steve-in-kville

Had another really rough craving. This craving stuff is a real bastard. Not sure why today of all days. I don't really have "triggers" anymore, just out of the blue I crave a sip. Worked my way through HALT.

Boom. Done.

I was hungry and tired. Problem solved. Its all over now.

Please tell me this gets better?!

Dee74

Yeah it gets better Steve.
How long have you been sober now?

D

BrendaChenowyth

I found that my cravings subsided naturally because I was consistently not giving in to them.

Your brain knows you feel stressed out ---> you drink ---> you feel better.

When I took alcohol out of the "Feel stressed out ----> do this ---> feel better" equation, I had to replace alcohol with something else.

Feel stressed out ---> call a friend ---> feel better
Feel stressed out ---> get on the treadmill for an hour ---> feel better
Feel stressed out ---> have a cookie ---> feel better
Feel stressed out ---> go to Michael's ---> feel better

There needs to be a variety of new things in that equation to replace alcohol. Over time your brain gets with the program and it learns that every time you feel stressed out it isn't getting alcohol, it's doing something different, something productive, something healthy, something creative, something positive. It's not drinking.

If drinking is never the thing that gets you from feeling stressed out to not feeling stressed out - you're not gonna crave alcohol as much as you used to.

Right now I'm having all the symptoms of PAWS because I have fallen in to the trap of doing a couple of things repetitively and obsessing over things that used to give me pleasure - not healthy ways of replacing the alcohol addiction. I have new addictions and I am no better off. I need to work on getting back on the right track, and it isn't enough to simply not drink, or even to be free of alcohol cravings specifically.

ScottFromWI

It certainly can get better....but it doesn't just happen without some work on our part to make it get better. Using the HALT method is great to get through the rough patches, but what are you doing to help prevent them In the first place? By that I mean what parts of your daily routine are set aside to work on sobriety specifically?

FeelingGreat

Cravings can hit out of the blue, but usually if you think about it there's a cause. Working your way through HALT was a brilliant move, and I promise you it does get better.
Your brain defaults to drinking when you're stressed, either in body or mind, because that's the way you've trained it. As you move forward you'll rewire it. I very rarely get cravings now, and they are easily dealt with. The main trigger is when I'm actually around alcohol, not HALT.
In a social situation with alcohol I'll grab a big glass of soda water straight away, and just holding the glass deals with it very quickly.

PhoenixJ

least

Yes, it gets better the longer you're sober. I was having much fewer cravings/urges to drink by six months sober.

thomas11

IT gets better S-n-S, it may be 3 months, or 10 months, but it gets better. Its also a mindset. In the early days we are always fighting it, but once we accept, its no longer a fight.

FBL

Yes, it gets better. Time has an amazing way of healing us.

Bunny211

Yes. I had a lot of cravings early on. I can honestly say that I have not had a craving (the odd thought here and there, yes but craving, no) in about a year. I'm at almost 20 months sober.

Hang in there.

Mountainmanbob

Well, after being around this site for a while
we know now that for us a sip will never work again.
Do not trust the one who looks back at you in the mirror.
Keep a close eye on that one.
M-Bob

zjw

beating cravings is like retraining your brain. everytie you beat one your brain slowly starts to crave something other then booze for said circumstance's fix. but even me at almost 6 years sober and smoke free. every now and then i'm like ya know a beer would be cool right now.... Or wow ya knwo what would be nice a cigarette right now .... but then it passes and thats that.

tomsteve

if all i did was put the plug in the jug, nope, it wasn't going to get better. only worse- i have my past to remind me just not drinking gets me drunk.
but since i got into action and worked a recovery program, it got easier. haven't had the mental obsession or a craving in quite a few years.

Fusion

It does get better, Steve, once you accept you no longer wish to drink and when the craving pops up - it's obviously not 'you' who no longer wants to drink - just that faulty brain-wiring, created by drinking too much for a while. Well done on powering through it. You have the power, not your base brain, habit-forming brain!

Edited to add - I'm sorry Steve if you're following the AA Steps and I've spoken out of order, I just presumed that you weren't. In any event, I'm glad you survived it.

steve-in-kville

Thanks for the replies. If you've followed some of my other threads recently, I feel like I am harboring some ill feelings towards some past relationships. Resentment and bitterness would better describe it. Its been a stumbling block for me the past few weeks.

Its something I am constantly working on!

zjw

love your signature line its a great quote!

i dunno i likened some of the resentment / baggage i was holding onto as a bag of stinky crap. and I was like ya know I"m sick of hanging on to this. In some cases I realized there was something I needed to do IE bury it get rid of it or deal with it. Other cases I felt as if others had done me wrong and there was i was still crying that my butt hurt. Regardless i was sick of holding that stinky bag so one by one i delt with them as best i could. I ruffled a lot of feathers too. Peopel didnt expect me to resurect some long old issue. But i coudlnt help it I had to get it out and deal with it. So in some cases some feelings got hurt and so on. But in the end i felt beter I felt I had dealt with those things that i could deal with. and the things I couldnt deal with I put to bed or put on the back burner.

either way running around holding on to all that stinky bags of crap wasnt doing me any good in my day to day life.

I started to ask myself. "do i like to feel this way?" answer of course was always no so it was like well what are you going to do about it then?

zjw

another thing too is you cant be the best you that you can be if your still holding on to the stinky bags etc.. it just drags you down etc.. and I dunno if your anything like me the last thing you need is any more help being dragged down. I'm pretty good at dragging myself down without all the other stuff.

BrendaChenowyth

I think a lot of us feel the same way. I had several relationships that I ended all at once and abruptly and I still fixate on them daily, even though I ended them over two months ago now. I don't know what I need to feel closure. But I am glad that I no longer fear unpleasant feelings will lead me to drink. I know they won't.

Why do you think you fixate on your past relationships? What do you resent? Is it something you can fix, can you learn from it? What would it take to move on?

This reminds me of my relationship voids thread because I feel like there is a need to replace the people I pushed out of my life and until I do replace them I will continue to fixate on the resentment.