What happens?
 

Hello SR friends and family

Had a question...this could be valuable for us newly sober folks:

(Another current thread triggered this question)

If you had long (er) term sobriety, and you then drank again...What happened? Was it stirring in you for weeks or months before the drink? Did you sort of see it coming or did it hit you like lightning one day? Did you feel at the time that sobriety wasn't giving you enough? Thanks!

I'm a month sober in 2 more days!

Before I came to SR my record was 2 months whee I'd neither drank nor smoked weed.

I had a few 'ego ticklers' early on where I'd been around smokers and drinkers and stayed clean and sober - but that passed..

mostly I was angry and miserable because all my friends still drank and smoked weed.

One night I said eff it and took the bong that was offered. I'm pretty sure I went out to buy beer that same night...may as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb, right?

I do remember my thoughts - if these guys can do it and not seem to suffer for it, I should be able to as well.

I had yet to accept my problem.

D

I've relapsed twice after long-term sobriety (5+ years), and looking back, both of my relapses were brewing for months. I had stopped being proactive in treating my alcoholism and doing the things that had kept me sober up until that point. Life had gotten infinitely better and I took my sobriety for granted. Both times a "life crisis" came along that I wasn't prepared to deal with, and I reverted to dealing with them the way I had in the past, by drinking.

The first time I relapsed it took a year before I got sober again. The second time I relapsed it took EIGHT years before I got sober again and I nearly died. I have to remember that I will always be an alcoholic, but there are some simple things I can do daily to live a relatively happy, sober life free from alcohol and drugs.

I never needed a reason to drink while I was an active alcoholic.
My experience was, I had seven months sober, not exactly long term sobriety. I was working the AA phone line and going to meetings.
Then, one day I was at a Laundromat with a beer store behind it.
I went and bought a twelve pack and drank it which sent me back to my old ways.
There was no rhyme or reason for it except that I'm an alcoholic.
Now, I have six years sober and it was tough to get here.
I haven't had an urge to drink. But, I try and keep my spiritual house in order, come here and just remember how I got here.

You ask a good question. I've seen people relapse after eight and twenty years sober, so I constantly have to be vigilant.

I would be interested to get some insight on this too. Great question :)

Sorry, I didn't see others had replied before mine.
I see it a lot on here to NEVER take sobriety for granted. My biggest fear is getting complacent and thinking I am cured, no longer an alcoholic (this is actually the first time I have used this word to describe myself - whoa). I sure hope this website stays around as long as I walk this earth. :)

Fortunately I've never relapsed. Years ago I sat next to a guy at a meeting who was crying. I asked if he was ok, and he said he had six years in the program, then drank. After six rehabs he couldn't stop drinking.

I've been going to the same meetings over two decades and realized the rooms don't get any bigger yet with all the newcomers we should be in Yankee Stadium by now. Sure, some of them moved to the suburbs but I'm sure the majority relapsed. I know I have another drink in me but I doubt I have another recovery.

Great question, I'm particularly interested in hearing what happened to others physically after they 'went back out'. I know the mental and spiritual anguish that alcoholism causes, but the physical effects seem to be quite variable from person to person.

I don't know what would happen if I were to drank again - I do know I would have absolutely no control and more than likely end up in the hospital or jail. Or, dead.