Nearly 1 year Sober
Alcohol Free Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 482
Nearly 1 year Sober
Hi Everyone,
Its been a while since I last posted. I am coming up to 1 year sober. What a difference a year can be.
My sleeping habits have completely changed, I usually go to bed around 11:30pm and awake around 6:00am, rested and hangover free.
My appetite for food has changed, I am able to taste much more now and so I treat myself every once in a while to a nice fancy meal.
My money problems have all but disappeared, only a few debt left to repay now. My drinking was expensive and a lot of my income was spent on my valuable addiction. I say valuable because it was the more important thing in my life, nothing else really mattered as long as I could drink that night.
I have completely left drinking far behind me and just wanted to come back and say a very big thank you to Anna (admin) and Dee74 (Mod), who both played a very influential part in helping start my life of being sober.
I tried everything to get sober and not much worked to be honest, it was when somebody told me on here the following:
Imagine a entire lifetime without eating turnips, you can never ever have another turnip again. Turnips are not good for you.
(Your probably thinking as I did, so what, I dont give a damn about eating turnips). Well this is your addictive voice speaking, the beast.
Now supplement Turnips with beer or wine, whatever your poison was.
Imagine a lifetime without drinking any alcohol. You can never drink again, ever. Drinking is not good for you. (Feel conflicted - of course you do)
That feeling of loss, is your addiction. Recognising it and embracing it, rather than trying to defeat or avoid it, is where your true power lives.
Imagine going into a supermarket and seeing a bottle of red wine (my old posion) and allow your addictive voice, to have its say. Recognise it for what it is, just a craving of your body. The embrace it by saying, you will never get to taste red wine ever again. Then simply get on with the rest of your shop.
I used a system based on AVRT to get sober finally and stay sober, but you have to find a system that works for you. AA, SR etc.
At the end of the day, drinking was the most important thing in your life, you need to replace it with something more important. I chose my family and I have genuinely been a really good Father and Husband this year. (You need to make amends).
Good luck everyone
Its been a while since I last posted. I am coming up to 1 year sober. What a difference a year can be.
My sleeping habits have completely changed, I usually go to bed around 11:30pm and awake around 6:00am, rested and hangover free.
My appetite for food has changed, I am able to taste much more now and so I treat myself every once in a while to a nice fancy meal.
My money problems have all but disappeared, only a few debt left to repay now. My drinking was expensive and a lot of my income was spent on my valuable addiction. I say valuable because it was the more important thing in my life, nothing else really mattered as long as I could drink that night.
I have completely left drinking far behind me and just wanted to come back and say a very big thank you to Anna (admin) and Dee74 (Mod), who both played a very influential part in helping start my life of being sober.
I tried everything to get sober and not much worked to be honest, it was when somebody told me on here the following:
Imagine a entire lifetime without eating turnips, you can never ever have another turnip again. Turnips are not good for you.
(Your probably thinking as I did, so what, I dont give a damn about eating turnips). Well this is your addictive voice speaking, the beast.
Now supplement Turnips with beer or wine, whatever your poison was.
Imagine a lifetime without drinking any alcohol. You can never drink again, ever. Drinking is not good for you. (Feel conflicted - of course you do)
That feeling of loss, is your addiction. Recognising it and embracing it, rather than trying to defeat or avoid it, is where your true power lives.
Imagine going into a supermarket and seeing a bottle of red wine (my old posion) and allow your addictive voice, to have its say. Recognise it for what it is, just a craving of your body. The embrace it by saying, you will never get to taste red wine ever again. Then simply get on with the rest of your shop.
I used a system based on AVRT to get sober finally and stay sober, but you have to find a system that works for you. AA, SR etc.
At the end of the day, drinking was the most important thing in your life, you need to replace it with something more important. I chose my family and I have genuinely been a really good Father and Husband this year. (You need to make amends).
Good luck everyone
Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
Right on, autan!!!
I'm right there with you!! On the countdown to a year sober and everything you said and more has been true for me too.
My path was here and AA, but the concept of recognizing the AV and allowing it to be but not allowing it to be ME is spot on.
Also, the other huge shift has been embracing sobriety as a blessing rather than allowing my AV to keep seeing it as a 'loss'.
Far from missing out, I am finally living!!
I'm right there with you!! On the countdown to a year sober and everything you said and more has been true for me too.
My path was here and AA, but the concept of recognizing the AV and allowing it to be but not allowing it to be ME is spot on.
Also, the other huge shift has been embracing sobriety as a blessing rather than allowing my AV to keep seeing it as a 'loss'.
Far from missing out, I am finally living!!
Alcohol Free Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 482
Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
Right on, autan!!!
Also, the other huge shift has been embracing sobriety as a blessing rather than allowing my AV to keep seeing it as a 'loss'.
Far from missing out, I am finally living!!
Also, the other huge shift has been embracing sobriety as a blessing rather than allowing my AV to keep seeing it as a 'loss'.
Far from missing out, I am finally living!!
- I am not that bad, there are people worse than me.
- Why should I punish myself.
- I am jealous of people who can drink, why cant I ?
- I will never be able to drink again, I am so depressed.
It took about 3 months of not being sick, have a lot more money in my pocket, of not worrying about where my empty bottles were hidden, that I realised a lot of stress and anxiety that led me to drinking, was actually caused by drinking.
Congratulations on nearly a year sober.
The only thing you lose by being sober, is your hangover. Your not addicted to alcohol, your addicted to getting high. Get high of love by spending more time with your family and loved ones, get high by doing things that scare you, mine is cave diving. Cave diving in the dark scares me, my heart races, I feel sick with fear and keep pushing myself deeper and deeper under ground. Then when I emerge and me and my new friends talk about what we have see and what we have accomplished, I feel high.
High in a completely normal and satisfying way.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Boston
Posts: 39
Autan, thank you very much for the encouraging retrospective post and congratulations on coming up on one year. I am very happy to hear how much your life has improved and hope you trend all the way upward to the stars!
Alexander Supertramp :)
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: New York
Posts: 148
That feeling of loss, is your addiction. Recognising it and embracing it, rather than trying to defeat or avoid it, is where your true power lives.
Wow great words of wisdom. Thank you for helping me today. Great job.
Wow great words of wisdom. Thank you for helping me today. Great job.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 10,912
Autan... holy cow... so good to see you here, and in this spirit! Wonderful post, I am very happy for you 
Congratulations!
I am also coming up on a year in January and am absolutely with you there advocating that we have to find what works for us. For me it's been an eclectic mix of things but SR has been central. And this:
Awesome work, I hope you hang around for a little while
Congratulations!I am also coming up on a year in January and am absolutely with you there advocating that we have to find what works for us. For me it's been an eclectic mix of things but SR has been central. And this:
Originally Posted by autan
At the end of the day, drinking was the most important thing in your life, you need to replace it with something more important.
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