Snowydelrico

Whilst away last week at a friends.
We went to a few bars and sat outside doing a catch up.
I had a couple of mocktails and a few bottles of fizzy water.

I felt a funny sensation and my head seamed to cloud a little.
I kind of let go and tried not to let it spoil my night out.

I wondered if I’d been spiked, but didn’t feel the warm poison coursing through my veins. So it wasn’t that.

Letting go to this feeling was reminiscent to letting go as as drug or alcohol used to take effect.

Was I high on the atmosphere?
Had I been thinking all those years that alcohol had been giving me this natural high.
Or has my hard work payed off allowed me to enjoy myself properly around what would normally be hell or at least a testing challenge.

Anybody else had this happen?

Gerard52

I can see that. Being in a bar enjoying the company and being free of any desire to drink. The quiet knowledge you are in control and you don't need a life threatening drug poisoning your life. Not there yet but I can visualise it. Much like how I feel about smoking.

entropy1964

I'm not sure how long you've been sober but, as you probably know, alcohol makes profound changes in our dopamine receptors. I can remember detoxing horribly, getting alcohol, and feeling the effects (the release of dopamine) before even drinking it. Just the process of pouring it in a glass started to ease because my brain was habituated and knew what was coming next.

Now I obviously am reaching here but maybe you had a similar experience. Your brain released 'feel good' chemicals just being in the atmosphere where you would normally drink. Could happen. Or not. But I do relate.

slipnslide

I call it the “placebo effect”. I got it a lot when I’d be out and not drinking. For a long time I would only drink when I was out at bars... so when I was pregnant or otherwise not drinking that night, and I was at a bar listening to music or something, I would start feeling cloudy headed.

biminiblue

Interesting, Fricka.

Dopamine has been called, "The anticipation neurotransmitter." There is a lot of info online about that, so I think you may be on to something.

Snowydelrico

I thought maybe ‘placebo effect ‘ too, slipslide.

That dopamine one is interesting yes. I kind of sunk back in to old routine and became really comfortable with the situation. Returning to my old silly banter like I would after a few. No dark/cruel edge to the banter like there was after a drink.
Been sober almost 17 months now fricka

Berrybean

Maybe not the same thing, but I was reading that in one 12-step recovery fellowship a metaphor used for the feeling that can come from a compulsion to act out is'being in The Bubble'...
"Being hit with the obsession to act out is like being engulfed in the bubble. We are powerless and carried away by the all-encompassing power of our compulsions.”

If you were in one of those kind of bubbles perhaps that was a bit of a slippery place / situation for you to put yourself in. I'm pleased you came out unscathed.

BB

Snowydelrico

Thanks berrybean.
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to enjoy it but nevertheless I went along with it.
Had no escape plan as I was in Belgium and I was staying with them.
It was another test but I think it did me good.
Feel stronger and more confident in dealing with those situations now.

A guy in one of the bars offered me a barley wine I said no thanks.
He offered again more pushy this time ( a big fella he was. Not that I’m small at 6’6”)
I refused again, saying it was a poison to me I’m an alcoholic.
It made him feel bad, bless him.