sundaysmiles

Hi all! So, I am 34 days sober today. I feel great, going to meetings, etc. This is the longest I have been sober in...ever. I am positive about it and I am feeling healthier every single day. I still have the urge to drink and especially on my 30 days I wanted to celebrate like old times, but went to AA instead. I have a 5 day vacation coming up and I am really dealing with my romanticized idea of how it should be on my get away. We are flying first class so of course I am thinking about champagne and not to mention fruity drinks on the beach with my toes in the sand. I know this is wrong, but I somehow feel justified because of my short recovery. This disease is telling me that it's okay to indulge because I have gotten it under control and I can obviously not drinking a period of time. Maybe it would be different this time, maybe I could just drink on the vacation and come back to my recovery after. This **** is hard.

MIRecovery

I love Aruba and I did not know it was possible to be on the beach without being half sloshed.

Guess what? It is better sober. I pack my little cooler full of my favorite NA drinks and have a wonderful time.

You are punishing yourself by drinking not rewarding

doggonecarl

Don't fall for the lie.

I quit in 1997. In two months I was telling myself, "See there, you weren't so bad. If you can go that long, you can control your drinking." Drank for one night, or so I planned. Then drank for the next 12 years.

PurpleKnight

The romanticisation of alcohol was my biggest trigger, but that one glass of wine or cocktail was never the full story, my mind would conveniently cut the story short and not reveal that the glass would turn out to be a few bottles, cocktails would turn into shots, and what would start as 1 beer on holiday would end up in a late night karaoke bar and not remembering singing Bon Jovi the next morning!!

The myths and fairytales our minds can sell us is the best fiction out there!!

Anna

Yes, please know you are listening to your AV and it's working very hard to take you down.

Enjoy your vacation sober!

trachemys

You can have fruity drinks, with your toes in the sand. Just without alcohol. You won't be missing anything but the hangover.

zjw

everyone who's posted is right. Your AV is gonna try and trick you into drinking. Roll the dice if you wish but many have done that and failed. I dont think its a risk worth taking. I also dont think you'd enjoy your vacation any more. You have to learn how to live a sober life and part of living a sober life is doing things sober that you otherwise would have done drunk. A vacation like this is just a hurdle to jump jump it this once and it'll be easy the next time. But if you drink well then next time you get to have this fight all over again.

Sasha4

I have done lots of sober holidays - most all inclusive with as much booze as you can pour down your throat from morning to night.

For me what worked

1 Reminding myself I could drink whenever I wanted to, it was me that was choosing not to. No-one was forcing me too.

2. I made it my mission to be official photographer and take photo's everyday to keep me occupied. Sometimes if it got tough I went for a walk with my camera on my own.

3. I watched the people that drank far too much alcohol, saw them the next morning and it made me realise I was not missing anything.

4. It was nice to feel relaxed and having the opportunity to become healthy rather than go home and feel like I had over indulged. I slept a lot and ate healthy and drank healthy too.

Most important was one day at a time.
If I saw it as 7 days of no drinking, that was too hard.
I decided when I woke up that that day 'I would not drink' but I would wait for the next day to decide if I was drinking or not. Just felt like less pressure that way.

I wish you the best xx

Soberwolf

Hang in there

sundaysmiles

This was the best advice I have gotten. You're right about my vacation not being as enjoyable after I took a drink. You're also right about having this inner turmoil again. I was thinking before I read what you said that "maybe just this one last time because it's special and I've had it planned before I started my recovery" but I know if I drank now I would make excuses to drink for all sorts of occasions and that is definitely not what I want. Thank you.

Jupiters

Thanks Sasha for posting this. I have a trip coming up end of Novmeber...by then I will be over 6mths...I'm feeling really positive about the whole thing already but this is great advice

Sasha4

There was one guy at breakfast, sweating and shaking drinking a can of something that looked 4 times stronger than red bull.

I felt very healthy and serene with my nectarine and pineapple juice!

He looked in pain from his heavy night.
Awful!