*shay*

well, today is day #3 of sobriety for me. i am scared. i guess i am scared of life after drinking. not real sure how to deal with life soberly and i guess i guess i have to learn. i feel like a child who has to relearn everything i just can't drink anymore and i know that.

shugabooga

if you've found this forum, you're trying really hard to find the help you need.

how are you feeling? is the detox hard for you?

i detoxed in October of 2007 and the first week, every morning i woke up, i had major anxiety and felt hungover......but it gets easier. i started drinking again around Christmas and continued to drink up until 16 days ago.

actually, i had detoxed about two months ago and it was hard then...but then started back drinking for a few weeks, then quit again 16 days ago. detox this time around was very easy.

it's okay to be scared of all the new feelings and fear of drinking again. perhaps it is that fear that will keep you sober. i like to think of all the money i'll save; all the drama i will avoid; that it will help me keep my much-needed job.........and i won't hurt myself by falling down, getting bruised etc. self-respect is coming back too.

so hang in there and keep posting. there are many wonderful people here who can guide you.

dirtyjerz08

I was scared stiff at the very beginning. Just try to keep it in the day, thinking about the future too much will drive you nuts. If you can stay sober one day at a time all of those worries will take care of themselves. Try looking at it as an opportunity to learn a new and wonderful way to live. How many people can live like maniacs their whole life, treat people like dirt, and then have a chance to start all over with a new life? I don't know how your drinking was, but that's how mine was. Thankfully I have been blessed with a chance to start over, and clean up that wreckage. Sobriety is a gift, do the best you can with it.

Dan Dare

Made it to a week. That included a Christmas party and two gigs with my band. It seems very easy this time.
My Uncle passed away and I had to fly south to help my Dad clean out his apartment last week. I drank as long as I was awake, basically. I actually planned it that way.
And I paid for it when I got home. It took about three days to start feeling better. But now I feel healed and want to keep going.
I'm sick of feeling like a puppet. I look at it this way, change is good, and I have an opportunity staring me right in the face. I want to be free. You will find freedom also. Keep going - one moment at a time.

CarolD

Welcome to our recovery community
and well done on your sober days.

Are you considering how you want to proceed?

Pelican

Shay,

Welcome to the SR family!

We are a likable bunch of addicts! Lots of support and information here for you. My favorite place to begin is the second sticky post at the top of this section. It contains excerpts from the book "under the influence".

That book has helped me understand how I became physically addicted to alcohol. It also helped me understand why I knew I needed to quit drinking, but kept going back to the alcohol. Now my head and heart are in agreement. I can not drink.

No more internal conflict. Life is better sober.

Read and post often.

Tazman53

Shay I know that fear so well, when I decided to go into detox my biggest fear was sobriety itself even though I knew I was going to die if I kept drinking.

I leaned heavily on other people who had been where I was at, they shared thier experience, strength and hope with me. They had feared sobriety just like I had, they knew what is was like to not know how to live sober. They shared with me how they stayed sober and how they lived sober and happy today.

I can tell you that thanks to those people today I have found that every single thing I did while drinking I do better today and I remember them the next day!!!!

I wake up in the morning with a clear head and no fears of what I did yesterday.... especially things that I do not remember, because today I remember what I did yesterday.

Today I do things that I just talked about doiung when I was drinking. I no longer fear a policeman in my rear view, the worst he will get me for is speeding or forgetting a turn signal.

MagicMan08

Congratulations on your 4 days hopefully! Each day gets easier I think, as long as you want what sober life can offer you. If you have a real mess behind you from drinking, like I do, it won't go away right away, but handling these problems sober is a hell of a lot easier.