Add one Early Sobriety Hint, to help new members...
Spiritual Learner
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posts: 165
If I want to drink tomorrow I will wait until tomorrow but TODAY I will not drink!
Understanding of course that you can't live in tomorrow you can only live in TODAY! That phrase helped me out alot!
Understanding of course that you can't live in tomorrow you can only live in TODAY! That phrase helped me out alot!
I am not bargaining for a daily reprieve, there is no condition associated with my sobriety. I chose the life I want, and it has no alcohol in it.
Oh, and if you are about to become sober, do it up right and pour it out, get rid of the empties too.
Oh, and if you are about to become sober, do it up right and pour it out, get rid of the empties too.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Melbourne, NSW
Posts: 24
Prepare for a relapse at any time though you are having good progress in your recovery. Relapses are part of recovery so if you are prepared before it happens you will be able to manage those situation more effectively. Keep in mind that a craving for alcohol wont last more than 30 minutes, so try to distract your mind for a while if you feel the cravings. Try to spend your money for anything you like other than alcohol instead of saving that money at least in the early days of recovery. Always compare your life before and after recovery. Make sure you are always happy try to go out and spend your time rather than staying at home which can trigger craving due to boredom. Watching movies are good if you are at home.
Guest
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 115
Prepare for a relapse at any time though you are having good progress in your recovery. Relapses are part of recovery so if you are prepared before it happens you will be able to manage those situation more effectively. Keep in mind that a craving for alcohol wont last more than 30 minutes, so try to distract your mind for a while if you feel the cravings. Try to spend your money for anything you like other than alcohol instead of saving that money at least in the early days of recovery. Always compare your life before and after recovery. Make sure you are always happy try to go out and spend your time rather than staying at home which can trigger craving due to boredom. Watching movies are good if you are at home.
Being prepared and continually telling people they may relapse are two different things. Please be a bit more positive!
I am bored right now considering my ankle injury, but alcohol wont solve that. 3 weeks in an no relapse for me, and no craving. I wouldn't want someone to basically place the thought it my head I will relapse because so many others do.
All of us are different.
In the first month or two, spend some of the money you would have spent on alcohol, on something you want or need to promote your new sober lifestyle.
Post on the gratitude threads everyday for the first month or two.
In the beginning do whatever it takes to distract yourself from cravings. The thoughts of using come MUCH less frequently over time. (But if you use again even once all those craving thoughts return with a vengeance. Why make yourself go through that?)
Remember how difficult quitting is, so that you never put yourself through it AGAIN.
Post on the gratitude threads everyday for the first month or two.
In the beginning do whatever it takes to distract yourself from cravings. The thoughts of using come MUCH less frequently over time. (But if you use again even once all those craving thoughts return with a vengeance. Why make yourself go through that?)
Remember how difficult quitting is, so that you never put yourself through it AGAIN.
Perspective is key...an addicted life is an imprisoned life.
It's natural in the beginning to be fearful of life without alcohol. But, true recovery takes root when this fear dissolves into a genuine understanding that one doesn't have to live with alcohol.
It's natural in the beginning to be fearful of life without alcohol. But, true recovery takes root when this fear dissolves into a genuine understanding that one doesn't have to live with alcohol.
Allow yourself to REST...you will probably be very tired and sleep a lot/have some crazy dreams....you also might get sick, believe it or not, with colds and the like. Eat well and treat yourself kindly....you deserve it! Don't feel selfish with having some "you" time!
Don't worry about forever... just make it through today... if that seems too much, just commit to staying sober for this hour, this minute, even this second if need be....
Rinse and repeat.
(Do that, and an incredible feeling awaits you at the end and beginning of every day.)
Rinse and repeat.
(Do that, and an incredible feeling awaits you at the end and beginning of every day.)
Some of the things I discovered and wrote in early sobriety.
I know I will be a recovering alcoholic for the rest of my life. Because I . . . will . . . be . . . recovering . . . the rest of my life.
All I have to do to get to the other side is:
1. Not drink.
2. Repeat as needed.
Getting sober is like moving to a new place. At first you feel like it is just too strange, and you miss the old familiar. Then given enough time to be familiar with the new place, you'd never move back.
I did everything I could to make it. And I am quite frankly surprised at how much of a non-event it is for everybody other than me.
I haven't lost drinking, I have gained sobriety.
