10 years !!!
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 18
10 years !!!
Well , I had a close call but made it through to 10 years , I am learning all the time and hopefully I can help others less fortunate. As time passes, even my family and those who know , seem to forget how close I came to complete destruction. I have kept a few photos, although I don't have them on my fridge, as a reminder.., I actually feel disconnected from that person, like they were somebody else. When I read about people who fall off the wagon after a significant time , it puts me on high alert , I think time tricks them ! Anyway 10 years it is and the planet still has me being a pain in the arse and slightly grumpy with age. Good luck to everyone else on this journey, sobriety is a gift. Anthony
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,442
congrats on 10 George 
I notice your last post was 'just made it' in year 9...I'm glad you're making it through, but if you ever want to talk about what is trying to push you back to drinking, we're here
D
I notice your last post was 'just made it' in year 9...I'm glad you're making it through, but if you ever want to talk about what is trying to push you back to drinking, we're here
D
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 99
Originally Posted by George16 
As time passes, even my family and those who know , seem to forget how close I came to complete destruction.
I picked out the above part of your post. I believe it will vary depending on one's severity. But I believe people are much more aware than we might imagine. Recently, I had a conversation with my mother, she and I mused on my own dark path and how she did not know "how I made it out". I think that people do have a better idea than what we imagine.
I think that many of these people in our lives simply do not want to talk about the subject because they don't want to trigger us. Not to say that they are silly for thinking after these years it would trigger us/drive us to the bottle, but trying to understand what they are going through is difficult. "Normies" just don't, won't and cannot understand us. Our mindset. Only those who have gone through this path of destruction and - hopefully - subsequent recovery (ongoing recovery) "get it".
George, I know how close you were and just as I do not need to write at length and describe every dark thought which was present in my own drinking and early sobriety. I and many others "get it"!
It is why I found the AA rooms so wonderful. People got it. They knew where I had been. Some knew where I was going, what was in store etc etc
Bloody well done on hitting ten years!
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Join Date: May 2019
Location: UK
Posts: 3,942
Thanks, George, for this and your nine years post. It’s sobering (pun intended) to think that even after 9 years, cravings can come along and wreak havoc. I’m four years sober and do get minor cravings every few weeks or months. Even last night, I thought about how having a drink would be nice, but I know 100% that would unleash cravings the likes of which I’d never had. Maybe such cravings would last weeks. We don’t really know, and the thing is we don’t need to find out. I just swallow all my pride and accept alcohol well and truly beat me, and it will do so again if given a chance.
Thanks again, George. Keep up the grumpiness 🤣 and huge well done on a decade.
Thanks again, George. Keep up the grumpiness 🤣 and huge well done on a decade.
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,169
Originally Posted by George16
I actually feel disconnected from that person, like they were somebody else.
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 14,921
Congratulations on 10 years!
"When I read about people who fall off the wagon after a significant time , it puts me on high alert"
Good.
I was one of those people. I had 5+ years of sobriety and thought I was cured. All it took was one beer to start the me down the slippery slope. Within a few days I was back to my old drinking level, except that the hangovers were much worse. To fix that problem, I started having a couple of beers in the morning to ease the hangover. I struggled for a year to get sober again.
I'm coming up on 13 years of sobriety now, and I'm not going to screw that streak up.
"When I read about people who fall off the wagon after a significant time , it puts me on high alert"
Good.
I was one of those people. I had 5+ years of sobriety and thought I was cured. All it took was one beer to start the me down the slippery slope. Within a few days I was back to my old drinking level, except that the hangovers were much worse. To fix that problem, I started having a couple of beers in the morning to ease the hangover. I struggled for a year to get sober again.
I'm coming up on 13 years of sobriety now, and I'm not going to screw that streak up.
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