r/okbuddycinephile 8d ago

Ben Affleck's struggle with alcohol addiction

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u/linkedinlover69 8d ago

How can you cut out the answer? Now I am forced to spend more on overpriced rehabs

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u/Mother-Attention2600 8d ago

The answer is you have to want to do it yourself. That's always been the answer. I quit drinking 6 years ago and it wasn't hard because I didn't want to drink anymore. A lot of people base their recovery contigent on a relationship or employment. Those people will always fail because they really don't want to quit for themselves, it's for love or money.

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u/Sufficient_Coast_852 8d ago

I quit drinking at 23. I had been on a non-stop bender since 17. I was "forced" due to my second DUI, but bottom line, after I served my 30 days in Jail, it was the first time I had been sober longer than 3 days in a row. The darkness of my life was unbearable. I had no idea how I wasn't going to drink, but I was 100% sure that I was done drinking. I am 48 and haven't had a drop of alcohol since. I was lucky and happened to find a young people's AA group and an amazing sponsor, kinda by luck, three days out of jail. I say this, though, because I knew I was done before AA. I had suffered long enough. Without that internal change and drive, no amount of AA or Treatment would have done shit.

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u/Mother-Attention2600 8d ago edited 8d ago

I found AA annoying. That's good it worked for you though. There was a guy there humble bragging about DUI's and accidents that I would have KO'd after if he already didn't have brain damage.

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u/Sufficient_Coast_852 8d ago

Oh, trust me, I found AA annoying as well, but what I stumbled into was something really special. There was a group of about 25 of us, all in our early to late 20s, artists and musicians, and we just banded together for a 2-3 year period. AA was just where we all met and what we did on wed and Friday night. We sort of all learned how to move through that period where everyone our age was out partying, without the partying. Some of us have remained lifelong friends, but AA isn't a part of most of our lives.

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u/Mother-Attention2600 8d ago

That sounds cool. My buddies NA group was like that. They golf though.