jsm

I have a question for those of you who have been sober for a while. When do the thoughts about drinking stop? I am doing well with my sobriety but I think about drinking (or not drinking) ALL the time. When will this get better?

LexieCat

It's probably different for everyone. I think about it a lot because I'm involved in a lot of recovery activities (AA, SR, etc.). I don't think about it in the sense of wanting to do it, though.

I stopped thinking about drinking as something I wanted to do, within a week of my last drink. For other people it takes a lot longer.

Brucel

Funny you should ask. I went to a meeting last night and the chair talked about us in the desert years. those who got sober 5+ years ago and have started to get back all the things we lost in our active disease. Last night I had a drug dream. I haven't had one of those in awhile. No worries, I'll call my sponsor today and let him know. As far as your question about thinking about drinking, it's very rare, but it sometime sneaks thru. The thought cant hurt me, the action can. Besides, I'm not my thoughts, Thank God.

LaFemme

Except when I am here I almost never think of alcohol. The occasional thought comes through but I think it's more like a fading knee jerk reaction, like when I drive by one of the many places I used to buy.

I had one drinking dream around day 8 but none since.

Supercrew

Thinking about drinking/sobriety has been quite often daily. Thinking about wanting to drink stopped when I made the decision to quit for good. I have thought about upcoming situations that I will be in where I will be expected to drink, and played them out in my mind how I will abstain.

And let me say I did have a thought last Friday afternoon when my wife was going out with the girls that night, and I was going to be left alone for about six hours, and I did shortly contemplate picking up a six pack, (because that's what I always used to do when she had a night out), but instead I thought better of it and came home and started reading and posting here. The pay off was a fun night when she got home, instead of a hangover in the AM and the guilt and resentment the next day.

jsm

Another question as I know several (all of us) of you have relapsed. When you go through detox, then relapse after say 50 days, do you withdraw again if you only had one bender?

Supercrew

I would say it depends on how long and how heavy the bender was. Withdrawals have always happened to me even after time off from drinking if I poison myself. That's why I didn't know I was having withdrawals for many years, I just thought they were part of my hangover after a big night of drinking. But then I realized most normal drinkers don't get the shakes and have breathing problem during their average hangover.

LaFemme

I jever made it past day 6 before so I can't answer your question and sincerely hope I never will!

flutter

It took me a few weeks to get it out of my head completely, but drinking again was no longer an option from day one.

I haven't 'relapsed'.. I can't answer your second question. Alcohol is a toxin, regardless of your dry time, so I would imagine a new bender would hurt pretty bad.. but possibly not for as long as it would had you been drinking like crazy for a while.

Dee74

In answer to your second question...every time I went back it was like I'd never been away. I've heard it said we pick up where we left off, and for me that was definitely true...made all the worse by the fact I wasn't accustomed to it anymore.

Don't look backwards is my advice. Keep moving forward, stay sober, and you'll never have to deal with it

As for obsessing about drinking or not drinking - it takes time to change a life - but that was always common for me too until I finally worked out I needed to be doing more than just not drinking.

What else are you doing besides not drinking jsm - what are you doing to make yourself happy and content living sober?

D

CarolD

I only think of drinking when I am either on line or sharing
in person about my AA recovery.

By the end of 2 months ..I felt back in balance mentally and physically....

By useing God and living in the AA Steps...I switched from often
shaky sobriety into solid recovery.

De toxing from alcohol? Always best to check with your doctor.
What you experienced in earlier withdrawals may not be the same.