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Old 05-27-2013, 10:09 PM
  # 14 (permalink)  
EternalQ
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: East Coast, The States
Posts: 12,162
H i Soberme, welcome! And congratulations in being so forth right and asking for direction. That is very impressive.

I too was very focused on "I don't fit in because i dont drink" as a mantra in my head particularly around family, work, and having to date at midlife.

Then one day at a gathering it dawned on me: This feeling of "not fitting in" had nothing to do with not drinking!

In fact, I thought, I'd had that "I don't fit in with the rest of them" feeling loooong before I ever drank. It dawned on me that I was putting the cart before the horse. Could it be I had feelings of not fitting in period? Not because I was a non drinker? And perhaps I hadn't noticed it before until I quit drinking and became more self awars of my thoughts and feelings?

This was a huge insight for me and gave me a lot to work with on myself and work through. I did have many issues leading to that belief about myself, long before addiction. In fact another reason I drank was to quiet that voice .

It showed me that my addiction's voice was using this "I don't fit in" way of seeing myself (which pre existed it) as a weapon to confuse and lure me to a road of relapse.

I am still working through this false belief about myself. But working it through is changing my life.

I hope this helps.
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