venuscat

Sparkos

We're in the daily support forum. That's like a promotion.

venuscat

Is there a pay rise with that? Cos that would be mega handy!

Conquest

I just LOVE the new neighborhood!!! It's breathtakingly beautiful! And I couldn't imagine nicer neighbors. Thanks for finding us the perfect spot, Dee.

It is truly encouraging to see groups from 3+ years ago still staying active. It's hard to look that far ahead, but it makes me smile with hope.

Mark1014

Wow sparkos, what a dream. I'm glad everyone is safe whether the danger was real or a dream. I'd like to say I never drove drunk, but it would be a lie.
Ironwoman, way to go on leaving the rum in the bottle...I'm still not ready to be in that environment.
I feel all grown up now that the thread has officially moved! Let's 'circle the wagons ' and stay strong together through this new month and onward. I look forward to sharing the adventure with you all.

Findingtheway

Hi class. Today makes 30 days for me.

Thanks for the support and reading my posts etc...

Onward and upward!

Sparkos

Many congratulations on 30 days FTW.That's a huge milestone.

Sparkos

I like that thought. An adventure it will be. Live in the now. Try to forgive our past misdemeanours and move ever onwards.

I'm with you FAD

Popeye2014

Today is Day 6 for me

feeling good, no withdrawals (yet)

Anyone know when the withdrawals will kick in?

countrygirl2014

Happy graduation!!!! Sparkos, I felt every ounce of terror reading about your dream.
I need to dream again. I believe it sorts out and repairs emotional issues. Well, I know I am dreaming. I would just like to remember them.
It's cold, rainy and just plain gross here today. And I am grateful for it.

countrygirl2014

I feel foggy this morning like I drank last night. I didn't but it's weird. The only thing missing is a hangover.

Popeye2014

CountryGirl it's cold and rainy here in NC

Findingtheway 30 days is Great. how do you feel? and could you tell me what your 30 days were like?

CaseyW

Woke up too darn early this morning to start day six. I'm looking forward to that extra hour's sleep tonight when the time changes. I remember back when I was a barfly that I used to LOVE this night because it meant my favorite bar was open an extra hour at the end.

Yesterday was ok. I got irked at work because my relief didn't show up until an hour and a half after they were scheduled. If that happens in the future I need to remember that it's just extra money for me and that I also need to accept that I have no control over other people's actions.

Went to a decent speaker's meeting last night. I'm not a huge fan of speaker meetings as many speakers tend to focus more on the "drunk" part of their story and then run out of time before they get to really delve into the "recovery" side of things. Best part was at the end of the meeting the young man (younger than me anyways) sitting next to me introduced himself and we got to talking. He's got some good recovery and we have a lot in common. We exchanged phone numbers and are now planning on getting together before tonight's meeting.

I thought about also joining the new November class since I'm only at six days but decided against it. I'll keep reading everyday and occasionally posting on the Newcomers board, but this is my SR home and family. I'm an October baby.

Congrats to Findingtheway for 30 days and to everyone else who successfully made it thru Halloween without picking up a drink!

Mark1014

Popeyes, I know we're all different, but for me anything seeming like a purely physical withdrawal was gone by day six. The emotional roller coaster is more what I've dealt with...it was at its most harsh the second and third weeks with about three scattered episodes of pretty extreme grief/anxiety lasting about three hours each. That has improved now at almost five weeks. Be vigilant and stick close to the support here. Hope your day is great.

Mark1014

Casey, glad you're gonna stick with us!

Popeye2014

Thank you fromadistance, great advice. I plan, staying on SR daily. right now I spend about 12 hours on it. that may be too much. "getting obsessed with it"

you mentioned anxiety, I take medicine for that. I hope I can deal with anything that comes along!

Stevie1

CG, I've woken up several mornings feeling foggy and headachey and my first thought is, hey, I didn't drink last night, what the heck!

Popeye, Casey, and everyone else, good morning from snowy Michigan, our first snow and it stuck overnight. I love it!

I'm doing nanowrimo this month; if I can quit drinking then I can darn well write 50,000 words of a novel. That's 1,667 words per day. I did it in 2006, it was fun, even though I wrote a steaming pile of dreck. I think this will be a good exercise for my sobering-up brain.

Happy sober November, everyone!

strongandsober

Made it to Day 4. I posted yesterday that I had to spend 2 hours in a room with two people I cannot stand. I typically get along with everyone, but these two people and I just rub each other completely the wrong way. They have been emotionally and mentally abusive to people I care about and I hate that I even have to be around them. They spent the two hours criticizing me. I stood up for myself, of course, and the professionals we were meeting with did too (which felt awesome!)

When I got out of there, I wanted a drink so badly. I wanted to pull my car into the grocery store and get my favorite wine, or to the liquor store and pick up my favorite vodka and drown my stress and exhaustion from the meeting in several drinks. Especially since my kiddo was going with his dad for Halloween, so I didn't buy any candy, I just had a date with a pizza and Netflix.

But I didn't drink. I didn't turn the wheel into the liquor store parking lot. It was the hardest thing I've done in a long time, but I'm glad I didn't this morning. I can't remember the last time I woke up on a Saturday and remember everything from Friday night. It feels good!

Still struggling with some cravings today, as weekends are always hard for me. I spend so much of the weekends my kiddo is gone making up excuses to run to the store and buy random things, because I don't want to just buy wine in the middle of a Saturday and look like a lush. I'm trying desperately to keep myself busy all day today so I don't break down and "run to the store" because I'm not sure I could resist the temptation once I'm there. I'm working on several projects around the house today. I need to run some errands, but I'm afraid I'll talk myself into going somewhere that sells alcohol, so I'm staying home today, and I'll run all my errands tomorrow morning before noon. My state doesn't sell alcohol before noon on Sundays, so I'll still be safe, even doing my grocery shopping. I guess it's a good thing daylight savings time is my first sober weekend. Gives me an extra hour before the stores start selling wine to get my errands done. Silver lining!

Congratulations to everyone who made it through Friday night (and Halloween to boot!) without a drink!

Sparkos

Good plan re the grocery store SBS as I've said before, relapse happens way before the poison touches our lips. With you, relapse is happening right NOW, and you're right to be making a plan to avoid it going any further than an abstract thought right NOW.
You're aware of a possible trigger i.e. going to the store, and you're making a plan to avoid the trigger i.e. going to the store tomorrow before noon.

That's a brilliant plan, and you'll have to use any techniques at your disposal to avoid you sneaky AV into getting you to the store.

Logically for you to relapse, you must:

1 Give in to your AV and decide that you simply have to go to the store.
2 Get dressed, put on make up or whatever (not sure of your gender).
3 Walk/drive to the store.
4 Walk around the store picking up needless items.
5 Go to the poison aisle
6 Reach up and choose a bottle of vile filth.
7 Drive/walk home.
8 Open said bottle of endless misery and despair.
9 Pour putrid substance form the bottle into a pristine glass.
10 Bring glass up to your lips.

You can call halt at any stage of these steps and you will not have relapsed.
The simplest and easiest is not to pass step 1. And you will have won a battle and feel great. You'll be posting about it tomorrow and we'll cheer for you and send you smiley faces.

I REALLY look forward to sending you a smiley face tomorrow

Chiffon

Aha so THIS is where you've all been hiding