Making plans
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: East Midlands UK
Posts: 502
Making plans
Hi
I am having a problem finding the threads about making plans and tips.
I would really appreciate it if somebody could point me in the right direction.
Many thanks x
I am having a problem finding the threads about making plans and tips.
I would really appreciate it if somebody could point me in the right direction.
Many thanks x
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Dancing in the Light
Posts: 61,469
Here you go, and I think it will be helpful:
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...at-we-did.html (Recovery Programs & What to Expect (What We Did))
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...at-we-did.html (Recovery Programs & What to Expect (What We Did))
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: East Midlands UK
Posts: 502
Originally Posted by Anna 
Here you go, and I think it will be helpful:
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...at-we-did.html (Recovery Programs & What to Expect (What We Did))
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...at-we-did.html (Recovery Programs & What to Expect (What We Did))
Fabulous! Thank you
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 6,902
Hi Startanew. I think I read somewhere that you're intending to start AA next week. You could read some more about the 12-step plan of recovery that is available to us through those meetings. (You don't work on it actually at the meetings, but it is a good place to meet a sponsor to guide you through it).
In the meantime...
A very simple plan might incorporate HALT (common triggers to avoid - Hunger Anger Loneliness Tiredness), thinking about planning your day to avoid them and what contingency plan you could have for when the invariable do sneak up on you.
Gratitude Lists help many of us. There is a great app called Gratitude 365 that might be helpful.
Keeping busy is also useful. Even if it's just low-level stuff like going for a walk or weeding a flower bed. When we just sit about our heads can get in a spin.
Prayer and meditation are powerful tools for recovery. Initially there were some great (really simple) breathing meditations /exercises that helped me to deal with anxiety.
BB
In the meantime...
A very simple plan might incorporate HALT (common triggers to avoid - Hunger Anger Loneliness Tiredness), thinking about planning your day to avoid them and what contingency plan you could have for when the invariable do sneak up on you.
Gratitude Lists help many of us. There is a great app called Gratitude 365 that might be helpful.
Keeping busy is also useful. Even if it's just low-level stuff like going for a walk or weeding a flower bed. When we just sit about our heads can get in a spin.
Prayer and meditation are powerful tools for recovery. Initially there were some great (really simple) breathing meditations /exercises that helped me to deal with anxiety.
BB
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: California
Posts: 13,036
Hi StartaNew,
Logging in here and either reading or posting often in the beginning really helped me. Also, being out in nature and getting some exercise daily, and mindfulnesss. These are all part of my daily routine now.
You've got this!
Logging in here and either reading or posting often in the beginning really helped me. Also, being out in nature and getting some exercise daily, and mindfulnesss. These are all part of my daily routine now.
You've got this!
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
If I went to my mechanic and asked for some tips on how to fix up my car, his first question would be "What's wrong with it". It's impossible to fix it up without knowing this. It is much the same with alcohol problems. They vary in nature and extent. Alcohol use disorder extends across a huge range from just drinking a bit more than the recommended allowance all the way through to chronic end stage alcoholism.
Most folks will probably grow out of it and change their lives as other interests kick in. A lot of my school friends were like that. For a short time their drinking was indistinguishable from mine, then they went on to better things.
Some folks hit it along over quite an extended period to where they think it is affecting their health, or the doctor says something, or the wife and they just say enough is enough and they stop.
Others find it more difficult. I desperately wanted to be in one of the other groups, where I could choose whether I drank or not, but I wasn't, though I made every effort to prove that I was.
The questions that confronted me were around what happens when I drink, can I guarantee my behaviour? Well, sometimes, but not always. I often lost control.
And what happens whe I try to stop and stay stopped. Stopping was relatively easy for me, I was usually too sick and broke to continue and initially I was often surrounded with good reasons to stop based in the stupid things i did on a spree. So with all that evidence, could I stay stopped?
Could I retain those thoughts and memories as an adequate motivation to stay stopped? Well yes, once for a few months, but mostly not for more than a few hours. Despite choosing no to drink. I drank anyway, the memories didn't help me. I had lost both the power of choice and the ability to control my drinking.
Knowing that made it more likely I would choose a plan that would have some chance os success. If I had been one of the other types of drinkers, my plan could obviously be different.
It was amazing the lengths I went to to avoid my particular diagnosis. I became convinced I had a temporal lobe disorder which explained my erratic behaviour. They could give me a certificate for that, and maybe some pills, and that would explain my behaviour. Meantime I could go on drinking. I would rather have been insane than be a real alcoholic. I think they call that denial. Luckily the doctors knew better and stuck with their diagnosis of chronic alcoholism and about a year later it sunk in. Then I ended up with an appropriate plan to suit my problem, and it worked.
Most folks will probably grow out of it and change their lives as other interests kick in. A lot of my school friends were like that. For a short time their drinking was indistinguishable from mine, then they went on to better things.
Some folks hit it along over quite an extended period to where they think it is affecting their health, or the doctor says something, or the wife and they just say enough is enough and they stop.
Others find it more difficult. I desperately wanted to be in one of the other groups, where I could choose whether I drank or not, but I wasn't, though I made every effort to prove that I was.
The questions that confronted me were around what happens when I drink, can I guarantee my behaviour? Well, sometimes, but not always. I often lost control.
And what happens whe I try to stop and stay stopped. Stopping was relatively easy for me, I was usually too sick and broke to continue and initially I was often surrounded with good reasons to stop based in the stupid things i did on a spree. So with all that evidence, could I stay stopped?
Could I retain those thoughts and memories as an adequate motivation to stay stopped? Well yes, once for a few months, but mostly not for more than a few hours. Despite choosing no to drink. I drank anyway, the memories didn't help me. I had lost both the power of choice and the ability to control my drinking.
Knowing that made it more likely I would choose a plan that would have some chance os success. If I had been one of the other types of drinkers, my plan could obviously be different.
It was amazing the lengths I went to to avoid my particular diagnosis. I became convinced I had a temporal lobe disorder which explained my erratic behaviour. They could give me a certificate for that, and maybe some pills, and that would explain my behaviour. Meantime I could go on drinking. I would rather have been insane than be a real alcoholic. I think they call that denial. Luckily the doctors knew better and stuck with their diagnosis of chronic alcoholism and about a year later it sunk in. Then I ended up with an appropriate plan to suit my problem, and it worked.
Life is good
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 4,036
Keeping busy is also useful. Even if it's just low-level stuff like going for a walk or weeding a flower bed.
Stuff like this is so much more important in my life than I realized before.
Thankful for things like this in the past, and today.
Stuff like this is so much more important in my life than I realized before.
Thankful for things like this in the past, and today.
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