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View Poll Results: How does Recovery Effect you?
I am becoming a whole new person.
70
44.59%
I am rediscoverying the person I was before I started to drink.
70
44.59%
I am exactly the same as I've always been.
15
9.55%
Huh?
8
5.10%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 157. You may not vote on this poll

How Recovery Effects You

Old 01-18-2011, 03:52 PM
  # 21 (permalink)  
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I hate to go against the grain here, but honestly looking at myself. I am the same person for the most part. Just not drunk all the time. I think people drink for all types of reasons, but I didn't drink to fill voids. I didn't drink because I hated myself, or even to escape from anything. I don't feel I drank because of spiritual maladies or because I was abused as a youth. I drank because I learned to love drinking at a very young age and it was the only way I knew to have a good time and enjoy myself. Drinking was imbred in me. The problem was I don't have an off switch. The next problem was I hated feeling crappy the next day because I didn't have an off switch, so I found a way around feeling crappy by drinking continuously for extended periods of time.

When I put this full time drinking idea into place I didn't realize that it was the last piece of the puzzle to turn a heavy binge drinker into a full blown alcoholic. But it happened.

So as far as me changing as a person, I did come out of a dark period in my life, and learned alot about myself and about alcoholism, but the reality is I haven't changed much, I am pretty much the same person doing the same stuff, just sober, and I have always like myself. I do have a greater understanding of alcoholism and addictions, and I have a different outlook on people who have these afflictions now.
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Old 01-18-2011, 07:02 PM
  # 22 (permalink)  
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#2

Only now that I am closing in 90 days am I starting to figure out everything alcohol took from me. I am surprised by the re-emergence of joy - I am the happy and content person I use to be. Alcohol opened my life to things that robbed me of happiness and made me into a selfish jerk when I was drunk.
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Old 01-18-2011, 07:10 PM
  # 23 (permalink)  
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Yep it matters not to myself. Just the folks around me that figure I should be sober. Hu?
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Old 01-18-2011, 07:27 PM
  # 24 (permalink)  
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Other than substance induced behavior I am exactly the same as I have always been, I just make different choices now.
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Old 01-18-2011, 07:50 PM
  # 25 (permalink)  
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I did #1. My thinking is that I have been drunk so long I forgot who I was before!! No other way to describe it other than a new awakening.
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Old 01-18-2011, 07:50 PM
  # 26 (permalink)  
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l feel like a whole new person,
l've learn't so much in sobriety and have so much more to give (both to myself as well as others). l'm finding out who l am really supposed to be and discovering l have more strength and compassion than l would ever have given myself credit for.
Great poll really got me thinking, haven't really asked myself that question before now


The first step towards change is acceptance.
Once you accept yourself you open the door to change.
Change is not something you do, it's something you allow.
Will Garcia
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Old 01-18-2011, 08:23 PM
  # 27 (permalink)  
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Right now I'm pretty much the same as I was before, except I'm not consuming drugs and alcohol now. However, I do feel that I am able to push my self to new heights now that I am not drinking. I am training for another marathon and I must say training is so much easier when you're not drinking and consuming drugs all of the time, and my body fat is down to 7%.
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Old 01-18-2011, 08:26 PM
  # 28 (permalink)  
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I picked 4. I am still figuring it out....
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Old 01-19-2011, 10:21 AM
  # 29 (permalink)  
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#3. I haven't changed except I am much healthier.
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Old 01-20-2011, 02:00 AM
  # 30 (permalink)  
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I chose #1 because I was changed by the experience of drinking and recovery. I think I have a deeper sense of life and of wanting to be present and aware in each moment.

I could easily make an argument for #2 or #3. (I'm rediscovering my authentic true being; or I'm essentially the same, just with a few more experiences in life, which is part of life.)

Great survey. I found it so interesting to read what others wrote.
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Old 01-20-2011, 03:25 AM
  # 31 (permalink)  
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Thumbs up

#1

Its a daily progression of living a new life with an always changing me. Over the years I've become a very much new me.
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Old 01-20-2011, 05:38 AM
  # 32 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by pascal View Post
#2

Only now that I am closing in 90 days am I starting to figure out everything alcohol took from me. I am surprised by the re-emergence of joy - I am the happy and content person I use to be. Alcohol opened my life to things that robbed me of happiness and made me into a selfish jerk when I was drunk.

