I admit it, I'm an alcoholic - but I don't drink alcohol anymore!!!

There are an awful lot of people out there that don't realise that they have a drink problem when really, they do. I was one of them. Are you too? Are you willing to take on board what's really happening to you and do something about it too?

I, like everyone else, started drinking in my md-teens and at the time it was seen as great fun. Then my friends and I became old enough to go to the pub so we did. It rapidly became the social centre for us all. It would have been great but I could also buy alcohol, as much as I could put money on the bar for, anyway.

Unfortunately, that was what I did. Probably like everyone else that went down this road, I drank a hell of a lot, every night of the week but never had the sense to think about it and cut down before I became an alcoholic.

But I didn't. For whatever reason I just carried on and became an alcoholic. Personally, I think that the main reason was stupidity but that's another subject for another day. I became and stayed an alcoholic for decades until even I had to accept the fact. I had to accept that I was a person with a drink problem. I had to have a drink at this point to stop the sweating and shaking. I had to take on board and accept that I am an alcoholic - and I always will be.

It only took me a month to sort it out and I'll tell you how I did it.

I bet you can do it too.

Perhaps it sounds a bit silly but for two weeks I thought through the problem, whether or not I was the alcoholic that, in my heart, I knew I was. I thought through with myself just what I wanted to do. I could have decided to carry on regardless. If I had then would I be alive now? I don't know but I have my suspicions. Anyway, I though about it for a couple of weeks and came to the conclusion that, yes, I am an alcoholic and yes, I am giving up. It sounds like an awful long time to make a decision like that but for me it has to be done like that. It gives me the time to think through all the thoughts that come up, all the excuses too and there were more than just a few, believe me.

When I started into the second two weeks the first thing that I worked on was setting the date, deciding when I would actually have my last drink and give up. There were points throughout where thought came through, telling myself that I was wrong, that I didn't need to do this but they were generated primarily by fear. If you take this on then it will be similar for you too. There is only one thing that you can do and that is be honest with yourself. That is the most powerful tool that you will ever have, honesty. I listened to it, I stuck the time out until it got to the time decided. When it came I had my last drink and stopped. Job done, simple as that.

After giving up it wasn't too bad. I kept in mind the fact that I no longer drank alcohol. I made sure that there were lots of tins of coke in the house, lots of my favourite teabags and a good supply of my favourite foods. That was money well spent for the next couple of months as it helped to keep my mind off the drink.

If you're thinking of giving up then please, think about how I went about it, how I dealt with it. It worked for me and was relatively painless too.

Go on, give it a go!!!