Struggling with av it’s really going for it
 

It will pass. It feels awful, I know, but it will pass. I remember feeling like there was no way I could stay sober, but it was just thoughts.

Hang in there. Distract yourself. What's something you enjoy doing?

You'll feel positive again. It's normal to be on an emotional roller coaster at first. Ride out the emotions and they'll even out over time.

Fantastic that you're posting how you're feeling. Well done! :)

Best wishes to you!! :)

Yes, distract yourself. It will pass.

I just saw your other post about triggers. It might be rough for you tonight since it's NYE (has it already happened? Not sure where you are) and standing up for yourself. That would put anybody on an emotional roller coaster, especially when you're new in sobriety.

I can't say enough how well you're doing. Please hang tight. Be kind to yourself. This will pass and in the morning you'll wake up feeling stronger.

Happy New Year's! :)

Get insight timer on your phone and download some meditations. There are some short ones that deal with cravings. As soon as it hits put your headphones on and listen to one for 10 minutes. Cravings will pass, think of your AV as a toddler. It has always gotten it’s own way by throwing a tantrum, and to stop it screaming you give it what it wants. This toddler is being told ‘NO’ for the first time so it’s going to ramp up it’s crying, screaming and manipulating behaviour because that has always worked for it in the past. As with all toddlers if you say NO and mean it, don’t give in it will soon tire itself out and realise it’s not going to get it’s own way anymore. xx

Stay strong. It's all in your head. Keep that mind aside and listen to the good one which is trying to put you on right track. Focus and do things that will help your good mind.

Heres what to remember about the av - it powerless - really :)

it needs you and your arms and legs to get it what it wants - it can't go to the shop and buy booze, it can't open the bottle, it can't pour the booze down your throat.

If you refuse to cooperate, its beaten.

It will throw a tantrum, but like any toddler it will wear itself out eventually.

Don't engage with it - that just keeps it awake.

Have you used any of these tips before eve?
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...-cravings.html

You can do this :)

D

How ya doing Eve? Maybe try chat as well if you can. I know how bummed you’ll feel tomorrow so want to support you stay on the sober side. Huge hugs. Can you take Advil?

Eve I struggled tonight too. But you can get thru this! Hope you are doing ok.

Or ably dumb question, but what is AV?

Alcohol Voice / Addict Voice. Just refers to that little voice in your head that tries to tell you having a drink is a good idea starcco x

Thank you!

Eve,

I agree. Even at my clean time the crave is there. Yesterday for about 15 minutes or so, a couple of times, I had this deep anxiety I wanted to drown w booze.

When it goes away, like it has since day 1, i felt normal and strong.

Addict for life.

Thanks.

Thank you so much for this post, and an opportunity to relate and share experiences. Now that I know what AV is, I had a real strong one yesterday between 2-3 PM, which was my previous “let’s have a drink” time. That one drink would turn into one bottle.

This time to combat the cravings at around 2, I had a low sugar soda, came to this awesome site and read, started cooking (even though cooking is a trigger for me), and played a couple games with my wife and kids (really helped). All these things helped to separate my thinking from my cravings and after about 4 PM, the cravings were gone. I have been much more conscious about drinking in front of my kids. I used to try to hide it from them. That didn’t work either. Part of the trick yesterday was to engage with them through the games so that I knew if I was drinking , they would obviously know, which I don’t want them to see anymore.

I mentioned cooking is a trigger for me because I would cook and drink. Apparently my food came out really good, I just never remembered eating it! But this time I did other things while the food was cooking, which diverted my attention from the cravings I guess. I love cooking so I don’t want to give that up. I just have to train myself to disassociate cooking from drinking.

Hi eve, what is making you think about drinking again?

I had thoughts of drinking early last evening - I felt something intensely physical would help short circuit the thoughts/cravings, so I did 10 push ups VERY slow, roughly 10 seconds down, 10 seconds up. That certainly did the trick to take my mind off the cravings and thoughts of drinking again! This certainly worked and will be added to my arsenal of recovery tools.

The more strategies you have to cope with difficult situations, the better prepared you will be.

You can do this!

Realizing wanting to drink and me drinking were not the same thing, breaking the casual link made the wanting irrelevant, annoying but irrelevant.
Breaking that link made the annoyance of the wanting lessen over time, and in less time than I thought.

AVRT( great threads here on SR in the Secular Recovery forum on these ideas) showed me how to live comfortably with residual desire.

how are things eve?

D