I too was surprised by the re-emergence of joy - a deep and abiding joy. I definitely am becoming the person I really am and always was underneath the sea of wine.
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Old 01-20-2011, 07:19 AM
  # 33 (permalink)  
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#4- too early to tell
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Old 01-20-2011, 08:29 AM
  # 34 (permalink)  
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#2 Babies are perfect.
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Old 01-20-2011, 12:31 PM
  # 35 (permalink)  
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Babies are perfect
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Old 01-20-2011, 02:21 PM
  # 36 (permalink)  
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That was interesting LaFemme...

I can't help but wonder if there is any consistency within groups one and two in terms of recovery methods, demographics, etc... Every time I do a poll I end up with more questions than answers...

Thanx
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Old 01-20-2011, 06:58 PM
  # 37 (permalink)  
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Well...I could always do a couple more surveys...interview the responders and plot a chart of my finding...lol..or not.

I will hazard that newbies would answer #3 or #4...I think I would have chosen 4 in my first month.

In retrospect I think 1 and 2 are the same thing but different ways of seeing the same thing....if that makes sense. I like 2 because to me it says there was something good to start with and I just got lost along the way...but thats me

In Christianity the concept of being born again to me means starting over...I get the appeal but don't know how much I subscribe to it. I prefer the concept of washing away our sins and becoming clean.

Darn...strayed into theology
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Old 01-20-2011, 09:43 PM
  # 38 (permalink)  
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The questions in the poll got me thinking about "wholeness" and I realized it is the "whole-ism" of sobriety that has worked so strongly to restore happiness and understanding in my life. Sobriety has erased the psychological fractures of alcoholism.
As an alcoholic, I was like a bird with a broken wing, flapping around on the ground, unable to fly. Although I have had some serious physical issues in life, the holistic healing of sobriety has made these secondary to the real deal: the ability to fly with serenity and strength.
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Old 01-21-2011, 12:33 AM
  # 39 (permalink)  
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Kudos everyone for your comments...I choose # 2 as well. I compare the experience of unearthing our true potential from within, to that of a friend whom we lost contact with for so long and by extraordinary means are able to reconnect with them once again. Basically...the prospects of rediscovering ourselves and the dreams that once defined us are endless, as long as we continue to pursue our goals and dreams with the same fervor as does a dying man search for his next breath.

I got involved, early on, with a group that focused on rediscovering their worth through the life altering gift of sobriety. This gift - as presented to me in an earth shattering way - has been the driving force behind my continued desire to grow and mature through the sobering up process. Not just over alcohol, mind you; there are many residual effects of my childhood, still etched in my mind, that could cause me to doubt the very thing I've come to appreciate most of all - My sobriety, "one day at a time". However, what has emerged since then has been the desire to complete the unfinished work that had been vacated for so long. I'm able to begin the process; once again of reclaiming my worth through the many avenues that lead me to become the man I am today.

Through the strong bond of spiritual unity, deeply rooted in a network of sober minded people whom I am grateful for every day, I am rediscovering myself and devoting quality time to pursue the dreams that have awakened my senses and restored my dignity.
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Old 01-21-2011, 06:07 AM
  # 40 (permalink)  
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I voted #2, although being that this is day 54 it may be too soon to tell! I am seeing parts and pieces reemerge that I got glimpses of long ago, before my drinking derailed and suppressed so much of my true self... and I say true self because I think there has been a plan in place for me (for everyone, really) since the beginning. I don't believe that I can become "a whole new person"; I can only be the person that I have always been meant to be. In this way, I see that I am not so different from the way I was as a child, just wiser and with a LOT more life experience. But the essence of me is still there, growing and developing. Alcohol made all of that growth come to a screeching halt, stunting me for a decade or longer, and tricking me into thinking I was something I am not, but that was part of the big plan, too, I believe. The real me is back and ready to contiue moving forward.
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