Question - abstinence vs. recovery
 

Someone on this forum posted recently that abstinence is not the same as recovery. Can someone elaborate?

From my perspective, recovery is essentially therapeutic in nature. It's about looking at self and adjusting and correcting where necessary.

A person can take alcohol out of the equation...yet not grow.

Simply taking alcohol out of my routine created a whole lot of free time, alone, with my own thoughts, and guess what? that meant thinking about drinking, which eventually after my own mind grinded me down lead to the inevitable, for me mere abstinence didn't create any long term results!!

Instead I needed to not merely take out alcohol but pro actively create a new life, new routines, a new Sober lifestyle, fill my time with new activities, new projects, reach out and carve out a new life.

Sobriety for me became a new way of life, revolutionizing my time, my activities, even as far as my friends, taking away alcohol on it's own created a very boring life and always lead me back to drinking as I didn't have a life to be proud of or any activities to fill my life with.

Abstinence was simply the foundation to building a new Sober life, it was only the blueprint and the start of the journey!! :)

Thanks Nuudawn and Purpleknight. That makes sense. I've been substituting sleep for drinking since I'm really tired past few days but eventually I won't be so tired. Makes sense to start planning for those "not so tired anymore" nights.

Of course we need abstinence to recover, but that alone won't do it. We need to look at the underlying issues that we have. What is it we have been self-medicating or numbing away with alcohol? That's why recovery is a journey. :)

Of course we need abstinence to recover, but that alone won't do it. We need to look at the underlying issues that we have. What is it we have been self-medicating or numbing away with alcohol? That's why recovery is a journey. :)

Some people are fine with just not drinking - thats all they needed to dom and good luck to them :)

I needed to more than that - I had a lot of underlying reasons and problem that I started drinking for - I had to address those as well if I wanted to stay sober :)

D

Don't get me wrong, the first few weeks, if not the first 2 months, I was wiped, there was no jumping out of bed and seizing the day, I was shattered, I went to work, came home and slept, weekends were spent watching box sets on my sofa, I hadn't the energy for anything else but cling onto Sobriety.

But as my body adjusted and my energy levels came back, I started to slowly with small steps carve out a new life!!

Day 5 is still early days, so don't be too hard on yourself just yet!! :)