dabears34

Made it in to rehab Tuesday morning, after my weekend relapse, and everyone was understanding. It happens all the time and it's a part of recovery, they said. They said a lot of people will get loaded every night of the entire 3 week program, but hide it and not tell anyone. They applauded that I was so eager and ready to fess up and try to spin something positive out of it, which I have... I feel I have a clearer head about the rehab and recovery in general... as denial definitely played in to the relapse. And I realized I'm going to have strong cravings in the beginning especially and I realized "Hey, NOT giving in isn't going to kill me. Just find an activity to lose myself in until they pass, and just resist the urge." and I know that will get easier with time, as I get better at resisting. I have to fill my time, too, cause the more time I spend sitting around watching bad TV, the more time I give the addiction to fill my head with ****. I feel like I've gotten over (or at least closer to getting over) the denial I was in. This is real, and I have to work at recovery and managing my disease going forward... Thanks for everyone's kind words and encouragement last night, I don't think I could have gotten to sleep without them! So... thank you!!!

Dee74

D

Rusty Zipper

good for you dab!

tallcactus

Honestly is aways the best policy.
Yes, relapse is part of recovery.
Stay strong, stay busy.

Tazman53

dabears one thing you may want to do is get some phone numbers of folks in the rehab with you, start calling each other every once in a while if you are struggling or just to talk. I know that calling some one in the fellowship saved my butt from relapsing at 2 months sober. The secret is to call someone BEFORE one drinks, calling afterwards is to late! LOL

smacked

I'm so glad you were honest about your drinking. Please know, however that 'relapse' is part of addiction and not recovery. You don't have to go through it again if you choose not to!

keithj

This is a great idea, and will certainly help. An even better idea, in my opinion, is to have some phone numbers of recovered people who know how to stay sober. I'm not sure how good the information is going to be from a person sitting beside me in rehab.

Anna

Keep focusing on your recovery, Dabears!

Tazman53

Keith I concur, that is better, but if he is not going to AA then he only has those folks to gain what he can. I know it made a heck of a difference to me calling people with many years of staying sober under their belts.

dabears34

I'm going to my first AA meeting (well... went to one last saturday, but that was with everyone in rehab and was "mandatory") on my own Thursday night. There is a 45 minute beginners meeting prior to the actual AA meeting, so I am going to go to both. Some friends in the rehab said it is a great meeting, and they attend regularly.

I also have 2 friends who are each around 3 years sober and still hit several meetings per week, and am in contact with them on phone/via text almost daily about my progress, etc.