DayWalker

I find for me that the better my life gets, the easier it is for me to forget just how bad things were when I was drinking.

I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been reading the site as much as I use to do. Mainly because things have been going good for me, but I started thinking the other day...that's a pretty lame reason to not come to the site. What do I only come here when things are bad? that's dumb.

So that's why I have been trying to check up on the forum more lately, just to remind myself how things were and that I don't ever want to go back down that road again.

Steve

ReadyAndAble

I'm with LaFemme and Carol on this; I like to think positively, and focus on successes. But at the same time, my biggest fear is that I will someday forget where I've been, like Least said. That's the ONLY way I can imagine every returning to that dark place again. It's one reason why I visit SR at the beginning and end of every day, plus a few times in between if I'm lucky.

I feel really lucky to be part of a community that spends so much time pondering, discussing and even arguing about these kinds of things. So thank you all.

Eddiebuckle, I am so sorry to hear that. Just tragic.

Stugotz, I'm just sayin' it with you. Jeff Van Who?

RobbyRobot

There really is no other practical way to live except in the present moment. Having said that though, there is alot to say for life experience drunk, dry, or sober.

Alcoholics relapse because of unchecked alcoholism. Relapsing is not any part of the recovery process, imo. Folks going back to drinking after 20 something years of sobriety says more about what alcoholism really is rather than what is important about personalities. When alcoholics dont drink for years at a time something was working. Its nobodys business what program so and so does or dosen't do to keep themselves sober. A quality sober life is a completely subjective experience. We can all be examples of course, but that is where it ends. Each of us must live responsibly with alcoholism as best we can ourselves, otherwise of course, sobriety will just not be enough, and that next drink will be the one that is finally taken sooner or later.

Time in sobriety is not any kind of cure for the illness of alcoholism, just like constant relapsing is not any indicator of never being able of getting a sober life. I learn something everytime a drunk gets back to drinking. I learn that it could easily have been me. I say easily, because alcoholism is a real illness in my life, so all I need do is do nothing responsible about my illness, and from there I will absolutely get drunk again sooner or later.

I don't really know "what" gets folks with 20 something or whatever years of sobriety back to drinking, but i do know its nothing about them personally: its always their alcoholism. Period. I dont get into if they did whatever to get sober and i dont because no matter what method or way of life they choose or chose, there still is no cure for their alcoholism illness. Others of course have their own experiences to think on when others get drunk.

I was a total loser drunk, and that is something a guy just dosen't forget when sober. Each day I'm sober is less chance I will ever again get drunk because of the gratitude built one day at a time for not anymore being such a drunk loser, and I can now live with all that gratitude invested in my sober life. Each day my alcoholism becomes more and more arrested and for all its progression, I keep sober nontheless. Awesome.

I'l always have nothing but empathy for alcoholics who were sober and one day find themselves drunk. Alcoholism is a horrible fatal illness. I don't worry about getting drunk ever again because my obsession with alcohol is gone. Still though, I'm still an alcoholic, and it could happen to me, that I could get drunk. Its been many years since I was drinking, and I still know it could happen to me. Knowing that and doing what ever it takes to stay sober keeps me sober. I'm even more rigorously honest with myself now then I was in my early days of sobriety. One day at a time. One life to live.

RR

FrothyJay

I've come to understand that the number of years someone has since their last drink has very little to do with the depth of their recovery. In some cases, I've found the complete opposite correlation. People can stay abstinent for years without treating their alcoholism.

One day at a time, all we have is today, change people, places and things, the further you get from your last drink the closer you get to your next-- these are all rehab-generated expressions that have nothing to do with AA recovery. They infiltrated AA in the 60s and 70s, and became part of the folklore. But they are at odds with the essence of recovery.

AA promises a recovered state-- not a state of constant vigilance, worry and hand-wringing over whether I'm going to drink again. The program is about freedom from all that.

When an "old-timer" says that they had an urge to drink, we shouldn't compliment them, we should be asking them why after decades they still haven't recovered.

LetsGoJets

we quit for good and for all. we live a day at a time. if i didnt drink a day at a time shoot me. please.

LetsGoJets

i tried this for three years and kept getting drunk. i'll lay odds from here to Vegas that if u are a real alcoholic, "just dont drink today" isnt gonna work for u. Not tryin to start anything here, just sharing my experience.

FrothyJay

It's not about starting anything: you are completely accurate. If we are talking about AA, "just don't drink for today" can't be found anywhere in our literature, and for good reason: it's not the nature of the program.

24hrsAday

thanks for the laugh stugotz.. in all seriousness though i have learned to Never Put people up on pedestals No Matter How Much i Admire their sobriety. i have seen too many fall in my time around A.A.

RobbyRobot

"Just don't drink today" worked well for me, in my early days of intial sobriety. I really couldn't have grasped much else, and so it was enough. As my detox progressed and things started to clear up some, staying sober became the thing to do. That need opened other doors to getting real help for my alcoholism. From there more doors opened into living spiritually sober. And here I am today.

It all started for me though with "just for today"

And I still only live one day at a time.

Robby