1 Month Sober Today
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 42
1 Month Sober Today
Has it only been a month? It is unbelievable to me that I last drank 30 days ago. It seems like half a year. It seems like a different person who posted this on 6/10/12:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...n-so-high.html
I owe AVRT. The change in my mindset has been dramatic. Setting up my addiction as an adversary, as an entity that seeks to gain its goals (intoxication, always) at my expense has been a revelation.
I had spent SO many years messing around with the 'why' of my drinking. Trying to figure it all out. For me, that was a slippery slope and yielded nothing positive.
To see a philosophy that posits "Your addiction wants you to drink because it feels good, and it wants to feel good all the time, and that's all it ever wants, and it will ultimately kill you to get that feeling" was such a turning point for me. To have an adversary, to call it out and name it and declare that I'm not powerless over it; it's been a tectonic shift. Much as cocaine and heroin have always been in a specific box in my brain labeled "Can't Have" due to my certainly they'd kill me if I tried them, now alcohol has joined them there. And rightfully so.
I finally, fundamentally feel I understand the mechanism that drove my drinking for 20 years. And every time it tries to fool me into taking a drink, all I have to do is remember that it's my addiction, and that it will do anything it can to get me drinking, at any expense. The merest inkling of a craving is instantly labeled as "not me, but my addiction," and the charade ends right there. There is no debate, no internal war. I do not drink. I do not want to drink. And the fact that there is an entity inside my brain that does is too bad for it.
The proof of AVRT's efficacy for me, as with any plan, will be in my sobriety's longevity. As happy and enthusiastic as I am right now, my addiction has humbled me far too many times to get cocky. Whatever it takes to stay sober.
To each their own. However any of us become, and stay sober is a great method as far as I'm concerned.
Whatever it takes, and to each their own.
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...n-so-high.html
I owe AVRT. The change in my mindset has been dramatic. Setting up my addiction as an adversary, as an entity that seeks to gain its goals (intoxication, always) at my expense has been a revelation.
I had spent SO many years messing around with the 'why' of my drinking. Trying to figure it all out. For me, that was a slippery slope and yielded nothing positive.
To see a philosophy that posits "Your addiction wants you to drink because it feels good, and it wants to feel good all the time, and that's all it ever wants, and it will ultimately kill you to get that feeling" was such a turning point for me. To have an adversary, to call it out and name it and declare that I'm not powerless over it; it's been a tectonic shift. Much as cocaine and heroin have always been in a specific box in my brain labeled "Can't Have" due to my certainly they'd kill me if I tried them, now alcohol has joined them there. And rightfully so.
I finally, fundamentally feel I understand the mechanism that drove my drinking for 20 years. And every time it tries to fool me into taking a drink, all I have to do is remember that it's my addiction, and that it will do anything it can to get me drinking, at any expense. The merest inkling of a craving is instantly labeled as "not me, but my addiction," and the charade ends right there. There is no debate, no internal war. I do not drink. I do not want to drink. And the fact that there is an entity inside my brain that does is too bad for it.
The proof of AVRT's efficacy for me, as with any plan, will be in my sobriety's longevity. As happy and enthusiastic as I am right now, my addiction has humbled me far too many times to get cocky. Whatever it takes to stay sober.
To each their own. However any of us become, and stay sober is a great method as far as I'm concerned.
Whatever it takes, and to each their own.
That bell or bike person
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: london
Posts: 4,978
Setting up my addiction as an adversary, as an entity that seeks to gain its goals (intoxication, always) at my expense has been a revelation.
Sounds like you're learning new ways of dealing with things and those ways are working , i wish you well , long may it continue , M
Re-Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Posts: 7,583
Congrats riggedgame!
I agree that doing whatever it takes to get off alcohol is essential. Well stated and presented. You are right, whatever works is what counts. Glad you got it under control. I look forward to your posts as you progress. I felt inspired by your delight and results, thanks for that.
I agree that doing whatever it takes to get off alcohol is essential. Well stated and presented. You are right, whatever works is what counts. Glad you got it under control. I look forward to your posts as you progress. I felt inspired by your delight and results, thanks for that.
Powerless over Alcohol
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Trudging the Road to Happy Destiny!
Posts: 4,018
Awesome and congrats 
It is funny how the time flux works. My first month seemed long also, but as it goes by I cant slow it down now . LOL.
Keep loving your sobriety.
It is funny how the time flux works. My first month seemed long also, but as it goes by I cant slow it down now . LOL.
Keep loving your sobriety.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 42
Thanks, everyone. And to anyone who is reading this thread and struggling, if you take away anything from my post, let it be this: there is no one way to recover. If what you have tried in the past hasn't worked, try something else. AA has been a lifesaver for innumerable people. AVRT is working really well for me.
It's a dangerous thing to be told "This is way it is done, period" and then have that way not work for you. There is no one way. And if you haven't found the method that is right for you yet, keeping trying different methods. I wish there was a better way to get across how desperate I was a month ago, but it would have been easy to let the pessimist in me win and stop trying.
Don't stop trying to quit. Keep trying different approaches. You may well end up shocked at how easy it is to quit via one route if the one you've tried repeatedly has been so brutal to travel and led to such disappointment.
Me? I tried willpower alone for most of 2 decades. Wow, did that not work.
It's a dangerous thing to be told "This is way it is done, period" and then have that way not work for you. There is no one way. And if you haven't found the method that is right for you yet, keeping trying different methods. I wish there was a better way to get across how desperate I was a month ago, but it would have been easy to let the pessimist in me win and stop trying.
Don't stop trying to quit. Keep trying different approaches. You may well end up shocked at how easy it is to quit via one route if the one you've tried repeatedly has been so brutal to travel and led to such disappointment.
Me? I tried willpower alone for most of 2 decades. Wow, did that not work.
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