34payton1

Well...I joined this forum a couple years back but never got into it. I've finally decided that now is the time to finally quit the booze for good. I have quit for up to 2 months before, but never extended it past 60 days. Right around the 60 day mark I dove head first off the wagon and have been off since.

I had some recent contact with a friend I use to booze it up with in the Air Force after not speaking for 12 years and he told me he has been sober now for 4 years. 4 years is a long time so I asked him if he ever had the urge anymore and he said is was completely in his past.

So here's the question... "how long does it take to get over the initial hump of living without the booze?" I know everyone is different, but I would think after a year of no booze, you would really start to see the important changes come to life. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can finally say that I really don't need to drink to feel like I have a "social" life.

Thanx!

adore79

Hi and welcome back to SR. In my experience, I cant remember the exact time when I lost the thought and urge to drink. I had six months sober last year and I know that at six months I had no thoughts of drinking whatsoever. I could drive through town and the liquor store didnt even register on my mind. I know that at some point after that I took a drink and then started drinking again with a vengeance and my life became heck again.

Ive come to realize that it isnt about the time it takes you to get over the urge to drink, it is about creating firewalls in your life and your mind that will let you deal with anything that comes into your life without picking up.

parentrecovers

nice to meet you, 34. you going to aa? keep reaching out! k

Mattcake

Hi, welcome to SR I had plenty of haphazard sober stints in the past 10 years, some of them lasting for several months, however my knuckles were SO white throughout each of them that relapse was always in sight. Each time I finally caved in, it felt like a relief.

Time is relative, you maybe think that a year is a reasonable estimate. Well... This time around, I decided to let go of time altogether and to take it as it comes; whereas in the past I was always looking forward to my next drink, right now I'm allowing time to distance me from my last drink. Drinking is no longer an option, and that's fine by me. It's been just over a month and, while the "hump" sometimes seemed like a mountain, I am surprised by how good I feel. That in itself is more than worth it.

So if you indeed decide you don't need to drink anymore, I think that following the "one day at a time" motto is the best way to go if you want to quit for good. Don't worry so much about time frames, and enjoy the benefits instead. The changes you seek might roll around before you know it. Good luck, keep posting

34payton1

the hardest part always seems to come about due to boredom. If I look at all my friends and family I notice that all of them have drinking problems. The initial months seem fairly easy because I guess it's new and fresh, but when I start to approach the 2 month mark it almost starts to seem impossible. I guess it doesn't help to live in Chicago during the summers and depressing winters, but I just think if I got past the 1 year mark, sobriety would seem to be natural.

Astro

Boredom? From the Big Book of AA.....First Edition..

We have shown how we got out from under. You say, "Yes, I’m willing. But am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?"
Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you.

Nothing boring at all about living a clean and sober life. But, "faith without works is dead". Recovery can be as exciting or as boring as I want it to be. For the last few years, I've done the work and haven't experienced a dull moment yet.

tommyk

Have you tried a 12 step program?

The thought of drinking is repulsive to me, and I once thought I could never live without it.

CarolD

....Welcome back to SR!

Time? how long did you drink alcoholically?

I figured I needed to double my AA sobriety time
for each year I drank excessively.
Then I would consider myself recovered.
I did and I do...

It's an exciting way to live... so I continue.

Mattcake

Boredom can be a huge trigger, IMHO it's highly underrated. However, I'm slowly discovering that it IS possible to find fulfilling activities that don't revolve around alcohol. I was quite surprised to discover that most non-addicts actually despise getting drunk and cannot understand how anybody could drink day in and day out - that just doesn't seem natural to them. A while ago I half-jokingly told a friend that I was bored out of my skull, and that my solution to that would be having a drink or twenty. His answer was simple but shocking: "Uhmmm... you're bored? So what's so interesting about alcohol?" That didn't make much sense to me at the time.

Getting sober does free up a lot of time... Maybe you could use your sober time to find new activities and meet people who don't drink? Most traditional recovery programs involve both. In any case, I agree with other posts. Don't think about what you're leaving behind, focus on the good stuff to come.

Dee74

Curiously, from about 3 months to a year I had no thoughts about booze, but I didn't have a lot of problems then either

I have to be honest and say now I have have 16 months, but still think about drinking in times of stress.

It's not an imperative anymore - I can brush these thoughts aside, it's not an obsession, it's a momentary fleeting thought. I actually find these thoughts useful as a reminder not to get arrogant or too cocky

I think the trick is I didn't just 'not drink'. You have to work on yourself and your life - I know I'm a different man now to who I used to be.

The rewards do come The life I have now would be beyond incredible to the me of 18 months ago.

I may still have some phantom memory or impulse from time to time, but they belong to a different Dee and I treat them accordingly.

good luck - just work at it!
D

Anna

I don't think it's so much about the time-frame, as it is about the changes you make in your life during that time.

I had to make changes about who was in my life and what I did.

I got back to walking/hiking and found so much enjoyment there. It became part of my daily routine. I removed a couple of toxic people from my life and 'out of nowhere' two incredible women appeared in my life.

I think it's about the changes that come from within more than the amount of time.

34payton1

That's a good question! I'm 32 and I've been drinking since about 16. I've never been to the point where I needed a drink when I wake up in the morning, but I would say about 2-3 days...usually weekends I wind up going out with friends and sometimes blacking out. Now that I'm older, the hangover usually lasts 3 days with lack of energy and motivation, and extreme hunger pains. That whole lifestyle is just so unproductive and I'm worried it will even continue to get worse if I fail to take care of my problem. I really think if I can just make it to the 1 year mark then I can finally jump high over that hump and live a healthy life.