ReadyAtLast

Gosh I'm overwhelmed by how kind people are. Thank you for reading, responding to and thanking my post. I hope it helped.

Good to see you again fallow. Who would have thought we'd end up like this 4 years down the line. Great to hear from you too taz

courage2

((RAL)) You can do this. Don't dwell on the past. Water under the bridge. You are what you do today, and today you're a sober & wonderful woman.

Zebra1275

I can relate.

I had 5 1/2 years of sobriety, and then thinking I was cured, drank again.

It took me a year of on again/off again drinking to manage to get sober again. It was so much harder then the first time.

Fallow

In my case, probably everyone

Years from now who would guess we would overcome and still be that success story?

Doug39

I am 45 days sober after 27 years of daily drinking.

I quit drinking for 4 months in 2013 and why I started again is stupid. I was trying to save my marriage because my wife was and still is a daily drinker. She hated the fact that I got sober and stopped doing all the things we used to do that involved drinking.

This time around she is supportive but I am sure she believes that one day I will get back on the booze. But I will not. It is not worth it and I am done with that life.

Jtmlk

Thank you for having the courage to share this- it is a reminder to us all not to let our guard down. Im so glad you posted

bexxed

I'm bookmarking this post. It's really powerful.

Maybe one of the most helpful things ever, for me, maybe because I have been in and out of these forums for years and seen your posts.

Maybe because I have four months today and can start to see that it can be easy to forget that sobriety is something we have to exercise.

Truly, thank you for this. And keep going.

B

MythOfSisyphus

Great thread! I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating; despite my sober time I'm under no illusions that my Beast is dead. I can't die so long as I live, it's a part of me. No matter how long I'm sober or how weak the Beast/AV gets I can underestimate it only at my great peril.

It's easy to be tempted. I'm not seriously tempted but the Beast will rattle the door of its cage with those random absent thoughts. I've been sober so long that I could probably have just a couple it whispers. But it lies.

Gottalife

A powerful lesson about dry time not being a cure for alcoholism. I was warned about this possibility when I first got sober. It seems alcoholics of my type can sometimes manage huge stretches of sobriety, but there always comes a time when the defences fail. Maybe we get tired of the discipline, maybe we forget why we stopped in the first place, maybe we aren't getting any real rewards from our efforts, who knows.

But somehow the insane idea that one or two should be alright now creeps in, and the sane rational thinking that should shut the idea down doesn't come with enough force to do any good.

I accepted that I needed something more to cement my sobriety and I am glad I chose the path that I did. It is rewarding, which makes my new way of life a pleasure rather than a discipline. I have been through life's ups and downs, and it has never occurred to me to drink. That problem, it seems, has been removed. I no longer have any need to drink, any more than I have a need to drink petrol.

Doesn't mean I am cured. That abnormal reaction to alcohol is still there, but the thinking, the illness that put the fatal first drink in my hand, seems to be gone.

SoberComposer

Thank you for sharing this!

Delilah1

I so glad you are back. I also joined in 2012, and after hitting the 90 day mark thought I could moderate. That was definitely one of my worst ideas. I spent. The next three years alternating between periods of sobriety, and failed attempts at moderation.

I will hit the one year mark on January 1st, and I know I cannot allow my self to become complacent, it has been my downfall in the past. Thank you for sharing this.

❤️Delilah

SwimKim12

Thank you so much for your honest share. The good news is there are many who have relapsed and maintained sobriety again. You can do it!

Dropsie

Thanks for sharing.

We all have those moments and its posts like yours that help us "just say no."

We can tell ourselves all we want that if we were allergic to bees we would not get a beehive, but still there are still seconds -- and that is all t takes -- that we forget, or justify, or wish, or whatever, and there goes the ballgame.

But I can wish all I want that I was tall, but I am still short, and I can wish all I want that I can drink without being a drunk, but I cannot.

You got this -- just keep looking forward.

XX

Merigold

Well..annoying.

I'm struggling with this. I haven't actually managed to quit drinking. I often think to myself..if I can just quit for a few weeks it will be reset, and i can drink normally again....

I've been thinking this for two bloody years. I KNOW it's not true...I KNOW I have to stop and NEV ER drink again...

**** me....

Dee74

if you start your own thread you'll get a lot more advice merigold

D