Feeling the pressure
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 33
Feeling the pressure
I'm now 10 months sober. Had many ups and downs, life is starting to get back on track. Still though some weeks I feel like I'm just muddling through. It's tiring and I'm sick of feeling tired. I'm engaging in recovery groups and outings, reading about recovery, learning the impact it's had on family and friends. Just tired and down today 
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
Great job on 10 months zo! You know, sometimes we just have bad days - even when we are sober unfortunately. Good job on coming here and talking it through, sounds like you have a pretty good network of support locally too- make a call or hit an extra meeting if it helps. Tomorrow will almost certainly be a better day!
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 2,950
When I'm having a bad day or week, when I'm not feeling well physically/emotionally/spiritually, I do have a lot of anxiety that "This is just the beginning, it's all downhill from here, and I'm gonna spiral in to a depression and I'm gonna drink and I'm never ever ever gonna get back up".
So here's the sequence of my self-talk:
1.) Wow, that escalated quickly.
2.) I don't want to go there again, and I don't have to.
3.) Does the situation actually warrant going there again?
4.) Not really.
5.) What can I do right now to stop the downward spiral and turn it in the opposite direction?
Because I know it's all about where I allow my thoughts to go. My emotions will follow. So if I can catch myself wallowing in negative emotions, I sometimes actually laugh at the absurdity of it. I shake it off, take a few cleansing breaths, say a prayer, find something positive that is happening, and just resolve to focus my attention elsewhere. And I don't beat myself up if the negatives start to creep back in, I just own it and do the right thing about it, so that I don't end up doing the wrong thing, drinking.
I don't know what is going on in your life or what's bugging you, but I know it can be hard for us addictive thinkers to handle the ups and downs of life, we just have to work harder at it... And that leads to us getting exhausted very quickly. I have found I can not work 7 days a week, as much as I might like the over time. I need at least one day to decompress, or I'll implode.
So here's the sequence of my self-talk:
1.) Wow, that escalated quickly.
2.) I don't want to go there again, and I don't have to.
3.) Does the situation actually warrant going there again?
4.) Not really.
5.) What can I do right now to stop the downward spiral and turn it in the opposite direction?
Because I know it's all about where I allow my thoughts to go. My emotions will follow. So if I can catch myself wallowing in negative emotions, I sometimes actually laugh at the absurdity of it. I shake it off, take a few cleansing breaths, say a prayer, find something positive that is happening, and just resolve to focus my attention elsewhere. And I don't beat myself up if the negatives start to creep back in, I just own it and do the right thing about it, so that I don't end up doing the wrong thing, drinking.
I don't know what is going on in your life or what's bugging you, but I know it can be hard for us addictive thinkers to handle the ups and downs of life, we just have to work harder at it... And that leads to us getting exhausted very quickly. I have found I can not work 7 days a week, as much as I might like the over time. I need at least one day to decompress, or I'll implode.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Sonoran Desert
Posts: 5,726
Great job on 10 months.. maybe you're over-doing the focus on recovery? Sometimes we just have to get out and live a little bit. I don't know your situation but I enjoy endurance sports, motorcycles, photography, travel, and many other interests that were present in my life before my world started shrinking due to my alcoholism. I'm finding I enjoy them just as much in sobriety.
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