badger1172

Just wondering, because I know it will happen, but how long was it when people close to you started to notice a change in you (due to your sobriety) or when did you begin seeing it in yourself?

I'm on day 2 now of my 2nd attempt and am a little shaky. I feel like the stage of self doubt is coming...I'm trying a vitamin B complex this time to help.

Anna

For me, I struggled the first three weeks with my guilt and shame over the messes I'd made. But, at the three week point, I began to feel something shift in myself. By three months, I was no longer the same person I had been and there was no looking back.

Hold on and get through the first weeks and the benefits will begin to show in your life.

PurpleKnight

If we're talking physical changes, in my second week, after my head finally stopped spinning and the jet lag feeling started to become a bit more manageable, my manager at work commented "you look a bit pale today", and "you look like you've lost some weight", now I know she was basically saying I didn't look too well, in a bad way, but I took it as a complement as my face wasn't as flushed and red as it used to be and my stomach had become less bloated due probably what was hydration after being dehydrated for so long.

After that I lost a few more pounds and for guys when you drop a belt notch, you know you're in business, generally my complexation also continued to get fresher as time went on.

In terms of mental/emotional, again at work, people started to comment on my productivity aswell as how upbeat I was, beforehand I would hide away nursing a hangover, so people saw a change in that side also, for myself my anxious/depressed outlook on life started to subside over time, I guess my mental/emotional state levelled out as the body began to heal.

The changes will come, but they do take time, some more than others!!

Aellyce

Hi Badger,

For me the first month was a hot mess of both positive and negative changes, but physically even after 3 days I felt immeasurably better. Then all has been gradual.

People have commented on my attitude (positively) starting probably at 2-3 weeks. My motivation for work and other things came back pretty quickly.

For me, so far probably what Anna said, the 3 months mark started to make a more steady progressive difference, a mental stability that I so desired. What I like now, at ~4.5 months, is that the anxiety and agitation that were absolutely crippling for me during my drinking, seem to have near completely vanished. I love the calm, but need to work on maintaining it. I really thought, towards the end of my drinking, that I developed a pretty creepy anxiety disorder and I would be stuck with it... absolutely not the case and I'm so relieved. The frequent and intense alcohol cravings that I experienced during the first months have also subsided significantly, and that's something I am also very relieved about; I hope they won't come back.

Now I'm excited what else is to come because I must say these days I feel better than I can recall from many years ago when alcohol wasn't even a problem.

Hang in there; the first week can be tough, then many people experience a lot of mood swings in the first couple months especially, but it should even out soon. I think it also depends how far "down" we drove ourselves by the end and how many difficult challenges we need to face in early sobriety.

Notmyrealname

You get to 3-4 months and it's starting to solidify for you.

I'm coming up on a year in a couple weeks and I feel like a different person. Can't imagine being the guy I was at this time last year. Still have a lot of work ahead of me but you pick a thing or two to work on every year and after a decade or so you've made some real changes, am I right?

Dee74

I don't know when others noticed but for me I noticed at about the 3 month mark

D

badger1172

I want to thank you guys for commenting an sharing your experience with the changes in yourselves and how it went for you when you first stopped drinking. I know there will be changes in me coming, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned about the type of person I find in myself in sobriety. I hope I don't become an angry per or negative person, maybe due to guilt or anger at myself for having flushed so much of my life down the tubes with beer.

Yesterday I bought some Hawaiian Punch at the store. Haven't drank drinks like that since I was a kid. The simple things, like that, are going to be new again and I look forward to enjoying them. It's funny because I can already tell I'm going to have to wrestle with myself in these first few weeks, but my hope is that I will get stronger and more positive and centered, and as many of you had commented, more productive.

Dee74

Badger, if you were to find yourself becoming angry or negative as a sober person, then you could absolutely do something about it

The great thing about recovery, for me, is I get a say in who I am and how I act.

I never had that as a 20 year drunk.

I like who I am sober. It's the real me.
I'm sure you'll find the real you too - and like them

D

AlcoholFree66

I'm 38 days sober today and my family are noticing the changes. My husband has told me on a number of occasions how well I'm doing and how much more even tempered. My daughter thinks I'm losing weight and we are having such a great time together (and she was distraught before I stopped drinking). My son seems to have so much more respect for me. Last night we went to dinner with friends and someone said 'you're looking great - have you lost weight?'. I love being sober.

DisplacedGRITS

I usually find my first month to be difficult. The first couple of weeks are physically quite draining and I kept forgetting to pat myself on the back when I put a sober head on my pillow at night (or early morning, thanks insomnia). I counted the sober days, desperate for my first month to pass so I no longer had to raise my hand in meetings when they asked for who was in their first 30 days. I was driven to distraction by my pride and shame in equal parts. Little did I realize that me raising my hand in meetings thrilled the other people there. Much like seeing a newcomer here, it was like seeing a young baby in it's first stages of life. They were looking at me in the infancy of my sobriety and I was practically adorable in my fumbling about in my newfound sobriety.

I'm only in the later part of my second month now but I have a clarity that I have not really known before. I had 10 months some time ago but that was won from dwelling on a fluffy pink cloud. This time, I've been slogging through the mud and muck of sobriety. My forward progress has been slow but I can look behind me and see the hard fought path I've trudged. My pink cloud was lovely but the lessons I learned were fickle and evaporated with the cloud. This time, two and a half months feels like 6 months. Time has moved slowly but significantly. My head is sore from the hammering it's taken but the change is firmly chiseled in and the change is palpable.

I believe part of what has made this experience so real is the fact that I've quit trying to mold my sobriety around my life and have instead molded my life around my sobriety. Priorities have changed and excuses are not tolerated. When you float on the pink cloud, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Very pretty but fake. I prefer the world as it is. Sharp, painfully clear and unashamedly honest.

Two things that help me on a daily basis are two old AA gems. The mothereffing Serenity Prayer (I **** you not, I cling to this daily and it delivers me from myself) and To Thine Own Self Be True.