functioning alcoholic. I was never physically addicted but I liked (like?) the mental release. When I got pregnant I quit immediately and felt fine, just a slightly more boring version of myself. Once I had my kid and some daily medicine that didn't mix I toned it down to 2 times a week. My husband and I would split a 12 pack and play drinking games with our favorite tv shows. I miss those care free times, although without me knowing it I was probably working on killing myself. Last time I drank was for our anniversary (early October) and I've had surgery and antibiotics since then and haven't thought much about it. I'm SO stressed I feel the need to "check out" so in lieu of beer I tried a pot brownie (legal here in Washington) and it sucked. But, if no alcohol will help my chances of getting to see my little boy grown up, then no alcohol it is. I just need to find a new hobby, stress reliever, and fun time mechanism. Cross stitching anyone?

I've pretty much given up alcohol since my diagnosis with Stage IV (three years ago) because I am afraid of the se's when combining my meds with wine (or single malt) - I live alone and don't want to be the old lady they find dead in her apartment X days later! Also the effect of alcohol on our livers - glad I saved mine for the latest abuse.