Lionhearted1

I have been sober the best part of 6 months with about 5 slips in between which coming from how I used to be is a miracle in its self, but I can't seem to break 3 months at around this point i seem to lose my motivation etc. In the last 6 months I have totally surrendered to the fact iam an alcoholic although I have known it for years I just could not except it. At this present moment I feel fantastic and if I felt this good about my sobriety every day I would be a very happy man, iam not nieave to think I won't have bad days but I just want to know of people's techniques when times get tough. Iam in aa and have a sponsor! I do also total know that there is a higher power/ god looking after me because iam writing this tonight instead of 10ft under! Also just wanna say thanks to everyone for the support. God bless!

pipparina

Lionhearted-

it is a simple as not drinking at the 3 months and 1 day mark. However, that probably doesn't help you. Why do you think you pick up after 3 months? Do you think you are now cured and can drink in moderation? If you do, and since you are in AA, I think you should tell your sponsor you still haven't taken step one. All the steps are important, but if you can't get that one done, you'll struggle thinking you can somehow control your drinking.

Dee74

The first 3 months are rough I think....long enough for us to forget how bad our drinking really was, but not quite long enough to see much in the way of change, or benefits of sobriety.

It's a journey of faith lionhearted - we have to believe that things will get better, that all the things we hope for ourselves will come true, so long as we don't drink.

I can guarantee it's the way to go

D

hypochondriac

I found 3 months hard because I felt better and started to forget the reasons I quit. Maybe revisiting those reasons might help Lionhearted... Keep going and then you can break the cycle! x

I know what you mean about losing motivation... I always worried about getting complacent, but really you don't need motivation to not do something, just don't drink. Eventually I realised that it was much more hard work to keep drinking and to find justifications for it than to just not drink and do stuff to support my sobriety. It definitely requires less work than all of that shopping and carrying and hiding of booze!

YVRguy

Hmm I get walls at 30 , 60 and 90 from my past journal entries , or rather when they stop. I am in AA and hang with the old timers in my home group and meetings. Since I am newish , I asked about this and they said they had the same kind of thing for their first year and they termed it the wall. A few said it was the body rebalancing and somehow they ended up slipping or relapsing because they felt so much better and well as mentioned above , they had not gotten step 1 fully.

I am nearing my previous know wall time here soon and my plan is to get to a few more meetings than normal to keep myself on the beam and away from any smug feelings or any crazy thoughts. I will start my first proper step work next month so we will be going deep into step 1 for a week or two. I had a feeling i might have gotten step 1 but the work on it will show what I have probably missed.

Have your done the step work Lion? From what all my long time sober AA buddies say its the only way to truly get the benefit of AA and a life. Most of them do a full set of steps each year just to continue ensuring they aren't straying off into bad areas. Some of them relapsed after ten or more years sober at point sin their life , so they always tell me sobriety can be fragile so you have to be careful to stay with it./

Have a good 24