Things just keep getting worse.
Another Day in Paradise
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Upland, CA
Posts: 900
I have never had a problem that drinking wouldn't make worse. The time devoted to drinking and the time when we are drunk and unable to function, IS deducted from the time that CAN be spent dealing with our problems. Not always solving them, but dealing with them.
Obviously when approaching someone about help in relocating an innocent animal or possible employment, albeit, temporary or permanent, they are much more likely to be receptive when we reek of alcohol and slur our words!
Sobriety doesn't insure anything except the ability to use all our talents and faculties to their fullest. The outcome of that utilization is still subject to the same fates that you seem to feel has to "just be accepted." Tell that to the returning veteran who despite loss of limbs and worse sets about doing the best with what they have. Tell that to the child born with defects that should doom them to "accept" their fate.
I have watched far too many of the above mentioned "victims" refuse to be a victim. Perhaps you should use some of your drinking time and look around you for inspiration, you will find it if you want to.
If you can't find any other motivation, DO IT FOR YOUR DOG, and as an aside the same three letters of your friend's name may give you a clue as to where else you may look for inspiration and help. However you perceive DOG.
Jon
Obviously when approaching someone about help in relocating an innocent animal or possible employment, albeit, temporary or permanent, they are much more likely to be receptive when we reek of alcohol and slur our words!
Sobriety doesn't insure anything except the ability to use all our talents and faculties to their fullest. The outcome of that utilization is still subject to the same fates that you seem to feel has to "just be accepted." Tell that to the returning veteran who despite loss of limbs and worse sets about doing the best with what they have. Tell that to the child born with defects that should doom them to "accept" their fate.
I have watched far too many of the above mentioned "victims" refuse to be a victim. Perhaps you should use some of your drinking time and look around you for inspiration, you will find it if you want to.
If you can't find any other motivation, DO IT FOR YOUR DOG, and as an aside the same three letters of your friend's name may give you a clue as to where else you may look for inspiration and help. However you perceive DOG.
Jon
Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 148
No one ever said there's a fairy-tale ending with 4 months of sobriety, Bob. The stories in the book didn't just happen in 4 months. None of us here had perfect lives after 4 months, not by a long shot.
You're right though...life does give us **** sandwiches. Broke, jobless, soon to be homeless and dogless, and no longer sober. It's up to you how you choose to react.
To partially quote you from a different thread:
We're here when you decide you want to...
A
You're right though...life does give us **** sandwiches. Broke, jobless, soon to be homeless and dogless, and no longer sober. It's up to you how you choose to react.
To partially quote you from a different thread:
Originally Posted by Rangerbob 
You have to want to...
A
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Kansas
Posts: 10,182
Originally Posted by Rangerbob
Sometimes life really does hand you a **** sandwich, and you have 2 choices, eat it or starve.
I've been through more heartache, tragedy, and trauma since I got sober than all my years of drinking combined.
If someone would have told me in my first few days of sobriety what I would go through over the years, I would've said screw it and went back to drinking.
There's a reason God doesn't let us see the future.
I've lived through divorce.
I've lived through having an addict/alcoholic daughter.
I've lived through having the state take away my youngest daughter after she ran away because I couldn't 'handle' her. That was after I turned to every agency I could think of for help, including the state, before she ran away. There were days I thought I was going to go postal on every damned agency I had gone to.
I lost 4 of my beloved dogs in a 13 month period (2009-2010), with the last one being this month. One had cancer, two were 15 years of age, the other was 16 1/2.
I've had to bury friends that were lost to this disease. The longer I've been sober, the more of them I see go back out the door never to return again.
One of my first sponsors used to tell me, "You can find sympathy between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
She was a tough old bird, but she was more concerned about saving my ass than hurting my feelings.
She knew my self-pity would eventually kill me.
She died with 30+ years of sobriety. I still think of her often.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,126
There are swo many great responses here, with lots of good suggestions, I'm not going to add to that, but I did want to address one thing.....
"...Those who say "Don't drink, go to meetings, life will get better" are perpetuating one of the biggest fallacies in the world..."
I'm with Boleo on this one.
There's another saying that I've heard that is equally #$%*&#.............: "If you don't drink, you won't get drunk; If you don't get drunk, your life will get better." What total, absolute, absurdity.....and I find it dangerous to tell newcomers this, and this thread (and the OP, specifically) is a perfect example why not.
I way prefer.........: "If you don't drink, you won't get drunk; If you don't get drunk, your life will get DIFFERENT." Waaaaaay bettah...... (o:
NoelleR
"...Those who say "Don't drink, go to meetings, life will get better" are perpetuating one of the biggest fallacies in the world..."
I'm with Boleo on this one.
There's another saying that I've heard that is equally #$%*&#.............: "If you don't drink, you won't get drunk; If you don't get drunk, your life will get better." What total, absolute, absurdity.....and I find it dangerous to tell newcomers this, and this thread (and the OP, specifically) is a perfect example why not.
I way prefer.........: "If you don't drink, you won't get drunk; If you don't get drunk, your life will get DIFFERENT." Waaaaaay bettah...... (o:
NoelleR
Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Living in Today!
Posts: 3,944
Originally Posted by Rangerbob
I don't know if this post belongs in this thread, but here goes. In the past few months, things went from bad to good to rock bottom. In Sept, I lost my job and had to go on unemployment. In January, because I couldn't pay my rent anymore, I had to move. So, I gave everything in my house away, hoping that someone less fortunate than me could use it. I left NC and went to Illinois to stay with a friend of mine who had lined me up an interview with a good company. In the first week, I interviewed and was hired pending a drug test and background check. This was a company that made military weapons, so the background check was exhaustive. A week later they called me and said that everything checked out, I was offered the job on that Wednesday, and was to start on the following Monday. On Friday I get the call that the HR manager wasn't authorized to hire anyone, so, I don't get to go to work.
