MIRecovery

One thing I love about the newcomers forum is remembering the struggles I had in the first 0 - 6 months. Just curious what is working and for that matter what is not working.

Here are a couple of things that worked for me to get the thread started

• Not going to functions where there was drinking
• Having a dry house
• Telling loved ones I was trying to get sober

Zube

AA is the safest place on the planet in early recovery.

Zube

MIRecovery

Zube, it should be universe not planet

duane1

Practically slept through the first 2 weeks.
Running/Exercise and keeping myself busy helped with the anxiety.
I told the people if I had a drinking relationship with them.
Other than that, I guess I had the added motivation that I might die if I kept drinking since my liver had started to hurt.

TodayisGood

Jogging really helped me. I would start getting wound up and tight with cravings, and a nice jog would make all that go away.

Reading SR helped a lot too. So much to learn, or really, to accept. Takes time to let it all sink in especially when my mind was playing tricks to make every excuse to drink again.

trikuza

Lots physical excercise. Lots of alone time to do a lil soul searching and escape all my college friends who care little about anything but drinking.
It helps to start new hobbies. Im gonna start doing a different hiking spot every weekend.

nobshere

Exercise was a huge part of my journey early on..I had neglected my health for years so it was very liberating to finally take care of myself. I made sure to not get too hungry as I rarely ate when I drank, didn't want to kill the buzz. I also made sure I got enough sleep. I read everything I could about addiction and how to overcome it..

Anna

I didn't tell people around me what I was doing because I felt far too vulnerable to any kind of negative comments that might come along. But, I was accountable to myself.

I read a lot of books on spirituality to help me find a place of peace in my life.

Making the choice to avoid alcohol-related events and have no alcohol in the house.

tinkanman

duane, as stated in a previous thread, you and i are much a like. my motivation comes entirely from a health standpoint. my liver started hurting and was enlarging. still is. i figure if i drink anymore, i'm toast. i want to see my kids grow up. i want to live. so.... i go to events and parties every week where people are drinking. they never even notice that i'm carrying a diet coke or water. i still have a cabinet full of alcohol but it doesn't tempt me. i haven't told anyone except my wife because nobody cares about whether i drink or not except me. i just make it all about me. it is all about me isn't it? ok, enough about me, let's talk about me. kidding....but only to a certain extent. recovery is very selfish by nature. i do ask the man upstairs for help and guidance. once again, it matters not as long as it works for you and that you stay the course. tinkanman.

lilac0721

Thanks for starting this thread. I've made it a couple weeks, even a couple of months, but never 6 months. It is good to know that so many people find exercise helpful to recovery. Every time I've put together a few weeks, exercise has been integral to maintaining motivation to abstain and to overcoming cravings.

I'll refer to this thread a lot as I am back in the first few days.

miamifella

Someone told me to keep busy. So I avoided unscheduled time.

Also, I went to rehab and stayed in the town. I did not have any connection there to drugs or stuff like that. So that was not an option--just right off the table.

I also was poor. Every place I worked went out of business soon after hiring me. I could not afford a phone. The place where I lived was one that required a car to live (and I did not own one, nor could I drive). It was a very basic life. So my goals were simple (make money, get better job, figure out how to get around).

All of this really helped. At the time if felt awful, but looking back it gave me space to figure out what my life was all about.

