5 weeks
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: UK
Posts: 431
5 weeks
5 weeks completed no immediate issues or risks but need to work on living sober.
I have attended AA most days and enjoy the meetings. However, increasingly I realise that I am at odds about God, higher power and handing over. No I own this and change can only come from within me.
I know my addiction is a behaviour not a disease. The only way to overcome it is to build new habits and ways of living that don't include alcohol. That is a journey and along the way there will be temptations and triggers to drink.
The cost benefit of daily drinking does not add up in favour and this is where the decision to stop relies. When I think of being drunk I realise there was no pleasure. The number of times I drank more and it had zero impact, as I was already drunk. Or the times waking a couple of hours after drinking feeling fully conscious but with sky high blood alcohol content. Any pleasure drinking gave only ever lasted to the 3rd or 4th drink when it dissipated. This is before accounting for the constant physical unwellness of hangovers and the very real longterm damage to health.
The most inspiring stories I read here are from those who have achieved 1 year. The ones that haven't necessarily followed AA but forged their own path.
Thank you SR for this platform.
I have attended AA most days and enjoy the meetings. However, increasingly I realise that I am at odds about God, higher power and handing over. No I own this and change can only come from within me.
I know my addiction is a behaviour not a disease. The only way to overcome it is to build new habits and ways of living that don't include alcohol. That is a journey and along the way there will be temptations and triggers to drink.
The cost benefit of daily drinking does not add up in favour and this is where the decision to stop relies. When I think of being drunk I realise there was no pleasure. The number of times I drank more and it had zero impact, as I was already drunk. Or the times waking a couple of hours after drinking feeling fully conscious but with sky high blood alcohol content. Any pleasure drinking gave only ever lasted to the 3rd or 4th drink when it dissipated. This is before accounting for the constant physical unwellness of hangovers and the very real longterm damage to health.
The most inspiring stories I read here are from those who have achieved 1 year. The ones that haven't necessarily followed AA but forged their own path.
Thank you SR for this platform.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Derbyshire Dales, UK.
Posts: 2,618
Well done on 5 weeks 
I tried AA too, but it wasn't really for me so SR was and is, my only form of support and as it's 24/7 it really worked for me. I'm 19 months into this journey. Just do what you feel comfortable with regarding support.
Hugs from Derbyshire.
I tried AA too, but it wasn't really for me so SR was and is, my only form of support and as it's 24/7 it really worked for me. I'm 19 months into this journey. Just do what you feel comfortable with regarding support. Hugs from Derbyshire.
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,432
Congrats on 5 weeks, Gerard.
There are many ways up the mountain - may you find your way to lasting recovery
I spent a while initially raking around in the embers of the things I didn't like about various methods - I ended up in circles and not doing much travelling down the path in that phase.
Then I realised this was the rest of my life - best not waste it.
My advice is focus on what works for you - and do it
D
There are many ways up the mountain - may you find your way to lasting recovery
I spent a while initially raking around in the embers of the things I didn't like about various methods - I ended up in circles and not doing much travelling down the path in that phase.
Then I realised this was the rest of my life - best not waste it.
My advice is focus on what works for you - and do it
D
Last edited by Dee74; 08-23-2018 at 12:07 AM.
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Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: UK
Posts: 1,280
Morning Gerard,
5 weeks is wonderful, well done
What has helped me a lot is the realisation that there really was no pleasure even in those first or second drinks, it was illusory. Looking back, for me they were often very swift drinks, a means to end that instantly set a destructive force in motion.
I don't go to any groups, it's just AVRT and SR for me and it's working well.
Keep up the good work!
John
5 weeks is wonderful, well done
What has helped me a lot is the realisation that there really was no pleasure even in those first or second drinks, it was illusory. Looking back, for me they were often very swift drinks, a means to end that instantly set a destructive force in motion.
I don't go to any groups, it's just AVRT and SR for me and it's working well.
Keep up the good work!
John
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 6,902
Well, the meetings are helping. Could you not just have the fellowship and 'Connection' as your Higher Power for now? It's likely to give you some relief just to decide to quit the debating of it in your head. G O D is Group Of Drunks for many, esp in earlier days and months of sobriety.
It's a Higher Power of our own understanding after all. No doubt there will be ithers in yiur AA meetings who, when they use the word God, don't mean a religious God.
BB
It's a Higher Power of our own understanding after all. No doubt there will be ithers in yiur AA meetings who, when they use the word God, don't mean a religious God.
BB
Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: US
Posts: 5,095
Hi Gerard. Congrats on 5 weeks.
I have been in and out of AA. I have almost 18 months. But that's after a decade of trying....I had a lot of abstinence. But it was studded by horrid benders.
I have learned a tremendous amount in AA and will continue to attend meetings in order to connect with other people like me. But I don't go the HP route because that just isn't what I believe. I don't sponsor but I do support other alcoholics and that really helps me stay sober.
I have been in and out of AA. I have almost 18 months. But that's after a decade of trying....I had a lot of abstinence. But it was studded by horrid benders.
I have learned a tremendous amount in AA and will continue to attend meetings in order to connect with other people like me. But I don't go the HP route because that just isn't what I believe. I don't sponsor but I do support other alcoholics and that really helps me stay sober.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 25,373
As far as the HP thing?
I just know I'm not the boss of the Universe. I tried controlling everything and that just doesn't work. Anyone who suggests giving up Free Will is off-base...which even if you are of the staunchest and most religious background that has never been the lesson. It is something that some people try to inflict on others, but that's just people.
I just know I'm not the boss of the Universe. I tried controlling everything and that just doesn't work. Anyone who suggests giving up Free Will is off-base...which even if you are of the staunchest and most religious background that has never been the lesson. It is something that some people try to inflict on others, but that's just people.
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