Anoronha

I feel no strong cravings to drink don't need antawbuse or naltrexone for last two months. I have been working the steps and feel more spiritual seems to good to be true. I keep expecting cravings to reappear. I want to hearcthoughts do cravings return is the obsession really lifted completely. I don't think I believe it fully though I am seeing some improvements. My sponsor says the obsession will really lift. Just want to hear thoughts on it.

Anoronha

I am on step 9 have 80 days sober.

Soberpotamus

I'm also on day 80 and I don't have any urges. Wondering myself if they'll return. I think the obsession left me as soon as I decided to quit. I had a few times in the first month where I had twinges of a craving, but nothing like a real urge. Just a flash of an image, smell, taste etc.

I hope others with more time weigh in on this...

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Bubovski

I never had extreme cravings yet drank for decades, often quite out of control.
The BB teaches that even the longest recovering alcoholic may be tempted again and slip..
As Iv'e had far more than my share of temptations I am keeping solid with my meetings and prayers.....................

BarbieKen

220 days today, my obsession was lifted that day I went into De-tox. That day I remember clearly, November 12, 2012. I just trusted. Everthing in the Universe seemed to open the doors (literally) for me. 7 months later, I see bottles of wine etc when I do grocery shopping, when I go to my favorite stores ( Trader Joe's & Target!). But, then I also see baby diapers & food. Just thinking here... I don't need those things in my life ... The baby stuff or the alcohol. I did in the past, but I'm here Today. I attended my daily Noon meeting, prayed, read, and now I'm here on SR. Good stuff!

EndGameNYC

I got sober in 1983. Cravings/obsession to drink were lifted after my first AA meeting, and I didn't experience them during 25 years of sobriety. When I relapsed, it had nothing to do with cravings. Instead, I convinced myself that "maybe I'm not an alcoholic." When I came back after three years of living in constant misery and despair, I struggled with cravings every day for nearly a year.

My experience has taught me that it's extremely difficult for me to get and stay sober following a relapse. It takes 25 years to get 25 years, and the grace and peace of mind that came with my first try were severely compromised.

To crave or not to crave is an individual learning experience. What we do when we experience cravings determines what comes next.

sugarbear1

I worked those steps quickly for relief on days 14 & 15 (I worked them 3 times within 8 months). On day 16 and since, I have not had a craving nor desire to drink or use (weed).

I didn't believe it was real and a month later began to attempt to "will" the cravings back (I'm a real alkie!)......it didn't "work" and I figured I should focus my energy elsewhere!

25+ months sober today and moving forward with living!

GracieLou

Day 89 for me.

I have not had any cravings and the desire to drink is gone. It has been this way since day one.

When I quit nine years ago it was horrible. The pull back to the drink and the cravings ruled my five months sober. I relapsed and stayed that way. I never looked back or tried again. I was not ready.

This time I have been given a gift. I truly feel that way. I did not take away the desire. I don't have that power. I thought about it a lot in the first month and then I stopped thinking about it and felt I needed to take the gift and run with it.

Going to AA, getting a sponsor, working the steps and helping others are my way of showing my appreciation for the gift I have been given.

Many, many things are different for me this time compared to the last but the one that stands out above all is that I surrendered. I took a leap of faith. I don't think that word meant anything to me before. It is not a word to me now. It is the way I feel. I have faith.

GroundhogDay

I'm struggling with the takeaway from this thread. I thought that attempts at sobriety got harder with each relapse, but GracieLou's comment hints that it has more to do with one's resolve not to drink ( or is it faith in God?)

This is my first "real" attempt at sobriety. I have 52 days today. I had some physical cravings during the first month, but none since. Mentally I am mostly okay, but some days my brains feel "scrambled." But I am still able to function just fine. Every once in a while my AV tells me "you aren't an alcoholic. It's okay if you have a glass of wine once in a while after you reach 90 days." I think that perhaps the fact that I am not where I want to be yet physically or mentally is keeping me on the straight and narrow path. That scares me a bit.

GreenEggsAndHam

I can't speak from experience, but they talked about this in my AA meeting last night.
Some of the old timers said they no longer have cravings, but they every once in a while get that voice in their head that says, "Hey, I don't crave a drink anymore. I can probably have one drink and be fine."

