How often do you have unwanted thoughts about drinking?
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 242
How often do you have unwanted thoughts about drinking?
My drinking is an addiction, but it was also a habit.
At least 4 to 5 times a day something regarding drinking will “pop” into my head. It’s like a thought and a feeling rolled into one.
These aren’t terrible cravings. I am able to recognize them as my addicted voice and dismiss them. It is annoying though.
I’m curious how often this happens to others in early recovery, and when those thoughts will stop popping up so often.
Anyone?
At least 4 to 5 times a day something regarding drinking will “pop” into my head. It’s like a thought and a feeling rolled into one.
- Going to the grocery store… a giddy sensation will come over me along with the idea to go grab a bottle.
- Going out to dinner… same sensation with the thought of the wine I will order.
- Going home after a long day of work… a relieved feeling that I will be able to go reward myself with a drink.
These aren’t terrible cravings. I am able to recognize them as my addicted voice and dismiss them. It is annoying though.
I’m curious how often this happens to others in early recovery, and when those thoughts will stop popping up so often.
Anyone?
sober style
Join Date: May 2016
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 2,387
When I'm drinking, I think a lot about drinking. The longer I don't drink, the less I think about it. It is hard at first. There's a hump you have to get over at first, at least for me. A week or so, I'd say. Everybody's different though.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 66
I'm not quite a year and they still occasionally pop in to my head. Very early on it felt almost enough to act on it and it required some conscious effort to negate.
Now it feels more like a reminiscing. Funnily enough, the reminiscing bears little resemblance to what my drinking was like in the end
Now it feels more like a reminiscing. Funnily enough, the reminiscing bears little resemblance to what my drinking was like in the end
A Day at a Time
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Grand Rapids MI
Posts: 6,435
At 7.5 years they pop up from time to time. I don't really keep track of them but it is seldom. They are gone as soon as they arrive. Every once in a while they will stay for a minute or so but all I have to do is remind myself there is a reason I don't drink
DOS: 08-16-2012
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Central Iowa
Posts: 365
Virtually none at all since completing the 4th and 5th steps in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous about 4.5 years ago. Like mentioned above, if a thought pops into my pea brain it's outta there just as quick.
Community Greeter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 51,569
Hi AlaskaGirl. I went through many phases. Because I'd been drinking 24/7, I was obsessed with it for a while. At around 3 mos. I realized I wasn't thinking about it much anymore. After a year it was very infrequent - and now, at 9 yrs. it almost never crosses my mind. (The thing I once couldn't live without.)
I went through many phases. Because I'd been drinking 24/7, I was obsessed with it for a while. At around 3 mos. I realized I wasn't thinking about it much anymore. After a year it was very infrequent - and now, at 9 yrs. it almost never crosses my mind. (The thing I once couldn't live without.)
Member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 14,934
I'm approaching 7 years and I really don't think about drinking alcohol. The craft beer/micro brewery experience has really exploded in my town the past several years. It's a college town and it's got a reputation for some very good micro breweries. I sometimes wonder what some of the new beers taste like, but I'm not inclined to try them.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Midwest
Posts: 9,029
They do lessen in time. I thought about it all the time when I first stopped. Then gradually it eased and I hadn't really even noticed until one day I did think about alcohol and it was an odd feeling. Three years in and I do get thoughts sometimes. Usually when I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Anger is the usual culprit but I have to be wary of the others.
They're just thoughts. I look at it and let it go.
They're just thoughts. I look at it and let it go.
Giving up is NOT an option.
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 7,809
Definitely gets less frequent as time goes on. In the beginning I thought about it a lot, but I had a pretty bad rock bottom and those thoughts actually made me feel physically ill when they popped up. Now, at a bit over two years, the thoughts are very infrequent. As you break the "habit" of drinking at certain times, you'll think about it less and less. And they are really just thoughts. Nothing that needs to be acted upon.
Left the bottle behind 4/16/2015
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: NC
Posts: 1,416
At 21 months sober, the thoughts are very infrequent. Occasionally as I drive past a liquor store, there is a flash of memory, but just as quickly I remember what happened to me because of my drinking. The attraction is all but gone.
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 847
Originally Posted by AlaskaGirl 
These aren’t terrible cravings. I am able to recognize them as my addicted voice and dismiss them. It is annoying though.
I’m curious how often this happens to others in early recovery, and when those thoughts will stop popping up so often.
I’m curious how often this happens to others in early recovery, and when those thoughts will stop popping up so often.
The Beast is essentially saying "Isn't it wonderful that you don't have any desire to drink (ie, that I'm not very active)? It's futile to struggle against me, after all. You are safe for now, though, as long as I'm not very active, and you don't have any desire to drink. Eventually, though, I might get you to drink, so be very scared of me, and hope that I don't return much."
Phrased a little more succinctly, the desire for the absence of desire conceals a plan to drink in the presence of desire.
Guest
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 928
I sometimes feel there is this attitude that it is somehow wrong to have a thought of drinking, or a desire to drink. Like BrendaChenowyth said, we are alcoholics, I would think it would be expected we have thoughts of drinking. Otherwise what are we all doing here?
Ive been to many AA meetings and at the beginning of every meeting they ask if anyone has a desire to drink (or is at risk of drinking). 99% of the time no one speaks up. I interpret this as more of a fear of speaking up (imagine that, at an AA meeting) over that 99% of the time no one is thinking about having a drink. I know Ive often failed to speak up when I was dying for a drink. That falls on me. But Ive often wondered what that says about AA that 99% of the time in a room full of people, no one is willing to speak up and say they want to go get drunk.
SR is great in that regard, it is expected with little to no judgement. We all understand. As for me, at 5 days sober, I still think about it. There are thoughts and then there's overwhelming cravings. Those are the ones that Im worried about and trying to prepare myself for.
Ive been to many AA meetings and at the beginning of every meeting they ask if anyone has a desire to drink (or is at risk of drinking). 99% of the time no one speaks up. I interpret this as more of a fear of speaking up (imagine that, at an AA meeting) over that 99% of the time no one is thinking about having a drink. I know Ive often failed to speak up when I was dying for a drink. That falls on me. But Ive often wondered what that says about AA that 99% of the time in a room full of people, no one is willing to speak up and say they want to go get drunk.
SR is great in that regard, it is expected with little to no judgement. We all understand. As for me, at 5 days sober, I still think about it. There are thoughts and then there's overwhelming cravings. Those are the ones that Im worried about and trying to prepare myself for.
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