Junegirl

Something I noticed is that people think that the fact of quitting drinking alone will change things in their lives, and when it doesn't, they go back to drinking figuring it doesn't make a difference if you drink or don't. Well, for most of us, quitting is step 1 (though the most important by far!) to getting a good life. Often there's a lot of clean-up from the messes we made when we were drinking, then more work to get to where we want to be- Steps 2 and 3, let's call them. We want to be at Step 4 (sitting pretty) without the work of step 2 or 3. I hope this isn't discouraging for newbies, but for me, I'd rather know what's ahead of me so I can roll up my sleeves, get my coffee and my plans ready, and dig in to the work I have to do. It's definitely worth it for me, and for my daughter!

Thanks to all of you veterans here, and Threshold especially (your comment on another thread helped me to really "get" this) for sharing your knowledge.

Junegirl

JumpnOn2

Ditto

Nuudawn

Amen. I know that the day I decided to put down the drink..I felt a bit like a general going to war. I sat at my kitchen table and did a quick assessment of the resources I knew I now had (thanks to work with a therapist and some new spiritual insight) and then made a list of strategies as to what to do when the urges hit.

Quitting drinking changes your life DRAMATICALLY. Fortunately I'm finding that it is a bit of a walk in the park with a lot of lovely things...but have you been to a park lately lately? There's boogeymen and sh*t there too.

Tang

I still suck at a lot of things in life and quitting didn't make me instantly good at dealing with them. I used to use drink to help me write for work. I can't do that anymore and I'm still no good at writing . Of course I'm in the early days of recovery so this may all change.

LadyBlue0527

Nicely put!

JumpnOn2

NuuDawn you have a way with words!!!

Petecrab

Ha nuu that made me laugh

Junegirl

Lol, Nuudawn! Yes, a general at war sums it up nicely.
I'm doing okay with my step 1-the quitting part, but I'm working on the mess inside my mind and it's not easy work. It's a doozy in here now that I can see this through sober eyes! Therapy may well be in order...still, I know that as long as I stay sober I have a chance of getting to "sitting pretty" and drinking I don't. So it's a no-brainer for me!

Junegirl