xibila

hi everybody!
As you may see, I am a new member of the forum. It's been six month since my last drink and after living in heaven with myself and my sobriety, now I've
abruptly set down on earth. you may think that it's been a long time but as you know, recovery is a mistery and thoug way. now it's a moment to reinforce my self-esteem, empower myself, and learning to love and respect myself. it's hard because due to my alcoholism, I've olny learned to bad-treat myself and feeling guilty about anything. I am now able to realize how sick we were while active drinking and how long is the way to recovery!!!
thanks anyway for your words support! it is a great help to see that others feel the way you do it! happy sobriety to everyone

Dee74

Hi xibila - welcome!

It can be tough to find self esteem and to not think badly of ourselves. I hated myself for a lot of years.

Service work really helped me - not only was I helping others, but it got me out of my own head too - slowly my perceptions about myself and the world I lived in changed

Is some kind of service/volunteer work something you'd be interested in?

D

Cleopatra1

hi xibila,,,great job on 6 months xx keep it up,,its so nice to read inspiring threads xx
i agree dee,,helping others is such a rewarding thing to do,,and i think it helps "you /me",,more sometimes in a roundabout way.
i am active with 3 charities in the gambia,,its v v lovely to get direct to the people who need the help ,,and what a buzz i get when i know ive done good,,even if its an ego thing ,,i dont care,,its a GOOD ego thing xxx
well done xiliba ,,hope to see you around lots xxx
x lv cleo xxxx

Zebra1275

I agree with Dee. You can help yourself by helping others. What a strange concept for alcoholics!

guskasb14

For volunteer work, I can almost guarantee any hospital near you will take volunteers, and they are so needed! Might be a great experience too!

hypochondriac

Welcome to SR xibila

Yup, it sure is a long road. I read a lot of self help books to try and help me change my outlook. Just keep moving forwards and make positive changes every day. You'll find a lot of support here. Well done on your 6 months btw, that's awesome! x

xibila

thank everybody for your supporting replies!!!!!!!! it seeems as if that you had read my mind because it is been long since I am thinking of helping others in order to healp myself. it is funny but I used to do it during my early active drinking days. At the end I couldn't do it due to my addiction which, by the way, sicked my body and soul. Tell me how you overcome your alcoholism......clues, experiences, feelings, anything...........

Dee74

Some people use AA or some other recovery programme, others see Drs or counsellors, some go to inpatient or outpatient rehab - I just used SR...got here in 07...

I was done and I wanted to change - with the help of the community here I've stayed sober since

D

kizzy40

I just went cold turkey, but am realising I have lots of physical and emotional scars that I need help with.
Like you I think It helps to heal yourself by helping others, it will feed your soul and lift your spirits, good luck with it xibilla keep posting let us know how it's going.

Louise82

Welcome, xibila. Way to go on 6 months. I'm in the very early days of sobriety and I'm currently doing AA. It seems to be working out for me ok so far but as Dee says, different things work for different people.

I totally know you what you mean about how we as alcoholics treat ourselves badly when we're drinking. I'm also learning to love and respect myself.

How did you help others out before? Maybe you could talk to someone about going back to that or doing something similar if it's appropriate and what you want to do.