Zebra1275

Yep, sounds familiar. Alcohol-free for two years, fitter than I'd ever been, feeling great, decided to have a pint in a pub on family holidays. What harm could it do?

Four more years of drinking is what it did, harder and more damaging than before quitting.

That's what's frightening about alcoholism. The effects of one drink can last for a year or more. Scares the crap out of me.

rahrah

Thank you to all you kind folks for taking the time to lend me your support and encouragement as well as your precious experiences. I am going to spend some time tomorrow reading these posts again and then replying. Opening up about what went wrong....because I know where I went wrong...how I was too confident, cavalier and irresponsible with my sobriety. It will help me to get it out and analyze my downward spiral. I'm grateful that I am a completely different person now then I was 4yrs ago. I'm not going to beat myself up (too badly) about this...because I am so much saner then I have ever been in all my life. I am lucky to have quit pretty much unscathed but acutely aware that my Addiction is always gonna try to deceive me if I don't stay on top of it. I look forward to my continued recovery and your generous support! Till tomorrow.

ZIP

Thanks for sharing this, rahrah. At nearly 18 months sober, I take all of these stories to heart.

I made a solemn promise to remain AF, and intend to keep it. Stories like yours helps folks like me remember that promise.

snitch

Alcohol. Cunning, baffling, powerful. Thank you for sharing. I am coming up to 2 years sober, in AA and active here daily, and last week I was in my garden and suddenly out of nowhere this thought came into my head of mmmm how nice would a glass of wine be now, you can go get a bottle and drink it today, no one will know and it was ao powerful I was actually starting to toy with the idea, and the more I let it sit there the more appealing and "normal' it seemed and I was almost on my way out the door to pop to the shop. I do have a Higher Power and I had to pray to be restored to sane thinking because if I start thinking that a drink is a good idea knowing what alcohol does to me then I am heading into insane thinking. I prayed and shared the thought with my sponsor to take the power out of it but I couldn't shake it and felt like a newcomer all over and it was a case of getting through that day only without picking up and getting my head on my pillow sober. So thank you for the reminder as this could easily be me now.

I would suggest do everyrhing you can to get your sobriety back, there are hundreds of AA zoom meetings now. Forget the word God and try some out. Stay close to SR. Take it one day at a time. Make staying sober and getting your head on your pillow sober your number one priority. You can do this with support from SR and AA.

JTele

I'm yet another one who's relapsed after quitting for a few years. While I didn't get as bad as I was in 2011, it was bad enough to know that I needed to quit again. I should know by now that trying to drink responsibly isn't something that'll ever work for me. I'm currently just beyond 10 weeks sober and feeling great once again!

Dee74

Glad you made it back Jtele

D

Santi27

As others have said, it's great that you are back and going to beat the problem with alcohol.

I've been to group therapy. A therapist guided the conversations and we sat in a room and shared experiences and offered each other support, which sounds similar to the great work that AA does for so many people, but without any religious element. Aren't there any other groups in your area that you could join as an alternative to AA?

b0glerd69

Hi Rahrah, thanks for your post. I'm at 2.5 years sober and it has become so routine in my life now that sometimes I think that I am not giving it the priority that it needs. I've not attended AA but used AVRT and I've been considering joining AA or something similar to try and cement the longer-term aspect of sobriety.

I am comfortable with my sobriety but still worry about crumbling when in a particular situation. Although to be fair to myself, I have been through quite a few of those successfully and enjoyably while sober.

I'm Interested in how others have managed to cement sobriety, longer-term.

Derringer

Overcoming Atheism was pretty easy in my case.

One day I just got to a place where the prospect of alcoholic life going on the way it was became scarier than a 3 letter word.

At one point in time I read "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God" and thought yeah that's NEVER going to happen.

Ten more years of alcoholic hell and all of a sudden "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God" seemed like a reasonable thing to do. 😳

Maybe it will be like that with you OP