ricmcc

I really can"t speak of anyone one thing that is helping me to stay sober, but I can list a few things that seemed to happen all at once that did, and are helping me now. For some reason I began to ask myself questions that I in truth would have preferred not to ask, much less answer--however, I do now ask myself painfull questions and try above all to answer them honestly. While doing this, I found some things that I liked about myself, so began to forgive myself to some degree, which allowed me to further question myself. At this time I became aware that although I had always known that I love my wife and daughter, becoming sober would allow me to become a better husband and father, and therefore love them all the better; in other words, learning how to love by first learning how to love myself. By very good fortune, falling in with some people who were solidly into recovery, and were/are good enough friends to call me on it when I was not, or am not being honest with myself. Maybe a better way to say this would be to note that basically anyone can be a drinking buddy, while only a friend will tell you the things you need be told if you are to recover (when I write you, I mean ,me, of course). While not at all formally religious, agnostic, in fact, coming to see myself as a part of a far greater whole is helping me greatly; I guess this is what is meant by spirituality as opposed to religiousity. Coming to terms with the fact that I will always be a work in progress, and therefore must always work at my recovery, that recovery is not a race to which there is a finish line. Also, coming to trems with the fact that I am bipolar, and there are some meds which I must remain on, so no longer playing doctor to myself in that regard and, for example, halving my meds in the absurb hope that that doing so will make me any less bipolar.
On the whole then, a lot of good luck, and some hard work which I am finding to my great relief to be very rewarding, enough so that I wish to continue this work on my recovery.
Sorry for such a long post, but I must thank you for asking the question, as attempting to answer it has helped me greatly. All the best to you, Rick

ru12

I stubbornly refused to drink no matter what I thought or how I felt about it. I watched urges come and built to a dizzying peak, then to fade away. I refused to argue with that voice that told me that I needed to drink, or that I deserved one. I refused to berate myself for having the thoughts in the first place: the thought just were and that was ok. I ate well. I ran a marathon. Running helped, and still does, in so many ways. I could fill those hard evening hours with motion. Finally, I was kind to myself. I stopped putting myself down and realized that I had been sick and was now getting better.

Lost3000

I had to tell my husband. I tried to quit by myself and couldn't do it. So telling him was my accountability. I told one other close friend at work - not that I'm an alkie but that I quit. That proved to be really smart as we go to work functions all the time and having just one pal who knew I wasn't drinking was helpful when refusing drinks.

I joined AA - asap. I was tired of all my b.s. excuses about them being god thumpers, etc, because I really had no clue about AA at all and I just wanted to be sober.

I joined a book club. Didn't last, but was helpful for something to do outside of the house.

Recently I began learning how to play piano - love it.

I read, and exercised a lot.

Slept a lot. Ate chocolate.

least

I put my previous drinking energy into caring for my dogs. Lots of walks and lovin'. And my sobriety was/is rewarded by their healthy happy glow.

serious

- being here on SR
- EXERCISE. I cannot stress this enough, physical activity has been proven to help with anxiety and depression, which for many of us is the primary trigger for drinking. (not to mention it occupies your time).
- staying away from situation where drinking is likely. although i still enjoy going out in a social setting, if things get uncomfortable and pressure gets too much, i found that it is very easy to just leave.
- having a plan and tools to deal with anxiety and drinking urges.

Natom

I decided to make a deal with myself to find stuff that I enjoy doing sober. So far I have discovered I enjoy board games, animals and nature and American Muscle cars. I have also realised I may be a bit of an anorak but hey it sure beats being a cokefiend. Now I have found my hobbies I find myself being able to do stuff I enjoy and that really makes everything a lot easier for me.

OneLessLonely

I loaded up on all sorts of nonalcoholic drinks- teas, coffees, root beer, juices
Read SR all the time
Stayed away from places with drinking
Told people I was on a health kick/"cleanse"
Did different things at my drinking times (went to a movie on Friday night when I would normally be sitting in my couch drinking) to mix things up and develop new routines/ habits

onlythetruth

The first, most important and critical thing was the commitment.

After that, what helped me keep the commitment was:

Telling my family and very close friends (this closed the door) that I was quitting
Exercise
Eating when I was hungry instead of drinking

forabetterlife

I'm only at two months, but for me:
-eating when I'm hungry. Hunger is a HUGE trigger for me. Probably more than anything else. As much as I need to lose weight, not drinking was more important. And guess what? I lost 15 pounds anyway!
-exercise
-I also have not told anyone that I was quitting. Someone having it be my little secret source of accomplishment without bragging or going on and on about it to anyone (except here on SR lol ) is really good for me. It motivates me.
-In the first months, reading any story or book I could get my hands on that was about someone else's struggles with alcohol and recovery. This was very helpful to me during that rough first month.