stayinsober

After 5 years sobriety, I relapsed. Put myself into detox for 5 days. Today is day 9 sober. I am upset with my self for relapsing. I have to start over and work on my 12 steps again. I am grateful to have my sponsor. She's the one I called on my last 3 day binge. She made the arrangements to get me into detox. And I was off before I could change my mind. I think I failed because the first go around I didn't completely do my 12 steps I stopped short on the emotional end of it. I know I need to really dig deep this time and concentrate on me. Do it for myself not for everyone else.

DreamCatcher17

Welcome back!

The good news is the last 5 years was not a waste. You have now learned and are growing from that experience along with the relapse.

I think you have a great plan in place.

Many Blessings,
DC

Anna

5 years of sobriety is great and good for you for getting back at it.

You're right, the emotional digging is hard, but you can get through it.

Bonecracker

Wow that's fantastic! Five years of sobriety is a great achievement! I can and will achieve a lot in that amount of teetotal time!!

I'll admit that I'm not to up on all of these addiction industry expressions......when people say "relapse" does that mean that it was never your intention to drink again and it was kind of spur of the moment or an impulse that you acted on and then regret?

What were the conditions that brought you to drink again? planned moderation attempt? planned binge? impulsive binge?

Sorry that you feel bad about choosing to drink again. What's done is done though. You've not killed anybody. Life goes on.

This is the second post in two days where someone has mentioned doing those "steps" and it not working and there going to do more of the same. Someone stated that they'd being doing them since 2009 and they were still drinking so they were going to do them again......

....don't they say insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results? Perhaps a different approach?

Hopefully, you don't beat yourself up too much....I always remember hearing something like "A man who feels bad about himself, will find it difficult to make positive changes"

Remembering that makes it easy for me to let go of useless emotions that don't serve me, such as shame or guilt

fantastic quote in the Devil's Advocate: "Guilt is like a bag of rocks you carry on your shoulders! who are you carrying that bag for? Put it down!!!"

Spoken by the Devil (Pacino) of course.....the message is perhaps you gotta know when to be bad....or deal with bad shite (This is where acknowledging the black wolf comes into play....he's not to be ignored as the modern telling of the story wrongly goes...)

ScottFromWI

Welcome back stayinsober. I think you must have been doing some things right to stay sober for 5 years, and it sounds like you know exactly where things went wrong. Hope we can help you get back on your sober journey.

Dee74

I'm glad you made it back stayinsober

I agree with everyone else that you haven't lost those 5 years and all you learned, good and bad, will hold you in good stead for making a iron clad recovery plan this time around

D

Soberween

Thank you for sharing. Your honesty helps the rest of us stay sober. Glad you are back on the sober path.

Hevyn

Congrats on your 9 days, stayinsober. It took courage to admit what happened & take action. You learned something valuable.

Dee74

For the sake of people new to the forum, this is our newcomers forum rule

Please do share your experience. keeping in mind always to be respectful of other methods of getting sober.

What you heard happened to someone else is not experience.

Dee
Moderator
SR