Need2try

Friday I thought I would be "cool" and drink a few. I had not drank since before thanksgiving. I said I would just have a few and perhaps my problems were not related to drinking. We all know how well that goes over. I think I forgot how painful my abdomen feels after I drink. I'm still hungover. This is Monday - I drank Friday. The worst part is that I was in control and then Bamm! Urges and AV took over. For whatever reason I find myself romanticizing drinking then I give in. I feel awful and ashamed. Next time I'm tempted I will read this post and perhaps jog the painful memories of how great drinking really is. IT SUCKS!!

DAY 3 again

advbike

We've all done it. I also romanticized alcohol, and drinking environments. Never thought I'd be able to travel sober, for example, but I am now. I finally realized my drinking wasn't romantic, or special in any way and made the decision to be done with it. Good for you, to get right back to it.

Dee74

yeah drinking is not cool. I used up all my fun tickets.
I'm glad you're back need2try.

what have you been doing for your recovery?

D

thomas11

I say good job on 100 days. I guess the upside would be that based on your post the last thing you want to do right now is drink again. I would take that as a positive sign.

least

I wish you success in staying sober this time.

RoyGBiv

I gotta remember that way of looking at it.

Dee74

It's not my phrase, but yeah, I identify with it

D

Soberwolf

Identify areas for improvements and keep trying bud

dsmaxis10

Relapsed on day 68 Christmas eve used to be the last time I drank. I was hungover for three days don't even know what day it was.

Notimetoloose

Yah, into the triple digits, congratulations 100 days is wonderful...: )

Berrybean

Treat it as a valuable lesson, and try not to waste too much energy beating yourself up about it. After all - advertising for alcohol and making it seem alluring is big big business.

A lot of the adverts, and images that we have engrained in us from growing up with certain books and films even, really do scream to our egos and pride. If you're an AAer it might be worth doing some Step 4 work about what happened so you're stronger for next time the monkey whispers to you.

Oh and, if you haven't already read it, Monkey On My Shoulder is a really good book that helped me get my head round alcohol imagery and it's false promises. (You can get it pretty cheap for Kindle / Cloud Reader from Amazon).

Well done for not letting this turn into a proper long term relapse.

Need2try

Thank you one and all for the support. I'm still not 100% over it. I will check in if I ever get urges like that again. The cost of drinking has taken it's toll on my life. Now I must pick up the pieces and move on. When I don't drink I feel good so that is the game plan. Don't drink no matter what happens.

Berrybean

Glad you're back sober for now, and that sounds like a great GOAL. But it might be worth putting some more thought into your PLAN of how to achieve this. (Like, my goal might be to lose weight, but it's not likely to succeed unless I have a plan that involves some strategies and ways I might alter my behaviours)

EG...
What will be different this time?
When are you likely to be tempted? What can you do to lessen the risk of those situations.
Can you make use of HALT? (Planning ahead to avoid Hunger; Anger; Loneliness; being overTired)

Good luck

Gottalife

Has this happened before? A period sober then a drink based on some flimsy excuse? It happened to me a lot. It's part of the illness, nothing to be ashamed of, more something to be understood and corrected.

thomas11

hi Need2try, this may upset the purists, but I don't view at total failure. If you went 100 days, drank 1 day, and let's say you go 300 days or forever next time around. That's 1 day of ingesting alcohol out of many. It may not be 100% success, but its not 100% failure either. The flip side of that coin is you could have drank every single one of those 100 days, and that would be trouble. Good job on getting back on the horse.