SHawk25

Hello all.. I was just trying to get some ideas in case sometime I start to feel the urge to have a beer..

What do you guys do?

CoF1984

I'll try to come on here, read and post or cut on some music that'll take my mind in a whole totally different direction, go sit outside and look at all the beauty of nature or take a walk. These are some things that seem to help me a lot. I'm sure there will be others along to share more ideas.
Wes

Fubarcdn

I probably said this to you on your other thread but it is worth repeating. I come here and read and post. There is usually someone here that will talk you out of it in real time.
I also wrote my wife a letter stating that I will never drink again and if I get the urge I will read it. I also read that letter every Sunday just to keep grounded.
Writing a similar letter might help you even if you just write it to yourself.

SoberforME

If I'm not here I follow the drink all the way thorough to the end.

How did so many of my drunken nights end up? What did I feel like in the morning? How did I feel about myself? Etc.

That's helped me (outside of here) more than anything.

Anna

When I first stopped drinking, I found that changing my daily routines was very helpful for me. It helped me to get my mind out of the routine of drinking. It helped to plan to be doing something specific, at the time of the day when I would have been drinking.

Mattcake

I find that if I focus on feeling deprived, it'll only get worse, so I prefer to centre my attention on positive stuff. Don't think about what you're giving up, think about what you are gaining instead.

Writing, reading and answering posts helps a lot

TiredofTired

I found this site just today and today is my first day of sobriety (again)...I really think that you could use this to stay away from the beer...it is helping me already!

adore79

When I feel weak I will pray and/or meditate. If possible, go to a meeting or call someone in recovery. Go for a walk. And of course, come here.

Astro

Reading here and posting is a great way to take my mind off drinking. I also made sure there was no alcohol in my living environment, and if stopping at a convenience store was a trigger I'd drive past it until the craving passed.

I'm also a big fan of AA, in early sobriety I'd sit at as many meetings as possible, the rooms became a safe place for me and they're still a haven to this day.

I was told that if I put my recovery chip in my mouth and it melted, I could drink again. Been sucking on that darn thing for 4 years and it still hasn't dissolved

Fubarcdn

Welcome Tired.
I hope to see more of you and hear more of what you have to say.
Look around and get comfortable.

tommyk

Reading and posting here.

Calling a sponsor or other person in recovery.

Performing music.

Fitness activities.

12 steps.

Playing the tape all of the way through.

Higher power.

LOTS of tools in my toolbox! Feel free to use whichever ones YOU need.

gravity

Since I finally accepted my alcoholism (that drinking will always take me back to my own personal Hell), I really have not had a serious urge to drink. Why would I? I know what the results will be.

However, sometimes my thoughts do wander - romanticizing alcohol, feeling sorry for myself because I can't drink. These thoughts always pass. I now know that it is just a temporary mental state and I am confident that I will get through it (sometimes by doing something to keep myself busy, sometimes just by sucking it up).

mle-sober

I talk back to myself firmly. I laugh at my tempted and sneaky alcoholic self. I try to belittle and talk down to that voice in me that thinks I could get away with it and it wouldn't have consequences.

I don't know if that sounds strange but it's my biggest weapon - in my mind, making my sober and recovering self BIGGER and making my alcoholic self a stupid little pathetic liar. Which it is - I don't have to work very hard to see it that way.

The part of me that wants to drink is selfish, self-righteous, dishonest, and coniving and filled with self-hatred. The part of me that works to stay sober and in recovery is more spiritually ambitious, more capable of seeing the truth, more generous in nature, and more loving and gentle with the world as a whole and more forgiving. So, when I am tempted to drink, I try to talk to that better part of me and I try to expose that lesser part of me so I don't fall for it.

allport

What I normally do in moments of weakness is grab a drink.

I'm doing my best to put that all behind me now, so thanks for this thread what a great idea.

Dime

Hi SHawk,

For me that meant staying busy early on, especially with constructive things that made me feel better when something got done. Hanging around the house with nothing to do was the worst situation for me (I drank at home). Doing things to help others and get out of myself really helped. Talking to other people in sobriety is great! I am new to this online forum but find the people here very knowledgeable and helpful. I completely avoided people and places that were not healthy for my well being whenever possible. I stayed away from anything connected to alcohol (people, places) until I had worked the steps.

AA gave me a whole set of tools to use which has really helped. Working the steps has been the key to my recovery. I didn't believe it would work for me but it did. It has been wonderful not struggling with alcohol and all the consequences.

tommyk

"I talk back to myself firmly. I laugh at my tempted and sneaky alcoholic self. I try to belittle and talk down to that voice in me that thinks I could get away with it and it wouldn't have consequences."

Thanks so much for posting that, mle-sober. I have lengthy and frequent conversations with my 'disease' but I have always been reluctant to admit it.

I'm never alone, I can always talk to sh*thead (my disease).

Me and my 'disease' agree to disagree on a frequent basis, lol.

pedro1968

when the thought enters my mind of alcohol,i try and remember my last drunk how i behaved the people i let down and hurt and i always remember the day after,the guilt and remorse,then i think about what sobriety has brought me then i thank my higher power for given me the ability to make choices today

keep it in the day

least

I remind myself that I DO want to stay sober more than I might want to drink. I also remind myself of how bad my life was when I was drinking.

I keep myself busy as much as possible, leaving time to relax and take it easy also.

Whatever you choose to replace drinking, it will be better. My worst day sober is always better than my best day drunk.

sfgirl

Up until this past weekend I might have skipped over this thread. In the beginning I had urges, sure, but they were easy to deal with because I expected them and had that gung-ho attitude of beginning something new. Then luckily they subsided and I felt relatively free of them. Part of me felt that if I worked a "good program of recovery" I would never want to drink again, that urges would not return. If they did then obviously I was doing something wrong.

However, this past weekend, the urges flared up. They sort of surprised me. My first thought was why? And I tried briefly to analyze— what is wrong here? But at a certain point I realized maybe that was counterproductive because nothing in my life or recovery had really changed. Lately, I have been really into the idea of surrender so I tried to relax and surrender a bit. That does not mean I drank, but I envisioned the urges as sort of waves hitting me that I could bear and would bear but would not indulge. I don't really have anything to compare it to, but it got me through it. Finally they subsided— four days later. I noticed that my addictive voice kept trying to edge in and analyze me into taking a drink, telling me that I was not really an alcoholic, maybe I could just have a little, I am too serious, etc. But from learning about addiction and recovery, reading books and on here, I now know that those rationalizations are not truths but tricky games that my mind is able to play. So while it is hard to ignore them, it has become much easier now that I can identify them. I was more jittery than usual so I walked more but generally tried to be relaxed about the whole thing, like this too will pass. I am not beating myself up. I no longer think urges are the result of me working a bad program. I just think it goes with the territory. I am addicted to alcohol. It is natural sometimes to want it and want it bad.

I don't know though— that worked this time. I am definitely reading other posters' replies carefully so that next time I can have more tools in my basket.

AlkalikeH

I usually say that different traps demand different ways out of it.

I try to identify what is going on with me and attack.

But today i am just a mess. I am going up and down the house like a caged animal,
expecting a land line phone call concerning work, have a really old Vanessa Redgrave
movie that i wanted to see on mute, blasting an old record that i really love as loud
as possible and drinking water like a son of a b*tch.

Sometimes coping gets crazy. At least it´s sober crazy