How do you track your sober days?
 

Hello all! So i track my days in a small calender book (along with appointments, ect.) I just found my book from last year and at march 15th i had 53 days sober (im at 61 today) then i slipped up and the rest of the year i still tracked days drinking vs days sober, days drinking far out numbered sober days. This scared the crap out of me looking at this! I had 53 days and one slip and i couldnt get it back for almost year...

I hear 'ya. Gotta not let that slip happen.

I'm on Day 51, counting to 90. After that, I plan to stop counting because it's a way of life, not a hunger strike. I'm pretty much done with the whole alcoholism thing now, and once I hit 90 days. I'm just gonna stick a fork in it and never look back. (No, that does not mean "a return to moderation" or any other such myths, LOL!)

And of course, I'm tracking the money I'm not spending. $15/day x 51 days!! :Mmanycoin

Well, i guess i learned not to get too comfortable and think i can handle just 1 drink. The funny thing to me anout seeing this was i knew i had done 53 days at one point ( definately my longest strech in the last 6-7 years) but i thought it was a couple of years ago?

I know what you mean. But basically, the smart path is to make peace with the fact we must never touch another drop. Not if we like living in sobriety. And life is too much better now to take the risk.

I used to track my number of days sober, but in my weakness, I found doing so would often trigger more consumption.

When I first tried to move into sobriety, I was drinking once every two weeks. When the day marking the two week anniversary came around - let me tell you - I was so thirsty. "I've earned it," I'd tell myself, and off I'd go to get a bottle.

Then I switched to once every month - same thing happened. The one month anniversary became a justification for drinking.

Giving up counting made it easier for me to maintain my sobriety. I then simply became someone who doesn't drink anymore, rather than someone who hasn't drank for whatever number of days, weeks, months, or years.

I don't really track daily...more like monthly. I think I am 265 or 266 days sober as my 9 months will be next Monday. After a year I am going to just track yearly...no more months. I don't really obsess over it. My sponsor does not advocate monthly chips....so I don't get those. And honestly, in the past, I really focused on the daily figure...and I kept relapsing. I think that, subconsciously, I thought that putting down the drink would be enough and that my life would somehow be amazing within a few months. When it wasn't, I drank. This time around I know that is not true. It takes a lot of hard work and soul searching to live a sober, useful life. I didn't put down the drink because I wanted a life free of alcohol...I put down the drink because I wanted a full, happy, useful life. I learned the hard way that I cannot have both alcohol and happiness and fulfillment.

I was just crossing off days in the calendar with an "X" in for no drinking and circle with red if I did drink. It was good seeing all the drinking/non drinking days and I strived for an entire month of "X"'s and eventually got that and more.

But now I have my "Lego Sober House"... this is a little house I designed with Legos and I add a piece each consecutive day I am free of alcohol and benzos.

Oh I like that! Lego sober house :c011:

I don't really track days. I find it makes me think about drinking when it would otherwise not be on my mind. But every so often I'll pull up a day counter online just to see. (137 today -- but who's counting? lol)

Counting days isn't for everybody. I'm a numbers guy at heart, so I really focused on counting the days, especially the first year or so. Now I pretty much just mark the years. However, I have been posting in MMB's thread lately and I have to go to the sobriety calculator to figure out the exact days...don't do it to brag, but to hopefully show others that it can be done. I remember when I first joined SR, I was in awe of anybody with a year or more sober...I never thought I'd string together 6 days, let alone 6 months or 6 years.