Old 07-29-2016, 10:13 AM
  # 12 (permalink)  
Berrybean
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: UK
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Anything that makes us fearful can be a trigger. And relationships are very fear inducing, especially new and romantic ones. Thing is, there's no need to say 'never again'. I'd suggest that for now you just focus on staying sober, and develop a sobriety plan for recovery which will help you to find new and more sane and healthy strategies for dealing with emotions. Fear, anxiety, anger, resentments, shame, and remourse all make it difficult for us to stay sober, but we need to do just that if we are to learn how to cope with those very feelings. It's kind of a catch 22. It took me a long time to climb out if the vortex, but when I got willing to try things that were suggested (even when they weren't 'the kind of things I do'), then things started getting better for me. After all, doing the kind of things I already did had got me to where I was, so things had to change if I wanted to get better.

It really is best not to make any big decisions early in recovery, and certainly, getting into new romantic entanglements right now probably would probably be a bad idea on a number of levels. Not least because we tend to attract people as sick as ourselves, and actually you could probably do without the grief of that right now. Plus, do you have much to offer someone at the moment? I know I wouldn't have had in early recovery. It would have been all about what I wanted to get out of it myself. Typical objectification. I did develop some (wildly inappropriate ) crushes early on to be honest. Mostly because, i think, people with a strong sobriety seemed attractive to me. But lookimg back, it was their SOBRIETY that I found attractive, not them as such. But rather than just recognising that I admired them and the way they handled life, I got things confused. I can see why people are vulnerable to 13th stepping in early sobriety. Thankfully all the people I met behaved responsibily and supportively.

Anyway - never say never, unless you're talking about taking a drink. In a year or twos time, if you're still sober and have been working on your recovery, you will no doubt be, and feel, different.

Wishing you all the best for your recovery. BB
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