waynetheking

Take action. Massive amounts of action. Don't ever get complacent. You have a disease and it wants to kill you. Don't ever think you can sit back and do nothing. It will get easier. Just get busy and stay busy.

RaiseAnchor

I've got a few years sober now. All I can speak of is my own experience, but I have a pretty easy time not drinking these days. Very rarely do I romanticize the possibility anymore, but admittedly it does happen. I've never found myself on the razors edge of drinking since I quit though, fortunately.

There's that whole thing you'll hear about about called: "playing the tape through". When we get cravings it's easy to think about the good times of drinking, but think about the bad times of drinking. I tend to remember the hangovers, and how sick I really was entirely.

Outonthetiles

Join a class. Form bonds. Read and post daily.

Delizadee

Two years in, I'm finding the relief and struggle of living life on life's terms.
the obsession to drink is gone.

Best thing I ever heard in early sobriety is that your first year is about survival. Lay a solid ground work but recognize that there may be times when you have to throw up extra support for your foundation to stay up. Storms will hit, you may need to just hunker down in safety, you may need to call others for advice on how to weather it, you may need to shutter your windows or reinforce your roof against the onslaught of rain, you may need extra clothes or blankets for warmth and comfort. Sometimes it's all lonely and scary, but my friend you will step out on the nice days and see that the storm does pass, and as long as you get out alive, you can rebuild, or keep on, you can do anything really.
Make your recovery your safe haven and survive that first year. Let no one tell you the right way to recover. I just kept saying, I dont need to drink today. That was a revelation. No matter how bad things got I didn't need to drink.
And when that first year passed, I was so happy I made it out alive and whole. I learned a new way in recovery that was right for me. I knew that daily maintenance was needed. I knew what was expected of me. I gave myself grace for not conquering the world in that first year, and I gave God and the universe thanks for helping me to stay sober.
It does get better and it does get easier.
Recovery is an action word. Replace those bad coping mechanisms with better ones.
and one week is huge! I threw myself into daily meetings for many weeks this time around until I had a good foothold on my recovery and then I never stopped. My family is the fellowship. Recovery is a gift I cherish every day.

Much love,
Del xo

BackandScared

Very good thread. All great messages. I have not drank for 16 months. What is working for me:
1. Listen to those who made it. I keep reading the successful stories: those with 1 day under their belt or 25 years. And when I say listen, I mean, properly listen. Don't believe myself different.
2. Doing what I was not willing to do. I tried quitting hundreds of times (apart from every Monday) for years. Until I finally listened (see point one above) and did something different. For me it was to talk to my husband and confess the problem and the extent of it. I think we all have something we are not willing to try and that very thing may be the answer.

Kaneda8888

Want to be sober > want to drink

Surlyredhead

Think about how absolutely horrible you felt on that first day sober, then think about the fact that you never have to feel that way again.

least

I also think about, and am grateful for, the fact that I'm so much happier now that I'm sober. So I remember how awful I felt then, and compare it with how good I feel now. The difference is staggering.

Really tho, the best thing I ever did to shore up my sobriety was to practice gratitude every day. It has led to my spiritual growth and peace of mind. Not to mention destroying any desire I might have still had to drink.

nez

I second this big time. Evidently I am fairly simple minded and can't multi-task, because I find it utterly impossible to be grateful and hateful at the same time. Or melancholic or unappreciative or surly or gloomy or inconsiderate...and the list goes on. I like the way grateful makes me feel... way better than the way the "or" list makes me feel. I am grateful to be simple. :~)

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b0glerd69

Play the tape forward

Stayingsassy

Don’t go near it, don’t look at it, put drinking friends on hiatus, don’t go places where people are doing it, dump it or lock it far out of sight in the home. I had a husband who drinks so I told him he had to move the whole bar, all the bottles, the wine, the whisky, all the glasses, into the garage. Create a life where you can’t see, think about, or hear about alcohol. Fill all that alcohol drinking and thinking time with sober work: AA, sober recovery, journaling, light exercise, nutrition, friends who don’t drink, family who don’t drink.

cut it out of your senses for as long as you possibly can, preferably for months. This is an exorcism. Seeing, smelling, hearing, talking or touching it is way too much in the beginning.

what you see and what you think about becomes your reality. Purge it completely. And if you’re not letting it into the home or into your sight in any way, practice not letting it into your brain, too. Yep. You can train your brain to become a thinking machine that doesn’t interact with or perceive alcohol as a viable drink to put in your body.

I not only don’t see booze as an option, after all that mental work, I don’t even see it as potable.

Willow00

Such great advice here ❤️