janitorking the cravings were gone in about 4-5 days for me while I was still in detox.
As long as I was in detox I did not crave for booze once the detox was complete.
Ah................. now it was time to leave detox!!! I walked out of that door physically sober for the first time in 5 years. I got into my truck, turned the key, it started!!!
Once the truck started so did the OBSESSION!!!! One side of my head was screaming "Dude you really need a 12 pack for the ride home!" the other half was screaming back "Are you frickin nuts? You are actually sober, the last thing you need is a drink!!!!"
Prayer to what ever got me home but the insane argument raged on in my head, the only thing I knew may help was to get my butt to a meeting. Well I got to a meeting that evening. Within minutes of talking to other alcoholics who had gone through what I was going through the fight ended in my head.
In that meeting all of the men gave me thier phone numbers and told me to call ANY time! I also asked a man to be my sponsor, he suggested that every meeting I went to get at least one new phone number, he also told me that it would be a good idea to call him and 2 other recovering alcoholics every day.
In the early days of my sobriety my most peaceful & stress free times were either in a meeting or talking on the phone with another recovering alcoholic. Most of the time on the phone we just BSed about life.
Well at about 2 months sober, due to anger the insanity returned again with a vengance, it was as if the obsession had given me a 2 month break while it exercised. It jumped in my case with both feet, screaming at me, telling me "Get a drink, the anger and frustration will dissappear!" If I had of had a drink within reach it would have been gone!
I was able to calm myself enough to pull over and call some one else in recovery, I have no idea what he said, I told him what was going on, the next thing I knew in 5 minutes we were BSing and the obsession was gone!!!
The short term cure for the obsessions for alcohol I had in early sobriety were meetings and calling others in recovery.
For me the long term solution was having that obsession to drink totally lifted by taking the steps and then applying them daily to all areas of my life one day at a time.