lastchance77

Hi all (I know I keep posting but I have a lot of questions!)

Had my first Saturday sober since about 7 years and I feel amazing, euphoric even. Went out with wife and little one and had a great day out in the sun.

My question, (and I think I know the answer) will this feeling disappear? Is it just a symptom of withdrawal?

Has anyone else experienced this feeling?

least

My emotions were a roller coaster in early sobriety. I was up one minute and down the next. Some days I was riding the pink cloud, other days a cloud of doom engulfed me. It will settle down with more sober time.

lastchance77

Riding the pink cloud, I've never heard that saying. Love it!

PurpleKnight

Sobriety doesn't create instant happiness, there's still gonna be ups and downs, because life still continues on!!

But in the good days make sure you're changing your routines, building up those Sober muscles and putting a few new tools in the toolbox for when life does throw a few curve balls!!

Keep pushing through!!

wpainterw

It's great that you feel great. Yes, but be careful of the pink cloud. Sometimes it's called the "flight into recovery". What can happen is your AV (addictive voice way down in the primitive part of your brain) may be whispering to you, "You're all right now. You just had a little too much to drink. Now just watch yourself in the future. It's O.K. to have just one glass of wine. The others at the party are having theirs. You deserve just one since you've been so brave." Later on it may say, "See nothing happened. From now on at parties you can drink if you have just one." and then later "You're pretty good at controlling yourself. If you stick to wine you'll be O.K." then "Well whiskey has the same alcoholic content as wine. So does Vodka. So it won't hurt if you have one Vodka." then "Well you're pretty good at Vodka..." The old slippery slope. It gets more slippery and steeper as time passes.

W.

headcase1

77 you're going to love being sober! Freedom to do anything you want & not worry about the hanger or blackouts.

Anna

I'm glad you're having a great weekend, but it's doubtful that the euphoria will last. I didn't have the pink cloud experience, more of a slow and steady recovery.

Aellyce

I do feel a kind of euphoric-like joy and unity with everything around me at times, one year sober. But also some dark moments occasionally. None of these are frequent, and I experienced them in my whole life, even before my drinking problem, back to my childhood. I guess it's just my nature to have these moments/days. It's nothing like being on drugs or drunk, just natural feelings. But most of the time in sobriety, at least in the last several months, my moods have been quite even and stable.

brynn

Don't over-think it! Enjoy your new found freedom and enjoy living the life you were meant to live!

lastchance77

Great advice guys, thanks so much. WpainterW, that slippery slope is so familiar to me, with smoking and other DsOC in the past. That AV's a sneaky and patient bastard!

Soberwolf

But with real frienships being made and a awesome support network here its a lot easier to crush the AV

lastchance77

Thanks Soberwolf (cool avatar BTW) My therapist taught me to picture my AV as a real person. I chose this producer that used to work with me who lied all the time. It really helps!

MyTime86

You will have ups and downs. Fight through the bad. And in time everything calms down.
You will enjoy being sober

Aellyce

I read others do similar things here. I did some quite sophisticated visualization exercises, too, although differently from you. That AV separation thing never worked for me... but what did was visualizing many of my past experiences, recalling many of the most intense memories and associations between drinking-events/people/feelings/etc -- and then destroying the "image" of the drinking-associated memories in whatever way I fancied, in my mind. Then replace it with new imagery. Lots of fantasy exercises. I used to do quite a lot of meditative exercises earlier in my life and learned that I was good at visualization, that's where the idea came from. It helped a lot, but I needed to repeat and repeat...

Everything will get much more stable, but in the time being, enjoy the great feeling

Justincredible

I like the idea of doing this. I might have to try it out as I've never heard of doing this with your AV. I still find I am trying to separate and distinguish my AV from myself a lot of the time. I have to try some visualization, read up on it and learn a simple form of it.