Originally Posted by
August252015 
Said respectfully- what will you all do when you do want to drink?
i have a list on my phone I add to everyday, I add 1 thing every night I am thankful for in my sobriety. It can be tiny or big. I don't romanticise drinking anymore, but when I did I found it helpful to read through that list and add 5 more. I logged on here and read my first post again, I watch a couple of documentaries that i find hard to watch (I have to be careful, some were triggering strangely enough as I thought I 'wasn't that bad'). Callum Best 'brought up by booze' is very difficult for me to watch and to want to continue drinking.
In my plan, if I feel a situation is leading to a temptation/thought/longing/romanticising/anger/jealousy, I leave where I am at that precise moment. I can fake not feeling great, or I forgot to turn something off at home, anything, I don't need to explain to anyone, just leave.
HALT is vital to me daily. I have to take care of those basic needs. Most thoughts I had regarding drinking was due to hunger and boredom.
To do something that takes my mind off of it, which I suppose relates to urge surfing, of which I found incredibly useful, as well as playing the tape forward. I have interests and getting stuck in those passes the time and so the thoughts also went. There is usually a reason we want to drink, its finding what that is, and then working another way around it.
Its been over a month since I had wanted to drink, I considered myself a dry drunk at that point. Now I have my life back there is no place for alcohol in it, so there is no devil on my shoulder telling me to remember the 'good'times, there is no bargaining chip the AV has over me. The plan I work makes the life I have now so much more meaningful and fulfilling than what alcohol ever gave me, and being present in it is wonderful.
I no longer 'want' to drink, but if the moment occurs and I do, these are the plans I have. As said before I haven't attended meetings, but if I felt that desperate I don't have any shame in finding one. Lurking on here and reading through other peoples plans and the stickies that Dee adds made me think a plan was the best way forward. Or I think I really would have remained a dry drunk and very miserable personally.