Nuudawn

I think it is foolhearty to discount the self-medicating..self-nurturing...relationship we had with alcohol. The thing is....it was a self defeating...toxic...isolating...vicscious problem-creating remedy.

Alcohol readily available, convenient "solution" to that which ails us. There are much more, life giving remedies. SR provides a wonderful 24/7 community. What are you thoughts on AA for more personal, face to face support. It is not the answer for everyone...

But I think we need to be open to all possible solutions in attacking this beast.

SonomaGal

You're in the thick of it and doing great! Looking back I basically felt like I had a low grade flu for quite a while so I did all the comfort stuff I could think of with no judgement of myself. It helped! So when you are not at work get rest (seriously as much as you need), do things that make you feel good, eat your favorite foods, watch a good flick, go for a walk in nature, buy yourself affordable treats.

By the time many of us quit it seems we have lost the ability for self care because our entire reward system has become alcohol based. So instead of had a bad day/good day - drink - I worked on tying that type of thinking directly to sober rewards - like I'm buying this book, or shirt, or chocolate bar, because I deserve it for all the work I'm doing. This trick helped me to feel I was getting a reward which made me feel proud of myself, which reinforced my sobriety.

Dee74

There are some good tips for cravings here:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-cravings.html

Have you thought about finding more support than just SR Tizzkins?

tizzkins

Hello to everyone and thank you all for your replies i have read and re-read everyone of them. I will try to answer some questions firstly no i really dont want to attend meetings not until i have worked out how all this is possibly going to pan out for me. A lot of it is the fear of going to a meeting and seeing people there that know me i work with the public so a lot of people know me.

I at the moment would rather have a computer screen between me and the people supporting me. I dont know what the future holds for me regarding the drink i am just trying to get through one day at a time but i can tell you one thing when i see that some people on the group have been sober for months i am really jealous.

Also a big thank you to whoever it was that said to me last night that if i still fancied a drink the next day then to go ahead psychologically in my mind that seemed to work for me as i was so tempted last night to have a drink so i am so grateful for that comment and will take that comment on with me throughout my fight with this addiction. As of today i no longer feel like having a drink well for now anyway come 7pm tonight i will probably feel different that was the weird thing for me with drink i only really drank between around 7pm and 10pm when i crashed out.

DisplacedGRITS

Fear of seeing someone you know is a pretty common excuse we hear, and have said ourselves, for not going to a meeting. I have had personal experience with this. I went to a meeting and afterwards, a woman approached me. I hadn't noticed her in the room but I recognized her. She was my petsitter! Now, I want you to understand the relationship I had with her. This is a person who I let know when I'm out of town. She has a copy of my keys and entered my house daily and cared for my pets who are my children. I trusted her completely in a way I would trust almost no one and now I find out she's an alcoholic. I was absolutely delighted! My trust in here was tenfold after that. On top of the petsitter/client relationship we had, we were sobriety sisters as well. I also attended a meeting at that same meeting place and across the room from me was my upstairs neighbor. I was so happy and so was she! She went from a woman I saw in passing to a wonderful new friend that helped me out on many occasions.

I have been tapped on the back in grocery stores by fellow alcoholics more times than I can count. I have found myself sitting next to a person in a meeting then on the bus the next day. For me, seeing another sober alcoholic out in the real world is an absolute joy. I can be in a major grump and be pulled out of it by an unexpected, friendly face in the crowd. I see them, they see me and we smile. We share a secret that no one else around us knows. We are sober alcoholics. We are a fellowship of two people in a whole sea of people who won't bother connecting with another person in a meaningful way their whole day. For that moment, I look across a sea of faces and see one who KNOWS. And I know and together, once again, we are greater than the sum of our parts.

So if you go to a meeting and you recognize someone or someone recognizes you, just know that you will have a secret kinship with that person from then on. That person will care for you on a level you could never expect and perhaps you will come to care for them in that way as well.