Lance40

I'm curious to hear from people how your desire for alcohol has changed over time in sobriety? At 6+ months I sometimes still get the occasional craving if I stumble across or indulge a trigger, but it's recently come to me that the lines between "sobriety" and normal life have become so blurred that they are now essentially the same thing. I no longer feel limited because I'm an alcoholic / addict. If I woke up tomorrow morning miraculously cured, I wouldn't feel motivated to go out and drink or use because....well.....I just don't have any intrinsic desire to do it even if I could without consequence.

That's been an inspiring revelation, almost like a second honeymoon period in sobriety after that initial early freedom of quitting drinking. It's given me a fresh perspective and motivation to take on some of the habits that became more prominent after I quit drinking: caffeine consumption, unhealthy eating and lack of enough physical exercise.

For some reason today I feel especially grateful for sober living.

Best wishes to all - we can do this.

happyandfree

Congratulations Lance! That's a wonderful place to be. I feel the same, but I am still cautious and I try not to let my guard down. Sometimes cravings come out of nowhere. But 98% of the time I don't think about drinking other than in the context of being grateful that I don't drink.

brynn

Lance......I woke up feeling the same way this morning and even posted about it on the weekenders thread! I am so grateful to not only be sober, but actually be ENJOYING living my life alcohol free! And really, I don't see it as living life 'sober' anymore....I just see it as living life!! Yay!!

Congrats on your new life!
Xoxo

ArtFriend

I am only a few months (with relapse too) so I cannot really say much. But... I quit smoking in 1991 and STILL get the urge! WTH? I hope it won't be like that with alcohol. Congrats Lance!

Anna

I'm glad you're doing well, Lance.

Fly N Buy

I listened to a gent today who has around 10 years of continuous sobriety. He stated at 18 months he had a debate whether to do himself in or drink again.
Fortunately for him he did neither.

I just posted on the another friends thread about relapses - some wise folks who have fought the demons again.

I too have gained some sober confidence, but I can never forget what I am. I will never be "normal". That is not only in the fact I cannot drink but in the way I think and react to life.

I can learn to understand why I react certain ways and ameliorate the bad decision making, but the line between sober and undrunk or normal cannot be blurred for me.

I am and always will be an alcoholic who needs to remain vigilant.


Lance, I do feel your joy today as I am able to assimilate into society - love and be loved. Soberity is awesome and I am so glad we are all on this journey together, friend!!

PurpleKnight

Very positive post Lance!! Fantastic!!

least

I think at a year and something, I started to notice that I no longer thought about drinking like I used to do. By two years it felt completely normal to be sober.

One thing that helped me to live a sober life was practicing gratitude every day. Find something to be grateful for each day. It gave me a renewed sense of what I could lose if I started drinking again, since my sober life was going so well. So any thoughts of drinking were easily quelled.

MrPoutine

Congratulations Lance - isn't it liberating to be free of alcohol, and not organizing your life around it? My last drink was over 2 years ago, and I haven't felt any urge to drink for at least 18 months.

Lance, I see you are from Canada, like me, so we are both in the middle of a long weekend (Victoria Day). I tend to be reminded of how glad I am to not drink when a long weekend is here - it use to be a pain to plan my alcohol purchases ahead, so that I didn't run out on the holiday Monday when all the liquor stores are closed. On a long weekend there would often be a rush at the beer stores and liquor stores on the days before the holiday as everyone stocked up. Here in Ontario liquor stores are pretty thin on the ground, so the line-ups could get pretty long.

A piece of trivia for people who don't live in Canada: the Victoria day weekend is popularly called the May two-four weekend, either (1) because it is close to 24 May, or, perhaps, (2) because it is the weekend when everyone went to the beer store to get a case of 24 to celebrate the arrival of spring. So glad to not be part of that tradition any more.

silentrun

I wanted nothing more to do with drinking the day I quit. I would still get my brain screaming at me to do it though. Right around 6 months I was finally able to wrap my head around accepting that my drinking days were behind me. I had a good cry, dedicated this song to it and let it go. After that it became my new normal and thoughts of using would float in once in a while and just float out without resistance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y24m8BPIWwY