Old 12-04-2011, 09:35 PM
  # 4 (permalink)  
langkah
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,146
If all you did was drink, then I could understand how empty your life would seem now. But I would expect you've done some other things in your life besides getting drunk that you enjoyed a lot too.

Why not do more of them, now that your time is more free than it used to be?

Drinking does cause fun and pleasurable activities to fall away. When drinking I filled out an employment application and when it asked 'what are your hobbies?' I had to fill in things I used to do and enjoy a lot before drinking became my main thing. Even then I could see how sad that was.

In sobriety I've had an absolute ball restoring cars, building a home, travelling much of the world, gardening, starting a business, lots of fun hanging out with friends, raising kids, observing wildlife, lots of weeklong hiking trips, sailing, rebuilding boats, getting a pilot license and plane and flying interstate trips, way too many adventures and challenges to list, and they've never stopped coming.

As a drunk there wasn't a lot going on with me. I did things sometimes while I drank. I'd drink and carcamp, drink and mow my lawn, drink and clean my garage, drink and fish...the activity was second in importance.

You've made the best gift to yourself possible but so far you seem to have filed it away unused, and are pining for the the times not long ago when you made yourself sick enough to have reason to stop. You can always go back to Zombieland, or instead live a great life.

Most alcoholics 'choose' to make themselves sicker...isn't that a very odd thing? If you find yourself doing that during this holiday season full of the usual parties then your problem may be more severe than you've yet comprehended or addressed by simply stopping for the month.

If you join the drinking crowd again you could aways do the New Year's resolution thing. That's how I wound up getting sober in April.

Good wishes.
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