Day one again
 

I was doing so good. Had 10 days in and then after a bad day yesterday, I went for the wine. Feeling hungover and embarrassed today. I know I need to not beat myself up over this but it's hard.

I agree Cordy, it is hard. Both the abstaining from alcohol but also the self defeating beating yourself up - and I have gold medals in beating myself up.

Yesterday morning I felt exactly the same as you do this morning. Today I have 24 hours under my belt and WILL stop drinking for good this time.

Come and join me x

It is hard!! If this were easy why would alcohol have such a booming consumer market. I find it gets easier with time and replacing alcohol with life. Getting connected with other sober people has been key to my own success. Sometimes I struggle with meeting people but it all comes in time. Keep the progress :)

Don't be hard on yourself, you're here and ready to start again :-)

Do you have a plan on how to deal with stress in a different way next time?

Hop right back in. It can take us a while to change both our thoughts and our actions, or reactions as is often the case. For me, a bad day meant wine. A good day meant wine. Every day meant wine. I needed to develop new habits. What can you do to deal with stress to replace alcohol? Time to start a plan.

And your ten days aren't lost. You can do this!

We want you to come back and are happy you did. Those first two weeks were the toughest for me.

It might be helpful to see this as a learning experience in a larger arc of recovery. Make a plan for the next time, i.e., call someone, post on SR before you drink, go for a run, etc.

with love,
Grace

Don't beat yourself up, go at things again Cordy!!

Though change up your plan, tweak a few things moving forward.

You can do this!! :)

Glad you are back Cordy. Learn from this and reinforce your plan. Do you think you need to add anything new? Or were you perhaps not following it well enough? Either way, make positive change so it doesn't happen again.

What is your current plan

"Replacing alcohol with life." That's exactly what happens when you quit drinking- you get to live your life more fully and deliberately. Drinking doesn't even measure up to that by even a small margin.
If you can make it through the difficult early days, it does get easier.

Bad days will happen whether we drink or not. What changes is how we deal with the bad, and the good. What can you change for the next time it happens? And it will happen.

You did ten days. That's fantastic. You know you can get that far. Don't beat yourself up. It won't help anything. Just know you can do this. I'm glad you came back.

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes. I went for a walk and hit the library for some books on recovery. I plan to read here at least once a day and get back into my yoga practice. (I'm a runner so I'll be doing that too but I'm coming back from an injury.)

Glad you are back! Keep on keepin on..You can do this!:)

Glad you're back Cordy!

I had a setback as well on Sunday, and now I'm back on Day 2 and feeling great.
Oddly enough that stupid setback has completely killed my desire to drink. If I can't make it more than 5 days without it, it's more of a problem than I thought!

Sounds like you added some more tools/activities in there to help this time around. Seems like a good move to me!

I use to run long distance (not jog, but run) which helped my depression. Depression was the main reason I drank alcoholically. I became addicted to running extreme distances every day for years, 1/2 marathons at least once a week. What I discovered was I'd used extreme sports from childhood to self-medicate depression.

As a child, I was unaware I was suffering from depression. Then my behavior was called hyperactivity which was the symptom for my depression. I found in part the answer for my behavior and why I felt the way I didn't about myself. In 1971 science discovered beta endorphins which is 80 times stronger than heroin. The human body makes beta endorphins to relieve physical pain. Of course when I was out of physical pain which depression can engender, I felt psychologically better. Well in essence, I used alcohol basically the same way for years, no wonder alcohol felt so great, it relieved my depression.

What I finally did was keep trying to remain abstinent and not label it sobriety, because it wasn't sobriety when I was still struggling with the urge to drink. I also stopped telling myself and everyone else that I would never drink again. What I did was NOT DRINK "ONE DAY AT A TIME"

Eventually after I did self-examination into why I drank alcoholically which was the PROBLEM that began in childhood, I was able to recover from the SYMPTOM(s) which were my addictions and then I finally got sober.

BTW, I'm familiar with yoga, it taught me how to breath which enhanced my running.

I'm glad you made it back Cordy :)

look critically at what you've been doing to stay sober - and then think of other things to add to it.

You can get this :)

D