Wilde8673

Day 6 here...feels really good to be sober today. Being the 1st weekend, it's the first time i've had to really look around and have time to deal with the responsibilities i've been ignoring during my drinking. Bills, housework...my house is a mess...i have a ton of laundry to do....the kids need me to do stuff. Its a bit overwhelming. Normally, i would drink and put it off another day. Only do what i need to to get through today. Which is really not smart and more stressful honestly living that way. Much better to have a routine and be prepared. I just can't let this overwhelm me, which happens easily. I'll do small tasks and come back to SR and take breaks and make small accomplishments. Doesn't all have to get done today. Baby steps.

Jab3

Day 2 for me....hanging in there!

mmhoule

Hello Everyone. I've been with SR for only a few days now. And I have failed every single day. I get so pumped up and positive and then I get a few hours into work and I pour one. Then another...its morning and I am feeling so guilty because its such a stupid thing! Why can't I do this? I didn't even have "time" to get on here and ask for help. We were so busy and I was running my butt of but I sure made time to pour that drink. Im seriously thinking I am going ti have to quit my job before I humiliate myself and get fired. I am very angry and disappointed in myself.

mmhoule

I feel like I could have written this myself. Im so tired of living my days in a hung over fog.

Congrats on day 6!

fruitymarzipan

Hi Guys, hope everyone is enjoying a lovely Sober Saturday!? Well double figures, day 10 today.
Open House Viewings went reasonably well considering it is totally p**sing down with rain. Im talking gale force winds with horizontal rain & sleet kind of reminding me of that movie The Day After Tomorrow!! We had 8 couples round, given the weather, and the current market and the fact that i live out in the stix, that was pretty ok!! So heres hoping!
Whilst our agent was showing the house we took the kids for pizza to this beautiful Italien with a real wood burning pizza oven. Very yummy, if a little fattening!! So having a very lazy afternoon, snuggled up on the sofa watching a disney movie with hubby & mini munchkin. My 14 year old is in bed asleep, worn out from her sleepover last night! Oh to be a teenager again!

Scoutie I live pretty close to Lyme, beautiful ...when the sun shines! Yesterdays freak good weather was rare! Where exactly in The South Pacific are you? Somewhere hot & beautiful I bet!

Janiebluebird a class at the gym sounds very fit and healthy, I need to take a leaf out of you and Mustlovecoffee's book (all that running!) im getting ***** this past couple of weeks, seriously iv gained 7lbs. I know of course why this is and it makes an interesting reflective point. When I was taking the pills I always swallowed them. The thought of crushing them and taking them any other way which I know many opiate addicts do, terrified me. Plus I could somehow convince myself if swallowing them that this was the normal way to take them, and I was taking them because i was in genuine pain! So of course to make them really effective & quicker they were best taken on an empty stomach, so i didnt eat. I got to my lowest weight since I was a teenager at christmas, a UK ladies sz 10 which is a US 6. I cringe when I think of myself, im a Senior Surgical Nurse practitioner, to say i should have known better is an understatement! Anyway returning to the point! I have done nothing but eat since giving up, my jeans are so tight i cant breathe!! So on reflection I need to get with the program and get in the gym, at least that 4 mile walk back from work yestrday will have helped, they say walking is great excercise right!!!

Beavis, I think im becoming a food-aholic! but on a serious note, it is correct that the way our body metabolises sugar / alcohol break down is scientically related. I remember when I gave up drink in my 20's my therapist telling me i would crave sweet things.

Janiebluebird, still thinking of you re your bereavement, my prayers are with you x

Mustlovecoffee thanks for your comm regarding the open house viewings. Feedback from our agent was mediocre, we r bringing in a second agent, one with much bigger premises and marketing capeabilities. Its been a difficult decision as our current agent is a friend of the family (what do they say-never do business with friends or family!!) but we have to get this house sold asap, maybe the competition will make our current agent pull out all the stops too.

