saphira

Hi all!! Well, today I am officially 30 years old and it's the first sober birthday I've had in quite a few years. It feels pretty good! This is my second week sober (day 9) and I'm finding that even though I feel so much better staying sober, and that my cravings have subsided quite a bit, I feel sort of empty...like things are kind of "blah" right now. Is that normal? Is it just the adjustment of not having the ups and downs of alcohol? I love waking up in the morning and feeling so good physically, but every day is like the one before. Maybe I just need to find specific things to look forward to, like I used to look forward to 5:00 so I could drink. Just curious if other people have felt "blah" at the beginning as well...kind of like there's a huge hole in me or something.
Hope everyone's day is off to a great start!!

LoftyIdeals

Saphira...:day1:day1

Hope yours is awesome! I also celebrated mine sober on the 21st, at day 12. What a great present to yourself! Keep it up! Celebrate!

Bikeguy

Happy Birthday!!

Creekryder

Happy Birthday, Saphira! Stay strong and enjoy life!

mayson28

Happy Birthday! Mine was yesterday. A couple times I thought, hmmm, I should celebrate. But I didn't. My gift to myself was to be sober and wake up feeling not guilty.
I too need ideas on how to shift the thinking of it's 5, reward myself with a drink. Or weekend is here, perfect time for one. I keep reading and stay sober thinking I don't want to add more years of drinking and getting sicker.

recoverywfaith

:day1 to all

billsaintjames

Finding things to look forward to is a great idea.

I recommend for those "things" to be good investments in yourself. You would be amazed at how fun it is and how much you will look forward to working on yourself. I found myself extra-motivated to improve myself simply by thinking about the time and money I wasted on drugs and alcohol.

Buy self-improvement books and audio programs. Buy a pair of running shoes, and find a good trail to run on or get a gym membership. Make a list of things you always wanted to do, but your addictions prevented you from doing. Learn more about your addictions on the internet or in books. There are tons of things to do. I swear, every day I am sober I am amazed at all the things there are to do in the world.

EmeraldRose

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :day1

CarolD

ForwardMotion

Happy Birthday Saphira!! I absolutely know what you mean by the "missing something" aspect. I believe finding other things to do helps with that. I've been watching movies with my DH where as before I would be on the 'net all night and we would never speak/connect. I think this new way of living feels abnormal right now, but eventually we will be so used to it that drinking would seem abnormal to our lives. We just have to wait, the rewards will come.....

I hope you have a fabulous birthday.....30 is a GREAT age!

lookinforward

Happy Birthday and good job on 9 days. Blah is one of the reasons I could never make it past 3 weeks. I am now 41. I wish that I had those 11 years back. Find that one thing that you really like to do or really liked to do before your drinking career began. It seems to be working for me. I also plan a lot of projects for myself. Being productive feels pretty dang good. Just my 2 cents. Once again great job and keep moving forward.
Day by day
Dave

Dee74

I think a lot of people feel blah. I certainly did, and I was speaking to someone else about this just recently too.

I think we've put our mind and body through a lot so thats one factor...it takes time for them to heal and for us to feel 'normal'.

Also, my life literally revolved around drinking, so I think it was natural I felt a little bit lost and even a little bit sad on one level when I first got sober.

It's my experience that, if we keep working on our ourselves and our recovery, things do get better tho

Happy Birthday Saphira

D

MIBluebird

Happy Birthday Saphira and congratulations on celebrating it sober! I can relate to the "blah" feeling. The first month I constantly read...couldn't figure out what to do with myself in the evenings. I'm at two months and it's getting much better...different things to do now that I'm not hungover or revolving my life around my next drink. For me it is a day at a time...and some are better than others. Sounds like you are doing great...have a wonderful rest of your Birthday!

Mcribb

I replaced that Blah with AA or recovery. Give yourself a bunch of time. I have WEEKS of blah, and it's just a period of time where I don't feel great. Just keep taking action to further your sobriety, if you get stuck in blah and stop helping others you might fall back.

jch116

Congratulations on 9 days and happy birthday! I felt that way too and still do sometimes, it can seem like all of a sudden you have so much time and maybe you don't quite remember everything you liked to do and enjoy before you started drinking. For me, planning the day out helps a lot, and just knowing that you aren't alone in that feeling is comforting. As others have said, I think if we keep working on our recovery and trying to find out who we really are helps so much. There are so many fun things to do sober. I'm excited to think of all the things I can do now because I'm not drinking. Where before I would wait for 5:00 to to mix that first drink, now I think about spending time with family and friends and doing things that are good for me. Not isolating yourself helps too. I think that sometimes, for me, when I am feeling a bit down and bored, it's a signal for me to get out of my own head and do something nice for someone else. That and reading here, this site has literally saved me and kept me from picking up that first drink so many times.

Rusty Zipper

7

artsoul

Happy 30th!!! What a great way to begin a new decade of your life - sober!

It does feel weird at first - I think it took me about 3 months to feel "normal" sober. Drinking can definitely provide us with drama...... but so much of it was negative, really.

One thing drinking didn't give me was a sense of inner peace, and moments of real joy just from the little things around me. It's a different feeling than being up/down/up/down, but I've grown to be content with it. Besides, who needs the excitement of blackouts, DUI's, and hospitalizations?

IWLSAST

2

coffeenut

Sober Birthdays Rock! Congrats to You!

bevin

Happy birthday!

I can definitely relate to the blahs. I posted this the other day:

It's funny...I'm not having any wild mood swings at all at this point, but I do feel very flat and dull. I don't know whether to call it depression or not - probably not. But I'm starting to think that I drank to feel emotion, even if it was chemically induced. Kind of the opposite of what usually happens. Anyone else have that experience?

So yeah - you're not alone. From what I gather it will pass, so I'm just going to put up with it for now.