16 months in I still get visual cues but they are shrugged off easily
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Poconos PA
Posts: 1,544
16 months in I still get visual cues but they are shrugged off easily
If there is still one thing that will not leave my subconscious mind it's the visual cue. I just saw an empty can walking my dogs in the heat and briefly wished I could enjoy it full being thirsty. I shrugged it off very easy as is customary at this point in my sobriety. Still though, I continue to encounter times when I reminisce upon a visual cue and feel a tinge of sadness before my rational mind takes over.
Yesterday morning I was briefly sidetracked by of all times to show it, a morning tv news program interviewing a craft brewer. Oddly, what helped me not care was checking out the sad sack drunks who were attending as part of the brewing crew to promote the beer. I thought,glad I'm not that guy looking disheveled at 6 in the morning sampling beer and then watching them get that glaze look after the sip.
It peeves me though, how it is all around us. No matter where we go, we will get visual cues that push our buttons.
I take comfort in the fact that my mental obsession has gotten so distant that these moments hardly bother me. Tonight though, for some reason it triggered me enough to want to post here.
I nonetheless will carry on in my usual sober fashion and hope you are too.
Have a great sober weekend everyone.
Yesterday morning I was briefly sidetracked by of all times to show it, a morning tv news program interviewing a craft brewer. Oddly, what helped me not care was checking out the sad sack drunks who were attending as part of the brewing crew to promote the beer. I thought,glad I'm not that guy looking disheveled at 6 in the morning sampling beer and then watching them get that glaze look after the sip.
It peeves me though, how it is all around us. No matter where we go, we will get visual cues that push our buttons.
I take comfort in the fact that my mental obsession has gotten so distant that these moments hardly bother me. Tonight though, for some reason it triggered me enough to want to post here.
I nonetheless will carry on in my usual sober fashion and hope you are too.
Have a great sober weekend everyone.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Indiana
Posts: 639
I know what you mean man! Commercials, magazines, TV shows, work conversations, it's everywhere! I just have to remind myself that as far as I know most people who drink aren't alcoholics. Drinking is just not something I can do and you are setting a good example by sharing how you shrug off the visual ques.
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Thoughts like booze is everywhere, all my friends drink, it seems the whole of society are drinking, everywhere I look there's booze... Were with me constantly in early recovery.
The obsession of the mind was all about exactly that. There was much more going on in life, if fact booze is such a small part of the worlds daily affairs, but I didn't know this. My alcoholic life was the only normal one. Anything to do with the alcohol scene would draw my attention.
As a recovering alcoholic, the obsession had not yet been removed even though I was not drinking. Boleo put it very well when he described a recovering alcoholic as one who is thinking about not drinking. By definition that's almost the same as thinking about drinking. Drinking is at the heart of it.
Then I recovered and the obsession was removed. Today I notice many other things in life, there's a whole world out there that has nothing to do with drinking. A bar or wine shop have as much prominence in my thoughts as a gas station or convenience store.
Alcohol is not everywhere in the world I which I now live, and all my friends either don't drink or drink moderately. Boleros other description of the recovered alcoholic as not thinking about drinking seems a good way to put it.
The obsession of the mind was all about exactly that. There was much more going on in life, if fact booze is such a small part of the worlds daily affairs, but I didn't know this. My alcoholic life was the only normal one. Anything to do with the alcohol scene would draw my attention.
As a recovering alcoholic, the obsession had not yet been removed even though I was not drinking. Boleo put it very well when he described a recovering alcoholic as one who is thinking about not drinking. By definition that's almost the same as thinking about drinking. Drinking is at the heart of it.
Then I recovered and the obsession was removed. Today I notice many other things in life, there's a whole world out there that has nothing to do with drinking. A bar or wine shop have as much prominence in my thoughts as a gas station or convenience store.
Alcohol is not everywhere in the world I which I now live, and all my friends either don't drink or drink moderately. Boleros other description of the recovered alcoholic as not thinking about drinking seems a good way to put it.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
