End of withdrawal & the voice is back
 

It's pretty much the end of day 5 from a very heavy session (apart from half a pint on Friday)...I've experienced a horrible few days which I never want to experience again.

However...now I'm feeling better, the voice in the back of my head has started telling me I'm fine and that I've blown thing out of proportion re my drinking as I've been withdrawing and depressed.

'Maybe I would be fine going out again next weekend - just for the night?!'

I suspect that undermining that voice with my own rational thought is going to be the toughest part?

The AV is going to play all sorts of tricks with you. Starting to feel better and then the thought of "maybe the drinking isn't that bad and I can have an occasional few" is very common. Just talk back to it and remember why you want to be sober. That's the rational thought. Not the maybe I'm not so bad.

You can do this. In the words of Nancy Reagan "Just say NO!"

I think most of us here have battled with the voice. It's not going to leave you after a few days, unfortunately.

My advice is don't engage with it.

Think of that voice as a toddler...it'll throw a tantrum soon enough, but if you ignore it, it will fall asleep eventually.

I'm 14 days sober and the voice can be very strong. I guess the voice will be there for the rest of my life. I just need to practice ignoring it (and feeling proud for ignoring it), hopefully it will eventually become second nature to ignore it.

Practice separating myself from AV. It's not the real me. The real me wants to live, survive. The AV wants me dead. I gave my AV an ugly name.

It gets easier.

Thanks everyone... I think that realising that the AV exists and is common with all of us is a step forward in itself. Being able to differentiate between yourself and the AV no doubt takes time and practice, but being aware and on the look out for it is good enough for now..

I can honestly say that none of my friends, who are in a similar position, know about this concept....it's a real education on here :0)

That half pint set you back to Saturday for day one, it will get easier......

For me, it did become second nature to ignore the voice. The more I ignored it, the less I heard it, until now it's very faint and hardly bothers me. :)

Priceless!!!! John:thanks

Try saying to yourself "I will never drink again," and see what your AV says. It's a good exercise to learn what is you and what is your AV. When I say it, the Voice doesn't chime in anymore, but I get a tightness in the chest and lightheadedness similar to what I feel when I'm about to get hit with the tattoo needle. It's a nervousness, because I know it might not be pleasant the whole time, but e end result is going to be worth it.

Believe it or not, that voice in your head eventually becomes just an annoying thought that passes quickly. John

Are you writing gratitude lists ?