I lost my cat. And got drunk. Then he turned up.
 

Feeling extremely stupid.

At the time I did not care about my sobriety or the fact I was getting drunk, all I cared about was the fact that I'd lost my cat and I might never see him again.

I consumed eight drinks in a couple of hours. Felt better/less anxious for about an hour. Then threw up. Now hungover and missing work today.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Well, it didn't help the situation, I'm sure.

I'm glad your cat is home.

No, it didn't, except for stopping me thinking about it for a short while. What a waste. nearly 5 months down the drain.

Glad your cat is safe.

What will you do the next time something bad happens?

Remember that this didn't help.

The main thing is that you learn from it and don't think of it as 5 months down the drain, u drunk one day not every day of the 5 months as you would have if you'd never given up!! Draw a line under it and take it as a learning curve. Nest time you are in a stressful or upsetting situation remember how you feel now. Get back to it and good luck!! Xx

You should print off this thread to keep

Have you got a sober plan ?

I always found having something that would help made for a more effective plan.

When my plan was 'I won't drink', I would sit around thinking I won't drink, I won't drink, OMG I wanna drink, but I won't drink.

When my plan is 'take a walk', or 'visit SR', or 'call my Sister', or 'fill in the blank' I always do better.

Hope you feel better soon.

The thing about life is that it happens whether we drink or not. Being sober in mind and spirit we are prepared for lifes bumps and some of them are very difficult. I never heard that drinking ever fixed the problem, seemed to always make the situation far worse.
If we don’t pick up the first drink we won’t have to TRY to get sober AGAIN.

BE WELL

Addiction an alcoholism is serious business.

But sometimes it helps to be able to laugh at ourselves.

The title of this post is pretty funny, lol.

Honestly though? Your 5 months didn't go down the drain. Not unless you keep on drinking/using. Pick yourself back up and keep at it.

Have you been attending meetings?

You'll make it this time. You have learned a valuable lesson from this episode.

Us alcoholics will always readily make an excuse to drink. I related to your post so well. What are you going to learn from it? I tend to react to things too quickly and turn to my glass of wine. Did you panic? Worry? Scared? Etc we need to learn how to deal with lives stresses without immediately turning to alcohol. It never makes difficult situations easier. They are always still there the next day but magnituded! I'm glad you're cats ok and good on you for posting :)

sickofthis pick yourself up and try again!

Like everyone is saying, ask yourself what you can learn from this. And come up with a strategy so you can jump on these thoughts before they lead to drinking.

Glad your cat is okay!

you had 5 months and you can have 5 months AND more again.
:)
I'm glad your cat is safe and OK.
Dust yourself off, try again.

(don't lose kitty again ;))

years ago I went to the pound looking for my pooch......He had been gone for a few days, lost hope.

While at the pound, my GF fell for another cute mutt. So, we took her home......
Pulled up in driveway and there sat pooch number one.

Then, I got drunk.
Today - soberly, those incidents seemed amusing. More proof of the sick mind.....
Glad kitty's ok - take my advice
One's to many and two's not enough ;) (drinks and pets.....)

Sobriety is not only about not drinking, it's about figuring out how to live without alcohol, because there are still going to be ups and downs.

If like me, your toolbox for life only contained a bottle of the hard stuff, when I took that away the toolbox was pretty empty, I then needed to fill it with new ways to cope with the bad and stressful stuff in life.

That's the challenge, but it can be done!! :)

I have learned something. I went back down the rabbit hole and there's nothing there for me.

I was doing very well, but SR has been my only resource, plus honesty with friends and family.

I do need more tools in my box. I handle many/most things in life with equanimity... but I just love my cat so bloody much!

I had adorable little budgies that I completely adored, my family were over at my house when I wasn't home and left the door open and the bird cage open, they flew away and I know they probably froze to death in the Canadian winter during the night here, i was devastated too, I also drank and it certainly didn't bring them back.
Lesson, drinking doesn't help! But you've still made it far sober, just dust off and get back on the bus :)
Glad your cat came back!

Glad you found your cat! I was speaking with my mother tonight about how my favorite kitty had been dead for one year now... (I think it was 1/15 or 1/16 last year I had to put her down..)... It was one of the biggest griefs I had come across.... That kitty was always there for me.

It was just the tip of the iceberg for me - the grief that I hadn't/couldn't express or deal with...

Wishing my sweet Ginger peace - as I have every night since - nearly a year after.