So it sounded to me like they don't crave it or even think about it much, but that every once in a while their AV makes an appearance out of the blue.

upandup

I read this thread and thought to myself, hmm, I'm at 138 days and had a longing to drink this week. Something I dismiss, but does present itself from time to time. Kudos to you who've had the obsession fully lifted!

SereneEdition

At 150 days.

I didn't have cravings for the first 3 months when I was focused 100% on sobriety, which involved a lot of changes and I let myself withdrawl from taking on hard projects at work as well as socially.

I'm having them more as I start to re-integrate back into life encountering more triggers, but they are small & manageable.

Groundhog Day - I think the clarification is that we have 2 elements at work - a person's internal frame of reference (IE motivation) and the disease's progression, which makes each attempt objectively harder. A person's motivation can go up as the disease progresses (think 'bottom') & it's really the net difference between the two.

happybeingme

I have 2years and while I have used a little of this and a little of that to get sober I have never attended a meeting or taken the steps. I also never had cravings. I had a few close calls when I was facing real challenges and wanted to escape but I made myself sit and feel the feelings. I have spent most of my life living in fear due to my upbringing but I refuse to live in fear of alcohol. My husband drinks, its in my house, I buy it for him. But it his. Just like my seltzer is mine. I dont drink his beer and he doesnt drink my seltzer.

Ghostly

I have over three years and still have cravings. During my sobriety, I can say I have not been "close" to drinking, even when having drinks shoved in my face. Still, the urge and desire is there.

In the early months, I definitely was on the pink cloud, and had no cravings or desire to drink. Around the two year mark, the cravings / urges were pretty intense.

Just my experience. I think its a very individual thing. Important thing is how you handle it, and the tools you've given yourself to stay on this journey.

Live2Run25

383 days today.

I get "man, I wish I could enjoy a glass of wine" but it's a fleeting thought, not so much a craving. I know it's just NOT an option anymore. I let the thought come in, and then just as quickly push it away, and move on with what i'm doing. I'm always prepared to push the thought away.

GracieLou

I had no resolve. Trust me when I say this. I had no burst of will power. I did not buckle down and dig in. I did not want to stop drinking. I wanted to fight kicking and screaming to the end.

I drank for 26 years. For all of those years there was something or someone that kept me at least a little on the path. Marriage, kids, boyfriends, family. Something, always something.

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.

I drank everyday after work. It was the reason to rush home. The weekends hit and I drank all day. From 6 am until I passed out and then rinse and repeat Sunday.

I had said I would not drink next Saturday at 6 am but on Saturday at 6 am I was pouring a drink. The one person that I trusted my entire life. The one person that made things work. The one person that fixed and handled all situations over the last 26 years was gone. That person was me. I could not trust myself anymore.

I have no clue what made me decide to pick up that phone and call AA. I was drunk when I thought of calling. I was drunk when I called. I was drunk when the lady picked me up and took me to a meeting.

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 for myself.

Sorry, I did not mean to babble on so long. It just started and out it came. I don't think I even realized until I typed it that the loss of trust in myself was a key factor.

Soberpotamus

My experience has been very similar to this (in effect, anyway), GracieLou... the only difference I see is that, for me, I learned to trust in the "not knowing" or acceptance of reality in the sense of being willing to shed any and all delusions... which I am currently in the process of doing (and foresee that I will be doing for quite some time... lol). So, for me... it is that I am finding the spiritual internally, in my own being or consciousness, rather than in a metaphysical entity outside of myself. I hope this makes sense. It does to me. Maybe in time I'll be able to articulate this better.

GracieLou

That make perfect sense.

We all have something in common as alcoholics but we vary a great deal in how we come to faith and what we have trust and faith in. Some may not even use the words trust or faith and that is okay too.

It does not really matter, IMO, what that is as long as we progress forward..

tomsteve

step 10 promises:
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

waynetheking

Drinking to me would be liquid suicide. Its like jumping off a tall building. I have no urge because the reality of alcoholism is death. Its a no option decision to drink. My higher power is running the show now and he says, Nope not the time for you to pass. Hes given me life. I have no other way to explain it.