Bottled-up

Let's talk about the Forum -

Let's talk about the Forum We have just posted a video in the Blog. In this video we discuss our vision for the Forum and invite you to participate in it and connect with each other. Thank you to all of you who do post in the Forum and especially to those of you who post to support other Bottled Up members.

Sorry email should have said - Getting the Best out of Bottled Up -

Sorry email should have said - Getting the Best out of Bottled Up I am so sorry, the previous email should have been entitled Getting the Best out of Bottled Up. AI can be great, but it can sometimes have a mind of its own.

How to detach from drinking behaviour -

How to detach from drinking behaviour Here is a video that we recorded some time ago. However, we believe that it is an important video and it is just as relevant today as it was then.

https://mailchi.mp/bottled-up/how-to-detach-from-drinking-behaviour

How to detach from drinking behaviour While browsing through some files I came across some videos that we had not published. Some were not published because they were targeted at a particular group, others I’m not sure why.

Some confusion about - Would you help a member? -

Some confusion about - Would you help a member? So sorry, it seems that the previous email was not very clear. Thank you to all the people who offered but did not know what was being asked of them

Would you help a member? -

Would you help a member? A member has written in the Bottled Up Forum looking for some advice about an issue in her life. It is an issue that many members of Bottled Up may have faced in the past or are currently facing. So we are asking you, if you can share your experience with her.

The Intervention Course is Now Open

Hi there

The Intervention Course is now open.

Are you tired of trying to motivate your drinker to change and nothing having any effect? Are you tired of being passive and your drinker just going on as usual? Well this course is for you.

The course is designed to take you step by step through the stages needed to plan and ultimately to deliver an Intervention with your drinker. It takes you from
Week 1 where you prepare yourself, through
Week 2 where you define the problem and assemble your team, through
Week 3 where you write your Intervention and research solutions to
Week 4 where you actually deliver the Intervention.

We invite you to join us in what could be a genuine game changer for many of you. The course cost is a £40 one off payment. For that you will get:-

A weekly video of John talking through the stages of the Intervention
• A weekly video answering your questions
• A regular email with tips and hints
• A voucher for 50% off a 1 to 1 with John (£25 instead of £50) to talk about your preparations for the Intervention.

We hope that you will join us in this new venture. We should reassure you that although the course lasts 4 weeks some of you may need longer to prepare. For that reason, you will have access to the course materials for as long as you want or need.

Sign up for the Intervention here.

Is Covid over yet?

We are looking to offer a more focussed series, aimed at teaching specific skills and strategies to families of drinkers. This Accelerated Series will be designed to lead you from essential survival skills building to an Intervention. It will be designed to take you by the hand and walk you through the program in a very accessible and practical way. The series will last between 6 and 8 weeks and will be delivered on a weekly basis.
Find out about our plans here

Accelerated Series – Bottled Up Since we opened Bottled Up over 15 years ago, our website has been visited almost 1 million times looking for information and support, thousands have

Beauty for Ashes

The video below is an introduction to our brand new website, just launched today. We thought that it was time that we talked about our faith. We believe that God can help us with the crises we have in our lives, and this website discusses how He has intervened and help us in our lives through the years.

When we created Bottled Up, we made a decision not to discuss our faith in the website. Not because we were ashamed of it, or that we were afraid of what people may say. No, we made the decision because we knew that some people would be put off even looking at Bottled Up if they thought that it was a christian site. We know that because we ourselves have been put off looking at some things that may be beneficial to us, by our own distrust of things religious.

https://bottled-up.com/beauty-for-ashes/

Craig Ferguson on Alcoholism

Craig Ferguson on alcoholism. Thought that it would be good to post something a bit different. I saw this video a few years ago and came across it again recently. It is a video of my countryman, Craig Ferguson, talking about his alcoholism. He talks about it in a very entertaining way but he is also deadly serious about his problem.

Sorry about the quality of the video as it is a bit old. However, what is important is what Craig Ferguson says about alcoholism that is important, and that hasn’t dated in any way. If you watch this video make sure you watch it to the end as his message is very strong. Hope you enjoy it. Leave a comment to let us know what you think.
https://bottled-up.com/craig-ferguson-on-alcoholism/

What’s Your Bottom Line?

What’s your bottom line? Do you know? Have you ever really thought about what would be the thing that would make you end the relationship?

This was a difficult video to record. We realise everyone is different, they have different temperaments, different expectations and come from different cultures. So we have no intention of attempting to impose our limits on you, or anybody. However, we do suggest that safety, yours and your children’s should be paramount. and should be the bottom line.

