_Charm_

I'm on day 3 and facing my first weekend in a long time that I plan to remain sober. My worst times are evenings and weekend afternoons. I plan to take a walk, take my little one for a bike ride (weather permitting) maybe do some gardening. But I get really restless. Once those urges kick in, nothing sounds good except drinking at that point. Is there anything I can do to plan ahead for this?

Charm

Anna

Planning ahead is a really good idea.

If you have alcohol in the house, you should get rid of it, and don't go out to get more. Maybe you could go to a movie or have coffee with a friend? Or how about some Christmas shopping? My suggestion is to do things that are different from what you would normally do, so that your daily patterns 'feels' different to you. That's what worked for me.

You can do this!

tanyapmc

Try going to an AA meeting. You won't get bored there.

Rowan

Hi Charm,

I'm glad you're thinking ahead
I found I had to keep moving and change my patterns too - despite this, the cravings were still troublesome occasionally - at which point I would pick up the phone and call someone who was supportive of my recovery, get out of the house, anything. This is a really positive thing you are doing - do your best to get through those first days and it'll get easier.
Please keep posting.

flyer

This is my first weekend also since I decided to stop drinking on Monday. During the week sort of isn't as hard (wasn't this week as I've been doing a lot of thinking) its the weekend thats the killer as I have a few beers and then I get the urge for Cocaine. Alcohol is my trigger. Try and keep yourself busy and good luck.

_Charm_

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not going to say I am not worried about it because I really am. But I am also trying not to set myself up in negtive thinking, thinking I cant do it. I need to get through tonight. I know I can do it. Tomorrow I would normally do some things in the am to feel productive so that in the afternoon I could start my drinking. I don't know how this will sound but I feel very sad about losing the excitement I would feel in the ritual of it all. By evening though I would be bored with the drinking but unable to stop until I blacked out & passed out and on top of it not very nice. It's strange that I would have all these great ideas of what I want to do but as soon as I start drinking I lose interest in all of them. When I am not drinking I am so preoccupied with when I will drink again and uncomfortable physically so nothing holds my interest. The good thing is that I don't have to wonder when I will drink again so I have more time to figure out something to do, lol. I see how changing my routine would help a lot so thanks very much for that suggestion. It makes a lot of sense.