Lets be clear...
 

Let us be clear about this: recovery is extremely difficult. It is hard to stop drinking, it is even harder to stay stopped. It is tough to leave behind a habit of a lifetime. It is challenging to face life without the easy escapism that was so conveniently available. It is trying to socialise without the help of a few confidence boosters. It is gruelling to try and find meaning in the mundane. It is an effort to do things differently.

Then we get to the real sucker-punch. This is forever.

Most people have struggles and challenges. Life is like that. This struggle of ours is a double whammy as it is mostly self-inflicted.

Many posts on this forum speak of anguish and pain. This is to be expected. SR provides solid support and much needed assistance but in reality in this battle we are alone.

Each of us must succeed or fail entirely on our own.

I have the greatest respect for the members here who succeed and complete empathy with those who fail, temporarily or permanently.

My quest is on-going with the full realisation that this time there is no easy out.

Best of luck to you on your quest.

Agree whole heartedly, two stays in rehab, one hospital stay after a seizure... Still I drank. I am adding my two cents' worth here and there and am leaning on this forum and its members to give me the support I need to kick this for good.

It's a struggle, but it's not as much of a struggle as drinking when you think about it.

Wishing you the best for sober choices and a peaceful life in recovery, Callas.

It is most certainly difficult finding new ways to experience and participate in life. Between being sober and drinking, sobriety is a piece of cake. If it were tougher than drinking, I would never have gotten sober. :)

I might have considered it a sucker punch when I first started sobriety but I certainly don't feel that way now. My whole adult life had been previously spent being resentful and bitter. Now there is no ceiling on my happiness.

God willing, I look forward to the decades to come free from the shackles of alcohol.

You're doing so well, and I agree: this is hard, this is real. What we achieve each day just by not picking up a drink... It's amazing that we can. And are.

And it feels more real as time goes on: easier in a way but somehow more serious too.

Keep fighting the good fight :)

I heard someone describe an AHA moment he had about 6 mo sober - that he 'never had to drink again'....that turned the idea of 'this is forever' from any kind of hard, negative or punishing thought on its head. I have found total freedom in knowing that the only thing I won't do in life is drink. Everything else is fair game.

early recovery is extremely difficult. if recovery was going to be extremely difficult forever i wouldnt have gotten sober.
getting sober was the hardest thing i have ever done- harder than fighting cancer,which started 13 months into recovery. staying sober had been easy.

i dont feel its a sucker punch that this is forever- i find it a blessing. where i was only exisiting when i was drinking, i am now living.

i wasnt alone in early recovery either. i could have chosen to be alone, but i didnt- i found a group of drunks that were willing to help me learn how to live.

it wasnt easy gettin sober but well worth what i had to go through. life today is awesome-even through the hardships ive encountered.

keep on trudgin,callas. it WILL get easier for you,too.