Newleaf, sorry to hear you have a sore stomach and feeling yucky. Are you still taking the advil for your fever? I was thinking about your nosebleed, and in a normally healthy adult you shouldnt get spontaneous nose bleed from such a moderate blood thinning agent as advil. Have you had your blood pressure checked recently? Just a thought, back in my drinking days I had elevated Blood pressure from the drink, so advil would not have been recommended. I had to go on beta blockers for about a year and I was only in my late 20's? Plus it could defo be the advil causing your sore stomach?? This is a very common side effect of advil which is in a group of drugs we call NSAID's. Anyway just a thought, If I had a patient complaining of nose bleed & sore stomach / nausea I would immediately take them off the Advil! its funny how diff countries advocate the use of different things. We go straight for paracetamol based drugs as first line for fever / flu in the UK. NSAID's like Advil & Nurofen we go for second if the paracetamol isnt working! Hope you feel better soon. xx

Ladybug2, enjoy your night tonight, try some nice Virgin Cocktails, my hubby also loves cocktails so i just opt for the virgin ones which are surprisingly yummy too.

Welcome to all new people, congrats to all continuing on their journey. Heres to a sober Saturday Night, we are gonna be lazy, lying on the sofa watching The Voice UK & Britains Got Talent! LOL
Love & Blessings Bandicouts. xx

HappySoberMe

We are human! No one can get it right all of the time. Try to like yourself even if you get it wrong that day. I am the queen of beating myself up and it is so harmful. Sometimes when we put ourselves out there we feel worse when we fail. Just Remember you are not a person who only succeeds or a person who only fails. If that we're true there would be a lot less of us on the planet...lol.

Ladybug2

I have been on here a lot today since Saturday's are usually hard for me and though I would share something about my Friday night. So we ordered a pizza and I volunteered to go pick it up because my hubby had a terrible headache. As I pulled into the pizza place something hit me (did I mention pizza place is in same plaza as the Wine & Spirits?). I hadn't even thought of my usual scheme, which would have been to run into W & S for a bottle while picking up pizza. AV was not around, for once! I just sat there and couldn't believe I didn't want to run in for a bottle. I actually thought that, maybe, I had killed that AV in our latest battle (wishful thinking, huh?) I know it will be back to rear it's ugly head, but it was just so nice and unexpected to realize, for once, that it wasn't around. Anyway, thought i would share that experience. Maybe it will give some hope to those who are struggling right now. It is only Day 7 for me, but I feel so much better than I did just 1 week ago

Citrus

Hi everyone, today is a new day 1 for me. I'm not positive what I'm going to do differently, but I'm trying to figure it out. I've been going about a wee or two not drinking every month since December but somehow keep slipping back to drinking again. I'm so sick of it!! But I'm here brushing myself off and giving it another go. Hopefully this is it!

I hope everyone is having a great sober Saturday!

NapsteR1

Hi All, went to the pub with the work lot after close of play Friday, drank 3 tonic waters and stayed long enough to say farewell to the early leavers as they left and watch the boozers start to get stuck into it. I've been out with the work lots 6 or 7 times since early Dec and as far as they're concerned (the Big Slip was a domestic affair) I've not drank since then so it's interesting that the **** taking has now stopped and they accept my order for an OJ and lemonade or a tonic water without questioning my sexuality! Interestingly enough the one guy who used to take the **** the hardest was getting stuck into his 4th pint as I left, just over an hour after we got there and I know he’s got an hour long train ride home and then a half hour drive from the station to his house….

Drove back from London and took Mrs N out for a meal, she works in the cathedral and therefore has a parking permit for the grounds (smack in the city centre) and suggested that we park there. We went for a meal and walked back to the car at about 11:00 to find the cathedral grounds locked for the night.. Doh.. which then saw us both stone cold sober queuing up at the taxi rank surrounded by drunk people (it's amazing how seeing drunk people when you're sober really makes you not want to go there!).

Spent today packing after picking the girls up from my Dads, he's spent the last few days drilling them for details of our private life so I'm expecting a call mid next week when he starts telling me that we're both generally irresponsible and have too many motorcycles and generally the wrong priorities and we should sort our acts out and grow up (coming from Mr 2 bottles of wine and a goodly measure of gin a day).

The thought of the call next week started the anxiety up and it's exactly the sort to wake the beast up who gets Mr AV started with "you know a half jack of vodka would swiftly sort out your jangling nerves and restore some "serenity" don't you!!"

