aasharon90

August 11, 1990 was my first full day
without a drink and the beginning of
my Alcoholics Anonymous program
and life in recovery. Those first 28 days
in rehab I was feed information about
my alcoholism and how it affected me
and those around me. Then was handed
some useful tools to use in my everyday
life each day without drinking.

I also learned that it wasnt a race
to hurry up and learn all I needed to be happy
joyous and free in recovery. That its a day to
day journey of incorperating those tools and
knowledge in my everyday affairs.

Living in recovery is like building a house. You
learn how to build a strong solid foundation
using those steps and principles to live upon
for years to come. If I was to hurry up and
build it quickly then it wouldnt have stayed
stong for me to live upon these past 22 yrs.

My little home today is strong but is not completely
finished yet. I have all the strong blocks and sturdy
walls around me to keep me secure, but I have to
regularly keep up with maintanance on it so when
a strong hurricane come threw us here in Baton Rouge,
it will be able to stand strong against it.

Or when life throws me a curve ball Ill have the
right bat of recovery tools to knock it out of the
park and my life.

My journey in recovery continues today as I
take it easy and keep life simple.

Fandy

I hope this thread doesn't turn into another big AA promotion vs. not AA debate....I did not see the OP ask about AA at all?

I think that early sobriety is different for everyone and how the changes from how drinking changes your lifestyle as to not drinking affects your life.. my problems are the same, but how i deal with them is different. as you become sober longer, you also become a lot more logical. the first 6 months to a year, many things change, hopefully for the better, but sometimes not. it's how you look at life too.

Junebugapril

Great question. Threshold, thanks for the great answer.
I can relate to that jealous, feeling like a failure feeling! I stopped drinking three weeks ago. I am sure this is still very early, but already the cravings are much less frequent. The cravings are usually more fleeting. It is easier to talk myself out of wanting to drink. It seems that noticing when I am out of early recovery will be gradual, not sudden.

onlythetruth

Well, there's a point where most of us get comfortable with being a non-drinker, where it's not a battle, it's just who we are. It takes different people different lengths of time to get to that place so I don't think there can ever be a hard and fast statement on this. For me, though, it took about a year.

As far as the term "dry drunk", I don't like the term because it tends to be used in a pejorative sense against those who do not utilize a particular recovery path. The idea, though, is that a person who stops drinking but is still the SOB they were while drinking is "dry" but still exhibits the behavior of a "drunk".

MsJax

I considered my early recovery my first whole year sober. So many firsts to ponder & get through...summer parties (I avoided the first summer), holidays, deaths of family members, etc. I have about 20 odd months though & I still feel pretty new at times as I am in the process oc creating a wonderful life for me. What a journey.

MsJax

And raining, I feel the term dry drunk is very negative and diminishes the efforts it takes of the alcoholic to quit drinking, as if just quitting means nothing. For many people, "just quitting" is what saves their life!

Fandy

I'm at about19 months. I don't count it makes me anxious. Many things that were new are now just part of a regular routine. I used to watch what other people drank, now i just worry about me.

sugarbear1

everyone's sober journey is personal

WalterX

As Dee mentioned, it was 90 days before I felt like a had even a decent handle on things. That said, now that the holidays are around, I'm feeling more stress about my sobriety than I did a few months ago. I think it's all relative.

Dee74

That emotional rollercoaster thing levelled out around that time - I got a real sense of who sober me might be, snd I began to have a hope that I might actually live this way for good.

I'm not saying the journey was over then - the whole of my first year was pretty tough going if I'm honest - but it did get easier after 90 days, for me.

D

Delilah1

Thanks for posting this question. It is nice to have the insight from all of you with lots of sober time under your belts. I like the idea of 90 days Dee, seems like it isn't too far away and unrealistic now.