Why are Sunday afternoons the worst?
 

6.5 days out of the week all is well. Sunday afternoon comes and I am tempted sore. Why? I've resisted so far but even today (Monday) was a bit rougher than normal.

HALT worked to an extent, but seems like I am playing the tape pretty often...

I don't think I am pushing hard enough in my exercise routine. I've been commuting by bike all week long but I haven't ran in a number of weeks. Perhaps its time to up my game.

Always a good idea to up the game. Thank you for you have reminded me to get on that new bicycle I bought.

Good idea -- making a grateful list.
Sobriety might be #1.

M-Bob

running always takes the edge off for me. but sunday evenings cane be tough for me i liken it to the feeling of the following day is the first day of school at a new school. This is pprobably liek this for me because i hate mu job so much so that compounds the issue.

today hasnt been that great for me but my usual run and just pushing through it is all i can do.

Now all that being said. i'm not sitting here thinking about a drink tho either and while this morning was especially challenging i know I wont drink.

I guess for me thats the diff between 5+ years sobriedy and say under 6 months or so.

for the first year or so more often then not i was ready to loose my s*** and just go drink.

now i might still have my moments where i loose my s*** but drinking isnt much of a temptation if at all anymore.

I'm only 58 days sober and I still obsess over alcohol. When does it get better?

when the reality that you simply cant have it sinks in? lol i know bad answer.

But I think it was like i hit a point where i started to accept the fact that I simply could not have it anymore and that i MUST find another alternative.

I think about 6 months I realized this but it wasnt exactly easy for me then either. I'd say at a year i was navigating my new found reality gingerly with each step no longer craving booze learning how to keep the triggers at bay and cautious but excited and nervous about the new found life i finally had before me. It was scary but exciting and liberating.

each mile stone tho it gets easier like I made it 30 days I made it past 60 days I made it 90 days I made it through christmas i made it through monday i made it through saturday etc... all those little milestones reaffirm it in our heads that it is indded possible to live life without alcohol and we dont need it. ALl of that is what helps it sink in I think and allow us to accept it.

It will ease up. more you focus on it more you will want it too distract yourself some if possible.

I would agree that upping your game may be a good idea. Exercise is great, but it's not a "recovery plan" in the formal sense of the word. What do you do on a daily basis to specifically address your addiction? By that i mean - do you go to meetings? Do you see a counselor? Do you read addiction related literature or other such self-help methods? I don't know and that's why I ask ;-) Simply "not drinking" didn't work for that long for me, and I definitely tried it.

There's really no hard set rule for when that might happen. It will be proportional to the time/effort you put into working on your sobriety though. Its' not just going to "happen" where all of a sudden you simply don't obsess anymore.

For some people that means going to a lot of meetings. For others they need extra help from a counseling or rehab standpoint. Others use tools like SR or books for that extra help. But the real crux of the issue is that taking away the alcohol is only the very tip of the iceberg. Learning to face the challenges that life presents to us in a constructive way is the real "hard" part.

Acceptance is key. Drinking is a deadend game. Just give it up. Sobriety should not be a battle. It's a welcome relief.

Yaaaaas! It is relief, it IS the path of less resistance!

Unfortunately the demon(s) try to tell us otherwise!

A lot of people have difficulty with the "Sunday Blues," in part due to the association with going back to school, as zjw commented, and then later, back to work. It's definitely a thing.

It marks the end of another measured period of time without again accomplishing alll that we would have liked to accomplish, with many of the same old threads hanging loosely, and often with the nagging sense that we're still, and again, not quite where we're "supposed" to be.

Same thing happens after the holidays in January, with the time frame being much larger, and the regrets seeming more foreboding. Rates of depression and drinking, as well as attempted suicides,increase only AFTER the holidays for these and other reasons. The Holidays never live up to the hype, and often remind us of our loneliness.

The yearly ritual of making resolutions is an attempt to counter the unwanted feelings attached to having "fallen short" yet again the previous year. It's also a form of denial, given that most people are reluctant to admit such a thing about themselves, or just won't talk about it. Many people don't care about resolutions, so they don't get involved. Whereas some people don't make them out of a sense of futility.

It's a good thing to be aware of such things in order to better prepare ourselves for the letdown. I got into the habit this time around of getting up early on Sundays, cleaning and doing laundry, and then finishing last wee's work, and then preparing for next week's work at home. All by 1:00PM. I make time to read later on, but I do whatever else I want after one. Nothing wrong at all with doing something different in order to get yourself out of a rut.

Oh yeah...The desire to drink often strikes when we're most vulnerable, and Sunday Blues and Holiday Blues present the perfect storm.

Well, after giving this some thought, I've come to the conclusion that a lot is all about habit. All those years I started drinking at lunchtime on Sunday until I blacked out. Perhaps I don't know what a normal Sunday afternoon should feel like? Time will tell.

I like Sunday afternoons!

Weekends were a little rough for me at first. Those were the 2 days that I had no commitments, so could start drinking in the morning and not really quit until I literally passed out cold.

Once I totally surrendered, I picked up some hobbies to fill my time. Now, I find I have little time for anything else, especially thinking about drinking.