LionOfJudah

How long does a craving for alcohol typically last? I'm on my 5th day of being sober.

Soberwolf

Everyone is diffrent but if your craving try this http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-cravings.html

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html

My advice Lion is join the class of april 2015 youl find it in newcomers to recovery section

i find it seriously helpful to take my mind off things and interact on other threads try it & see if it helps Lion

LBrain

Lion, it depends really. The more sober time you have the cravings become fewer and shorter in length.

In the very beginning you may still be in the physical addiction part of it.

Ken33xx

Depends on the individual. The desire to drink left after my first meeting.

However, I didn't tell anyone (outside of my wife) I was in AA because I didn`t trust myself to stay sober.

And that turned out to be a good idea because by not telling anyone I wasn`t putting pressure on myself to stay sober.

I can just tell myself I`m not drinking today.

GracieLou

It can vary from person to person.

I found I could get through them by keeping busy reading, crocheting or going to an AA meeting. Anything to get me away from my mind that was telling me to escape to the bottle.

Dee74

If you read the CarolD link she says 5-7 minutes, in her experience.
I never timed mine - but they do pass

D

waynetheking

Ocupy ur mind with other activities. Get busy doing something. Dont dwell on it. Resolve the fact ur an alcoholic and u can never drink again. The cravings eventually subside and become weak. It takes time. But with each day it gets easier. But u have to take action. Challenge yourself to a new routine. Its worth it.

alphaomega

As long as it takes the spoon of ice cream to get to my mouth.

MelindaFlowers

Honestly, there were whole evenings that were "nail biters" in the beginning and then came again around Christmas.

It helped me to just think of the math. "Okay, 5:00 now. Wow. This is hard, but in five or six hours I will be asleep and so relieved in the morning that I didn't drink."

Another HUGE help was looking at or thinking about others. I would picture my friends sitting at home, doing whatever and not drinking. If they can just "be" all evening without drinking, then so can I! (I usually put a big "dammit" after that!)

I was always fascinated how everyone I know just came home from work and did....well...anything. It didn't mean they were doing yoga or writing a novel, they were just sittin' on the couch, doodling around in the kitchen, browsing Amazon, talking with people....SOBER.

If they could do it I knew I could do it. Oh, with a healthy dose of SR every evening.

I never regretted not drinking when I woke up the next morning.
I never regretted not drinking as I drove to work.
I never regretted not drinking the night before as walked into work.
I never regretted not drinking the night before as I was at work.

Days are pretty much okay when you're not hungover.

neferkamichael

In my first days of sobriety I was annoyed all day long, and as the days went by, the annoyance diminished until one day I couldn't remember having one all day.

MelindaFlowers

Yes, just to answer your question, I found that a large candy bar would cut the craving, immediately, by about 80 percent. Sometimes I had two. I didn't give a hoot about the calories. It was about 1/4 of the calories that I was drinking every night. I was practically crash dieting by eating two Nestle's Crunch every night.

MelindaFlowers

I read something on here when I first joined that stuck with me.

Think of sobriety as trading terrible mornings for difficult evenings.

Your mornings now will be fine or even good but the evenings will be tough (for a little while).

Does that make sense?

Tell me your mornings were great after drinking and I'll tell you who's lying. Sorry, bit of humor!

The cravings lessen! I don't have any at nine months.

There are two philosophies that work for different people in early sobriety to get through the cravings. There's the get-your-butt-out-the-door-and-get-busy one and there's the relax-on-the-couch-and-do as-little-as-possible way to get through it. I did the relaxing do nothing way. I found that any stimulation (laughing, chatting, projects, cleaning, moving) was a huge trigger. I treated myself like I was sick with tons of couch and iPad time.

degadar

Well done on 5 days.

I found the first 2 or 3 months to be a blur of one single craving. After that I remember going odd hours and days without thinking about drink only to be hit in waves with strong cravings that would come and go.
I quit at the end of june and it was christmas before I could post on here and dare to talk about drink. I could't bring myself to walk near a booze shop or pub for nearly a year.

Sorry if this sounds a bit depressing where you are now, but hey, reality is reality.

Keep strong and before you know it you're not on day 5, it'll be 50, then 5 months, then 5 years and you'll never, ever stop being glad that you no longer have to drink.

D.