Originally Posted by gdev99

Congratulation on one year of sobriety. Don't look at this as the "end" of your year of sobriety. You are still sober. You slipped up...made a mistake. So instead of using your slip up as a reason to beat yourself up (possibly leading to feeling depressed or dejected and using that as an excuse to drink) look at it as a learning lesson. Perhaps write down exactly the time line of events and thoughts leading you to drink after a year without it. Look for the break in the chain that most likely caused the mistake. Then, make a serious note of it. So as you move forward into more years of sobriety you can recognize what is a trigger or a dangerous situation for yourself and take steps to mitigate it and prevent it. Kudos to everyone who gets sober and NEVER drinks again. That is awesome. But to everyone who does have a slip up. It in a strange way can be a real blessing. If, and ONLY if, you seriously use it to look at and IDENTIFY a flaw/weakness in your sobriety system. I come from the military...and there is a famous saying amongst special forces operators that says "don't train until you get it right...train until you get it wrong" In other words, you only really get good quality training after you screw up and can then identify the flaw in your plan/method. So please don't beat yourself up...please use this...really use it...and move forward into another year of sobriety.