Mind you, in this time frame, I was not drinking, in fact, I took my tax refund and banked it. (You have no idea of the urge to use that money to drink) I stayed there for a few more weeks looking for work, but nobody was hiring, and, quite honestly, I really missed NC. So..I packed up the car and the dog, and started the drive back down here. Due to some auto problems this trip took a week. So between the auto repair and the motel rooms, I exhausted my tax refund money. (good thing I didn't drink it away, huh?)
Now, that I'm back, I found a place that will let me pay them week to week, it's $150 a week, and I make $170 a week from unemployment. So, herein lies the situation.
I have one more week of unemployment left, and no prospects of a job. There is supposed to be an extension of unemployment benefits, but the best answer I can get from anyone is this. When you file your certification the week after yours runs out, if you get paid, then you qualify. So, I've got one more week of a place to live and then, I'm officially homeless.
Why does this belong in a sober recovery forum, you ask? Well, because today I started drinking again. When I am drinking I can forget about what is going to happen to me, and at this point I can live in the fantasy that things will get better. I know they won't, but for the moment I can believe.
I know I'm going to be homeless, I know that I'm going to have to give up my dog who's been with me for 2 years. Make no allusions, I am fully aware of why and what I am doing. I've been to all the local agencies, churches and government offices, to no avail. So, I've accepted the fact that some of us are supposed to get better, and some of us just have to accept the fact that it really doesn't matter what you do to get better. Sometimes life really does hand you a **** sandwich, and you have 2 choices, eat it or starve.
Mind you, in this time frame, I was not drinking, in fact, I took my tax refund and banked it. (You have no idea of the urge to use that money to drink) I stayed there for a few more weeks looking for work, but nobody was hiring, and, quite honestly, I really missed NC. So..I packed up the car and the dog, and started the drive back down here. Due to some auto problems this trip took a week. So between the auto repair and the motel rooms, I exhausted my tax refund money. (good thing I didn't drink it away, huh?)
Now, that I'm back, I found a place that will let me pay them week to week, it's $150 a week, and I make $170 a week from unemployment. So, herein lies the situation.
I have one more week of unemployment left, and no prospects of a job. There is supposed to be an extension of unemployment benefits, but the best answer I can get from anyone is this. When you file your certification the week after yours runs out, if you get paid, then you qualify. So, I've got one more week of a place to live and then, I'm officially homeless.
Why does this belong in a sober recovery forum, you ask? Well, because today I started drinking again. When I am drinking I can forget about what is going to happen to me, and at this point I can live in the fantasy that things will get better. I know they won't, but for the moment I can believe.
I know I'm going to be homeless, I know that I'm going to have to give up my dog who's been with me for 2 years. Make no allusions, I am fully aware of why and what I am doing. I've been to all the local agencies, churches and government offices, to no avail. So, I've accepted the fact that some of us are supposed to get better, and some of us just have to accept the fact that it really doesn't matter what you do to get better. Sometimes life really does hand you a **** sandwich, and you have 2 choices, eat it or starve.
Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,649
Well if rangerbob ever comes back here and checks these posts he is going to be pissed off as Heck.
Everyone has essentially told him to stop feeling sorry for himself and get his butt into a program but he sounds like one of those alkies, and we all are alkies here, who likes to blame everyone else for his problems in life.
Good grief, Ranger bob, we all did/do that! And some of us are still doing it, without a program.
Take a look at your original post when you mentioned that your landlord wanted your ex back but not you.
What could that mean?
Could that mean that your behavior was already spinning out of control months ago?
Well, yes it was. You know that. All this talk about your life suddenly going out of control this week is BS. Your posts have shown that things were out of control months....or...maybe...years ago. Sounds like it. But, you want to put a spin on it, and make it sound like everything went wrong all at once.
But, okay, I'll give you some credit there. Alcoholism can indeed work like that. It can take just a few short months for everything to go to hell in a handbasket, thanks to the booze.
Honey, you are talking to drunks. Trust us. We know all about trying to live life on our terms until it blows up in our face. We have been there and have done that.
Please get yourself to a Salvation Army facility, your dog too, and get to AA. We like dogs.
Everyone has essentially told him to stop feeling sorry for himself and get his butt into a program but he sounds like one of those alkies, and we all are alkies here, who likes to blame everyone else for his problems in life.
Good grief, Ranger bob, we all did/do that! And some of us are still doing it, without a program.
Take a look at your original post when you mentioned that your landlord wanted your ex back but not you.
What could that mean?
Could that mean that your behavior was already spinning out of control months ago?
Well, yes it was. You know that. All this talk about your life suddenly going out of control this week is BS. Your posts have shown that things were out of control months....or...maybe...years ago. Sounds like it. But, you want to put a spin on it, and make it sound like everything went wrong all at once.
But, okay, I'll give you some credit there. Alcoholism can indeed work like that. It can take just a few short months for everything to go to hell in a handbasket, thanks to the booze.
Honey, you are talking to drunks. Trust us. We know all about trying to live life on our terms until it blows up in our face. We have been there and have done that.
Please get yourself to a Salvation Army facility, your dog too, and get to AA. We like dogs.
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