New life...day one!
 

Hello,

I'm new here. I am on day one of sobriety. I have been a pretty heavy closet drinker for about 5 years. Its definitely affected my life negatively in many ways. I quit smoking cigarettes in June and I can't seem to kick the evil alcohol demon on my shoulder. I want to be happy and healthy again. I feel disgusting. Right now I'm experiencing itchiness which sounds like that's a typical symptom to have. Any tips or advice on staying sober would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hi and welcome cms :)

coming here is a good first step.

Not sure if you do the most of your drinking at home or not, but an alcohol free house really helped me.

Really use the support here too. Read around, ask questions - maybe join a few threads like our October support thread -

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...art-2-a-2.html

see what others are doing to stay sober :)

SR helped me turn my life around - I know we can help you do the same :)

D

Welcome CMS! You've come to a great place for support. Good job on making day the beginning of a new, healthy life! You absolutely can kick alcohol, as you did cigarettes. Stick around here, put a plan in place and take it one day at a time. There are daily support threads that you can join to hold yourself accountable for 24 hours at a time.

Welcome! Im so glad you are here!
I was a secretive closet drinker as well. No one knew how much I was drinking and I put alot of energy into that lifestyle. Sneaking and lying was part of it and I swear that was part of the lifestyle that I needed to break. Being able to be more authentic/genuine alng with being sober has been so nice. Closet drinking takes ALOT of our energy ya know?

So maybe changing up some routines, really think about what some of your patterns were and make changes to that. Like if you did most of your drinking at nights, findng things to fill up and distract that time. I used things like reading here, getting books from the library or from amazon for my kindle, books on recovery, writing ( typing) in a journal, I listed all the negative affects of my drinking etc.

My best wishes to you. Stick around here, lots of loving kind supportive people here to help you on your journey!!

hi cms1988

going to aa has helped me stay sober today

Hi and welcome, Cms!

Cms, hello and welcome.

Welcome!

My #1 suggestion? Take a balls to the wall approach to making sobriety your #1 priority.

Do EVERYTHING you can think of to keep your sobriety important to you. Make it a serious goal every day. If you can stack up a few days of meeting your goal, you will start to feel more and more rewarded for hitting those goals.

Wake up: set goal to be sober
During the day: research and apply all the tools you can.
Before bed: recognize how awesome you are for meeting that goal.

Soon those daily accomplishments turn into weekly. And before you can blink an eye, you're onto monthly milestones.

It's sooo much better being sober. I'm super psyched for ya!

Welcome!

My #1 suggestion? Take a balls to the wall approach to making sobriety your #1 priority.

Do EVERYTHING you can think of to keep your sobriety important to you. Make it a serious goal every day. If you can stack up a few days of meeting your goal, you will start to feel more and more rewarded for hitting those goals.

Wake up: set goal to be sober
During the day: research and apply all the tools you can.
Before bed: recognize how awesome you are for meeting that goal.

Soon those daily accomplishments turn into weekly. And before you can blink an eye, you're onto monthly milestones.

Some things that worked for me:
- posting here every day, multiple times a day.
- set a mantra like get "incontrol" then changed my log in's and passwords to serve as a constant reminder.
- focused more on moving forward than getting over. I started a new life vs leaving an old.
- diet, water, exercise. Huge savior.
- go to some AA mtgs. Visit at least 3 different meetings and hide in the back if you want. But go.
- learn about "riding the wave" and "playing it forward" . Huge help. There's a sticky about those tools. Learn them.
- focus on getting healthy.
- accountability. Here or AA or family or a friend. Anyone who you can declare your desire to quit and talk to honestly.

It's sooo much better being sober. I'm super psyched for ya!

You say you were a closet drinker.
That was me, pretty much.
I drank on my own.
But, I couldn't stop on my own.

My number one tip:
Get yourself out to a face-to-face meeting -- AA or otherwise.
If you can do that, you can do this:

Stay away from that first drink.
It's the first drink that does the damage.

Welcome to SR. I was a secret closet drinker and it took so much energy to hide my booze, buy my booze, get rid of empties, and all the things we do not to get discovered. Sobriety is so freeing from being a prisoner and slave to alcohol. I wish you all the best on beginning your sober life!

Welcome to the Forum Cms!! :wave:

It's so good to have you join us, Cms. :) SR helped me find the courage to change my life. You can do it.

Well said CR and I couldn't agree more! Freedom!

A warm welcome to SR cms.

You are so right! It's down to the point where I was planning my day around alcohol. Definitely had to hide it in my room, have a secret trash bag, and then when nobody's home, sneak and throw all the bottles in the dumpster. Thank you for the positive wishes! I'm on Day 2!

Thank you for this amazing advice! I will definitely put it to use! Focusing on my health is #1 right now because all the alcohol has made me look puffy and unhealthy.

Thank you everyone!
 

I am amazed to see how much support there already is. I'm on day 2! I feel kind of irritable and groggy but at least I'm not nauseous or have a headache! I'm about to work a 12 hour night shift, which will easily bring me to day 3 of sobriety! then I have a show to go to Saturday night, so hopefully I can stay sober after the show! Wish me luck. God bless you all!

Congrats on day 2 cms. Have a good shift at work and enjoy the show on Saturday night. You can do it cms. It's ok not to drink, just say 'no thanks'.
Come back here to read, write and get support. :grouphug:

Welcome to SR!