Who is happy now that they are sober?
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Medina, Ohio
Posts: 372
Hello,
I'm very happy and I'm still going through a divorce! I have never been more happy in my entire life. I'm just sooo happy to be here every day and be me every day alcohol free. Everybody at my AA meetings are happy as well, when I first started going I was like, "What's wrong with these people?", now I GET IT! Got to working my steps, got out of myself, started helping others, got to prayin and seeking God's will... not my own... and wouldn't ya know it... happiness right there! Yes I can chose to be miserable, some days I have, but more often than not, I CHOSE TO BE HAPPY!!
John
I'm very happy and I'm still going through a divorce! I have never been more happy in my entire life. I'm just sooo happy to be here every day and be me every day alcohol free. Everybody at my AA meetings are happy as well, when I first started going I was like, "What's wrong with these people?", now I GET IT! Got to working my steps, got out of myself, started helping others, got to prayin and seeking God's will... not my own... and wouldn't ya know it... happiness right there! Yes I can chose to be miserable, some days I have, but more often than not, I CHOSE TO BE HAPPY!!
John
Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Boston MA
Posts: 666
Still sober, still happy, and Dice-K (the Japanese pitcher I mentioned back in '06) shut down the Twins tonight! My daughter is 4 years old today, my one year old son is sleeping peacefully, and my beautiful wife (!) is on the phone across the room. I'm off for the summer, start a new job in September, working on my dissertation, hiking, camping, hanging in the city. When I was drunk I was just ...drunk. Sober is better. I'll say it again... sober is most definitely better.
Mike
Mike
Belgian Sheepdog Adictee
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: In Today
Posts: 6,101
Well let's see.......................................
I've been through Marriage and Divorce in Sobriety. I've lost loved ones, including both my parents in Sobriety.
I have lost fur babies in Sobriety. I have gained and lost jobs in sobriety. I have moved numerous times in Sobriety.
I have found my niche in sobriety. I have found happiness, sadness, joy, madness, and peace and serenity in sobriety.
Your Question:
Who is happy now that they are sober?
Well...............................I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The last 27 years have been a trip like none I could ever have imagined! Me who used alcohol and drugs to cope with everything even a broken fingernail, found a way to live life sober, get through the bad times, and absolutely enjoy to the max the good times!!!!!!!
Yes I am still happy after all these years.
It is a trip I hope you don't miss!
Love and hugs,
I've been through Marriage and Divorce in Sobriety. I've lost loved ones, including both my parents in Sobriety.
I have lost fur babies in Sobriety. I have gained and lost jobs in sobriety. I have moved numerous times in Sobriety.
I have found my niche in sobriety. I have found happiness, sadness, joy, madness, and peace and serenity in sobriety.
Your Question:
Who is happy now that they are sober?
Well...............................I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The last 27 years have been a trip like none I could ever have imagined! Me who used alcohol and drugs to cope with everything even a broken fingernail, found a way to live life sober, get through the bad times, and absolutely enjoy to the max the good times!!!!!!!
Yes I am still happy after all these years.
It is a trip I hope you don't miss!
Love and hugs,
Follow Directions!
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Fredericksburg, Va.
Posts: 9,730
Happy???? You betcha!!! Today I live life, I do more then exist, I am a part of the world! I have 6 kids and 8 grand kids, they all respect me today and enjoy having me around, today they call me just to talk and even ask advice!!!!! My health is good, my head is clear, and I am able to be at peace all by myself with nothing to do! Life is no longer something I dread or fear.
I am happy, joyous, & FREE!!!!
I am happy, joyous, & FREE!!!!
1 bite&all resistance crumbles
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: IRELAND
Posts: 2,208
Oh my word thanks for bumping this thread! 
I think I was 6 months sober when I replied to this thread!
Life is so good. I cannot recognise the person I used to be...afraid, always feeling lonely and alone, misunderstood, always on a collision course with others (LOL! Still do that at times! ) Just so sad.
I am so happy now. I have purpose. I have hope. I have joy. I have love. I am not fearful. I have very few, if any, regrets. I have fun. I have friends. My family relationships have healed and some of them are actually unrecognisably good due to the changes in ME (not them LOL! )
Someone said in a meeting last night - if you fill up your soul with gratitude it takes up all that room the self/ego used to hog, lol, and allows for humility to come.
I am so grateful and happy today. It is all thanks to the AA program and the true Grace of my higher power.
Cathy31
x
I think I was 6 months sober when I replied to this thread!Life is so good. I cannot recognise the person I used to be...afraid, always feeling lonely and alone, misunderstood, always on a collision course with others (LOL! Still do that at times!
) Just so sad.I am so happy now. I have purpose. I have hope. I have joy. I have love. I am not fearful. I have very few, if any, regrets. I have fun. I have friends. My family relationships have healed and some of them are actually unrecognisably good due to the changes in ME (not them LOL!
)Someone said in a meeting last night - if you fill up your soul with gratitude it takes up all that room the self/ego used to hog, lol, and allows for humility to come.
I am so grateful and happy today. It is all thanks to the AA program and the true Grace of my higher power.
Cathy31
x
Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 15
I think happiness is really just a state of mind...completely unrelated to being sober. There is a certain percentage of people out there who are alcoholics. There is also a certain percentage of people out there who are truly happy. There are people in this world who have never encountered substance abuse problems or anything of that nature who aren't happy. That tells me that being happy has nothing to do with being sober. Not that being sober isn't a good thing...it is. It just has nothing to do with whether or not you are happy.
