Spreading my Wings
 

Hi .
I my name is Stevie and I am a recovering alcoholic ,I am 9 yrs sober my sobriety date is 12th march 2006 , Stopping drinking is easy ,staying stopped is a lot harder and in my opinion is what must be strived for and is achievable if you learn how to handle sobriety and how to live without alcohol .

People invent many excuses for lifting a drink which is really rationalizing and justifying their action , an excuse is an attempt to find a reason when there is none . I have had over the past 9 years events which are tragic ,heartbreaking ,soul destroying and devastating ,sure there where times I felt like lifting a drink but at the end of the day what I was wanting was oblivion ,yes I wanted to block out the events that were happening to me , reality was it would not have changed anything I would still have to face up to reality and realise that a drink was not the answer .

Every single time I have been faced with upsetting events and not lifted a drink ! has actually strengthened my sobriety , when I stopped drinking I was left with myself and I was not a very nice person ,I was still a liar /cheat / thief / dishonest / unfaithful / abusive/far to many character defects to mention .

Sobriety is about change if I do not change from the man who first stopped drinking ! then I will drink again , sobriety to me was about change it is an inside job ,I had to start living my life with a new outlook and unlearn most of the values and standards that I had held before ,not easy but do-able , it takes time but is so worthwhile , self respect comes through time and respect from others takes longer .

I have made many many mistakes since I first tried to get sober , 20 years at one time and drank again ,simply put I never changed in any way ok I was not drinking ,but I was like a dog without its bone very unhappy most of the time and behaved in the same way I did whilst drinking ,only thing missing was booze .

I learned from that ,only thing you can do about the past is learn from it , sobriety is the most important thing in my life and I absolutely love being sober , hope to meet new friends on here and look forward to it .
Stevie

Hi and welcome.

"I have made many many mistakes since I first tried to get sober , 20 years at one time and drank again ,simply put I never changed in any way ok I was not drinking ,but I was like a dog without its bone very unhappy most of the time and behaved in the same way I did whilst drinking ,only thing missing was booze ."


Your statement is what I’ve called a dry drunk for many years which some don’t like, whatever, we are sober today.
Acting and reacting like when we were drinking to me is not a good comfortable sobriety.

We learn that work and change is required to progress in a healthy manner which leads to a feeling of being comfortable in our own skin. Half measures avail us nothing.

KEEP COMING AND BE WELL

Hiya Stevie, welcome to sr and congratulations on your 9 years and more sober time.

I was similar to you as in not liking myself and learning to live without the booze. You will probably find most of us here had to learn recovery.

I found this site a lifeline and informative, most people here had experienced or experiencing similar to myself. I could relate and learnt some valuable tools to aid in my recovery.

Welcome Stevie nice to meet you

Welcome Stevie - congrats on your recovery :)

D

Hi Stevie and well done on 9 years! :)

Welcome to the Forum Stevie!! :wave:

Welcome to SR Stevie. I had to change a whole lot along the way to stay sober. I'm still learning and growing. Good to have you here.

Welcome to SR, stevieg46. I'm so glad you've decided to share your recovery with us!

welcome!!!

and thank you for your post... it's powerful and a great reminder of many important things.

:)

Well stated, thanks for sharing - your experience is of great value and very helpful.......

Thanks!