abc

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum. Alcoholic. I need help dealing with cravings! I just went through a brutal detox (at home with no valium). It was miserable as usual. I'm finally not sick anymore. I'm on day 5. Cravings starting to return. I've seen a lot of good tips on this forum about how to cope. Thanks.

1undone

For me after detox was the hard part and still is! You need to have a support system and get educated if you haven't already. I suppose that's my question at this point.... What is your recovery plan? I got a lot out of the Big Book of AA and then going to AA along with this site. SR is great because it's always here - unless of course you lose power or don't have th Internet. :/.

Eddiebuckle

I would suggest you get to 90 AA meetings in the next 90 days, get a respected sponsor with years of sobbriety and a life you want for yourself, and work the steps. It worked for me.

abc

I agree the hard part is the psychological addiction which lasts several months. The physical withdrawal is much easier to get through, but it is still pretty impressive in just how evil it is.

My plan is cycling every day, reading SR, reading books on recovery, and I have put a list of tips in my phone that I can pull up anytime I feel the monster whispering in my ear beckoning me. Many of the tips I have drawn from this forum and other websites and books. Just simple things like "your feelings will pass", and "you can't be happy all the time".

I quit back in 2005 just by using exercise (cycling). Not quit, but my drinking went to normal levels (10 drinks/wk). This period of sobriety lasted 3.5 years. It worked because I was in such good physical shape and worked so hard for it, why screw it up by drinking a bottle of vodka? So I'm confident exercise will work well, but I want more ammo this time (because my drinking has advanced) so I came here. For some reason I can't get myself to do AA. Not sure why. Maybe the religion part. Maybe the social stigma.

Please recommend any useful recovery books! Even fiction and novels about recovery are good for me. I read "A Million Little Pieces" when I quit in 2005 and found it helpful.

Thanks everyone.

Anna

I'm confused - you said you had 3.5 years of sobriety in 2005 but you were drinking 10 drinks a week? If you were drinking anything alcoholic, It's not sobriety.

There are many ways to stop drinking and recover and you find lots of info here at SR. My favourite book is a memoir by Caroline Knapp "Drinking: A Love Story". It's brutally honest and quite an amazing story.

Zebra1275

The Big Book of AA (and you don't read it, you study it).

abc

Sorry Anna, technically it wasn't sobriety. Don't be confused. It's just a question of semantics. I will check out the Knapp book thanks