liongrrl

It would be so easy to drink.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of my fourth week sober. I don't want to ruin that, but at the same time. . . I can think of a few different "reasons" I should . . . "reasons" I am talking myself into thinking I want to. . .

I've been feeling weak this evening. This is being a hard day. Mondays are always hard days for me. Need distraction.

nandm

I know this may sound ridiculous but something that helped me in early sobriety was to remember "If you don't drink you won't get drunk". I decided I didn't want to be a drunk anymore and the only way to not be a drunk was for me not to drink.

I don't know what program of recovery you use. I was able to utilize A.A. meetings to keep myself distracted when I really wanted to drink. If you do use A.A. you might consider trying to find an A.A. club that is open for people to come in, sit, drink coffee, attend meetings, talk, play games, or what ever they need to do to stay sober for that moment.

Hang in there. You will find that there will come a day when you don't wake up thinking of drinking.

liongrrl

Thanks nandm.

I don't really drink coffee any more, but I've been drinking lots of diet soda and such in lieu of alcohol. I'm out of diet soda at the moment, and thinking about going to the store to get some more. . .

But it can be a worrisome adventure, going to the grocery store: thinking about those bottles of lonely party liquid, right nearby.

The first few days were so tough. I literally forced myself to make three prepared meals a day, just like a good girl. Going to the store, I always told myself I could buy as much beverages of anything I wanted, just not alcohol. So I'd come out of the store with frozen lemonade, OJ, soda, water. . . all kinds of fun drinks.

I'm rambling typing now, oh well.

When I woke up this morning, my throat was really sore. . . that "sore" throat thing that happens before a nasty cold. Ugh.

nandm

I can relate to the grocery store and drinks. Except, instead of drinks I went crazy with new foods. Learned how to cook in sobriety. Now I have to watch my weight something I never thought about when I was drinking.

There are days when I walk into a store and see the wine or beer rack and the thought crosses my mind that I need to buy some. Fortunately, I am also able to remind myself to play out what happens to me when I drink. Not a picture worth trying again. One of those old movies that just seems to get worse with time.

When I have those moments though it is a good reminder for me to continue to work a recovery program as my sobriety could be gone in an instant. I would hope that I am sober for the long run but one can never say never.

Sounds like buying the OJ was a good thing with a cold coming on. Get some Vit. C in your system. Try and get some rest so your body can head off the cold. Take care. Glad you are still sober today.

CarolD

Double Hugs....

Please read this link and see if it helps

http://www.tlctx.com/ar_pages/paw_part1.htm

Well Done on your sober time!

Sugah

Time takes time. Getting some sobriety under our belt, sorting through the wreckage and figuring out what's worth keeping and what needs to go, learning to live without the easy fall back of oblivion when things get chaotic/stressful/boring takes time. But then, something starts to happen. Good things, little things and big things, start to appear in our lives, and if we take that time to play the tape through, we realize that by picking up a drink, we're as good as handing those good things back, saying, "No thanks. I think I'll have the misery today."

But time takes time. It takes the perspective of time to begin to see how the little, daily improvements add up to something worth keeping. So, what do you do at three weeks sober, before having that perspective of time?

Only thing I know to do is pray, have faith, believe that today is a gateway to tomorrow and it will be here soon enough, and the more effort put into doing the next right thing, the more likely that tomorrow will dawn brighter than today.

Hang in there. If you do meetings, try to get to one. If you don't, either consider one or find something that works for you. And put one foot in front of the other. It's really the only way to get from here to there.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

Pinkcuda

If you can convince me of any reason that you should, I'll buy it for you!

findingout

Good one! It's one of the tricks/tools I've used when I catch myself thinking my way down the wrong path. I imagine trying to convince one of the other recovering people I know that I've got iron clad evidence that this time it would be different or that I've hit a spot of life so bad that drinking is the only option for me. That mental conversation never gets past first base.

Reason #29 why it's not better if I do it all by myself: If all I've got between me and the next drink is me and I want to drink, I've got nothing between me and that next drink.

liongrrl, three weeks is a great start. Build on it, don't drink today. The longer you stay sober, the easier it is to stay sober.

Tazman53

Congrats on the three weeks sober, is it worth throwing away just to be miserable again?
Ask your self "Do I want to go through that again?"

You know in early sobriety the thing that helped me the most besides going to meeting was calling people in my network or my sponsor, the neat thing was if I really felt I was going to drink I could call them at any time of the day and they were happy I called. You see they loved me more then I loved myself at the time, they wanted me to stay sober and gain what they have more then I did.

Hang in there, keep in mind that this too shall pass....... do you want a temporary passing into oblivion and further misery or a long term passing towards serenity?

pixel

this is something i was worried about, i don't want to gain weight!!! i dropped 4 kilos in the last month just from quitting weed (~9 lbs) and not getting the munchies, and i figured now that i'm off beer maybe i could try south beach or something to hopefully drop the last 3 kilos (~7 lbs) i would like to lose before visiting family in 2 weeks.

i'm far more disciplined with food than i am with beer though. i still have a bit of the beer bloat going on as i'm only on day 3, hopefully once my blood pressure stablizes some i will start losing water weight. scares me, beer bloat used to go away by day 2, now it's taking my body longer to recover from a binge.

ok sorry i totally diverged from the original subject, didn't mean to ninja your thread! (i think i'm addicted to message boards too...)

i think it's great that you made it 21 days!!!!!! hope you're keeping it up!

dave47

Well done Liongrrl and keep going.When you think of those reasons for wanting to,write down the reasons you musn't and remember all those times you felt bad.That would be just around the corner and the vicious circle could start all over again.Incidently,my coffee consumption has increased and i feel much livier in just a few weeks.I know that we are advised to limit coffee intake but i feel that it is way down on my list of drinks/foods to try and cut out.

fraankie

a long, brisk walk
a day at the gym, etc
got to get your life running again

7 days without meetings makes one "weak"


best
fraankie

Mar13

Gee I’m so strange people what drink alcohol gain weight usually?
But i lose weight i can’t drink if not I look like anorexic

Mar13

I dont like mondays either no sundays
but you will make it be strong !

barb dwyer

we don't drink because something is happening...
we drink .. because we're alcoholics.

And we stick together ... because we're alcoholics.

how';s it goin today?

barb dwyer

I love this - I TRIED not to say anything, I really did - but I'm still chuckling:

which made ME think -

yeah, so is jumping off a building.
real easy.
it's that sudden stop at the end that makes one hesitate, isn't it?