Five years!
It's hard to believe but I have made it to five years of sobriety today. Sometimes it seems like an eternity and sometimes it seems like the blink of an eye. It certainly makes me feel very good about myself. It is like I broke orbit from a hostile planet and flew off into space.
If I had to give one piece of advice/encouragement to people who are in early recovery it would be stick with it, it just gets better and easier. Being sober is the gift you give to yourself that keeps on giving. In the beginning for me the bad times were counter balanced by the "pink cloud" times. I just tried to hunker down and survive it all, concentrating on the good feelings. There were times when I thought I was going to lose my mind thinking about drinking/not drinking all the time. That has all passed!
The things that have helped me the most are my faith in the good of myself and humanity, my kids, my ambition to be the best that I can be, my friends, and SR. It occurred to me the other day just what an awesome place this website is. I was on another website chatroom about cars and I thought to myself, "Jeez these people are pretty negative!" Then I realized how spoiled I get here on SR, where we are trying to help each other get through this.
Have a great day everyone, stay positive, don't drink, and try not to worry too much.
Gaffo