novips

I've gone from being obsessed with drinking/drugging seemingly all the time to only having very occasional thoughts of drinking/drugging. I'd say that at most the thought pops into my head once or twice a week, and it's not unusual for me to go weeks without having the thought of taking a drink or drug. I personally credit Alcoholics Anonymous for that state of affairs and so when someone tells me they are experiencing some discomfort around thoughts of drinking/drugging I generally ask whether they've tried A.A. (and, if not, suggest they keep an open mind about the possibility that A.A. might be the solution) or, if they consider themselves a member of A.A., whether there's some part of their program that needs shoring up. FWIW, I would consider it some sort of a red flag if I was routinely craving a drink/drug multiple times a week at this point.

PS -- In A.A. we distinguish the mental obsession from the physical craving, with the physical craving only coming into play after we've taken the first drink, while the mental obsession is what drives the delusional and self-destructive act of picking up that first drink.

C0ntr0ls

I'm coming up on 2 yrs. and have noticed the AV wanting to talk a bit more. I kick it to the curb but it still bothers me a bit.

ciowa

I have 2 years of sobriety and consider myself fortunate not to have the cravings and urges. But I know they can come at some point and I read these threads to have a good idea of what to do, so thank you for sharing.

I made a decision a couple of months into recovery that I was going to stop for the rest of my life. I know some people think we shouldn't think long term like that but I tend towards extremes and the only way I could give myself the best chance was to begin thinking of myself as a non drinker. That meant accepting that some parts of my life were over and being ok with that.

I also did some hard introspection about what drinking symbolized to me and the justifications I had for doing it. I used to associate it with freedom which meant I simply wanted to be unaccountable for my actions. Things like that were what I had to wrestle with and learn how to accept being more accountable and responsible. I also relied on alcohol settings and events for hook ups, one night stands and non committal 'relationships'. I had to think about why that was and let that part of my life go and also do the work to change the things in myself that created that behavior and attitude.

stay vigilant and dont take the good things that come from sobriety for granted cause we can easily lose all that by going back to the booze.

Hodd

It's a bit irritating, isn't it? But compare these 2+ year cravings with those at 2 weeks.

The thing is if we had a beer tonight, those 2 week type cravings would be here tomorrow. That's terrifying. I'll take these 2+ year cravings anyway.