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Old 07-19-2023, 06:39 AM
  # 4 (permalink)  
DriGuy
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I remember about where you are at when I was done with drinking, and wasn't going back no matter what. While it was enough just to be sober to keep me going, I came face to face with the same old life problems that were still being thrown at me, and thinking, "I guess sobriety doesn't fix everything." I was not expecting that, of course. I knew better than that, but I realized that I had been carrying an expectation that something would be different about it, but not sure what that was. But it didn't seem like anything was different. This part of sobriety took much longer than the initial confidence that comes from knowing I didn't have to drink again. It was easier to put the bottle away than to deal with the unavoidable issues in life.

Eventually, something would be much different about it. But while I measure the progress of putting the bottle down in weeks and months, I measure dealing with life more in years and decades. For me that part came so slowly as to be barely perceptible. Sometimes I would solve a problem, and wonder if this was sobriety, or would I have done it anyway? But since sobriety seemed to be it's own reward, and since I managed well enough, I just kept on being sober. In looking back years later, things are truly much different. It's about enjoying what I have, and not struggling. I seem to put a lot of trivial issues on ignore without even thinking about it. When something I can do needs to be done, I roll up my sleeves and deal with it. Some of the things I don't relish rolling up my sleeves for, but I know that when I'm done, I will realize a lot of satisfaction for it.
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