Do you have a bottom line? How do you decide what it is and have you kept to it? Tell us in the comments below.
https://bottled-up.com/whats-your-bottom-line/

Dealing with a Crisis – Spiritual Support

In this video Lou talks about how she needed and found spiritual support to help her through the crisis of living with a problem drinker.
https://bottled-up.com/dealing-with-a-crisis-spiritual-support/

I Feel Desperate

Do you feel desperate? Do you feel that there is nothing you can do that can change your circumstances? That you are powerless? In this video we talk about the feelings that can accompany a crisis, the feeling of desperation that can overwhelm you and some things you can do to alleviate those feelings.
https://bottled-up.com/i-feel-desperate/

My Partner is an Alcoholic, Should I leave Him?

Lou – and the subject that we’re talking about today is My partner is a problem drinker, should I leave him?

John – Sadly when I look at websites or read agony columns where this question is asked – Help my husband is an alcoholic? The most common answer is Run, leave, get out. And This kind of blanket answer fails to understand where the person might be.
https://bottled-up.com/2473-2/

Here is another from our Scotland trip. One of the friendly locals.

Next year we are heading up to Scotland again to visit some of our favourite places on the islands. Here is a photo from our last visit. A view of Loch Lomond from the farmhouse we stayed in for a week.

Why Join Bottled-up
Bottled Up has a program that leads you by the hand and shows you what works and, equally important, what doesn’t work. It starts by showing you behaviours that don’t help, don’t work and often make things worse. Then shows you how to care for yourself. Finally, it gives you unique tools to help change your situation and your drinker.
https://bottled-up.com/why-should-i-join-bottled-up/

Tips to Reducing Your Drinking
Here are some tips to reduce drinking that may have escalated for whatever reason. This post was originally written during the Coronavirus crisis but the tips are no less relevant today. The coronavirus changed so much of our lifestyle. For many it altered their alcohol consumption. Some decided that they were drinking too much and took steps to change that. Others, unfortunately began to drink too much, too often.
https://bottled-up.com/tips-to-reduce-drinking/

Racing to Sobriety
I’m delighted to introduce Ryan sharing about his sobriety. He contacted me asking if there was something he could do to help. So I asked him to write his story and we would post it on the Blog. So here it is.

An article about second hand/passive drinking

I came across this article in the Guardian which talks about second hand drinking. Have a read of it and tell us what you think of it. Is it a fair and balanced piece of reporting or is it way off the mark and completely wrong?
https://bottled-up.com/an-article-about-second-hand-passive-drinking/

Getting Sober
Hi at the end of a previous video I said that I’d ended up in a psychiatric hospital. I had been given 6 months to live if I continued to take alcohol or drugs. But that really wasn’t the reason why I wanted to get sober.
https://bottled-up.com/getting-sober/

My Alcoholic Drinking Style
So what did my drinking look like? I suppose, for much of my drinking, it resembled the sort of party drinking. It was never a kind of, you know, genteel social drinking. And I don’t think I was ever that kind of drinker.
https://bottled-up.com/my-alcoholic-drinking-style/

How A Woman’s Tears Brought Hope To Families Of Alcoholics
I came across this article that I wrote some time ago and thought that it might interest you. This article describes the incident that led to the start of Bottled Up.
https://bottled-up.com/tears-of-hope-for-families-of-alcoholics/

Is your drinking tearing your family apart
One of the things I often said during my drinking years was “Who am I hurting? If I am hurting anyone, it is only myself”. Looking back now I can easily see that I did not want to see or admit that I was hurting anyone. I did not want to as questions like Is your drinking tearing your family apart? That might mean that I needed to do something about my drinking.
https://bottled-up.com/is-your-drinking-tearing-your-family-apart/

The Guilt Carried by Children of Alcoholics
One of the great tragedies of alcoholism is that so many children of alcoholics carry a great burden of guilt well into their adulthood. Especially when they are young, they can’t understand why their usually nice mummy or daddy sometimes behave so differently.
https://bottled-up.com/the-guilt-carried-by-children-of-alcoholics/

This is Us
For a change we thought that we would post something a bit more personal.
This is a short introduction to who we are, what we do and why we do it. Watching this will provide a little bit of insight into us and the Bottled Up website.
https://bottled-up.com/this-is-us/

Daughter and mother open up about the pain caused by their alcoholic
An alcoholic affects at least 3 other people. Here 2 of them talk about the aftermath of alcoholism.
https://bottled-up.com/daughter-and-mother-open-up-about-the-pain-caused-by-their-alcoholic/

The Best Way to Help an Alcoholic

If you are reading this then you have probably found Bottled Up when you were searching for information on how to help the alcoholic in your life. Most people who come here are looking for two things that they believe can change the alcoholic in their lives. You are probably looking for the same things.
https://bottled-up.com/the-best-way-to-help-an-alcoholic/

What makes an alcoholic?
As you can imagine, I talk to people regularly about alcoholism and alcohol issues. In many of those conversations I get asked “What makes an alcoholic?” or “What is the definition of an alcoholic?” I get the impression that alcohol problems and addiction are a mystery to a lot of people.
https://bottled-up.com/what-makes-an-alcoholic/