mariposa

Sunflower79

tekink

Somewhere in the 13th month I woke up and it was like the first day of spring. My brain fog let up and I just felt good. The first year was pretty much one day at a time for me, then everything changed.

least

It took me several months before I began to feel better and more hopeful. The biggest thing I did to feel better was to start practicing gratitude every day. Being grateful can make you happier too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/o...pier.html?_r=0

WaterOx

The first time around, it took at least a month before I felt better.

JustTony

I feel great and I have done since about Day 20

doggonecarl

You are newly sober. It's going to take a while. As for blaming impatience on your relapses, I looked at your past posts. You attributed a lot of things for your relapses. Since these things aren't likely to go away, you need to develop the coping skills to deal with them without alcohol.

SaturatedSeize

It varies from person, to experiences, to time drank, the important thing is it WILL get better.

Just plan today, and how you will stay sober today.

noaddedsugar

It's been three weeks and I'm only just starting to feel better

thomas11

a lifetime of sobriety is a marathon , not a sprint. At a year I changed, at 3 years I changed some more. I will say that the first 30 days of sobriety were pretty interesting. I learned a lot.

totfit

After taking steps to make things get better. Getting sober did not make things better for me. It only made me able to take the steps. Had I just quit drinking and done nothing else, I certainly would have felt physically better, but nothing else would have changed.

Outonthetiles

A couple of months at least for the brain fog to fully leave.

DontRemember

Physically-about 30days before I felt 100%. Mentally-a little over 1yr(although I went through a break up around the 45day mark,so I attribute that for some 'delay'). Financially(business stuff)- around 1.5yr to get back on 'track' with my current/future ventures.I'm still rebuilding some personal relationship stuff a little after 2yrs.

When I'd try to rush back to 'normal' I always ended up drinking,so on this last quit I just let 'stuff' unfold on it's schedule and accepted that I would not be getting evrything back and that's ok.

Jim1958

A few months at least. I feel better now. It's been over 6 months. Give it time.

D122y

Mari,

I'm going on 4 years without being intoxicated and i still feel like it is getting better.

I think other things play into it. Things like number of relapses, fitness, sleep, diet etc etc etc.

Bottom line is booze is poison. We all here know that and now we have a dog in the fight.

Suffering is the only way i know out. Being clean has been highly liberating for me.

I have moments of off and on a crippling doubt, but i also have moments of extreme confidence that i can only explain as a miracle.

I thank God constantly.

I never want to go through this healing process again. I am turning back into a fit person and plan to keep it that way.

Amen.

Thanks.

On any day i go from feeling amazing to feeling like i am going to fall over.

mariposa

Fearlessat50

Hi Mariposa, it took several months for me to feel emotionally stable. It got better and better after that. Then some life stuff happened which was out of control, and that turned my world upside down again. I did not relapse. But at that time, I started to realize I was lacking in my emotional sobriety and needed to focus on this along with staying away from alcohol (and other unhealthy coping behaviors).

If you are caught in a sober-relapse cycle, you may not really start to feel better until you’ve had extended sustained sobriety. Alcohol is a depressant and messes with our brain chemistry.

As least said, practicing daily gratitude was also key for my recovery. Therapy, running and yoga, meditation have been too. I don’t think it would have been possible for me to stay sober long term without changing myself and using new coping skills.

I hope you can work on a plan for long term. Life is so much better sober.

mariposa

sugarbear1

I felt better pretty early in sobriety as I worked the 12 steps of AA after struggling for over 25 years to stay stopped! I will have 8 years in May and I still have moments of clarity (which remain!), so I think I am still healing after many years of drinking!

kevlarsjal2

For me there have been many different stages of feeling better in many different ways. Physically I felt better after a few days when the withdrawals were over, mentally it took a few months until I no longer felt completely anxious and fuzzy brained most of the time and was able to read longer texts again etc. Many other things started improving when I started to work on them, when I actively took steps to make things better and made some positive changes to my life like seeing a therapist, reflecting on my friendships and which of them are worth keeping in sobriety, started going to meetings and working the steps with a sponsor I felt safe with, I also started taking a very light antidepressant which helped a great deal. I know this topic is a little controversial, especially in AA but for me that was one of the necessary changes to make my life manageable again. Most things will take a while though but if you keep going and keep working on it, they will improve little by little and it is so worth it! Good luck