HALT! Saved me from relapse today.
 

Hi all. I'm on day 11. And I was doing pretty well with not feeling drinking urges up until today. This afternoon my AV was barking at me. And it got louder and louder, and it got my imagination going thinking about which alcoholic beverage would satiate my urge. And I wasn't sure why at first. But then fortunately I recalled from my previous time here, reading about H.A.L.T.

That urges to drink alcohol often arise when you feel any or all of what this acronym stands for:

Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.

So I stopped and assessed my state.

Was I hunger? Yep, I was. So I ate.

Was I angry? Yes, I was. My stupid friend, who knew I was working on sobriety, suggested coming over so we could grill hot dogs and have cold beers . That pissed me off. Anyway, I told her that the only thing being served at this Inn this evening was salad and water, so she retreated, and then sort of apologized later on.

Lonely? Yes, again, I was. So I called my good buddy, who is supportive of my decision to stop drinking, and she stopped by with her doggie (also a good friend of mine) :)

Tired? Yes, I was. Been tired most of the time since I quit drinking and keep sleeping!
So I took another nap!

I'm not saying that you need all four of the things listed in the acronym in order to feel a drinking urge. Any one of them can be a trigger.
I'm just glad that I managed to remember about HALT, and do something about the triggers other than to pick up a drink.
And now I feel fine and the urge is gone...totally outta here.
For today anyway. Tomorrow I'll make another commitment to 24 hours.

Whoever came up with the H.A.L.T acronym was brilliant, and I'm so thankful to know about it. Also, I wanted to share this experience with my fellow newcomers. It saved me today from slipping big time, and for that I'm very grateful.

Thank you for posting this. Fantastic explanation.

I'm sure it will help me, and many other new people here!

So glad it worked for you today.

Awesome! HALT has saved me many times! Great job!

Great job on not being a puppet to your A/V and working through that craving.

HALT has saved my skin on numerous occasions. At 3 years sober I can say that I still need to be aware of those triggers. They might not open up the AV box like they once did, but they sure do mess up the quality of my sobriety until I've got them sorted.

BB

or HALTS, where the 'T' can be tired or thirsty and the 'S' is for sad.
Good for you.

With my H.A.L.T.S. I substitute whatever word that starts with the letter that comes to mind as my trigger. But it is good to have the basics.
H is always Hunger. Angry sometimes is anxious; L is Lonely or Lacking something; T is Tired, Teary, Ticked-Off, Thirsty; S is Sad, Sorry for Myself or Sick of my life situation. Guess I have lots of triggers to be aware of. Now to satisfy them without drinking is my challenge.

Brilliant job!!! Thanks for using specifics to illustrate how to handle each of these.

Keep going!

Great Post.
Way to go, not only understand your body's needs... but also controlling your situation. Telling your friend it was not ok to come over.
Awesome .

Well done and thank you for sharing :You_Rock_