james186

I've been wondering if counting the days is really helpful...If you're going to stop for good, then why bother counting? What do people think?

Nonsensical

People are different, so they think different things. Some like to count, others do not. If someone believes counting is helpful they should do it. If they don't, they should stop.

Dee74

Back when I couldn't believe I could go one day without drinking, I counted everyday.
It was a quantification of my progress

Gradually that became less important to me.

I can tell you my sober date because that's when my life changed...but I no longer know what day I'm on

D

DisplacedGRITS

I have to keep a reminder on my phone as to what day I'm on. Since I'm in early recovery, I find that acknowledging my milestones is good for my moral. It's also keeping me humble because this is neither my first nor second Day 80. I've done this before and screwed it up. I will keep this day as Day 80 now. It's a constant reminder for me to not get lazy and to keep working diligently on my sobriety.

mecanix

For me it was a motivator , for some of my fellow soberists who have more of a battle to stop, green ticks on the calendar can be a better way of charting early progress and showing continual improvement, it can also be a useful tool to for self diagnosis to identify times and places where ones resolve is weakened .

Most people fell off bikes when we learned to cycle, you didn't give up and throw the bike in the hedge . The further you go with sobriety the time traveled becomes less important and the more you try and concentrate on quality of the journey ..

Keep on , m

MrBen

Depends on your personality I think. Some people find one day going "ok, that's it, never drinking again forever" extremely daunting and that can add an extra weight of stress to their recovery. Hence the "one day at a time" philosophy: you don't have to think about not drinking forever, just today. It's like how when you're having a rough day at work it's easier to think towards your break or the hour, as opposed to going "I'll be out of here in 9 hours" because it can effect your morale.

Plus it gives you a goal when you reach milestones, first day, week, month, year etc.

However others think that this line of thinking can allow people to open themselves up to potentially drinking in the future and the only way to deal with the problem once and for all is to draw a line in the sand and never drink again- the amount of time being irrelevant from that point on.

Another issue with "counting" I think is if you slip up it can be incredibly demoralising, instead of saying "I messed up yesterday, today I start afresh again" your mind tends to go to "I just lost 5 years of hard work".

Like I said, it's a personality thing. I don't know what works for you because I'm not you, so maybe think about what you feel best suits your train of thinking. Whatever keeps you from drinking mate, that's all that matters.

cl9000

I sometimes like to acknowledge the "milestones," but that's about it. I always feel like counting is giving alcohol too much power in my life and setting myself up for failure. In reality, if I've had 90 days of sobriety and I slip up and relapse one night, that's 90 out of 91 days sober, and I should be able to get right back on the sober path without making a big deal out of it. But the counting thing says if you mess up, you "start all over" and start counting from day 1 again. That just seems like an unnecessary game that for me would be counterproductive to living a sober life.

carlingford

yes depends on the person I think, I tick my calender each day but as time moves on I forget to tick it and then love adding in the ticks, it also flags the months as I suffer on 30, 60, 90 days, well I never reached 60 days and praying I will this time at 19 days (after relapse at 34 days) happy ticking or non ticking

camino2012

I think what is more meaningful (and sobering) to me is counting the bottles of wine I didn't have to purchase, consume in the garage by myself, tax and stress my liver with, and then covertly get rid of......

Day #3 in, so I'm up to 6 bottles of wine the last 2 days.

On Day #8 - it will be an eye-popping 21 bottles.

Jupiters

exactly! LOL...my closet isn't full of bottles and until I pay my lawyer, I have more money in the bank!

desypete

i used to count my days and weeks and months and even years at one time until i started to live one day at a time

then i lost interest in how long i have been sober as i am only sober for today
i might be drinking again tomorrow or i might be dead so it doesnt exist for me and yesterday has gone

so i am sober for today and that thinking helps me from feeling any other sort of pressure as you can see on how often posts keep on popping up on the forum where people have picked up again
its shows me i am only sober today as it could be me who picks up the drink next its highly unlikely given the way i live life today but then i have seen people with 20 or 30 years sober pick up the drink again
its a mad illness and one that i fully respect

so days gone dont matter anymore its today that matters : )

Seanfox

I read in a book that it's like a released prisoner counting the days until he/she returns to prison, the day you stop drinking is the day you're free and there's no need to count and I believed that for a while but I'm always aware of how long I've gone and different methods work for different people.

PurpleKnight

At the start I think it keeps people focused, something to hang onto and feel good about, as in the beginning there isn't too much to feel good about.

After that then it comes down to personal choice, in the end whatever keeps you Sober is the important thing!!

Zebra1275

I woke up sober today and I'm very certain I will go to bed sober tonight. I guess that equals 1 day. Tomorrow I will get up and try to get 1 day again.

I measure my sobriety 1 day at a time. I don't need to count the cumulative days anymore, and I don't really care.

I picked up my 4 year coin awhile ago because my sponsor wanted to go with me to the meeting to do it. I did it for him, I think he takes pride in the cumulative years his sponsee's get.

LBrain

what purpleK says it what I think too. Early, counting the days can be motivation. As time goes on you'll be less focused on days and more focused on life.

Olive1

I worked hard for those days in the beginning, so I counted them.
Then I counted months for a while.
Now I just keep track of the years.

Thepatman

I'm at 14 day if I'm not mistaking. Don't feel like counting anymore. All I know
And care about is that I am sober and feel a sense of relief and pride.

But Mai 30, 2014 will remain in my mind forever ;-)

2muchpain

l like keeping track of the days. Looking at the calendar and seeing all those X's is a strong motivator for me, but I like finding some visual way of any goal I have. I also note on my calendar what I accomplish when I go to the gym. When I feel like drinking, one of the things that helps me is to look at that calendar. But that's just me.