Zura

I hope everyone is doing well. Still experiences technical difficulties which makes typing onerous but I am doing really well. Love & best wishes to all

venuscat

❤️ Awesome dear Zura....that you are doing well. xx

Citrus

My husband just got home from camping with a case of beer. I'm not tempted to drink any, but plenty annoyed that he brought it home. He already had some here too. I guess maybe he thought I drank it over the weekend.
Oh well, I will just have ginger "beer" while making dinner and try to not be grumpy about it.

Love to you Suze.

venuscat

In time, you can have a talk with him about this, for sure.
I think not being grumpy is the best decision tonight. ❤️

Dee74

welcome livelovedogs and welcome back Tap

D

Citrus

Thanks Suze. I'm over it now. Lol. I sometimes forget how quickly emotions build and pass in early sobriety. I told him thank you for taking the trash out and just to be nice to him kind of broke me out of my haze of grumpiness! Whew.

Joe787

Finishing off day 11. The AV is pretty weak as of late. I've just been staying busy, busy, busy and suddenly I've got a few more days sober under my belt.

I do feel as though I'm not putting enough work into my sobriety and the underlying issues that led to my drinking, though. But maybe that's fine for now? The last few times I've tried sobriety, I thought about it a lot. Wrote a lot about it. Now, after the first few days, I've just kept it moving. My anxiety has come down and I'm eating well and exercising. I haven't thought about alcohol much at all this past weekend.

I am sticking with my self improvement excel sheet and positive visualization, though, so I guess that is technically putting work in. I should get a chapter of This Naked Mind in tonight before bed.

venuscat

It is putting the work in....big time.
The goal is a sober happy life, and you are doing that.
I think being mindful of maybe posting/connecting more is good.....you want to stay grounded and be part of the community.....that is a good instinct I think. ❤️

theVman31

Hi class.
Quick check in just to report everything is going well for me. I have a good string of weeks sober now. It's great to see new people join up.
Hope you all keep battling on. It's the most important battle you will ever fight.
Later
V.

Dee74

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Patcha

Day 14. The AV is whispering in my ear! No!!! I'm in a really busy time at work and I can't drop the ball, which is what motivated me to quit again. I'm thinking about drinking when this crisis is over. Ugh. I'm eating left over pizza then going to an AA meeting.

Dee74

Stay with us Patcha

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Patcha

I couldn't find the meeting! I had to run past the liquor store and a bar! Now I'm home, with cake. It's the numbing effect I'm after. I'm not in emotional pain, I just have a lot on my plate and it's hard to switch off without alcohol. I went to the dr for my neck this morning. It's extremely painful. I have codeine and anti-inflammatories. I have to get an x-ray to make sure the cage from my spinal fusion hasn't moved.

Dee74

Hope you can find where the meeting went Patcha

D

Zura

I'm glad you made it past the temptations Patcha. I guess its indicative of how entrenched alcohol is in our culture that its probably hard to find locations for AA meetings that aren't in fairly close proximity to either bars or liquor stores. We were driving past my sons old daycare one day when he was about eight and he asked.......Whose bright idea was it to put an alcohol store next to a daycare centre?........Never once had I noticed, im that desensitised to it all. I'm sorry your in pain, I hope you get some relief and good news from your x-ray.

Linners820

I'm back from my trip. Everything was beautiful, no desire to drink when I was there. The drive home was incredibly stressful and ended up taking closer to 6 hours instead of 4, due to traffic, bad weather, etc. My nerves felt shot, so what did I do last night? I drank. Like I was on auto-pilot. Of course I'm deeply regretting it now. At the time it felt like the only way to relax and unwind, and the "I deserve it" voice started happening. Wishing I was stronger and smarter than this.

Epictetus

Good day to you my fellow humans!

Start of another week and another opportunity to confront the challenges of life with courage and becoming more resilient in the process! Shaping one's character by facing up to the inevitable rollercoaster of life and laughing in the face of adversity with nothing but one's own reasoned and unhindered mind!

Oh yes!

"Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing. Furthermore, the things under our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; while the things not under our control are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, and not our own.

Remember, therefore, that if what is naturally slavish you think to be free, and what is not your own to be your own, you will be hampered, will grieve, will be in turmoil, and will blame both gods and men; while if you think only what is your own to be your own, and what is not your own to be, as it really is, not your own, then no one will ever be able to exert compulsion upon you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, will find fault with no one, will do absolutely nothing against your will, you will have no personal enemy, no one will harm you, for neither is there any harm that can touch you." Epictetus

Pelagic263

I think I know how you feel Linners. Long driving days with traffic problems are huge triggers for me. The great thing is you're right back here this morning where you belong. I tend to use a slip as an excuse to keep drinking. Great to see you right back, that's a really good thing.

As it happens I had an easy drive back from the Fingerlakes region (up in New York) yesterday and even with light traffic (it pays to live in the boonies sometimes) I heard grumbling from my AV by the time I got home. For some reason I kept thinking a leisured glass of wine would be just the ticket. How dumb. As if.

But the Fall colors were beautiful up there and we found a secluded spot beside a lake and just sat in the afternoon sun together and talked. That was overdue, especially since I've been preoccupied with my own issues lately and I want to be a bigger help for my wife.

Yikes, the wine tours up in the Fingerlakes! Everywhere! We had an early dinner and four wine tour buses showed up at the restaurant we were at. Some folks were tipsy, many were loud, but overall no problems. There's whole businesses devoted to wine tours up there. I saw a sign: "Your Car, Our Driver!" Jeez, I hope they insist on dropping you off at your room instead of just handing over the keys.

Anyway, day eight in the offing. Wishing all a great and sober day.

Linners820

Thanks, Pelagic. Like you I thought a leisurely glass of wine would be just the thing. No. It was the whole bottle, and then the drunken texts started. I ended up contacting someone who deeply hurt me months ago, something I would never have done sober. I feel embarrassed and quite ridiculous for rehashing something that really needs to remain in the past. I managed to "unsend" the messages before they were seen (at least I believe so), but I'm upset with myself for contacting this person to begin with. I wish that I had just settled in with a cup of Sleepy-time tea for the evening and went to bed early instead.

I'm not going to use this as an excuse to keep drinking, though. I'm here, and I'm still trying. Typing this out helps some. I tend to fall off and then want to avoid the forum/class because I don't want to admit I failed but that's not going to help me grow.

I'm glad you had a nice time in the Fingerlakes, it sounds lovely there.

venuscat

It isn't about being smarter dear linners. s
It's about life comes at us sometimes like a freight train, and we have a learned coping mechanism that was working for us....until it wasn't.

That's why we need our sober tools....connections with others in recovery, maybe some type of 12-step meeting or recovery group, and then we can run to them when life happens. Otherwise what do we do? How do we not fall back on old ways....especially in early sober days....we need to practice new coping skills until they become normal and natural for us.

Like Patcha's cake.....now that was just an inspired solution. Knowing we need something to cope with the emotional pain. s

I am so sorry about your neck dear Patcha, and my local meeting (in a church) is across the road form the best bar in the Village. Errr....I never thought about it before. Not exactly great for the newcomer.

So much love to all of you, and you are here with us now dear linners....onward together. s ❤️