Honeymoon phase
Encourager In Training
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: KS
Posts: 717
Anoronha - As a blessed, departed SR soul used to say, "forward is the right direction". Keep moving away from your drinking life. Time will tell whether you are finished with cravings or if they will return after this initial period of sobriety. As you can see from the responses here, our experiences vary greatly in this area. But either way, your best course of action is to keep plowing forward with the steps (since you are a member of AA) and with building your life beyond alcohol.
And if craving ever does return, consider this: You and I are escapees. Each of us escaped a alcoholic prison cell that would have eventually served as a tomb. What does any escapee with half-a-brain do after clearing the gate? Yep, run like hell away from the prison. Returning to drinking is akin to running back onto the grounds and demanding to be reincarcerated. No thank you!
No need to pay the ransom, because I (and you, and many others here) have escaped!!
And if craving ever does return, consider this: You and I are escapees. Each of us escaped a alcoholic prison cell that would have eventually served as a tomb. What does any escapee with half-a-brain do after clearing the gate? Yep, run like hell away from the prison. Returning to drinking is akin to running back onto the grounds and demanding to be reincarcerated. No thank you!
No need to pay the ransom, because I (and you, and many others here) have escaped!!
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 70
I take things one day at a time its easier to handle that way , alcohol only has power over me when I see it as a solution to my problems If im applying the healthier solution it has no power over me any more. When i first got sober i could barely walk in a store where alcohol was sold. For me they key was 100% step one Im Powerless over alcohol PERIOD and always will be , for me to drink is to die. Cravings or not i never drank accidently.... A conscious decision was made by myself to escape by alcohol ! This Too Shall Pass.....
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Olympia, Washington, USA
Posts: 135
I've been wondering about a possible "honeymoon phase" also. I feel so great. Kind of like a brand new Christian, who is just so excited about Jesus they are like bursting with it! And you say, give them a month, they'll be back to being just like the rest of us (sadly). I'm just kind of like really excited about being sober right now and hope it lasts.
Recovering ostrich
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida
Posts: 2,551
6 months and some change here. The cravings left for me at the 30 day mark... And then it was just, well, I am not drinking... What the hell do I fill my time with?! Turns out that there is a lot to fill my time with. I do worry about getting complacent and letting my guard down, my sponsor says that is healthy.
Laozi Old Man
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 6,665
Originally Posted by Anoronha 
My sponsor says the obsession will really lift. Just want to hear thoughts on it.
At first I thought it was just a "pink-cloud" effect but the obsession never did return. Not even for one second. I have since come to believe that it was a Spiritual Awakening that lifted the obsession clean out of my consciousness.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Huntington Woods, Michigan
Posts: 465
Urge, craving, desire, obsession, compulsion.......
Time and time again I have to ask myself what these words mean when I say them and what they mean when others make use of them to describe their own experience. Most people do not understand alcoholism. I relate to what is in aa's basic text about alcoholism. I use the experiences described in that book in order to do identify the problem I have and to identify the solution that will work for me. I have found the solution, because I found a description of the problem that I fit, albiet imperfectly fit.
Time and time again I have to ask myself what these words mean when I say them and what they mean when others make use of them to describe their own experience. Most people do not understand alcoholism. I relate to what is in aa's basic text about alcoholism. I use the experiences described in that book in order to do identify the problem I have and to identify the solution that will work for me. I have found the solution, because I found a description of the problem that I fit, albiet imperfectly fit.
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: US East Coast
Posts: 1,972
Originally Posted by GracieLou
Then I got what I wished for. No kids (grown and on their own) No husband (divorced twice). No boyfriend (broke up almost two years ago). I had a simple 8 hour job, which was no sweat. I was FINALLY able to drink the way I always wanted to.
Be careful what you wish for...
Since I could not longer trust myself, I surrendered. I was not praying and there was no white light. Only a feeling of peace and freedom. That is why I consider it a gift. There is no other way for me to look at it.
I turned to AA. I took that leap of faith that they could help me. Maybe in some ways and deep inside I thought that could help me trust myself again.
What I found was that all this time what I really needed was to trust someone and something else other than me. I had to let go and not run the show. To reach out and take their hand and their help. To trust in a higher power.
That is what keeps me sober. My trust in a higher power and that his plans for me are much greater then the plan I had...
Be careful what you wish for...
Since I could not longer trust myself, I surrendered. I was not praying and there was no white light. Only a feeling of peace and freedom. That is why I consider it a gift. There is no other way for me to look at it.
I turned to AA. I took that leap of faith that they could help me. Maybe in some ways and deep inside I thought that could help me trust myself again.
What I found was that all this time what I really needed was to trust someone and something else other than me. I had to let go and not run the show. To reach out and take their hand and their help. To trust in a higher power.
That is what keeps me sober. My trust in a higher power and that his plans for me are much greater then the plan I had...
You are good and you are wise.
Not waving, but drowning
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 423
My cravings were triggered by situations---certain celebrations, long plane flights---that I identified with drinking in the past. I did manage not to drink and they have diminished. But I felt good in the first few weeks after I stopped drinking and it wasn't a honeymoon period--it continued. But then, everyone is different.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Western Canada
Posts: 540
292 days... Have not had a serious craving since starting AA, which was a few days after getting sober. The obsession is gone and I truly have no desire to drink like a "normal" drinker or any other kind of drinker. This amazes me. It was definately the doing of AA, because when I've quit before it was white knuckling until I gave in again. The pink cloud is gone, unfortunately, but now I have real tools (AA, SR, other tools too) to deal with life without liquor. The only time I started having persistant thoughts (not really cravings, but the AV) was when I skipped a bunch of meetings and stopped doing the things I should've been doing. Bad idea. Finally got my butt to a meeting, and continue to go. I'm scared to think what will happen if I don't!
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