By being sober, you have only fixed one "problem." That is, if you can even consider not being happy a "problem." If you do...it is certainly a problem most of us are cursed by. I don't care what anybody tells you, I have never met a person that is TRULY happy with every aspect of their life. In fact, I'm not sure that there even exists such a person. All you can do is make improvements in your life. It will never get perfect. You may never be "happy" as we like to define it, because life will always have its little flaws.
Just be the best person you can be as often as you can. You may not have a great chance of achieving "true" happiness, but by choosing to be sober you have greatly improved your odds.
By being sober, you have only fixed one "problem." That is, if you can even consider not being happy a "problem." If you do...it is certainly a problem most of us are cursed by. I don't care what anybody tells you, I have never met a person that is TRULY happy with every aspect of their life. In fact, I'm not sure that there even exists such a person. All you can do is make improvements in your life. It will never get perfect. You may never be "happy" as we like to define it, because life will always have its little flaws.
Just be the best person you can be as often as you can. You may not have a great chance of achieving "true" happiness, but by choosing to be sober you have greatly improved your odds.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 410
Happiness for me was becoming able to accept both the good and bad in life, and deal with each accordingly. Good times don't require getting smashed, and bad times don't require drowning my misery and avoidance. It goes along with that freedom thread... I have the ability to cope with what comes my way now, and that is of my own free will... That makes me happy.
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oxnard (The Nard), CA, USA.
Posts: 13,958
I'm very pleased with efforts that I and those who have supported me in recovery have made. SMART Recovery as a program has lifted me out of addiction and those at the local mental health clinic encouraged me to developed a personalized program tailored to my specific needs.
Am I happy? Yes happy dance happy...
Am I happy? Yes happy dance happy...
Follow Directions!
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Fredericksburg, Va.
Posts: 9,730
sobergirl keep working at it, the second you think a drink is a good idea is the time to take an action you have not been willing to take yet...... like calling your sponsor or some one else in the program BEFORE you take a drink. It will come hon, just keep working for it, once you start lining up a few victories in a row you will find that future victories will come easier, you will still have to work for them, but that work will slowly become a reflex action and will no longer seem like work.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,002
I have to maintain my work in recovery to maintain any level of happiness. When I start feeling unhappy that means that there is something that I am not doing. Spiritual, emotional, and physical soberiety I can have, when I continue to work everyday. My disease will always be there till the day I die, so I need to maintain a constant effort to keep any kind of soberiety, serenity, and happiness.
It's like a diabetic who stops taking their insulin and wonders why they now feel like crap. You have to maintain treatment everyday to be healthy.
It's exhausting to think that I will have to constantly work to maintain happiness. Then I have to remind myself that I only have to concern myself with just today.
Tom
It's like a diabetic who stops taking their insulin and wonders why they now feel like crap. You have to maintain treatment everyday to be healthy.
It's exhausting to think that I will have to constantly work to maintain happiness. Then I have to remind myself that I only have to concern myself with just today.
Tom
Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,876
I think happiness is simply a state of mind one chooses. When I was younger happiness seemed to be associated with people and things...now happiness is centered within me. I choose my attitude every minute of everyday.
Life is going to have its ups and downs...sometimes the downs seem to outnumber the ups, but perception and a positive attitude can always change things around.
Life is going to have its ups and downs...sometimes the downs seem to outnumber the ups, but perception and a positive attitude can always change things around.
Hannitized
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 353
My liver! My liver is happy now that I have stopped giving it all that extra work!
I am happier now~ truly. Another paradox of drinking....I was seeking happiness at the bottom of a bottle. I only found it when I put that damned bottle down. Some days are more difficult than others. That's life. But I have many more moments of happiness now while sober. While drinking, the feelings of guilt, moral poverty, and weakness always crept in and stole my happiness before it could bloom.
Liberty~
I am happier now~ truly. Another paradox of drinking....I was seeking happiness at the bottom of a bottle. I only found it when I put that damned bottle down. Some days are more difficult than others. That's life. But I have many more moments of happiness now while sober. While drinking, the feelings of guilt, moral poverty, and weakness always crept in and stole my happiness before it could bloom.
Liberty~
bona fido dog-lover
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: SF Bay area, CA
Posts: 99,784
I am happy that I have stopped drinking, but I'm not 'happier' than I was, just more aware of the unhappiness. My current circumstances are so bad that I find it difficult to find happiness in anything. I am working on this tho with my counselor. :praying
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: No. VA
Posts: 167
Originally Posted by sobergirl77 
When I can figure out how to string together more than 11 days of sobriety at a time, I will let you know...
You do that and let us all know. Hopefully in a few weeks I can give you my 1 month update.
Although, I fear the first couple months.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: England
Posts: 1,733
I have found that I am much happier in sobriety. I have lost quite a bit of weight and I run and go out on my bike. I push myself hard exercising and feel 20 years younger( sometimes).
I can enjoy being with the kids and having the stamina to keep up with them and I have much more patience than previously. I don't let people bug me the way they used to, and I don't react in situations because I don't really feel I need to.
I was burying my head in either the sand or a beer can over crippling debts but have now taken steps to make things easier for us. We are not out of the woods yet, but at least we are in a manageable situation.
Life is changing for the better, and I think I can laugh at myself now rather than despise myself.
I can enjoy being with the kids and having the stamina to keep up with them and I have much more patience than previously. I don't let people bug me the way they used to, and I don't react in situations because I don't really feel I need to.
I was burying my head in either the sand or a beer can over crippling debts but have now taken steps to make things easier for us. We are not out of the woods yet, but at least we are in a manageable situation.
Life is changing for the better, and I think I can laugh at myself now rather than despise myself.
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