freethinking

I was wondering if anyone here would be willing to share how they got rid of all day thoughts on drinking. Having a hard time here. Thanks.

DoubleBarrel

The desire to drink goes away.

If you drink, it goes away, but you are back to square one again.

If you don't drink, it goes away, and stays away.

One of the biggest gifts, and blessings of sobriety, (AND A HUGE RELIEF)
is that the cravings go away. They really do.

Early sobriety sucks, but its worth hanging in there.

Try and distract yourself. Exercise, eat, sleep, have sex, go to a movie, something. It passes. Each time you beat the urge, you get a little stronger.

Jus

Hi Free, all I can tell you, is to keep trying different things, until the right one works for you. I've struggled with it for decades. I never gave up....don't ever give up, one day the obsession will be gone. Good luck

Olive1

This is true. The desire just goes away. It took me a long time, like at least a year, but the desire went away.

Stay strong!
It gets better. It really, really does.

Dan Dare

Mostly I keep thinking of how horrific I felt coming off it

jasonfiz

It truly is a bad behavior. look into hobbies.

Climber122

HALT. You may have heard this before but try not to get:

Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired

Easier said than done, but all of the above are states that open you to having a harder time with cravings, so be aware when one or more are present. If hungry, eat - protein and sweets are particularly useful. If angry, remove yourself from the situation and deep breathe, pray if inclined. If lonely call a friend or family, or go to a meeting. If tired, rest - get good sleep, and if you're having trouble sleeping try getting into a book or journaling.

Also,

Get involved in something that will preoccupy your mind - tasks like cleaning, organizing, or writing. Above all remember it always passes. Your mantra can be "this too shall pass." You can allow your body to crave it - no need to "fight" it - just watch it pass on, because it will.

If you can, connect with others - AA meetings, counselors, doctors - try reaching out somehow and talk about what you are going through with people who know. This website is good but in person is better if possible.

If you're spiritually inclined, try praying for help. It works in my experience.

God bless.

freethinking

If I could, I'd go out to a bookstore, grab a coffee or otherwise get out of the house when I feel like this. But, I'm a stay at home mom to three small kids (one being a baby), and so getting out in this weather is very hard. My worst time of day is now, when the baby is napping and I HAVE to be home. I guess I could pick up the phone, but it's so damn heavy...

I am also going to a meeting tonight once my husband gets home.

CAPTAINZING2000

Pray and meditate an believe

doggonecarl

I stayed sober long enough to learn to deal with life without running to the bottle. There isn't a technique to ridding the obsession, it's a process. Called recovery.

KateL

Yeah, I just remember how horrible it was. And the craving just went away eventually xxx

Carlotta

I was lucky, after the first few days which was more of a physical thing, the obsession was lifted.

tomsteve

I used the program of AA and
Things
I
Must
Earn

least

I just remember being so desperate to stop drinking that it was "stop drinking or die trying". I didn't die and I'm sober now so it worked.

bigsombrero

I just happened to have lost my job and I'd still had a few extra bucks in my savings account, so I threw some clothes in a backpack and ended up somewhere between Mexico and Panama for a few months. I had a rice cooker and a bicycle, and kind of cobbled together a bare-bones existence for a while there. Kind of jolted me back to life, really. And it definitely kept my mind off drinking. I changed my routine to the extreme, but coming from rock bottom I needed a major shake up.

Then I came back to the States started to learn how to live properly again from scratch. It's hard to explain the "process", as Carl put it, but there certainly is one. Everyone goes about it their own way, but in the end we are all working and learning along the way, and going in the same direction.

Brian316

AA and prayer first thing in the morning and last thing before bed at night. For me, only God could remove the obsession.

archenemy

I force myself to work on some time-consuming household chore. I also took out my blank art pad and now have a sketch I'm working on. I always have unfinished work to jump into when an obsession rears its ugly head...I get rid of it and accomplish something in the process!

Joe Nerv

By going to a detox, a rehab, and AA. And by utilizing the 12 steps in my life.

TigerLili

White knuckled the first few days, AA meetings, change of routine, spending a lot of time here on SR. I am 4 weeks in and I don't feel like a drink, and I don't think about it. I drank every day, for years and years.

Grungehead

I found that for me there was a big difference between "cravings" and "obsession". My cravings became less frequent after a few weeks and became infrequent after a few months. But the obsession never left me even after several years of not drinking. I ended up relapsing after 7 years and drank for another 8 years before getting sober again.

When I got sober again 9 months ago I got a sponsor who took me through the steps for the first time. The obsession to drink was removed somewhere between step 7 and 10. In the Big Book they speak of a spiritual experience or awakening and a complete psychic change. One of the definitions of psychic is "relating to the soul or mind". I believe this best explains what happened to me, as I had a (psychic) change of my soul or mind by working the 12 steps. For me it was a sudden change after completing Step 7 and has been a gradual and ongoing change since that time while doing my Step 9 amends and practicing Steps 10-12 on a daily basis.

Since you mentioned that you go to meetings I explained my experience in AA terms, but I think another way to explain this for people not using the 12 step approach would be to call it a shift or change in personality. I think that a fundamental change is needed in our thinking to get rid of the obsession for alcohol by whatever means work best for us. I believe the most important change is to learn how to get out of ourselves and focus on what we can do for our fellow man. I find it very difficult to obsess about other things (especially alcohol) when I am thinking about what I can do to help others instead of thinking about myself.