D122y

John,

Between the lines of your post I read....I forgot that I am a drug addict.

The addiction calls to you...a drink would help right now....

It lies to you...just going to have a couple of drinks....then you black out...

The addict brain vs sober brain.

When you are heavily addicted...you are operating w brain damage.

Your decisions are not truly the decisions you would make if you were clean and sober.

I quit when I started having serious mental and physical issues. I did it med free.

Quitting was a living hell. Doing it the way I did is burned into my brain. i relate it to being tortured daily, periodically, for about a year.

I never want to go through that hell ever again.

Quitting is a personal decision. I still believe that sobriety is for people that can't handle their booze. I used to say that jokingly. Now I believe it.

You will quit eventually. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.

Thanks.

EndGameNYC

The trouble with aiming low is that you always hit the target. There's a significant difference between being grateful for what we have and settling for things as they are due to fear or indifference. A couple of people here and who I know IRL defend doing nothing to better themselves or their situations by invoking the meaningless "it is what it is." The national anthem for people who are either too stubborn or too terrified to make a difference in their own lives. Becoming a mature adult involves taking risks, not sitting in the same seat that brought you nothing in the first place. Anyone can give up.

I learned by living sober that I'm not, nor was I ever, content to stand still or to hold my voice. That I cannot succeed unless I'm willing to fail. That there's nothing rewarding in settling for less. I took on things in my life during the more than thirty years I've been sober that I never imagined I would or could do. And though I didn't always succeed, or succeed in that way I had hoped, the attempts and the struggle themselves brought me to a much better place. Every time.

These 9 Mental Habits Suck the Happiness from Your Life | World of Psychology

"A lifetime is, for most of us, a decades-long ride that sees many highs and many lows, and many ebbs and many flows. Believing that there is a downward trajectory obstructs the beauty of everyday things and keeps you hopelessly and inaccurately believing negative ideas, giving them a staying power that they don’t deserve."

Steve Jobs-5.jpg

2muchpain

EndGameNYC
Thanks for your post. There's a lot of wisdom in it. But I'm not sure what you mean by aiming low. Are you referring to my accepting not connecting with the people where I live, or the fear of venturing out, jumping into an RV and starting a new adventure? John

EndGameNYC

It isn't an accusation. It's about breaking free from what we've learned or what we've always done. Or what we think about our ability to grow and change, to build a better life.

Everyone dies with thousands of things we never attempted, things we never tried as a means of making life better, or at least more interesting, for us. There is nothing on earth that torments us, lies to us, and leaves us in despair as our own thinking. It often takes a major event, a traumatic event, or a life filled with despair to take notice of this. We are, I believe, always more than we think we are.

2muchpain

I never saw your post as an accusation. Just good advice. John

EndGameNYC

Okay. Just wanted to be clear about it.