And finally
Stop getting ready and start getting to it.
Not the tomorrow that never comes. Not when everything is right and there is no stress, and not with conditions like as long as I don't have to whatever, and not waiting for it to fall from the sky or be instantly available through a pill.
Stop getting ready and start getting to it.
I know I will be a recovering alcoholic for the rest of my life. Because I . . . will . . . be . . . recovering . . . the rest of my life.
All I have to do to get to the other side is:
1. Not drink.
2. Repeat as needed.
Getting sober is like moving to a new place. At first you feel like it is just too strange, and you miss the old familiar. Then given enough time to be familiar with the new place, you'd never move back.
I did everything I could to make it. And I am quite frankly surprised at how much of a non-event it is for everybody other than me.
I haven't lost drinking, I have gained sobriety.
And finally
Stop getting ready and start getting to it.
Not the tomorrow that never comes. Not when everything is right and there is no stress, and not with conditions like as long as I don't have to whatever, and not waiting for it to fall from the sky or be instantly available through a pill.
Stop getting ready and start getting to it.
When I quit drinking, I did it cold turkey, no meetings, no books. I prayed for strength and guidance, but I knew my choices had brought on the problem, and only my choices would correct it.
I gritted my teeth and said over and over in my head, "I choose to not drink." "I will not drink." I surrounded myself with pictures of my kids to remind me why I was changing my life. I changed all of the desktop wallpaper on the computers I use to pictures of my kids. I put kid pics on my keychain. I glued kid pics on a Mardi Gras coin and kept it in my change pocket. I put kid pics in my wallet with the folding money. One wonderful afternoon a picture taped to my dashboard kept me from going into the liquor store after I drove there and parked. It was 3 weeks after I quit and it's the closest I've come to a relapse. With time, sobriety has become a routine part of my life. I don't need the constant reminders any more.
I still keep the picture coin in my change pocket.
I gritted my teeth and said over and over in my head, "I choose to not drink." "I will not drink." I surrounded myself with pictures of my kids to remind me why I was changing my life. I changed all of the desktop wallpaper on the computers I use to pictures of my kids. I put kid pics on my keychain. I glued kid pics on a Mardi Gras coin and kept it in my change pocket. I put kid pics in my wallet with the folding money. One wonderful afternoon a picture taped to my dashboard kept me from going into the liquor store after I drove there and parked. It was 3 weeks after I quit and it's the closest I've come to a relapse. With time, sobriety has become a routine part of my life. I don't need the constant reminders any more.
I still keep the picture coin in my change pocket.
Try reading different things to see what helps you. The first month I read AVRT rational recovery, Alan Carr's The Easy way to stop drinking, and mindfulness sobriety books. All of these helped me in different ways, and I still draw from each to create my own program.
Two things that really helped me in early sobriety:
I only had to resort to that a couple of times, but just knowing it was an option made those first forays into the wider world possible, enjoyable, and safe.
- Give yourself permission to be "impolite" if ever you get squirrely - and leave whatever situation, person, topic, or atmosphere is getting under your skin. Leave the room, leave the building, leave the town if necessary, but get yourself out of harms way.
- Always have your own transportation or a means to bail when away from home.
I only had to resort to that a couple of times, but just knowing it was an option made those first forays into the wider world possible, enjoyable, and safe.
Embrace honesty with yourself and the people around you, especially your therapists and doctors. Be honest about your feelings, your cravings, your drinking should you slip...rigorous honesty. When you stop hiding, you will have a feeling a freedom like you have never felt before because you have nothing to fear.
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oxnard (The Nard), CA, USA.
Posts: 13,874
Know what your up against.
Just a few decades ago the understanding of the addiction disorder was practically nonexistent. And recovery measures were based on varying opinions about addiction. None of them based on scientific evidence.
Just like anything in life "be informed" and learn the science about addiction and recovery.
Anywhoo that what I did as a secular individual that uses mindfulness and psychological practices as a total wellness program out of the hellish addiction I was once trapped in.
Just a few decades ago the understanding of the addiction disorder was practically nonexistent. And recovery measures were based on varying opinions about addiction. None of them based on scientific evidence.
Just like anything in life "be informed" and learn the science about addiction and recovery.
Anywhoo that what I did as a secular individual that uses mindfulness and psychological practices as a total wellness program out of the hellish addiction I was once trapped in.
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