Meraviglioso

I cannot believe how much time I have when sober! It is amazing. I also don't understand where the time went while drinking?
Yesterday, after dropping the children at their father's house for the night I looked at my watch and saw it was 18:00. When drinking I would have seen the time and calculated that I had an hour and a half/hour and 45 minutes to get some heavy drinking in. Then I would run around like crazy getting things out for dinner, showering, brushing my teeth a million times, slapping my face, trying to get it together enough to cook dinner and appear remotely sober for when my boyfriend came over.
Last night I came home, I cleaned the house, did some laundry, made myself dinner (no boyfriend last night), read the newspaper, got some work done, took a bath and was still in bed by 22:00.
It is so wonderful. I know some people struggle with how to fill their time, but I am finding it a great bonus. I have so much to do and never felt I had enough time to do it all. Now I have plenty of time with some extra time left over to relax.

Can anyone explain this phenomenon? Where did all the time go drinking? I would "do stuff" while drinking- clean, cook, work. I guess it should be pretty obvious that I was not working/cooking/cleaning to my full capacity. Really weird and wonderful all this extra time though.

DisplacedGRITS

honestly, i've found that i was quite capable of cooking dinner, going out to eat, cleaning, whatever while in a total blackout. in fact, i recall one evening where my husband and i passed an Indian restaurant i'd never been to. turns out, we'd eaten there just a few nights before. i'd lost that entire evening! i've woken up to a clean dishwasher without ever recalling loading the dirty dishes and starting the machine. in fact, i've opened the dishwasher expecting to find one set of dishes in there only to be met with an entirely different set. i was only able to recall dinner by looking at the used dishes and the contents of the trash can.

time is a complex thing. when i was drinking, i had no concept of time except for deadlines. dinner had to be done by X o'clock. husband would be home by X o'clock so shopping had to be done by X:30 so i had enough time to hide the booze. i was never aware of the time as it passed. i was never present in the moment. all time was to me was deadlines to be met. you know how they say the shortest way from point A to point B is a straight line? that's a lie. i used a teleporter!

i have to be careful now, even while i'm sober. i find that i can get stuck in the couch watching nonsense shows late at night and once again, time disappears. what i've noticed is that for time to pass in a meaningful way for myself, i must be present. i don't mind letting my mind turn to distractions every now and again. i just have to be wary of loosing my mindfulness. i must remember to live, actually live, in the moment.

Tonymblue

Discovered the same thing. Drinking, always behind, so many things to do that never got done. Sober, things done done right with time left over

Meraviglioso

Oh I was the same displacedgrits, I did all the stuff, but it always seemed like at the end of the day I was leaving stuff undone and just exhausted. Now I get everything done with time left over to relax or read or whatever. It is amazing to me how much time drinking takes up.

Hobbers

I actually used to be a 'Monica' when I was drinking. I'd feel hellaciously guilty about being drunk, so I'd clean like crazy for my wife, so I felt like I wasn't such a bad person.

lol.

Soberwolf

Love this post

PurpleKnight

Drinking came with hangovers and that meant hours spent both drinking and recovering from drinking, a spiral that ate away the days/weekends!!

Sobriety has unlocked so much time for me also!!

soberjuly

Exactly the same with me, I am still surprised at how much time has been freed up.

I felt so overwhelmed with things drinking, I also used to think well that is why you drink, you are so overwhelmed with things to do...it was a vicious circle until I realized the "feeling overwhelmed" part was what alcohol was doing to me.

Daretodream

Ditto. I have had a few slipups since June 15th but, overall, this summer has given me a newfound freedom - knowing that I can actually make plans and follow through with them. I hope I never get complacent about that.