New Here - My Plan
Hi everyone,
Long time lurker, but new to the posting side of things. I've been taking a shot at recovery for a few years now, with no real success to speak of. The longest I've gone has been a few weeks, which gets me feeling great about myself, but then I get back on the beer train which leads me back to square one. A familiar story to many on here I'm sure. I've been reading a lot of recovery books, checking out different online forums and that kind of thing, and one thing that seems to be lacking in my life is connecting with people fighting the same battle as I am. Although I've been lurking here, I haven't really connected with any of you, and I think that might be one of the things holding me back.
Basically, I have a pretty damn good life. My fiance has put up with a lot due to my drinking, though - but she's still with me and I have decided to quit the booze while the going is still good. I have two young children, who depend on me to have it together. I am 100% certain that drinking is an addictive behavior for me, and I'm taking all the steps I can to fix this before it gets even worse than it's gotten in the past - which has been bad. Oh, I've done incredible amounts of stupid things while drinking, but I still have a shot, so I'm going to take it.
Anyway, I'd like to say hello to everyone here, and hopefully post on these forums regularly. I'm on my fouth day of sobriety right now, which is pretty good for me. The weekends are always rough though, and I heard one of those is fast approaching, seeing how it's Wednesday and all, but I think I'll be alright. I don't want to get over-confident, but I am hoping to approach this in the right way so that I can succeed this time where other times I've failed.
I've actually put together a bit of a "plan", which is one piece of advice I see a lot of people talk about to newcomers on this forum. Here is my preliminary plan, maybe I can get some advice or feedback on this since it's my first real shot at putting one together:
1. Commit to sobriety
I have fully committed to sobriety. I realize that I cannot drink responsibility, in moderation, or without consequence. I am far past that point. The only option for me is complete abstinence.
2. Get active in a mutual-support fellowship.
I started writing a recovery blog, which has been kind of cool. You get to meet other "bloggers" and I feel a real sense of community there, which has helped me out these past few days. I think I'm going to stick with that. I have also joined the SMART Recovery online community, which has been fantastic. I really enjoy their perspective on things, it fits my beliefs perfectly. And, of course, I now have S.R.
3. Read recovery books.
I will read as many recovery and addiction books as I possibly can. This helps me by keeping the recovery and sobriety state of mind clear in my head.
4. Placing recovery before anything else in my life.
Without sobriety, nothing else in my life matters. The pyramid of values falls apart and there is one thing and one thing only - drinking. Unless I combat this by placing sobriety as my number one priority, there will be no room for my other values in my HOV.
Anyway, probably not the most interesting of posts, but in a way it's therapeutic for me to post this. I am now "actively" pursuing recovery, whereas the times before I was much more passive.
Have a great day everyone.
Jimmy