Midwest1981

welcome Dickensen! day 11 is great!!

Betty126

Had a tough time resisting AV tonight, first real challenging time, but I did. Just kept pushing it away, distracting myself, and so on till it was time for bed.
Peace and good night all

Midwest1981

good job Betty. I hope your feeling better.

KiKi0615

Hey Canguy and Pams!!! Glad to see your active in the April class! We miss you in March. :-)

suzie89

Hi everyone. I'm wrapping up Day 5 and this is my first time to post. Have been reading forums since Day 1, but today feeling the need to hold myself accountable by joining. I had about a 3 week stretch without drinking in early Jan, then a few 2 to 3 day runs since then. This is following at least 3 different attempts of a few weeks to month each last year.
Each time it feels a little bit harder, and each time I go back to drinking I feel more lost and sick of it all. I just feel done this time, but I know I've been there before. So this time I'm reaching out-- first here, then when I feel a little stronger maybe a meeting or therapy. I've got 3 beautiful kids, a busy, demanding job with a large team, a poor marriage, and I'm tired and anxious all of the time. Also feel like I'm hanging on by a thread. I've been able to fake it for the last few years, but that's been slipping away and really close to imploding. So here I am. Look forward to making this journey with you all.

KarenOskie

Welcome to all the new people! It's great so see you here. I know I can't get sober without help. I tried and tried. This site helps a lot.
I made it through day four! I felt much better today. Still tired, but not sick feeling. I went to a meeting and shared tonight that I'm new in town and starting over in recovery. They were so nice! I got lots of phone numbers, which will help so much.
Goodnight all! Here's to another sober wake up in the morning!

CaseyW

Good job not taking that first drink, Betty126! Remember you don't have to do this alone--next time those thoughts hit, use this class. Let those thoughts out there into the open. Sometimes just the simple act of telling someone else about those cravings takes all their power away almost immediately. Build up those accountability muscles!

jobei

I needed to hear this today, thanks sis.

JoFanelli

Good morning Class of April! It is Spring here... I quitted on 29 March, still sober, still feeling sick, bones showing flue like symptons, bad mood, bad skin rush...I feel like a blooming flower let's say...and I hate waking up so early to go to work... but no foggy head at least. Have a nice day!

CeeFarro

Welcome to those new in the group. Hang in there and keep posting..we are all in this together. Day 12 in the books for me, just catching up on what everyone's been up to before bed. Goodnight all

Kara888

Hi Suzie89. I really feel for you. My life is close to imploding too, but I have a little less to worry about than you. The poor relationship with your husband cannot be helping. I've been in relationships so poor before that I would need a heavy drink before even feeling able to meet with them. My relationship with alcohol has always been more satisfying than my relationships with guys... ;-) Don't make it too big. You can do three weeks, which means you can do one day. And all it takes is being able to take things one day at a time. I'm on day 2 after a 7 week stretch back in January I can't fake things any more either.

Justin00

Hey everyone. Day 5 over here. May I join you?

Kara888

Good for you Justin! How are you finding it? x

Justin00

I'm okey now . I've been 32 Days sober overwhelmed and happy but suddenly my mindset was cripled and I drank.

I'm trying again. This time with more energy and motivation.

Kara888

I'm a little bit worried to. I managed 7 weeks but that was only on a guilt trip after being caught drinking and driving by the police. I genuinely did not want a drink through that time until I caught myself asking me why I positively didn't want a drink, and I made myself have one when it would have been quite easy for me not to, I just didn't want to feel guilty for the rest of my life and as though I couldn't enjoy it any more. But the truth is I can't. Some of the tips on this site are great. Hopefully we can all hang in there together

Justin00

I'm amazed how similar we all are. It feels like you are reading my mind Kara. I'm full of motivation at the beginning, but when some time passes something changes in my mind and says maybe it's over? Maybe I can live like I used to 10 years ago without any consequences? Maybe this time I will enjoy drinking like I used to? The answer was no 5days ago for me, but I definitely think I will be asking these questions again after 30days

Kara888

Yes. My drinking is now so bad I need at least two days away from seeing other people whilst I recover. I just look too awful quite clearly hungover - I can't continue like this any more. Alcohol is sold as glamorous but in fact it's a mind and body altering poison. I was reading about end-stage alcoholics yesterday. The damage to the liver, kidneys and bones alcohol can do is terrifying. The article I found said that most alcoholics won't reach end stage anyway - they die before that through some silly alcohol-induced accident, car accident or choking on their own vomit or something like that. Not so relaxing or glamorous when you think about it like that.

Justin00

I agree with you. But since we all know this why our mind says diferently at certain situations?

Kara888

Another thing to keep in mind is to ask yourself if it's true that you ever actually enjoyed drinking? Drinking makes you feel relaxed, more sociable and gives you a bit of a sugar high. But it is only a depressant. If we want to feel more relaxed and sociable, we need to find a way to achieve that without depressing our senses and depriving our blood of oxygen as alcohol does. Plus I don't really know any 'normal' drinkers either. Most of them binge in one way or another, it's just that a lot of them think it's normal or are in denial about their actual lack of control. That's what I'll be telling myself when my AV tries to tell me otherwise

Kara888

I believe there's a part in everybody that is self-destructive if we let it be. We don't like ourselves all the time. We try to cover all this up and pretend it's not true. When we catch ourselves telling ourselves rubbish about how alcohol makes us feel good and merry, it's our alter-ego tricking us in to giving us a excuse to cover up self-destructive behaviour as something that will do us good and make us happy, pretending we are acting in our best interests when we are not. We have to do our best to hide this from ourselves as it's painful to acknowledge, sometimes, that we are not as happy as we would like to be. With friends in a social situation, there's social conditioning too. You have to rise above it. It's not cool to drink any more. Lots of celebrities go sober. Try Googling teetotal celebrities if you want any inspiration on that score.