NoMoBeer

...not Alcohol- WASm...

My disease continues to keep me on my toes. I had a decent day, but must have been stirring up some resentments... I just got back from a bike ride (which of course sucked because I had the old RIDs going... Restless, Irritable, Discontent) and was busy focusing on negative stuff instead of praying like I try to do when I ride. It was windy, cloudy, I felt out of shape, GRRRRR....

Thank God it is PROGRESS, and not PERFECTION... I am truly a real alcoholic, and can have those 'dry drunk' moments. Thank God I am back in my sanity, have asked God to take away these resentments and bad feelings, and can feel myself calming down....

Just wanted to let you guys know (especially the newcomers), we all can have bad days/moments, but as long as we use the tools of the program, life is good...

NMB

Rimmy

I need to constantly remind myself when I am down or bored or lethargic or unmotivated that it is ok to feel that way sometimes... Drinking will not make me feel better in the end, but a few minutes of time meditating on positive things can help take those feelings of negativity away.

Glad you got through the rough part of the day and I hope you're cheerin' up!

collinsmi

Had a day like that going too, then went to a killer meeting!!!

Tazman53

Thanks for the share NOMO!

When I start to have a crappy day like yours I do as you do as well, the peace does come and once it has returned I start my day over!!!

I love being sober and being able to live life on lifes terms without drinking and simply staying in the day! My wife asked me a while back if the doctor told me I only had 3 months to live would I drink again, I answered her without hesitation "Nope, I like being sober to much!" The program does work if one works it!

Signal30

Recognition of a stinkin thinkin moment as is important as amends you make afterward. Believing that your higher power can restore you to sanity works if you work with it. The recognition, I believe, is a gift from God to us when we give him our shortcomings. He shows us the problem with us, so we can preform the action to make things right.



Tom

SF69

Thanks NMB!

I remember at my first AA meeting a guy saying to me that the worst days sober are better than the best day drunk. I was like 'yeah, right...'. I'm slowly seeing that there is something to that.

Rowan

Thanks. I needed to read this thread today. Stinking thinking has me in it's grip - and I'm trying to shake it off.

Rimmy

It's so true... My biggest mistakes / first drinks were usually when after starting to feel a little bit better physically, the first emotional thing would convince me that I needed a drink to get past it. Acknowledging that life isn't always peachy-cream even when you are sober helped me skip that first drink a few times...

and yeah, a bad sober day is better than a good drinking day for sure, because a good drinking day leads to my downfall. But facing headstrong into bad sober day strengthens me, if I deal with it well. And I can deal with it well if I don't drink.

Cathy31

Thanks Ken! I needed that too, amazing how we can just get into that dry drunk resteless irritable discontent place it's such a bad place to be! i heard at a meeting - and that's what helps in these situations for me - Meetings, Sponsor, Stepwrok, Service, Higher Power - a guy shared about being 'many years sober, but an incident where he wsa drunk on rage' I felt like that past couple of days. I prayed, God's grace kept me sober and today it has passed.

Lots of Love,
Cathy31
x

caraway

Thanks for the reminder NMB. Can't have too many reminders of the ISm !

Its good to see you back posting again

CAPTAINZING2000

after we take

I
self
&
Me

away from alcohol it's smooth sailing

David 1

Sounds thought-provoking Captain! Can you elaborate on what you mean?

Thanks

Tazman53

David if you do not mind I will share with you what I beleive the good captain is saying (Captain correct me if I am wrong!)

One thing that most alcoholics have in common is we are self centered to the extreme, I will now speak strictly of my experience.

When I was drinking (Actually even before) I felt as though the world revolved around me, if anything went wrong in my life it was never my fault, it was either simple bad luck or some one elses fault. Almost everything I did was in one way or another to please or benefit me. My opinion was always right and if you did not agree with me you were wrong. My entire life revolved strictly around me, my needs and my wants. Being an alcoholic that meant that I loved/needed to drink and would do so no matter who got hurt. The primary driving force in my whole life up until I got into recovery was me.

I have found that a life led on self will results for me in self will run riot, I left a path of hurt people in my wake of satifying my self and my drinking. As I began recovery I found that I needed to escape from me, from my self will run riot, I have found peace and serenity by putting others ahead of myself, part of that is putting my sobriety ahead of everything else in my life, because if I lose my sobriety I am no longer of maximum benefit to others.

The beginning of me ending my self will run riot.

This was a huge step forward for me.

I can say it no better then Bill W did, this was the new beginning where I escaped self!


Further escape from self and huge blessings, like having the obsession to drink being lifted from me resulting in me being a better father, husband and person to help others because the obsession is gone.

There are many other things I could share but I will part with this, my entire outlook on life has changed, I had a sudden feeling of peace when I realized that it was (life) no longer about me, but others. At that point in time I became a part of the world instead of out side of it like I had been before.

Rimmy

Thanks for that Taz! It's those principles that I read about that also helped me. I tried to take some responsibility for myself, but of course it was the circumstances of my life (that were not my fault of course) that made me need to drink and time after time, shuck those responibilites again.

When I faced that my life was of my own doing, and that it WAS because I was selfish, and tried to look at what I had done honestly to myself and others... It became easier to logically choose a better path. It became easier to not take that first drink.