tomls

Hey there all you mega time sobriety holders. Can you tell me , are there different plateaus ,so to speak, in recovery time? Sometimes I just feel like I'm going to explode I feel so good! Then sometimes not so good but 1,000,000 times better than alcohol and drug stuff! I know everybody's different but is there some kind of rule of thumb that you can kind of go by? One day at a time, of course! Thank you all for being here!

ScottFromWI

One of the things I've learned to accept is that life simply has it's ups and downs. As an active drinker, I tried to smooth out the downs and enhance the ups with alcohol, but of course it never worked. I don't know that there is such a "plateau" where everything just feels "good" all the time. But I do feel that being sober equips us much better to deal with life on face value.

Anna

Yes, I think so.

I noticed a pattern in my recovery where I would feel stuck and I lost any momentum. That would usually be followed by a burst of energy and moving forward, as if I had been waiting for my body, mind & spirit to unite and move on.

Bunny211

I had a 9 month slump.
Now, approaching 2 years, I realized I was in a huge slump for the past couple months and I needed to change some things in my life in order to be happy...which I did. It was tough, but I got through it.

FBL

The more time that elapses, I find it easier and easier to cope with the ups and downs of life. I've been through some major happenings in my life since getting sober. Realizing that I can get through them sober makes my sobriety even stronger.

Andante

If those represent the extremes of your ups and downs, then I'd say you're doing pretty well

My progress in recovery has definitely been non-linear and not always coherent, meaning that I can simultaneously feel really good about some things and really bad about others.

I don't think there's any rule of thumb except that everything becomes easier to bear with more sober time and work on recovery. With ups and downs along the way, of course.

Grymt

Yes, there are many plateaus.

There are levels of life, like living in the gutter to living in a palace and beyond. One may be an alcoholic in any level. The path for an active alcoholic is down and the path for a sober alcoholic is up.

There are emotional plateaus. Pleasant and unpleasant. High and low. These are ephemeral, impermanent fleeting. They rise to pass away. It's pointless to form an attachment to them or to try to make them go away when they are there. It's pointless to form an attachment to them or to try to make them go away when they are not there.

To be equanimously aware of them when they are there facilitates their passing in the simplest way possible. When they pass they uncover a true peace and happiness.

The equanimous awareness of these impermanent miseries is the middle level, or noble path.

Between expression and suppression lies the middle path. The way. The Noble path. The path less often taken.

So three which are really two levels. Reacting out of ignorance, the active alcoholic. Not reacting. Wisdom. The sober alcoholic.

BrendaChenowyth

The reason I wanted to stop drinking SO badly was that I wanted to learn to cope with the ups and downs of life, like everyone else, without self-destructing.

It was a rewarding process until I reached a plateau emotionally. I wasn't getting a rush of dopamine anymore, and that was what I was addicted to, having some kind of direct line to that "buzz". I am learning now that we are constantly going through dopamine withdrawal unless we can find ways to get small frequent doses of it.. exercise, healthy food, indulgent food, activities we enjoy, sunshine, a chat with your best friend, buying something new, learning something new, making something.. I am trying to learn to appreciate the freedom I have, now that I have quit drinking, to find joy in life in lots of little ways, rather than trying and failing to find joy in only ONE way.

I have to be okay with having good and bad days and figuring out how to take care of myself and unwind in other ways. That's the whole goal. Not making life better, cause life is still not always gonna be a picnic, but getting through it without something that makes me sick and takes all my money and kills all my relationships and opportunities.

I also have to focus on other areas of my life. It can't be all about recovery from alcoholism. What are my professional goals? How can I take better care of my physical health? Am I maturing spiritually? I think that last one is more important to recovery and getting through this life than a lot of us are open to admitting. We want to know why we're here and how to truly be fulfilled.

PurpleKnight

One thing I learnt in Sobriety is that life isn't fixed or sorted, there's still going to be a few curve balls and the cards still keep getting dealt.

However the foundation of Sobreity allows me to deal with life in a much more healthier way, I used to have to manage those curve balls through a haze, with a pounding hangover, with the fear that I was hanging on by simply a thread.

But Sobreity gives the building blocks to build something that alcohol always seemed to promise but never delivered on!!