I'm taking a bike out that's overdue an oil change tomorrow and my unofficial sponsor offered to pick me up an oil filter up and give it to me tomorrow. About 17:30 I upped and said to Mrs N - (after complaining about the nerves and mentioning drink) "I'm going to pick an oil filter up from M's, can I have that £10 that was left over from the taxi last night" she hands it over and I can see the look on her face of - yeah right, 2 guesses where you're headed.

Got to M's, had a cup of tea and a ciggie, calmed down alot and left. Got a few miles down the road and realised I'd forgotten to pay him for the filter! He’s coming on the ride out tomorrow so I'll buy him breakfast.

Got home and now have a pleasantly surprised Mrs N :o)

Have a great day tomorrow everyone :o)

rubycanoe

I am trying to figure out what to do differently this time so I can stay sober. I am a daily/almost daily drinker of wine/beer. Just a bad habit I want to break. I appreciate all the support here on soberRecovery and all of you in class of April. Feeling like I am getting a lot more accomplished already! What to do, what to do. Relax, relax, relax.

ScoutBall

Want to quick check in.

Weekend going well. Enjoying the bachelor mode. Blue Dog and I hit the beach early and played in the water/sand w/ the tennis ball. Too hot. Didn't wear boardshorts...so I'm thinking I need to get in the water now.

Blue Dog is sufficiently tired to leave at home...so he'll skip this afternoon's fest.

Hope everyone's weekend is going well. I start my day 14 tomorrow! Stoked.
-Scout

Beavis

This is my first Saturday and I'm on day 5. My last failed attempt to moderate my drinking was to only drink on Saturdays, and I was to buy one bottle of wine (not the keg-like boxes). Funny how I kept buying the larger bottles of wine and since I only had one day to drink it, I drank it all. Good times.
I've been walking around behaving like some errant child. Not sure if I want to kick the dog or punch the wall.
I'm really glad that I have this website to go to. I still find myself clearing my cache every time I leave. My husband knows that I haven't been drinking, but he doesn't know I'm quitting. Maybe I'm afraid I'll jinx something by telling him.

I think I'll just feed myself a cookie and take a nap.

Dee74

sorry to hear a few people are struggling.

The best advice I can give today is - you get out of your recovery what you put in into it - I know it seems like a gargantuan effort to work on recovery when to drink is so easy - but the long road is so so worth it

There's so much support here too guys - why not use it before, rather than after?

D

Emily2002

First, congratulations on day 5! You CAN make it through today, too, Beavis. What's the weather like? Are you able to take a walk? If it's not nice out, what about reading a good book?

I've been irritable many times when I've tried stopping in the past, but I'm forcing myself to concentrate on things other than drinking. It's hard, but for me at least this time... it's paying off.

I hope today gets better for you and you're finally able to relax a little bit.

janiebluebird

I hope everyone had a nice evening. I spent it with the family and watching my cousin's 2 year old...tired out! I'm going to sleep soon, look forward to getting a work out in tomorrow morning.

Ladybug2

Happy Sunday to all,

Happy to say I made it through the weekend! Felt pretty good, AV wasn't bugging me too much. Had a really nice dinner out with the hubby last night. Really enjoyed the food and ate WAY TOO MUCH! Oh well, I had 2 diet pepsi's instead of my usual martini and multiple glasses of wine so maybe it evened out? For some reason I found myself very aware of what other people in the restaurant were drinking and noticed I was one of the only people not drinking an alcoholic beverage (very small place). Kind of made me feel alone and p***** off - like why can all of these people enjoy a few drinks and I can't? Well, I know the answer to that, but still......

So Day 8 today. Made it this far last month and then caved in on Day 9 so really hoping to stay strong and make it through. Hope everyone else had a nice weekend and is hanging in there!

rubycanoe

Good Morning All! Hoping today is a good day for everyone, and if not, at least let's all not drink because that does not help at all. I am trying to find other ways to relax as I think this is my main reason to drink, besides habit. I know I need to exercise and that will make me feel better. I really need to go through things and get organized, as when drinking would come home from work and basically just drink and eat and do the bare minimum to get by. Rainy and stormy here, take care all.

MustLoveCoffee

Elly - Sorry your night was a bit boring. I'm hope you enjoy you're hangover free morning.

