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Another Day One... Hey everybody, Recently got 58 days but couldn't sustain it. Figured that part of the problem is my social groups are far from sober. I thought that maybe interacting with other people trying not to drink online might help me stay on track. My last run of sobriety was fantastic. I followed the 28 No Drinking Challenge, started running, lost weight and felt awesome. I felt so good that I thought I could drink again and control it. I started slowly, a couple of drinks whilst out for dinner and before I knew it I was drinking every night again, turning up hungover at work and abandoning all the good habits that I'd developed. I know that I don't want to drink again, I just don't know how to do it. I seem to be in a cycle of getting a decent amount of sobriety and then falling back into bad habits. Looking forward to speaking to people on here and hopefully picking up some tips! |
Hi SL you know you can do it! Only on day 2 here but . My advice, one day at a time , make a plan , remember how bad you feel while drinking. Be kind to yourself and pick yourself up again. Come back here and keep posting! Good luck! |
To me it sounds like you can learn from this experience: now you really KNOW you can't moderate (or at least not sustainably). Use that. And well done on the 58 days, it's more than I've managed (yet). |
Originally Posted by Charli23
(Post 7043572)
Hi SL you know you can do it! Only on day 2 here but . My advice, one day at a time , make a plan , remember how bad you feel while drinking. Be kind to yourself and pick yourself up again. Come back here and keep posting! Good luck! I've a read a few places saying to try writing down my feelings on drinking while it's refresh and keeping it around so I can go back and read it whenever tempted. Good luck to you too! |
Originally Posted by Tetrax
(Post 7043587)
To me it sounds like you can learn from this experience: now you really KNOW you can't moderate (or at least not sustainably). Use that. And well done on the 58 days, it's more than I've managed (yet). I always manage to convince myself that I this time will be different and I will be able to moderate. I know that's the biggest issue so hopefully I can tackle it this time. Good luck with your sobriety. |
Welcome! I’m a huge advocate for changing your schedule to do other activities during times when you would drink. Takes your mind away from it for awhile and if it’s something like exercise that exhausts you, usually you just wanna go to bed when home. I think that’s a good part of a sobriety plan. Also as many have said here, stay away from alcohol in early sobriety or be straightforward with your friends that you are not drinking. Usually good friends won’t be dicks about it and if not, then maybe it’s time to find new friends. The above advice about remembering how horrible it feels to drink/be hungover is good. I also am hit with thoughts that I can potentially moderate my drinking. When this happens I always try to remember how the AV doesn’t want just one or two drinks and it’ll scream all night if you try that. Wrestling with that horrible itch of needing more after I’ve had one is as exhausting and awful as being hungover the next day so I just don’t even try it anymore. Waking up refreshed the next day is one of the best rewards. I wish you the best! Keep coming here and reading and posting. Especially if you have cravings. Good luck!! |
welcome to SR! I was in that cycle for a long time too. The important thing is don't quit trying to break it. It can be broke. :) |
Welcome to SR! |
That was my cycle too.. another alcoholic once told me that my disease was not gone but doing push ups in those down times. |
My story is eerily similar. Hang in there. |
Me too! The cycle will repeat itself over and over unless it is completely broken. I had to make a long term plan which has evolved over time. I had to completely change my beliefs, thoughts, behaviors and habits. I see recovery as a life long journey now. These are some things that have helped me: checking in here daily (even if I don’t post, I read), express gratitude every day (I love the gratitude forum on this site), individual therapy (weekly in the beginning, now occasionally), lots of exercise and especially running, yoga and meditation classes, self compassion, positive self talk, healthy eating habits, journaling my feelings. Lots of support here. |
Keep plugging away at stopping, every stop period has a benefit. Very much like I have been. I shudder at thought of being in the grip of it. |
Welcome SoberLad :) Joining this community helped keep me focused on not drinking. I came to see it as a permanent lifestyle choice rather than a diet kind of idea or a temporary stop which might somehow magically reset me. Adopting sobriety permanently has led to great things for me - hope it will for you too :) D |
Thank for the welcomes and tips everybody. It already seems like a great community here. Definitely going to try and login in every day, even if I don't manage to post. I'm trying to go all in with this so I've started to read This Naked Mind and I've dragged myself up at 5am to go running. Keeping busy usually works for me! |
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