rpec86

I've patiently wended my way through a first month of sobriety. It's not my first time to get this far, but I intend it to be my last (in that I don't intend to return to drinking). Physically, there's been turmoil, as I try to find a feeling of "normalcy" and rediscover healthy sleeping patterns. Mentally, I've been solidly committed, while weathering some nagging trepidations over Christmas... my first sober one in a long long time.

At the moment, I'm not feeling all that talkative about it. I've mostly dealt with things internally, and don't have any/many close friends who have been down this road. Mostly, I just want to establish a connection with others who have walked and are walking this road. Having been this far before, and failed (usually within a day or two of the one month mark, and only once lasting to day 38... back in October), I'm preemptively seeking support from others that I believe I may need in the days and weeks ahead.

I post here, because I've searched long and far for non-12-step support, and there isn't much out there. I've found one forum (not sure if I can mention names, so I won't) that seems to have an approach that is in the generally right direction for me, but participation is light.

Elsewhere (and particularly here, outside of this little subforum haven), the answer always seems to be: "go to meetings, work the steps, get a sponsor." Not only is that not an approach that I see as working for me, I believe its omnipresence, to the exclusion of more intellectually-based courses, has made it more difficult for me to find my way in the past.

I post here in hopes of finding serious, abstinence-based support that might help me make my own way down the road to a sober, more complete life.

Thanks for any encouragement and words of wisdom.