Jessielynn

It's like I don't think about it at all and then all of a sudden it's an obsession....I'm obsessed consumed with the thought of a drink.. freaking sucks

Dee74

It will get easier jessielynn

Have you got any strategies in place for when you feel like this?

D

sugarbear1

if you are what the "big book" of AA says about the real alcoholic....as time goes on they live with untreated alcoholism. Those 12 steps saved my life and helped to treat my alcoholism. Simple.

Whatever you find that works for you, do it! Day 5 is around the bend here!

Jessielynn

Thanks I'm currently looking for a meeting and I'm just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning at least it's not drinking !

DriGuy

That's our addiction. It will put up with a little abstinence without too much trouble. An alcohol counselor once told me that most alcoholics experience this around day three. When I could get to day three that was the day I caved amid insane cravings. The counselor said "around day three." It could be day 4 or even 5 for you. This is the time you need to posting or making contact with alcoholics in meetings. Use those resources to help get you through. It will get better, but what you are going through right now is exactly what I would expect for any alcoholic.

OBLIO

We used for many years and it will take time for the cravings and desires to subside. Hang in there. Someday soon you will see the rewards as long as you work for it.

faith823

Hi,
My cravings dissipate after a meeting. It gives me a dose of inspiration.
I suggest savoring a sugar candy or a milkshake. It may help with the cravings.
I was experience cravings today and they do suck. Thank goodness I did not act on them. I get nauseous even thinking of another withdrawal. Really trying to remember that feeling. You are doing great- posting here- looking for a meeting and have FOUR days Sober that is remarkable.

mariposa

DontRemember

Took me around 100days, with a couple AA meetings per wk, to get my mind 'right'. It's legit like a bad breakup from a toxic person. Takes some time, grieving and working through it all. Hang in there.

SoberRican

Hey be proud of yourself for making the choice to give up the sauce. What you are going thru is normal for us boozers letting go of booze. It takes time. The longer you off the sauce the betters things will start to get. Just have to get past this hurdle. It will be in your memory bank for future play the tape scenarios. The rewards are endless. Trust me. ✌

WaterOx

Hey my friend! If you ask me, it's simply the addiction speaking. Such a powerful force at work. It likes to be fed and gets angry when starved.

RecklessDrunk

I think humans are the only animals that lie to themselves. We start to convince ourselves how wonderful a drink would be. Especially now, it's not going to be wonderful.Those thoughts of a comforting drink are an illusion. It's going to be anything but comforting. We have ways of manipulating our memories of drinking to filter out much of the bad and focus just on the enjoying a nice buzz part which accounts for a small fraction of the time.

You are not missing anything by not drinking.

Outonthetiles

I think I was literally hour by hour during day 4, and during that entire first week, but as Dee and others have posted, it gets progressively easier after the initial rough patch.

DriGuy

That's how it worked for me. Honestly, I don't understand the psychological dynamics that cause this effect, but then I don't need to.

I was in my fourth day without a drink, and I had committed to my first meeting, where I actually called a guy and told him I would be there. The meeting was at 8:00PM. It was on a Friday, and I had been edgy all day, because it was the night of the week where I felt like I could drink with impunity (even though I did the same thing every other night).

At 4:00PM I got off early from work and had a burger at a restaurant across the street from the liquor store which closed at 6:00. I didn't want to drink, but I was tearing out my hair with cravings. I had two hours to get my fifth of whisky, before I'd be forced to buy it later at the bar price. I sat in the restaurant debating in my head and trying to let the cravings past.

As closing time for the liquor store approached, I decided that after the meeting, I'd still be able to go to a bar and pay their outrageous price. The store closed, but having put that plan in place, my cravings diminished a little. It was an emergency plan that would save me until 2 o'clock in the morning when the bars closed.

I made it the next two hours and went to my first AA meeting with all the same fears and embarrassment that others talk about. It turned out that I liked it. I found the joy and courage of many others to be an inspiration, a word that I hate because it sounds like a pollyannish overstatement, but I was actually inspired by others. The meeting ended and I drove past the liquor store and went home to bed in a surprising relative calm looking forward to the Saturday night's meeting.

This explains why I found meetings to be such a powerful tool in staying sober. I committed to 90 in 90 (and then a whole lot more), and meetings became my life line to recovery, and also a good alternative to the time I would have been spending at a bar.

Maybe I could have done it without so many meetings. Some do with none at all, but the idea of being sober for the rest of my life was so compellingly important that I was gladly willing to make that commitment. Maybe it was because it wasn't just a commitment to meetings, but it was also a commitment to sobriety. If anyone is likewise committed. I won't be getting in the way.

JazV36

Callas

Sometimes it will be hard, sometimes not so much. Regardless, the commitment to sobriety must be absolute.