So Easy To Forget
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 38
So Easy To Forget
Hey, I'm 59 days sober. That's the longest I've ever gone by over 40 days since I started drinking 11 years ago.
Literally every aspect of my life has improved drastically. Lately I've been having thoughts of "maybe it's been long enough, maybe I could just have 1 or 14 drinks. Just once." No rational part of me wants to do this, but you know how it is.
I don't really need advice, just support that drinking any amount is the wrong choice. I know I can't moderate, I tried for more than a decade.
Anyone feel like sharing their story of throwing away two months so I don't have to?
Thanks.
Literally every aspect of my life has improved drastically. Lately I've been having thoughts of "maybe it's been long enough, maybe I could just have 1 or 14 drinks. Just once." No rational part of me wants to do this, but you know how it is.
I don't really need advice, just support that drinking any amount is the wrong choice. I know I can't moderate, I tried for more than a decade.
Anyone feel like sharing their story of throwing away two months so I don't have to?
Thanks.
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
I have done it before. The last time I did it I had been sober for about 2.5 months. I was visiting relatives for the weekend and took a tumble on an ATV and suffered a shoulder injury. No breaks but tendon damage and pretty painful. Nonetheless, I figured that since I was hurting and it was the 4th of july weekend I could have a few to take the edge off the pain. Well, needless to say about 6 months after those few beers, I was in the ER with heart palpitations begging for withdrawals to end.
The only variable when you return to drinking, even by having just one drink, is how long it will take for you to be back to your full-blown alcoholic drinking. For some it's only a matter of days, but it's a 100% guarantee that you'll end up there again.
The only variable when you return to drinking, even by having just one drink, is how long it will take for you to be back to your full-blown alcoholic drinking. For some it's only a matter of days, but it's a 100% guarantee that you'll end up there again.
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Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 38
Thanks for that. That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I know that sort of escalation would happen to me too. Sometimes it's hard to remember what kind of condition I have when all symptoms disappear because I quit drinking.
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1,544
Mar
What I did at the beginning ( the first few months) Every time I wanted to drink I did 25 jumping jacks. I was not working then, so finding a place to do them was easy.
Years back, I quit smoking and did the same thing. I was working then so I would just walked into the bathroom. I believe everyone had thought I had a bladder problem
It worked for me!
Good luck-Stay Sober
I know I could not just have one, I won't even try. It took me too long to get here
Years back, I quit smoking and did the same thing. I was working then so I would just walked into the bathroom. I believe everyone had thought I had a bladder problem
It worked for me!
Good luck-Stay Sober
I know I could not just have one, I won't even try. It took me too long to get here
Forum Leader
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
Originally Posted by Exegesis 
I know that sort of escalation would happen to me too. Sometimes it's hard to remember what kind of condition I have when all symptoms disappear because I quit drinking.
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Allentown,pa
Posts: 396
These are normal feelings for 59 days in.
The first few months was a roller coaster rid for me. Now I'm 7 months sober and things calmed down a lot, and I feel 100 times better.. Hang in there it gets better
The first few months was a roller coaster rid for me. Now I'm 7 months sober and things calmed down a lot, and I feel 100 times better.. Hang in there it gets better
quat
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: terra (mostly)firma
Posts: 4,823
I had a terrible relationship with alcohol for decades. Drank on and off by far mostly on and on meant drinking to excess excessively. I would stop for periods of time , or try and slow down the excessive ness for some stretches. But those times lasted until they didn't . It wasn't until I decided to be a nondrinker, decided to never drink again that I acquired the mindset that allowed me to be comfortable and understand that I wasn't accumulating sober time between stretches.
I also adopted the mindset that I could not unknow what I know. I know moderation and alcohol consumption for me don't mix, that is the problem I always had with drinking,no off switch.
Taking drinking off the table as an option, ever, takes a minute's decision, getting comfortable and solidifying your resolve takes more time. Two months is great, keep going, you got this.
I also adopted the mindset that I could not unknow what I know. I know moderation and alcohol consumption for me don't mix, that is the problem I always had with drinking,no off switch.
Taking drinking off the table as an option, ever, takes a minute's decision, getting comfortable and solidifying your resolve takes more time. Two months is great, keep going, you got this.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 38
Yeah, I'm amazed by how little I am tempted to drink. After I made three weeks everything got a lot easier.
A really weird thing happened on my third weekend. I woke up before sunrise and decided I absolutely had to go to the second narrows bridge by my house to take sunrise photos; something I have never done in my life before. There was only twenty minutes to sunrise so I was rushing there with a real sense of urgency.
When I got there, there was a woman sitting on the railing of the bridge with a three hundred foot drop straight down to solid ground. A solid wind could've knocked her off and she would have definitely died. At first I thought she was just someone who liked to live dangerously so I walked up to her and asked to take her picture. She pulled away from me and I noticed she was crying. I realized what was going on and called the police.
She got off the edge before the police got there and walked 100 paces past me then stopped and turned around and was staring at the bridge. When the cops showed up and started walking towards her she ran but there police on the other side of the path and they got her into custody.
It was a very surreal experience, but what was weirder is almost an identical situation had happened to me 5 months prior. I went to that bridge with intentions of jumping cause I wanted to kill myself cause I hated what my life had become because of alcohol. A stranger intervened and I was arrested and taken to a hospital.
It's insane that I even think about drinking for a second when I know how bad it can get. But alcoholism is sort of characterized by insanity I guess.
A really weird thing happened on my third weekend. I woke up before sunrise and decided I absolutely had to go to the second narrows bridge by my house to take sunrise photos; something I have never done in my life before. There was only twenty minutes to sunrise so I was rushing there with a real sense of urgency.
When I got there, there was a woman sitting on the railing of the bridge with a three hundred foot drop straight down to solid ground. A solid wind could've knocked her off and she would have definitely died. At first I thought she was just someone who liked to live dangerously so I walked up to her and asked to take her picture. She pulled away from me and I noticed she was crying. I realized what was going on and called the police.
She got off the edge before the police got there and walked 100 paces past me then stopped and turned around and was staring at the bridge. When the cops showed up and started walking towards her she ran but there police on the other side of the path and they got her into custody.
It was a very surreal experience, but what was weirder is almost an identical situation had happened to me 5 months prior. I went to that bridge with intentions of jumping cause I wanted to kill myself cause I hated what my life had become because of alcohol. A stranger intervened and I was arrested and taken to a hospital.
It's insane that I even think about drinking for a second when I know how bad it can get. But alcoholism is sort of characterized by insanity I guess.
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