24 days!
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: U.K.
Posts: 13
24 days!
hey all 
I`m in my 24`th day now, and although I woke up very tired for some reason today seems to be going just fine (not normally the case if I`v slept badly).
I`v been drinking over 30 years now, 25 of which have been constant with zero sober days Ever.
the last year I`v been doing my best to examine and log as much data as i can about my addiction, my thought, triggers, internal dialog, things I did pysically before a change, things I ate, just basically Everything I could log or measure.
24 days is the longest ever that i`v been free from this `prison camp`, ive had many relapses over the last year and learned from every single one.
the withdrawal was quite rough for each try, I almost got used to feeling these symptoms eventually, to the point they were starting to feel ordinary and dare I say "Normal".
I found the first attack was to try and fracture the actual habit, never drink in the same place 2 days in a row, or sit in a different chair, do it at a different time etc... so ther was no real association involved when it came to stopping.
I came up with a third person method of objectifying my withdrawl (I`v sine learned thats it`s called "urge surfing", and that seemed to work quite well, even became somewhat enjoyable to a point, as I could see paterns in these feelings and would have little "side bets" with myself as to what was comming next.
but I could never do a whole week without the drink no matter what I tried
I used to Taper down my drink, not just quantity but also alc %, eventually was on 1 can of 2% alc beer a day for about 2 weeks.
this helped me no end! in fact I still have the 3 cans left from when I decided to give sobriety another go 24 days ago.
and the Really sad thing about the whole affair is that all the time I was drinking, chasing that warm glow feeling (that rarely to never happened anymore), is the exact same glow that i get almost Daily now without the stupid stuff!
Irony anyone?
anyway, having read quite a few forums and other online blogs etc... I figure 24 days was sufficient enough (for me anyway) to consider myself in recovery now, so I signed up, as I`m pretty darn sure I`m sober for good now and have no intentions of ever going back there again.
all the withdrawal symptoms have gone now (and have been for about 10 days now), so Now it`s Coping skills practice and learning time for me now.
look forwards to sharing and learning from you guys!
Love and Gods blessing to each
I`m in my 24`th day now, and although I woke up very tired for some reason today seems to be going just fine (not normally the case if I`v slept badly).
I`v been drinking over 30 years now, 25 of which have been constant with zero sober days Ever.
the last year I`v been doing my best to examine and log as much data as i can about my addiction, my thought, triggers, internal dialog, things I did pysically before a change, things I ate, just basically Everything I could log or measure.
24 days is the longest ever that i`v been free from this `prison camp`, ive had many relapses over the last year and learned from every single one.
the withdrawal was quite rough for each try, I almost got used to feeling these symptoms eventually, to the point they were starting to feel ordinary and dare I say "Normal".
I found the first attack was to try and fracture the actual habit, never drink in the same place 2 days in a row, or sit in a different chair, do it at a different time etc... so ther was no real association involved when it came to stopping.
I came up with a third person method of objectifying my withdrawl (I`v sine learned thats it`s called "urge surfing", and that seemed to work quite well, even became somewhat enjoyable to a point, as I could see paterns in these feelings and would have little "side bets" with myself as to what was comming next.
but I could never do a whole week without the drink no matter what I tried
I used to Taper down my drink, not just quantity but also alc %, eventually was on 1 can of 2% alc beer a day for about 2 weeks.
this helped me no end! in fact I still have the 3 cans left from when I decided to give sobriety another go 24 days ago.
and the Really sad thing about the whole affair is that all the time I was drinking, chasing that warm glow feeling (that rarely to never happened anymore), is the exact same glow that i get almost Daily now without the stupid stuff!
Irony anyone?
anyway, having read quite a few forums and other online blogs etc... I figure 24 days was sufficient enough (for me anyway) to consider myself in recovery now, so I signed up, as I`m pretty darn sure I`m sober for good now and have no intentions of ever going back there again.
all the withdrawal symptoms have gone now (and have been for about 10 days now), so Now it`s Coping skills practice and learning time for me now.
look forwards to sharing and learning from you guys!
Love and Gods blessing to each
Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: casablanca
Posts: 282
Excellent post. looks like you are taking sobriety seriously. I've always found that a program of recovery of some sort helped keeping me in check. either AA or AVRT or the likes. good job on 24 days.
Welcome aboard 
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: U.K.
Posts: 13
Thanks guys
I can`t imagine what i must have been thinking this last 30 years!? or maybe that`s just it, I Wasn`t thinking!
Eitherway, I`v made it, and it feels like I`v won the lottery
my Near-term aim is for 28 days sober, and that`ll be like a full residential rehab thingy, I know it`s probably an arbitrary number set by these places, but it`ll quantify it to my way of thinking, and then I can put it behind me, and work on my future.
as for AA, I daren`t, as it would be a huge trigger for me, I don`t do the whole people thing very easily, and sometimes can`t be around my own family or even anything that makes noise
the AVRT seems interesting though.
I can`t imagine what i must have been thinking this last 30 years!? or maybe that`s just it, I Wasn`t thinking!
Eitherway, I`v made it, and it feels like I`v won the lottery
my Near-term aim is for 28 days sober, and that`ll be like a full residential rehab thingy, I know it`s probably an arbitrary number set by these places, but it`ll quantify it to my way of thinking, and then I can put it behind me, and work on my future.
as for AA, I daren`t, as it would be a huge trigger for me, I don`t do the whole people thing very easily, and sometimes can`t be around my own family or even anything that makes noise
the AVRT seems interesting though.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 1
Day 24 is impressive to me. I've never made it that far in 20 years. I'm on day 5 from stopping cold turkey with no medicine. Yesterday was a bit rough feeling like I was gonna pass out a few times and really bad headaches... today is much better. Glad to hear that the withdrawal symptoms have disappeared for you, you're doing great!
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