Paul, keep it up. 5 weeks is really fantastic!! :e025:

We're all going to have those really crappy days in there, that's just part of it. You'll get through the crappy days and be glad you didn't drink.

Right now, we're still on the roller coaster, I think. :coaster

They say it gets better. (And that we'll still have really crappy days sober sometimes.... :gaah)

This guy's place is straight out of architectural digest. Check out the condo he still has in New Haven CT at this link.

Robert Zott - The Rabbit Hole (TM)


So it is a bit of a standard to live up to. Doesn't change that fact that there is garbage and dirty dishes around. The stupid...'Just do a little at a time,' does not work for me. I can't do it. I get really frustrated with that because everyone says it and it is so true. If I spent 40 minutes a day for the last the months the place would be done. But I will try to hammer through it in a week or drink so that it is impossible. What's up with the all or nothing thing? Typical Addict??

I've spent a day cleaning my house, dawn to dusk no breaks - and I've done the bit by bit approach - both ways got my house clean...sometimes the hardest part is the starting.

if the hell for leather approach makes you drink then it looks like you're stuck with bit by bit.

Take it a room at a time.

You can re-train yourself Johnny....I've been spending the last 6 years getting away from all or nothing black or white thinking.

D

Thanks Dee. One way or another.

Hi all, hope you're having a nice weekend! 13 days today and feeling OK. Have shifted between euphoria and despair these past few days, and seen the return of dreadful migraine attacks - which I haven't experienced since childhood. Also, have been suffering from compulsive skin picking since early teens and that has become worse too... (Sorry for all the complaints!) But all in all, things are good and I feel hopeful. Most of all, I am so grateful to have found SR and the wonderful group of people that is on here. Thank you all for the inspiration and encouragement! Hugs, S

stick with it Sobreia :)

D

Thank you Dee! :)

Hello April folks!

MLC, D&D is definitely and RPG, so even if it's lite it definitely is an RPG, but there are so many of them... and I think that there are several gaming styles, to, US and europeans dont always play the same games in the same way.

Scout: Skyrim!! Elder scrolls rule! I just learnt that they are developping elder scrolls online ... looks amazing and huge....OMG I'm gonna have no life for months when this one is released...
About the victorian game: I didn't have a clue before we played since it was a one-shot thing just for the night. So no, no steampunk, put some magics: spiritism, divination, possession... we were a rich lords household and he was being manipulated and possessed by a very powerful Sikh priest.
But we also played a small camapaign in a "Belle Epoque" steampunk Paris once, and it was very cool too.
But we're very very in love with RPG so I can talk about that for hours (or pages ) and I'm ready to play in any universe.

And I don't think I'm even off-topic here, because I think that when you have hobbies that you're passionate about it's so much easier to be sober.
Yesterday, people had some drinks. Everybody brought very nice locally brewed beers, good wine... the bottle isn't even finished and there were 5 people around the table! I would have drank the whole thing by myself before, and wouldn't even have noticed. I had a few cravings, but they went away quite easily.

Of course AV is starting to talk to me about drinking "normally" at some point since it's so easy to actually stop drinking for 3 weeks.
I love the idea of AV with a fat beer belly btw. I think I might steal the idea since I'm so self conscious about weight.

Tonight we're going at this pagan-metal festival thing with the home-brewed beer but I don't even care that people will drink there. I have my diet coke (3 bottles of it) and my e cig and xanax if I need to (I don't take it every day but since it's prescribed to me I think it's much better to take one than to have a beer).


I realized that once I stopped drinking around some of my friends it's easier to meet with the same friends and not drink, they're really getting used to it. I think it will be more challenging to meet with other people (people I didn't see since I stopped and who used to see me in a quite hardcore drinking mode) and to tell them about my new not drinking. But I already have at least 3 couples and one girl friend and one guy friends (plus my husband) who are starting to get used to the fact that I don't drink. So even if they drink around me, they are "safe" people for me. As I said in another post, I'm not ready to change my whole life. I love my husband and I love my friends and everyone I know has a life besides drinking and they are interesting and creative people, so I'm pretty happy I can be around them and not drink and still enjoy their company (and they still enjoy mine, I had no remarks that I'm less fun or less interesting when I don't drink).

AnotherPaul, 5 weeks it's amazing! Congrats!

Johnny555 black and white thinking is soo stressful (being diagnosed with borderline I know quite a bit about that since it's one of the typical traits...) but you can re-train yourself and try to gain some perspective on things and start thinking in shades of grey. And as Dee said, starting is sometimes the most difficult part. But yes I definitely think that all of nothing is very addict like, look how we are with substance abuse: we cannot have "just a glass" or just a little of whatever. I'm addicted to people, to loneliness, to work, to laziness, to food, to starvation ... once I start something it seems very difficult for me to get of my chair and change, maybe because I'm in some king of comfort zone and I'm afraid that if I change whatever activity I'm doing the comfort zone will disappear and all the **** in my head will start again. Addicts don't like change, change means suffering and apparently we have a very low tolerance for emotional pain and never learned to deal with it, so I suppose in some way you are overwhelmed with the idea of cleaning? Don't you have some way to actually enjoy it? (good music blasting when you clean, etc..?)

AllieB congrats on putting the drink down! it shows how committed you are to sobriety so definitely consider it a success, so many other people would have been drunk at the end of that night. I think you're right that you're not restarting the counter (and you're the one who knows anyway if you have to restart it or not). I would have done the same. And your distinction between a slip and a relapse definitely makes sense to me.


Have a great sober day everyone!


(On day 22 today)

Congrats to all the milestone days of my classmates! Day 35 here and have resisted lots of temptation so shooting for the big 60!

Attended my first online meeting here at SR. Did a bit of sharing and managed to survive it with some great support!

Have a great weekend all!

time for a new thread :)

we continue here:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-part-4-a.html