My statistic for staying sober is either 100% or 0%.

I've been sober over two years but I am always mindful of sobriety.

I'll always be aware that I don't drink alcohol. That's why I'm here on this site two years in. And heck, what's 30 minutes a day when I used to spend 7 hours every night drunk?

That is so true the amount of time I spend staying sober is so much less than being a drunk

This assumes that the Spiritual Awakening experience either does not exist or has no bearing on life long recovery.

My experiece was that before I had it, sobriety was an One-Ardous-Day-At-Time struggle and one millisecond after I had experienced it, sobriety was a complete outside issue. I no longer had to think about drinking or not-drinking ever again. Living life ODAAT became my goal after that.

Having experienced both ODAAT abstinence and a Spiritau Awakening, I would go as far as to say that they are two completly different ballgames.
:Meditate:

Could I characterize my life as a prolonged relapse? Currently going for 7 months dry, though.

Is the article saying that these people go back to drinking permanently, or just that it takes them more than one try to quit?

Jack, I didn't read the article and we don't even have a link to it, but in my experience some people don't get that second chance. So many ways to die from this.

It really only takes one try.

I also think it's pretty hard to research, I mean even if you went to 1000 AA meetings and took a survey, that's only a very small percentage of alcoholics out there, and a small percentage of those who have either quit or attempted to quit. It's a flawed survey model on so many levels. Many people quit in their twenties or thirties and never go back to it, or only drink a couple drinks a couple times a year. It's part of growing up for most people. I think if you're taking a survey in a rehab - the subjects of the survey have already proven to have big problems with quitting. I mean if I quit on my own, I don't go to rehab or AA - ever, right?

I mean, it doesn't even say - are we talking about chronic alcoholism? Problem drinking? Once a month binges? Daily moderate drinking? There is a wide spectrum, and I don't even know what this survey was focused on.

The same numbers appear in a Psychology Today article, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...ddicts-relapse, apparently based on this study: An eight-year perspective on the relationship between the duration of abstinence and other aspects of recovery. - PubMed - NCBI

This is apparently based on 1200 people who entered treatment, so it's among people who have a serious enough problem to go to rehab.

Exactly. Thanks, JeffreyAK - a percentage of them were likely not in rehab 100% on their own volition, either.

1200 people. There are 1200 alcoholics who go to my local AA clubhouse meetings just up the street in my one little small town. Imagine how many more out there who never seek help, and who don't ever consider themselves alcoholic? How about all the people who quit quietly and never admitted their problem?

That was great MelindaFlowers.

When I went through in vitro fertilization, the dr told me my odds of having triplets or more were less than 3%. Guess what? I had triplets. Statistics don't mean much unless they affect you. That said, I've read those percentages elsewhere and wondered how accurate they were. They sounds pretty reasonable.

I think more then anything, for me, all the statistics do is reinforce that there is never a time to let up or think I am cured, or have this thing licked. That thinking was behind my numerous early relapses. My last one was thinking I could drink socially with 2.5 years of sobriety. Two months till I got sober again. But I think I have learned more the longer I have been at this. Now, I know I can stay sober, I just need to keep going to meetings, be grateful every day, and take it a day at a time, and remember my last relapse and how I did not feel better drinking, but only put myself in a very bad place. So, knowing that statistically the odds are against people staying sober, it gives me a boost knowing I am sober no longer how long it has been.

When I relapse, I can't go a day or two without drinking. I am on my way after the first drink, which I am glad for, since it removes the uncertainty out of my weakness, disease, or whatever you want to call it.

So, I don't care what the actual statistics are, I just know they are not good, and it simply gives me a boost knowing I am beating the odds every day that I don't drink.

i agree. the relapse starts before a drink.
when a drink is taken its no longer a relapse.
its active alcoholism.

I think of this daily. I don't obsess over it but it's a passing thought. One of Robin Williams' stories stuck with me. He said he had been sober maybe 20 years when he went to Alaska to film a movie. He said he was in a bar, literally in the middle of nowhere, in Alaska and thought why not?

I read an article recently called something like "10 reasons you are not ready for sobriety." I know the title is weird but I read it. Anyways, one of the reasons was "You have not felt enough pain yet." It helped me to realize that I had felt enough pain already to be totally okay with stopping.

My program teaches me that I have a daily reprieve contingent upon the maintenance of my spiritual condition. I could have 10 days, I could have 10,000 days....but if I am not working my program I am in danger.

"I REALLY have respect now for knowing (for me) that I apparently am no different then the statistics, which tells me that no matter how long I am sober, I am never in the clear."

These are very profound words.

After being sober for a good while now, I remain fearful of alcohol everyday.

It has been a healthy fear for me.

I would agree. 100% of my "relapses" were caused by me not heeding that advice and thinking I was cured or better.