Welcome back Trees!!
Hi Stable,
I posted a thread the other day that summarized some of my past day one posts. I joined SR in March of 2012, I had my last drink on December 31, 2015.
The thing that helped me make it my final day one was approaching recovery through the lens of becoming mentally and physically healthy. The first thing was alcohol was not an option, no matter how good, bad or ugly the day had been. I needed to establish new healthier coping mechanisms. I started by logging and reading on here several times a day, I made an appointment with a counselor and talked about my anxiety and a healthier way to treat it. I do have medication that I can take for times that I am feeling extremely anxious, and That is the only time I take it. I read lots of books about recovery, and saw myself in each of the stories, I reflected in what each of the authors did to finally get sober, there is a thread on here about recovery books, you may want to check one or two out. I make it a point to go for a walk outdoors every day, the combination of being in nature and exercise really helps. One of the things that has helped me the most is mindfulness. I work really hard to remain in the present moment. I cannot change my past, I can only learn from it, and worrying about the “mights and ifs” only causes stress in the present moment. There are tons of videos and articles online that can help you work on this. It is a really great skill in early recovery because you remain focused on making positive choices in the current moment in time. Finally, looking at life through a lens of gratitude has been the most helpful thing of all. You can make a list today of all you are grateful for. It can be as simple as having an hour of sobriety and the support of the amazing people on SR.
You can do this. It is simple, but not easy. I am so excited for you to start building back that sober time.