Jillian2563

Yes, I admit I have a hard time sticking to plans or following thru, not just with this but other daily things. I’d love to go to outpatient and even made plans to go (3x week for 3-4 hours day) but being a stay at home mom, and being the manager of our self employed business made it hard for me to, again, commit. My husband went to inpatient rehab about 2-3 years ago and successfully quit hard drugs. I’d love to be able to go too. But just can’t right now. I have to find something that works. I’ve been to meeting, read the Big Book and about 10-15 other “quit lit” books. I understand every single aspect of alcohol. And I hate it that I still “want” to drink when I don’t want to drink and hate it so much. The cognitive dissonance is still there and it’s freaking frustrating.

Jillian2563

Thank you everyone for all your advice and taking the time to comment!! Today has been busy but I will reread each one later when I have some downtime. We closed on our very first house today. We’re about to go celebrate with the sellers with pizza. I asked them to get sprite for me and my son 😊

Dee74

Some great advice here Jillian.

One of the things I had to do was quash the idea that I could drink safely at any level, or that drinking would actually make me feel better.
Stepping back from the immediate I had to look at the longer term and accept that drinking didn't make me feel better - it made me feel worse.

D

ScottFromWI

The cognitive dissonance will likely continue to exist until you are able to commit to a plan. Again, just my opinion but in your reply above you were pretty quick to come up with multiple "but" statements as to why each suggestion I made would NOT work for you.

What you need to understand is that any plan you choose is going to consume personal resources - mainly time - that you will need to take away from other activities. There's really no way around it.

ThatWasTheOldMe

Alcohol is a really bad go to for when "something" happens.

least

Wanting to drink is not bad in itself. It's when you give in to that want that bad things happen. For about the first year of my sobriety, I still had the desire to drink, or at least, it was still a thought in my mind. The difference is I just didn't give in and drink. Because I had finally reached the point where I honestly, with all my being, wanted to be sober more than I wanted to drink.

I was addicted - yes. I wanted to reach for the 'easy out' - yes. But I didn't let myself.


The best advice I ever got for help in staying sober was to practice gratitude every day. Each day find at least one thing to be thankful for. It was hard at first, but it became easier and now being grateful is just part of who I am. And it's made such a difference in my outlook. Being grateful can make you happier too.

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