Shimmering

So today I've been sober 15 days, yay! Mostly I've just felt great relief although there's been some bad days, but it has still felt overall ok these past two weeks.

Then yesterday I was offered this huge project at work (I'm a freelancer), which I was very happy about. But today I started feeling very overwhelmed, obsessing over how much work I need to put into this to make it perfect and maybe I won't be able to make it etc etc. And how am I going to fit in the rest of life with, kids, the housework and so on. There won't be any time to relax. I was raised to have this extreme work ethic, I've been known to work 14 hours straight without breaks or food etc. I know, not a good idea! But I ask a lot of myself, I almost go into robot-mode and now without booze/pills it feels hard. And suddenly I just had a thought how easy it would be to get my hands on some prescription pills that I was hooked on before. I haven't thought about those pills at all until today.

So, I wonder, how do you guys handle those times when you get stressed and overwhelmed? I guess in life it's bound to happen every now and then that we get totally swamped with work and obligations. I never learnt how to deal with it sober. Do you think these thoughts about the pills will just go away? I don't want to think about them!! Have a great sober weekend all of you!

IOAA2

Hi.

A slogan in AA “EASY DOES IT” fits a lot of our stinking thinking moments.

BE WELL

doggonecarl

In early sobriety it is often best to avoid it if you can, then as recovery progresses, work on coping skills.

If you think the project will disrupt your decision to get sober, then turning it down would be my suggestion.

Fly N Buy

First, breathe!

I found that the term - this too shall pass - was not only helpful but accurate.
We all had/have to ride out the urges in our own ways. But, once we have made the decision to stay sober, accepted the fact we don't drink or use and place sobriety as the number one action daily, we find a way.

Early on I found it necessary to avoid as much stress as possible. Of course life is life, so at times it's impractical. During those times I learned to pause, breathe and slowwwww down.

My compulsive/obsessive perfectionist personality is part of the problem. I could not gobble the whole buffet in 10 bites......I had to chew my food

Pace yourself, put sobriety first and breathe!

peace Shimmering

Soberwolf

Hi Shimmering have you tried breathing exercises to calm the mind ?

I think your doing the right thing now your reaching out asking questions !

I would say break your project into manageable bitesize chunks and plan it by priority

JanieJ

Shimmering

I would agree with all the advice so far. What I would do faced with this situation is:

Break the project down and work out how much I would be willing to do each day on it-a manageable amount that I was comfortable with.

Work out if I could meet the deadline easily doing this amount of work.
Try and factor in possible problems and delays.

If not, I would not take it on, not this early in sobriety.

The money is not important compared to your own well being at this stage.

If as you say you go into work robot mode, it's probably best not to take it on all at the moment, if that is an option for you.