Hi Everybody -
I just wanted to check in to let you know I'm still here, and I read the forum often although I don't post too much. Whether you are doing well or struggling, I hope you all keep posting.
Real quick - I am now in Week 2 of the Intensive Outpatient Recovery program I checked into. Overall it has been very positive, enlightening and helpful. I go to the evening program, which is comprised primarily of other professionals who somehow managed to sorta balance work with alcoholism. And by "sorta", I mean barely - much like myself. If I have one take away this early into the program it is this:
If sobriety sucked nobody would do it. It's not just about not drinking/using. I think that's where I have consistently gotten caught up. I viewed the idea of quitting drinking as deprivation. It was all about what I can not have, without any focus of what would replace it. So basically... there is a new, undiscovered "me" out there. It's one that has - in the most literal, medical sense - been held back by alcohol. I want to see what this me is.