5brats

I burst into tears over NOTHING!! A sad song can make me cry all day. Other days I'm numb, just auto pilot all day. Then there are days I feel just fine. I have no way of knowing one day to the next what extreme emotion I'm going to have!! When will this balance out??

UniqueNewYork

When I'm at work I frequently hear the theme song to very inspirational movies. These include Gladiator, Rocky, Good Will Hunting, Rambo (1-4), Commando, Conan, etc. I also give myself pep talks like "attitude is everything" and "comon we have to win". It sounds cheesy but this is what snaps me out of those moments.

Dee74

Hi 5 brats

It probably took 90 days for me to reach a consistent emotional level I think...so here's hoping you'll soon find some consistency too

D

ZZworldontheweb

For me it really started to even out about 3 1/2 to 4 months. I've heard others say similar time frames. Chin up, you might be almost there!

SomethingBetter

I've been angry the last few days, felt worthless and just didn't want to go to work today and don't want to go tomorrow but did and have to tomorrow as well, arhhg.

I am not craving alcohol, but I too don't know one day from the next till it gets here.

It's been over 20 days and it seems it's getting harder to control how I feel, with booze It was like a switch to get in a good mood, I don't want a drink though, I'll wait it out I just hope it don't take 90 days.

gravity

Ever think of getting some help?

One thing I read (and believe) is that our emotions are driven by our thoughts. Especially when I first quit drinking, my thoughts and beliefs were all out of whack.

AA, counselling, talking to my Elders & friends, spiritual/self-help books...I'm still a work in progress (which is okay) but I'm much more saner today than I was three years ago!

Supercrew

It took me around 3 or 4 months. I never used to cry...hell I'm a 42 year old macho guy, but for the first 3 or 4 months I couldn't watch a Disney movie with my kid, or even a happy event that I didn't just tear up. Even a couple times while driving I would think about something and get emotional. It was crazy, because I never allowed myself to cry since I was about 12. Men don't cry....but then I did for 3 or 4 months. But I would like to report that I no longer cry! I am so happy about that I think I might cry....nah just a bug in my eye.

CarolD

Welcome back to SR....
How are your eating habits?

With my doctors ok I followed an eating plan and
supplements for hypoglycemia in early sobriety.

I found it in "Under The Influence" by Milam & Ketcham

well done on your sober time..hope it gets smoother soon.

johndelko408

I don't quite remember how long it took for me to feel at a balanced level of emotions. I can only imagine that it may be different for everyone. I'd have to say that at 14 months of recovery my emotions seem to be at an equilibrium. Then again I still have my days when I just don't feel like getting out of bed and facing the world, but it is something that I must do. The one thing I have realized in recovery is that life still and always will show up. I'm still going to have bad days and I'm still going to go through things I don't like. I used to ask my sponsor the same question you're asking in the beginning of my sobriety, when are these emotions going to stop. He told me that I've always had these emotions but that I now feel them and am no longer taking a drink to run away from. What I've learned that over time you learn to live with them and that they won't be as bad as you learn to cope with them. Just give it time and your emotions will balance out, the best part about it is that they will make you stronger as learn to live through them without taking a drink.

Jeb18

Just think of it as, all the bad chemicals are being released from your body.

Making you into a better person.

I know that sounds cheesy but, o well.

pinkfirefly

Hey. Hope you feel better. Talk to your doctor if things still don't get better. They can perhaps prescribe you some anti depressants or something to help with your moods. They do help you to feel better, so don't be ashamed to take them. Things will get better. Stay strong

azureseas

this is from a book I am reading about food addiction but I think it applies to any addiction. It is about treating yourself kindly, the words below are not mine

Welcome Feelings with Tenderness:
"When I am willing to question and therefore feel whatever is there -- terror, hatred, anger -- with curiosity, the feelings relax, because they are met with kindness and openness instead of resistance and rejection.
To the degree that my feelings are familiar, that I've felt them before in similar situations -- feeling left out, rejected, abandoned -- the willingness to allow them offers a completely different scenario than the situations in which they first developed.

Recurrent negative feelings -- those that loop in the same cycles again and again without changing -- are unmet knots of our past that got frozen in time for the precise reason that they were not met with kindness or acceptance.

Can you imagine how your life would have been different if each time you were feeling sad or angry as a kid, an adult said to you, "Come here, sweetheart, tell me all about it"? If when you were overcome with grief at your best friend's rejection, someone said to you, "Oh, darling, tell me more. Tell me where you feel those feelings. Tell me how your belly feels, your chest. I want to know every little thing. I'm here to listen to you, hold you, be with you.

All any feeling wants is to be welcomed with tenderness. It wants room to unfold. It wants to relax and tell its story. It wants to dissolve like a thousand writhing snakes that with a flick of kindness become harmless strands of rope."

yeahgr8

It balanced out when i did work on myself...went to AA and worked their solution...the danger without changing ourselves is that we end up living like the boy in the bubble desperately trying to avoid all emotional entanglements if we don't change...it's really quite a thing to see someone with decades of abstinence basically becoming a house hermit and thats not what i want out of sobriety, i would advise to get some help but it's your choice:-)