48heath

According to a Phychiatrist who has worked with Alcoholics in my home city,it takes between 5 and 7years for an Alcoholic's mind to recover.

It certainly took that long for me.

Gottalife

It depends what you mean by recovery. Freedom from alcohol which for me means no desire to drink, no obsession about booze, and the freedom to go anywhere unrestricted by the presence of alcohol or living in fear of alcohol, where alcohol no longer controls and manipulates my life even when I am not drinking, is no longer a factor in my decision making, that took me nine steps, which in my case took three months.

There is no recovery from life however. It just comes, alcholic or not. But, freed of the alcoholic obsession, I was able to grow and develop as a normal human being, albeit one that got off to a slow start. Emotional and spiritual growth is a lifetime journey which we alcoholics are often inclined to think of as recovery, except it is a journey that the whole human race is on. It's not unique to alcoholics.

Carlotta

I was one of the lucky ones. The obsession was lifted immediately (we are talking like within a week). It does not mean that I do not get a fleeting thought once in a while though but it is extremely rare. In general, if I get angry or stressed out I will crave a cigarette or chocolate.

The fact that my AV is basically non existent means for me that I cannot get complacent. I know from experience because a strong urge to drink popped out after 5 years of sobriety like a jack in the box and I was absolutely not equipped to handle it and relapsed.

If you have not done so yet, I would recommend you check out Dee's post on urge surfing
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html

Music

The Big Book says we recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body when we stop drinking. Don't confuse the term "recovery" or "recovered" with "cured". We're never "cured"!

gaffo

Hey Jack 465,
Attaboy on the 40 days. It is so close to a breakthrough. If you can just make it to 60 I bet things will start to turn around. The early days are so hard!

Jack465

Thanks

paddyjnr1

I heard a man at a meeting once who was in his 70's and had 30 plus years sobriety say

"The desire to drink has been lifted for many years now, I am here to mind my mind"
I found that quite helpful

stevepearce

[QUOTE=Mountainmanbob;5752066]

What do we recover from ?

Our past.

May take a while.

tomsteve

welp, for me i cant say how long it was before the craving and compulsion left, but it was 6 months before i made a full 24 hours without thinking about alcohol.
it was well worth fighting through the days i couldnt go 1hour without thinking about it.