oak

Hi everyone,
Often when I read SR or another recovery forum, I start getting cravings to drink. I love coming here for the connection. Yet, the cravings bother me. (I read mainly threads about being happy and content being sober. I rarely read threads about relapse. I think if I just stay in the secular section, I don't get cravings as often- if at all.) I go to a face-to-face Women for Sobriety meeting and don't get triggered there.

Other people post that they come here when they are craving and that reading posts helps to lessen or end the cravings. I am the opposite. I come here with no conscious cravings and start cravings fairly strongly while reading. The cravings stop after a while- usually after I get busy doing something else.

I have almost 6 months sober and was sober for 16 years before a brief relapse last summer.

Does anyone else get an increase in cravings when reading online forums?

Thoughts, suggestions, etc?

Supercrew

I don't, but I realized that thinking about not drinking and thinking about drinking basically give you the same response. If you don't want the cravings you have to change how your feelings about alcohol affect you. If alcohol is still a positive motivator for you, it's still going to give you mental cravings no matter what the context.

recycle

When I find a trigger, I feel I have been given a gift. It is an opportunity to deprogram that trigger and make my recovery more robust. When I explore triggers, I always make sure I have some support close by. Sometimes just clearly explaining how something is a trigger for me, often takes the power out of it.

oak

Thanks for your responses (and for reading).

I do still have mixed thoughts and feelings about drinking. You're right-- my cravings are a sign that I need to work on that ambivalence.

I never thought to use techniques for triggers around my cravings that come up when I'm here. Great idea. I am also hoping that just writing about it here will start to lessen the reaction.

Thanks again! (I did decide to start exercising in between reading posts, so I'm off to do ab crunches!)

Bamboozle

Hey, oak.

Sometimes reading the threads about someone relapsing can be a good thing...sometimes it can strengthen resolve. The horror stories are a sad reminder of what will happen if we pick up again.

Sometimes it also helps me to remember how horrible I felt after relapsing (I did that too many times to know I can't moderate). Focusing on only the negatives of drinking helps to cut the mind game bs.

Zencat

Outside cues to drink/drug don't seem to bug me. I can watch Intervention on the A&E all day long where there they show detailed drug use and not even have a passing thought to use myself. It's when I get the F-its and decide the hell with it all, I'm going to use no matter what, that bites me in the butt.

Maybe there is some connection there. I have to consider this one further me thinks.

oak

Thanks!
Bamboozle- It makes sense that reading about relapses could strengthen one's resolve to be sober. I think it helps me sometimes to read about relapses. But most of the time, I tend to avoid relapse posts because I am afraid of that voice that says relapse is inevitable. I know its not; lots of people don't relapse.

Zencat- Yeah, the f-it attitude is a dangerous one. Harder to argue against it. I have a lot to lose by drinking even a little, so that helps me stay sober. And I like being sober and the things I can do sober.

It was helpful to write about my reaction of craving alcohol when reading posts. Maybe I should get off the computer and go out into the world. The weather looks beautiful here today.

shockozulu

Depends on which posts I read. I avoid certain areas and topics where people are in the early recovery stages where their minds are still on the recent past of using.

It never hurts to remember where I came from, but I don't need to read drunk-a-log after drunk-a-log (or drug-a-log). some seem to glamorize their past use and that is a dangerous place for me to go. I prefer forums and threads where the topics are on recovery.

LaFemme

The stronger I get the less I experience it but yeah...reading peoples posts sometimes made me want to drink.

lilac0721

So glad you started this thread. I am getting lots of responses to my thread about discovering triggers that suggest that there is no such thing as a trigger. I don't get triggered reading posts, but being in face to face meetings where people tell drunk a logs was a major trigger for me.

What Supercrew and Recycle posted above seem right on to me. Some people seem to think that the mere act of respirating will make an alcoholic want to drink. I know that I respirate a lot and there are many days when I don't even think about it (drinking or respirating). So for me the idea of reprogramming how I think about certain situations makes a ton of sense. And reprogramming how I think about booze (for example, I have convinced myself that vodka is nasty and I actually make a pucker face just thinking about vodka - yuck).

LaFemme

I'm a big believer in reprogramming and vodka is nasty so is wine, beer and all other spirits...thoughts of them make me queasy.

lilac0721

I am always astonished at how many like-minded folks post in this section. I am a spiritual person, enjoy attending church and exploring different churches as well as different religious beliefs and practices, yet the people who's comments resonate the most with me are here on Secular Connections.

This thread is very helpful to me. Hooray for reprogramming and the power of changing one's thoughts.

LaFemme

Lilac...I'm exactly like you...lol...I have a deep spiritual side and believe in God and go to Church, but this is the place on SR where I find the most like-minded people

Speaking of reprogramming thoughts. It occurred to me last night on my evening run that if I can get sober, anything is actually possible. There was a time in my life where a week without a drink was inconceivable, now I am almost to 8 months! So, in 8 months the Marine Corps Marathon is running in DC, and this morning I registered. I can only run 6 miles today, but I have 248 days to quadruple that...wish me luck!

There is a saying "With God, all things are possible"...I think the motto here should be "With Sobriety all things are possible!" (but I believe the first as well)

lilac0721

LaFemme...oh, yeah! If you can run 6 miles today, you will be able to do the Marine Corps Marathon. That fully rocks. I often repeat the phrase "with God all things are possible." I said that repeatedly to myself during my jury trial last week.

Love adding the phrase "with sobriety all things are possible." Geez. I am not currently able to run 6 miles (which is what I was doing almost every day before I went to a rehab where exercise was relegated to the bottom of the priority list after meetings and more meetings). Running is far more enjoyable when I am booze-free.

Glad I am reconnecting with this group. Ahhhhh. I feel "normal."

myheadhurts

I don't get "triggers" at all. Forums and the like just strengthen my resolve to be better than that. I can't imagine doing anything that might cause me to post "relapse" or "waster stories" again.


Those kinds of posts should act as a deterrent imo.