Mark - I agree, life without booze does seem unthinkable. I almost fell into that mind trap enough to pick up yesterday. But I only need to be sober today. That's what we need to keep telling ourselves until it all makes sense. Glad you're feeling a bit better. Hang in there.

fortysix - Good to hear from you. Glad you're hanging in!

raja - my allergies have been acting up too. What's the situation with the girls? I think I missed that story.

Ladybug - LOL! I kept waiting for the joke. Glad you had fun on date night! I do feel like when I look around everyone is drinking. It bums me out too.

Colthorp & Ladybug - I had pizza Friday too and then ate a lot of ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate chips and whipped cream on top and then felt so sick. I usually don't eat sweets at all. I seriously hoped I would throw up, that's how bad I felt.

Loki - Good luck with the CBT! I'm glad you're working on the anxiety. I have some mild anxiety problems that I've self medicated with alcohol. I've been happy to see that other than being a bit jumpy, I've been relatively ok since quitting.

NewLeaf - Glad you're feeling good about you're sobriety. I thought I was getting there, and then had a pity party last night.

janiebluebird - hope you enjoyed the gym!

mmhoule - I know you're busy, but can you get to an AA meeting? I tried lots of times to quit on my own, but I had a hard time taking it seriously. The shock factor of walking into an AA meeting and introducing myself as an alcoholic and getting my one day chip really helped me wake up and take quitting seriously.

Jab - congrats on day 2!

wilde - hang in there. It will get done. Have you heard of FlyLady? Not sure if it's ok to plug other services here, but it's 100% free, and it really helped me get my homelife (housework, paying bills, etc.) back on track.

fruitymarzipan - glad you had so much interest at the Open House. Here in the states you have to sign a contract with one agent. If you don't need to do that in the UK, that seems even better. Make them duke it out! Hopefully one of the couples will get back to the agent. *fingers crossed*

Citrus - good luck with your new attempt!

Napster - Way to hang in there with dealing with anxiety from your dad. Have a fun ride today!

rubycanoe - welcome!

Scoutie - Jealous again of warm weather and a beach. Have you always lived in the South Pacific?

Beavis - It took me about a week to talk to my hubby about it. Get it straight in your own head first, but know that by not telling him about it you're making yourself feel guilty for keeping something from him. That's just going to feed the AV. Be careful!

So we had the neighbor and his son over for dinner and a board game last night. I was feeling so conspicuous not drinking. My hubby wasn't going to drink, but then my neighbor brought over beer and really seemed uncomfortable and vocalized it, that neither of us were drinking. My hubby had a beer (he doesn't have a problem) to placate him and that was it. I had diet coke with the kids. It wasn't too weird. Before he came over, though, my AV was just railing at me. I had dropped my daughter off at a slumber party on Friday, and the host mom opened a bottle of wine and asked everyone to drink. I had already told her I wouldn't be drinking, I'm trying to lose a few pounds and am running a 5K in a couple of weeks, blah blah (both true, but not the whole truth). She had said on the phone that she wasn't drinking either (she was low carbing it), but proceeds to fill her glass and try to twist my arm. I held firm and got out of there as fast as I could without being rude, but it was weird. If I was drinking with someone else's kids at my house, I wouldn't be so overt about it.

But anyway, the point is that my AV had a FIELD DAY with this. "See, you're making yourself a weirdo. You don't drink a beer on a nice day with a neighbor before dinner. No wine with the ladies on a Friday evening. Yeah, people aren't questioning it now, just voicing their dismay, but in a few weeks/months/years from now when you're still not drinking, they're going to know and judge you. You will be that weird person that nobody wants around. Certainly you can have one drink in these situations just to placate the host and make yourself not so conspicuous."

I really had to talk this thought out with my husband, play devil's advocate with my AV ("Well, what about after that hard parent-teacher conference, surely I can have just one then too, right? And what about when we go out to a nice dinner? And what about a wedding, a reunion, a _____, are those ok too?"), and just recommit to today before I finally snapped out of it last night. My AV even tried to use "Well, certainly you can have a beer. You don't even like beer." It was really awful!

But, I woke up this morning sober on Day 17. PHEW! Off for a run and then the neighbor is coming back over to burn yard stuff (and probably drink more beer). Fun times!

Happy Sunday Bandicoots!

mmhoule

av?

Mark03

Addictive Voice. That little shite in our head trying to get the better of us and telling us its ok to have a little drink etc etc

Look up AVRT

Mark