The Quit Team Part 2
 

last part here
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...t-team-21.html

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I’m back and determined, off to France for 3 weeks which will give me a good building block of sobriety! If really is insane this addiction lark, just madness.

back on day 1.

hope everyone is good

Glad you made it back Freddy - glad it’s a day one for you - enjoy your holiday :)

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Thanks Dee, I’ve deleted and blocked all my contacts which is a good start.

day 2 here

good start man :)

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Day 3 here! Went for a hike yesterday with the family! Poor sleep but still feel fresher than I would of if I’d smoked or drank

I went to AA Meetings for a while before I took my last drink, then a few weeks later my last drug (Marijane), so ultimately Meetings helped me get my Sobriety Date once I was alcohol and drug free.

Congratulations January161992 :)

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Hello dear friends, just wondering how you are all doing? I hope everybody is fine and sober.

So a quick little update from my side. Still going strong (nearing five weeks) and still very determined to make this work. I've struck a deal with myself that I will solve problems that arise in stead of dodging them by getting stoned. So far I haven't reached out for support because I didn't really need any. Everybody always talks about the first days and week being the hardest, for me it doesn't seem to work that way. At the moment I am not feeling well mentally at all. I've had pretty hefty morning anxiety for about a week which culminated in a very tearful day up until now, and I don't cry easily. I keep getting overwhelmed by life and feeling so hopeless because of it. I endlessly worry about stuff I cannot change.

Tomorrow I am starting a new job, so maybe part of "the blame" lies therein. Such an event always causes some tension, so I hope that tension subsides when I actually get started. I sure as hell hope that I won't be feeling like this when I enter the office tomorrow.

I had to get this off my chest, thanks for reading and I hope everybody is feeling strong and determined in their sobriety :)

Hey FDM, sorry to hear that you haven’t been feeling great.

in my experience, weed can allow stresses to build up and when you quit, you can find yourself a bit more stressed because you’re actually acknowledging and dealing with the stress rather than just getting stoned and ignoring it. A new job can be very stressful anyway, and you have to remember that your body is still trying to balance itself out to work without all the weed chemicals.

Hopefully things will start to feel a bit less stressful over the next few weeks, and well done on staying off it. It takes a lot of strength to not fall back on old coping mechanisms when you’re not feeling great.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate your reply.

FDM - Congrats on 5 weeks! That is fantastic!
And I'm not surprised you are feeling this way. It's called PAWS and is very common for heavy users to experience it. Full withdrawal is going to take 3 months so be easy on yourself and just stick with it. You'll never have to do this again.
Take care and good luck with the new job!

Thanks Lynnmarie, good to see you here. And thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate that. I sincerely hope you are doing well.

The second half of the day went a little bit better, but I’m still quite shaky. I’m afraid that if someone asks me how I am doing tomorrow I might not be able to hold myself together. Let’s hope this is just a phase. Deep breaths, it will pass.

Getting sober in my own recovery was the easy part. Dealing with emotions sober afterwards is the real challenge. Scary AF not being able to numb everything away.

Tell me about it! Yesterday evening things worsened and I got really overwhelmed and I was afraid that I would have to call in sick on my first day on the job. Went to bed early and managed to fall asleep but woke up at 3:30 AM and wasn’t able to sleep anymore. So I dragged myself out of bed at 6 AM, and I had to pay attention to my breathing on the commute in order not to panick but I got there and they gave me such a warm welcome. I am still a bit wobbly, probably due to the lack of sleep, but I hope the worst is now behind me.

In the mean time I am wondering: why was I so stressed? It was disproportional to the upcoming event. Why did it get to me in such a bad way? I’ll be reflecting on that in the coming days.

Have a good evening everyone!

I’m glad you worked through that FDM :)

It reminded me how anxious I was when I quit.

I was anxious long before I ever got high or drunk, but I was so used to regulating my moods with pot that everything seemed terrifying without it - it was like my discomfort at being clean and sober added another level of anxiety on top of the ‘normal’ level.

as you found though the worry and anxiety was disproportionate to the actual event, and the more th8ngs I did sober, the less my anxiety was debilitating.

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Thanks Dee, always appreciate your presence and wisdom.

What a difference a week can make! I’m feeling much better, the anxiety has died down and the new job really seems nice. The anxiety wasn’t really there before the start of a new job came closer and I am still wondering why I let it get out of control. It was so irrational and over the top in relation to the event.

The funny thing is (well, it’s not funny actually) that the moment the anxiety and stress levels went down my mind sprung into action with nagging thoughts about having a smoke again. I’m not giving in to those.

I hope everybody’s alright and I’d be interested to hear how you are doing :)

I’m at six weeks today btw!