Holiday Hazards
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 7,910
Holiday Hazards
Holidays are always a little hard, especially the whole "bar-b-que/drinking" ones and New Years Eve (which I've always hated). Even while I was drinking, these holidays were often a disappointment. There was always an expectation that I should be having more fun somehow, just because it's a holiday.....
Anyone else ever feel that way? Something else I thought about today: It seems like someone always brought a volleyball net (or other sports gear) to these events and I always thought "who would what to play a game when they could be sitting around drinking?" WOW.....
I know the image of the "whole world joking and laughing with a beer in their hand" is TOTALLY bogus, so I'm working hard to remove those thoughts from my brain. How about you all - any way you deal with these kind of days? Any thoughts/tips about holidays?
Anyone else ever feel that way? Something else I thought about today: It seems like someone always brought a volleyball net (or other sports gear) to these events and I always thought "who would what to play a game when they could be sitting around drinking?" WOW.....I know the image of the "whole world joking and laughing with a beer in their hand" is TOTALLY bogus, so I'm working hard to remove those thoughts from my brain. How about you all - any way you deal with these kind of days? Any thoughts/tips about holidays?
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 4,682
Personally i cant imagine anything more dull, but then again im not really into the standing around shotting the breeze kind of functions...i guess if you like activities and convo then all good?
Sobriety, for me, is all about finidng out what i like and don't like...the should likes have gone, i dont care if i dont wanna go to what everyone else is going to, im happy with that now...
Cant really relate to the problem if you wanna go then go if you dont then dont?
Sobriety, for me, is all about finidng out what i like and don't like...the should likes have gone, i dont care if i dont wanna go to what everyone else is going to, im happy with that now...
Cant really relate to the problem if you wanna go then go if you dont then dont?
Don't resist, allow
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: South East of England
Posts: 1,521
Hi Artsoul,
However hard I tried I could not remove these thoughts from my mind. It was when I finally realised this that I began to recover from alcoholism. These thoughts were then removed for me. It is promised after working Step 10 of the AA program. The promises that follow can come true for anyone who wishes to work for them. It is truly a gift to no longer have to think or deal with alcohol - for me, it has become invisible.
However hard I tried I could not remove these thoughts from my mind. It was when I finally realised this that I began to recover from alcoholism. These thoughts were then removed for me. It is promised after working Step 10 of the AA program. The promises that follow can come true for anyone who wishes to work for them. It is truly a gift to no longer have to think or deal with alcohol - for me, it has become invisible.
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame.
We react sanely and normally, and will find that this happened automatically. We see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it.
We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutraility---safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky, nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. p85 AA Big Book
We react sanely and normally, and will find that this happened automatically. We see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it.
We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutraility---safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky, nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. p85 AA Big Book
Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,237
Hi Artsoul!!
Well, I can relate!!! I could have posted that myself!!! We just had our long weekend here in Canada...a week before yours...and I did it sober!! it was a fantastic time...I'm starting to "get" it...how much fun life can be without every hour being focused on booze..before..ya I never played any games at bbq's sat back with beer/wine in my hand and watched everyone...alcohol was the main attraction for me....holidays totally revolved around drinking...I can suggest just finding an activity that you enjoy....even walking is good I did alot of that on my holidays...swimming....reading.....volunteering... .so much to do now that the veil has been lifted!! it's a big world out there ENJOY!! you DESERVE IT!!!!
Well, I can relate!!! I could have posted that myself!!! We just had our long weekend here in Canada...a week before yours...and I did it sober!! it was a fantastic time...I'm starting to "get" it...how much fun life can be without every hour being focused on booze..before..ya I never played any games at bbq's sat back with beer/wine in my hand and watched everyone...alcohol was the main attraction for me....holidays totally revolved around drinking...I can suggest just finding an activity that you enjoy....even walking is good I did alot of that on my holidays...swimming....reading.....volunteering... .so much to do now that the veil has been lifted!! it's a big world out there ENJOY!! you DESERVE IT!!!!
Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 34
Excatly how I always feel about New Year's. At some point it is Midnight, I am drunk, everyone else is drunk, and I still have to drive home through DUI checkpoints (Lucky--I was friends with the cops so they always let me through). Somehow I have managed to get through 20 years of alcoholism with no legal troubles (knocking on wood).
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Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 120
Dee74 removed this post and pointed out to me that for some of us psychedelic mushrooms are the stuff of addiction and that he removed this post because I wrote that Mushrooms and their use for occasional use as a spiritual medium could be construed as a promotion or condoning of drug use.
This was the offending sentence: "Some of them though on very rare occasions will step out into the wilderness and take some mushrooms for a very personal Spiritual/Shamanic journey. Hardly the stuff of addiction."
I would like to apologise if somebody read this as promotion or condoning the use of drugs and for my insensitivity towards those of us who feel out of control with the drugs mentioned. I realise that all of us are here because we have no control over our drug use whatever the DOC is and I would never want anybody to think that I wanted to promote any drug for people such as us.
I was invited to repost this post with his mild castigation in mind.
Dee74c thank you for pointing this out to me and once again my apologies.
Here is the repost without the offending sentence.
Hi Artsoul,
Down under it is the middle of summer when we "celebrate" Christmas and New Year and it is a reason for a lot of Kiwi's to get totally smackfaced.
As a newcomer I tried my damnest to celebrate these days (too fit in) too but I just can't be asked. It doesn't work. So I'm slowly reverting back to celebrating the seasons as related to growing and harvesting. I seem to be able to walk away from alcohol during these kind of celebrations. The more separated they are from the "real" world the harder it is for me not to drink and I have come to the conclusion that maybe those "celebrations" are not for me. Or perhaps in reality they are not real celebrations, just desperate groups of people trying to get through another empty day.
The funny thing is that the friends I really value turn out to be the ones that stay close to the natural cycle of things too and what do you know; they hardly drink or drug either (Maybe the odd smoke of a little home grown but that I can live with. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life and MJ holds no attraction for me whatsoever). They seem to have no need to intoxicate themselves just for the "fun" of it.
This was the offending sentence: "Some of them though on very rare occasions will step out into the wilderness and take some mushrooms for a very personal Spiritual/Shamanic journey. Hardly the stuff of addiction."
I would like to apologise if somebody read this as promotion or condoning the use of drugs and for my insensitivity towards those of us who feel out of control with the drugs mentioned. I realise that all of us are here because we have no control over our drug use whatever the DOC is and I would never want anybody to think that I wanted to promote any drug for people such as us.
I was invited to repost this post with his mild castigation in mind.
Dee74c thank you for pointing this out to me and once again my apologies.
Here is the repost without the offending sentence.
Hi Artsoul,
Down under it is the middle of summer when we "celebrate" Christmas and New Year and it is a reason for a lot of Kiwi's to get totally smackfaced.
As a newcomer I tried my damnest to celebrate these days (too fit in) too but I just can't be asked. It doesn't work. So I'm slowly reverting back to celebrating the seasons as related to growing and harvesting. I seem to be able to walk away from alcohol during these kind of celebrations. The more separated they are from the "real" world the harder it is for me not to drink and I have come to the conclusion that maybe those "celebrations" are not for me. Or perhaps in reality they are not real celebrations, just desperate groups of people trying to get through another empty day.
The funny thing is that the friends I really value turn out to be the ones that stay close to the natural cycle of things too and what do you know; they hardly drink or drug either (Maybe the odd smoke of a little home grown but that I can live with. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life and MJ holds no attraction for me whatsoever). They seem to have no need to intoxicate themselves just for the "fun" of it.
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