dwtbd

Great post, the only thing I would disagree with is that you felt it may not be helpful or well said.

LBrain

well done ubntubnt

SoberLeigh

Fantastic post, ubntubnt. Thanks.

Soberjoy1

Great post! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Zebra1275

Thanks for the post.

Seven weeks of sobriety is nice, and I can tell you it keeps getting better as you start to experience life, sober.

It's inevitable that as you continue to experience life, the good, the bad and the ugly will happen to you. And sometimes the random events of life can be really bad and really ugly. It's good to have strategies developed so that you can deal with life as it happens, without turning to the numbing effects of alcohol. I'm not saying AA is necessary, and I'm not a huge AA participant, but I know where to go and who to call if the poop hits the fan in my life.

Alwyshope12

This is a great share. It was so positive to see a story of strength hope and courage and some great insight into what it took to put together the start of a great change in your life. It gives me motivation to continue to do the same as well as be more structured in my approach to maintaining my sobriety.

I hope that you continue to post more of the same!

lostinthetrees

Thank you.

strategery

Great advice ubntubnt and well done on 7 weeks of sobriety!!

jacksbean

Great read, thanks. The majority of my suffering from alcohol has been sever anxiety and panic attacks. I never really felt physical pain from drinking(headaches, vomiting) but my mental health has deteriorated so much that I knew I needed to change. Congrats on the 7 weeks!

DuhDave

Thanks ubntubnt. This just may be the post that "tips" my hand to the sober side.

DD

ForMyGirls

Wow... That was like reading my biography, except I always somehow managed to make my way back home at night (unless on business trips, then I stumbled back to hotel room), and MY bottom was when my wife walked out on me (taking my daughters)... She has since come back though once she was convinced I was committed to sobriety...

We're about the same age, and similar in all other respects. I too thought that it was not possibly a problem because I had done so well career wise... I had managed to become the youngest partner ever with a very successful firm!!! How could I be an alcoholic?

Never mind the fact that my wife was miserable, and I had been drinking 20-30 beers a night for the past few years... Along with all of the other "mental" side effects you mentioned above... I was an idiot!!! lol

Anyways, thanks for the post/reminder...

FreeOwl

There is a tremendous lot of really good stuff in your story. Thank you for taking the time to share and welcome to a far better life!

JanieJ

Brilliant and insightful post, Ub.

Thank you

bemyself

Excellent post Ub- I'm older than you (like, a lot :-)), and no longer have hubby / 'partner' in my life, but have two mid-30s aged daughters, and can no longer work. But a huge amount of your general description of your professional life, attempts at moderating etc for years, and your very accurate summation of the task ahead resonates with me. I too agree wholeheartedly with you on the thing about being open to trying what I and others here I believe could call a 'menu' of recovery approaches and tools, with / without AA.

Personally, I'm an AA member, but that hasn't in itself stopped me - or many other members I know quite well now - from relapsing several times over several years. Just the same as I'm sure happens for many who don't publicly identify with any one 'programme' or another. I also utilise as many other 'schools of thought' if you like as possible, sometimes using some more intensively for a time, then when I feel the need, delving into others.

Well done on your seven weeks! I am only on day 10 after my last relapse of about 6 weeks or so. This was my 10? 11th? relapse since I first went to a detox facility for 10 days back in Oct 2009. So, five years of on / off, on / off. You'll no doubt have read similar types of stories here and will hear some too if you check out a few AA meetings.

I sense a great resolve in you and a pretty sound grasp of the nature of this 'disease' (I prefer to call it as the most recent neuroscience sees it - a brain disorder, with all the cascading effects that come with any such illness).

Yours is the first post I've seen today, after a couple of weeks of being off SR, while ending the relapse and then home detoxing (under medical regime, I must stress). So it's hit the mark beautifully and I suspect will do so for others.

Tonymblue

Great job and great post!

MissOverIt

Thank you!! Have you been able to connect with your sons again yet?

ubntubnt

yes, thankfully rebuilding my family relationships have not been difficult in terms of damage limitation. They have been great throughout all of this and I hid virtually all of my drinking from them so they just thought that Dad worked an awful lot. Thats really only part of the picture though. I understand that I need to be around much, much more often to live with them through all the normal things and be a part of their growing up. In the past, I would have seen this as a bit of a drag and resented it getting in the way of my drinking but now I am really excited by the thought and enjoying it immensely. I have a lot to live for and I really hope I don't screw it all up again.
Regarding my wife, lets just say that she deserves her place in heaven.

Tonks

Thank you for sharing this ubntubnt....

Mags1

Superb, ubntubnt.

PaulinaPolitely

Here is a big one: after the torture of drinking and trying to moderate and the ongoing and building feelings of despair, anxiety and guilt....quitting was actually quite a relief and even in some respects easy. Don't get me wrong, some of the cravings have been really difficult...but they pass and now 80% of the time I don't even think about drinking (ok....maybe not 80%, but a lot of the time). Compared to the mental torture, the hangovers, the endurance tests I put my body under, this is easy.

Amazing post.

It's sad how successful we become at hurting ourselves & ignoring everything important in life. What started for so many of us as a way out of being shy, wound up potentially taking our very lives.

THANK YOU for your care in summing up your experience. I can relate.

Well done!