mcfearless - quite a day, and library open on a sunday? you must not live in the usa.
I wasn't going to post my 18 months but then I figured that I SHOULD share it.
18 months quit drinking. No relapse and very few if any close calls to drink again. Actually no close calls, just a thought or two that a cold one would be nice. The thing is that now I don't even think about drinking. My boat fishing trip a few days ago was a sort of test. Not once did I feel like having a beer.
So keep at it. The more sober time you accrue, the easier it is to keep it.
These days I feel as if drinking was never a part of my life. I am a NON-drinker. For good. Those of you who struggle in the beginning, do whatever it takes to stay sober. Once you reach a certain point it becomes second nature.
When I decided to quit for good, I meant it. One chip wonder I've heard them say. Not really. I just decided I wasn't going to drink again and never change my mind. Sure I went to rehab - not my decision. Work made me go and do all that. What got me was the being escorted from my job site under armed guard for blowing a zero point zero two bac. That's right, 0.0230 BAC got me fired. That means I drank enough in three hours time to register that almost 8 hours later having abstained for 7.5 hours in between. I was going in for night shift and needed to sleep first. So I drank as usual.
But trust me, with my history of drinking for over 35 years I needed a kick in the pants to wake me up. I'm actually lucky to be alive.
Losing my job sukt, but it probably increased my life span by another 20 years. 20 good years.