I know the feeling, I found that after I gave up SI I ended up drinking heavily instead. I think it was the feeling of being disconnected form everything, or of shutting off my thoughts which made me want to get drunk when things go wrong.
Also four basic questions to ask yourself:
Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?
Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning (as an “eye opener”) to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?
These questions are often used by healthcare providers to assess if people are in need of help to stop drinking. If the answer is "yes" to two or more of the above, then you probably need to get some help with this.
From personal experience:
I'm not sure which is worse, for me, I've found that the drinking has been worse, but then I think, in comparison to many other people, my cutting problem wasn't of the same extent. I think you need to weigh it up, firstly: will stopping drinking lead to you cutting again? Or is it possible to do neither? If it is the case that you'll end up doing one or the other until you have an alternate coping strategy in place, then you'll need to look at where each one leads you, and which path you want to avoid. In the long term though, you'll need to find something which isn't damaging in order to cope.
I'm currently trying to give up drinking, and I'm a week into it. I'll say it now, it isn't an easy thing to do, but it is possible. I'm using a combination of will power, and telling people around me that I'm not drinking any more, this has meant that I've been under some peer pressure to drink (I'm student) but people closer to me have generally been supportive. The thing is, you have to make the decision that you want to stop, and genuinely want it for yourself, and then stick to it.
Apparently the amount of time it takes to establish new behaviours is 21 days. A while back I decided not to drink for three weeks, and it worked, by the end of that period, I felt fine and no longer had any cravings, although, at the end of those three weeks I reverted back in spite of having no desire to drink. My advice then, would be to set yourself a target of not drinking for a set amount of time, something which you feel you can cope with, and then go for it. Once you hit your target, extend it. If you slip up, then restart, try and beat your record. Keep doing this until you reach three weeks, if the 21 day thing is right, it should get a lot easier from there on in. Just avoid relapses.
I'm not sure if this helps, but this was my approach to stopping SI, I kept a notebook with a tally chart in it, and counted the days. Every time I got slightly further it felt like an achievement, ok, it isn't perfect, I still slip from time to time, but it got me out of the worst of it. In a way I'm repeating the same process with alcohol, I'm extending out the time without a drink by more and more until I no longer feel the need to drink. Ok, I should probably approach my GP or something, and I think that I would do if it wasn't for the feeling of stigma related to drinking problems, only you know what your ability is to deal with your problems for yourself, if you need help go and get it. If you think you can tackle this by yourself, then go and do it, but be realistic.
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