chowchow

Hi,

It seems like a lot of people know the exact date they stopped drinking. I don't know the specific date. I just know one day in January I had enough and didn't drink that particular night and didn't drink the following night and so on. I could probably figure out approximately what date it was but should I?

Thanks.

dcg

Are you drinking?

No?

Then that's all that matters.

thomas11

I quit in the ladder part of October of 2015, no idea what the date was and it doesn't bother me.

daredevil

Knowing my sobriety date gives me a frame of reference, but outside of that, it doesn't serve any real purpose.

sva777

It is important for some more than others. I quit in 2015, slipped up in 2016 for two days. Was sober for another six months then slipped up again in early 2017. Been over a year now I have been 100% sober but almost 3 that I have been honest with myself and my addiction. The date, not as important as the fact I feel good and am not drinking anymore.

BlownOne

Doesn't matter. I know mine, but lots of folks don't know theirs and they're still sober. That's all that matters. We're all the same distance from the ditch anyway.

Forward12

Some count it down to the second that booze destroyed them. Others don't , I am one of them.

Stride34

In and of itself it's not important. If the individual places value on it and knowing the date or how long they've been sober motivates them to stay sober, then it is important.

Rar

It is presently motivating for me to count my days, so that's what I'm doing. Ultimately I expect to lose track of the days. I quit smoking sometime in 2011, but I don't even remember the month now. Drinking will be the same some day.

ScottFromWI

It's only important to you if it's important to you ;-)

Dropsie

I don't know either.

Not even the month, sometimes not even sure of the year, but its been years. You know the month and the year. Soon that will seem a long time ago.

Just keep on trucking.

least

I know mine cause I put it in my profile 'about me'. So now I can't forget.

RVer

The fact that you are sober is the important thing.

golfreggie

Just my experience and thoughts. I can tell anyone my sobriety date, it is October 8, 1990. I remember it because when I was new and attending AA meetings daily everyone around the table at sometime or another mentioned it when they started speaking or during their comments. My sponsor knew his date. All the folks I met and became friends with in AA knew theirs. Each month our AA group had a Sunday night open meeting where the members whose sobriety anniversaries were in that month had an opportunity to share their story in an open meeting format from the podium. They always introduced themselves in this manner, "Hi, I am ________ and I am an alcoholic" or a variance on that form. And then something along the lines of "and by God's grace and the program of alcoholics anonymous I haven't taken a drink since _____. The exact wording is not important. But the speaker shared his story and shared the date of his last drink, or first day sober, and all that surrounds that. We sort of do that when we talk, one alcoholic to the other, as we encourage each other, especially old timer to newcomer. Is it required, of course not. It is more a tradition and a tool. I look at it personally in this manner. I have a bodily birthday of June 22, 1949. I have a rebirth from alcohol of October 8, 1990. In AA we share in a general way what we were like, what happened and what we are like now. No where in the Book does it say to share the exact date, it just sort of evolved. Can you stay sober and not care about your sobriety date, I don't know. I care about mine the same way I care about my birthday, my wedding anniversary, the day I went in the Army, my hire date at work, all the so-called important dates. So, if important, go for it. If not important, same answer. It is not a prerequisite to sobriety. My take and experience.

Dee74

Its not necessary to know your sober date in order to stay sober

you could probably work it out tho through your posts.

if you click your name beside your post you'll find a drop down menu that will let you access all your past posts

D

chowchow

Thank you for the interesting responses. I do hear people in AA talk about their specific date and usually it is very inspirational. Sometimes I think how in the world can I ever make it that long? For now I am just trying to put one foot in front of the other and take it day by day. Hopefully those will keep adding up.

Gottalife

That is a good point chowchow. Probably the main purpose in the AA context is to give hope to others. And time counts in other respects too, for example if one was seeking to work through an employer to help a worker, the employer might take more notice of somone who has succeeded for a few years as opposed to a few days.

My date was given to me by a third party. I never took a note because I didn't expect to survive, but it is near enough.

Of course time is only part of the equation. Like the stories and experiences that we share here, we have to take it all at face value. In reality, there is nothing like eyeballing another, up close and personal, to figure out what the deal really is.

Maudcat

Well, it’s important to some, not so much to others.
I stopped drinking in July of 2013.
I don’t remember the day, so I celebrate the month of July as my recovery month.

jsprplc2006

I think there are two answers to that - yes and no.

On the one hand, I've heard people say, if I'm never going to drink again, why would it matter when I stopped?

On the other hand, some people, myself included, get a lot of motivation out of NOT throwing away whatever period of sober time you've built up. That's a double-edged sword though, since if you relapse, your mind wants to throw away all that sober time, since you 'interrupted' it, instead of just getting right back on the wagon, which is a much better option.

MindfulMan

It's not that important to me. I only know it because it was the day I checked into rehab and started medical detox.

We had a daily check-in at IOP and one of the things we reported was days sober so I have it in a phone app. Added my nicotine quit date as well.

Oh wow, 322 days.