In the beginning I found reading about alcoholism really helped me. I loved having a front row seat in another alcoholics life. Have included a few I enjoyed at the end here. I also used to visit this place all the time and read about other peoples experiences.
Now its been over 7 months sober. The last couple of months I started hitting the gym, that has made a big difference, also eating well and generally looking after myself.
Another book I highly recommend that I just finished is Unlimited by Jillian Micheals. I know she gets portrayed as some screaming trainer on the Biggest Looser but this book has some great info, its all the 'head stuff' that we need to work on, read the reviews on Amazon to see what I mean
Amazon.com: Unlimited: How to Build an Exceptional Life (9780307588302): Jillian Michaels: Books
'Dry' by Augusten Burroughs, sr book club review here:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...te-book-6.html
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp (I totally related to her)
thread here:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ove-story.html Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor," a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
I loved the way drink made me feel, and I loved its special power of deflection, its ability to shift my focus away from my own awareness of self and onto something else, something less painful than my own feelings. I loved the sounds of drink: the slide of a cork as it eased out of a wine bottle, the distinct glug-glug of booze pouring into a glass, the clatter of ice cubes in a tumbler. I loved the rituals, the camaraderie of drinking with others, the warming, melting feelings of ease and courage it gave me.
Our introduction was not dramatic; it wasn't love at first sight, I don't even remember my first taste of alcohol. The relationship developed gradually, over many years, time punctuated by separations and reunions. Anyone who's ever shifted from general affection and enthusiasm for a lover to outright obsession knows what I mean: the relationship is just there, occupying a small corner of your heart, and then you wake up one morning and some indefinable tide has turned forever and you can't go back. You need it; it's a central part of who you are...