two weeks
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Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: St. Louis, MO
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two weeks
so I'm two weeks sober tonight!! I've been further, but I wanted to share this with all of you.
I went to a bar/grill with some coworkers today at lunch. Drinks were on the house. I was offered a drink and I just said "no thanks, I am a lightweight.". No one challenged this or made me sound like a wuss.
Shortly after the beers were delivered to them, I left. I made a commitment to NOT be around alcohol the first month I was around it.
I went back to the office, wrote some really great software with another recovering alcoholic, and went home. It's so amazingly fantastic when you have someone else in your group who is in recovery.
It's interesting that so many software engineers are alcoholics. I look at my peers and we all have that same determination to not drink. I would love to know more about why all of us are alcoholics admittedly.
We talked about how addiction is very tough and hard to beat. He is coming off alcohol, cocaine and hydrocodone. He detoxed for the last time about a year ago. After this chat, he told me to keep my head up and soon I would realize I'm on step 4. I love this guy.
I went to a bar/grill with some coworkers today at lunch. Drinks were on the house. I was offered a drink and I just said "no thanks, I am a lightweight.". No one challenged this or made me sound like a wuss.
Shortly after the beers were delivered to them, I left. I made a commitment to NOT be around alcohol the first month I was around it.
I went back to the office, wrote some really great software with another recovering alcoholic, and went home. It's so amazingly fantastic when you have someone else in your group who is in recovery.
It's interesting that so many software engineers are alcoholics. I look at my peers and we all have that same determination to not drink. I would love to know more about why all of us are alcoholics admittedly.
We talked about how addiction is very tough and hard to beat. He is coming off alcohol, cocaine and hydrocodone. He detoxed for the last time about a year ago. After this chat, he told me to keep my head up and soon I would realize I'm on step 4. I love this guy.
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
Originally Posted by justinJustQuit 
so I'm two weeks sober tonight!! I've been further, but I wanted to share this with all of you.
I went to a bar/grill with some coworkers today at lunch. Drinks were on the house. I was offered a drink and I just said "no thanks, I am a lightweight.". No one challenged this or made me sound like a wuss.
Shortly after the beers were delivered to them, I left. I made a commitment to NOT be around alcohol the first month I was around it.
I went back to the office, wrote some really great software with another recovering alcoholic, and went home. It's so amazingly fantastic when you have someone else in your group who is in recovery.
It's interesting that so many software engineers are alcoholics. I look at my peers and we all have that same determination to not drink. I would love to know more about why all of us are alcoholics admittedly.
We talked about how addiction is very tough and hard to beat. He is coming off alcohol, cocaine and hydrocodone. He detoxed for the last time about a year ago. After this chat, he told me to keep my head up and soon I would realize I'm on step 4. I love this guy.
I went to a bar/grill with some coworkers today at lunch. Drinks were on the house. I was offered a drink and I just said "no thanks, I am a lightweight.". No one challenged this or made me sound like a wuss.
Shortly after the beers were delivered to them, I left. I made a commitment to NOT be around alcohol the first month I was around it.
I went back to the office, wrote some really great software with another recovering alcoholic, and went home. It's so amazingly fantastic when you have someone else in your group who is in recovery.
It's interesting that so many software engineers are alcoholics. I look at my peers and we all have that same determination to not drink. I would love to know more about why all of us are alcoholics admittedly.
We talked about how addiction is very tough and hard to beat. He is coming off alcohol, cocaine and hydrocodone. He detoxed for the last time about a year ago. After this chat, he told me to keep my head up and soon I would realize I'm on step 4. I love this guy.
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 10,912
Hey Justin, great job not drinking, keep it up! 
I also need to deal with situations like what you described at work. 3 months sober now and in the first more than one month I avoided all of these gatherings, did not go at all when I knew there would be alcohol involved. I think that's a good strategy in the beginning, it's the safest. I'm now learning how to deal with these situations instead of avoiding altogether and it's not too difficult if I stay away from the parts that are really just for the sake of (heavy) drinking. I just did one of these maneuvers yesterday.
I think what you did was great: you went and got involved, and left when it was time and nothing useful for you to stay for or for your peers to have you around.
Good question. I have had many friends and collaborators in IT, computer science; bioinformatics is where a lot of my work related connections meet (I'm a research biologist). Met many people in these professions who use drugs and alcohol myself. My impression is that these jobs typically involve long hours of work that can be quite isolated (with the computer) and very cerebral. So perhaps many people like to use substances to either ease the mental tension, or enhance their thought processes, or both, depending when. A little bit like artists... I also spend A LOT of time on computers with data analysis, writing, etc, and before my drinking became so insane that it prevented any decent activity while doing it, when I was younger, I also frequently had a bottle of wine or something to accompany, for example, my late night data analysis rendez-vous at home. Never drank in the workplace (except when there was a party), but did while working from home. Needless to say, it won't enhance the quality of the work
The worst phase of my alcoholism involved a very strong intimate link between drinking copious amounts of hard liquor and being attached to the computer. Not working, or attempting to do anything decent in those states anymore, but all sorts of crazy activities online, and insane writing. One reason, I believe, why SR works so well for me to support my recovery is because I was already very used to and at home in the virtual world, and replaced the *** with this constructive activity that right now I consciously like to limit for part of the days and focus on more offline stuff and get out more in the evenings.
Your post also reminded me of one of my favorite movies of all times - it's called "Pi" by Darren Aronofsky. Check it out if you don't know it and happen to be up for a couple hours of insanity on screen. I just watched it again a week ago and it was a very different experience now - still reminds me of myself very much, but now it's clearly a reminder of the past. I think I'm done with that movie now (was quite obsessed) but it's a good piece of art made by someone who clearly knows (based on his other works also) about obsession.
All the best to you, keep posting and keep your codes booze-free!
I also need to deal with situations like what you described at work. 3 months sober now and in the first more than one month I avoided all of these gatherings, did not go at all when I knew there would be alcohol involved. I think that's a good strategy in the beginning, it's the safest. I'm now learning how to deal with these situations instead of avoiding altogether and it's not too difficult if I stay away from the parts that are really just for the sake of (heavy) drinking. I just did one of these maneuvers yesterday.
I think what you did was great: you went and got involved, and left when it was time and nothing useful for you to stay for or for your peers to have you around.
Originally Posted by justinJustQuit
It's interesting that so many software engineers are alcoholics. I look at my peers and we all have that same determination to not drink. I would love to know more about why all of us are alcoholics admittedly.
The worst phase of my alcoholism involved a very strong intimate link between drinking copious amounts of hard liquor and being attached to the computer. Not working, or attempting to do anything decent in those states anymore, but all sorts of crazy activities online, and insane writing. One reason, I believe, why SR works so well for me to support my recovery is because I was already very used to and at home in the virtual world, and replaced the *** with this constructive activity that right now I consciously like to limit for part of the days and focus on more offline stuff and get out more in the evenings.
Your post also reminded me of one of my favorite movies of all times - it's called "Pi" by Darren Aronofsky. Check it out if you don't know it and happen to be up for a couple hours of insanity on screen. I just watched it again a week ago and it was a very different experience now - still reminds me of myself very much, but now it's clearly a reminder of the past. I think I'm done with that movie now (was quite obsessed) but it's a good piece of art made by someone who clearly knows (based on his other works also) about obsession.
All the best to you, keep posting and keep your codes booze-free!
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