like pink
 

23 days without a smoke or drink but the cloud is dissipating. Need to prepare for the next stage.

How would you describe the cloud that you have been experiencing and why do you say it is now disappearing? How are you envisaging what you describe as the next stage?

I'm not asking these questions to throw you. I just find that I understand my own thoughts, feelings and impressions more if I try to break them down a bit.

Guess I was referring to that early optimistic stage when we first quit. As far as beyond that I'm doing SMART mostly, with AVT and mindfulness thrown in the mix. I also like Freestyle Recovery and of course, this web site.

It can't be nice feeling that you're loosing optimism and may even loose it altogether but I wonder what this means. Do you think it may be like the feeling you might get if you've been released from prison, a hypothetical one of course! I imagine there would be a sense of relief that the prison spell is over and optimism for the future. But then no doubt reality will soon begin to bite and you'll find that you're still faced with the same problems that you were before you went in and that everyone else also has - how do you find work, love, fun! I wonder whether the loss of optimism you are feeling is no more related to the fact that you've stopped drinking than an ex-con's gradual loss of optimism is really to do with him leaving prison. Or isn't it more the case that the fact he's out of prison will always be a simple positive in his life and any difficult feelings he has from this point on are just part of normal life? By he I also mean she of course!

This really helped me - thank you. Good point to think of the loss of optimism as a return to normal life and normal problems, not a decline in how great it is to be out of prison. Thank you!!!

Things are going pretty well actually. Just anticipating the long term struggle of life without crutches. It's not supposed to be easy but will get easier with practice.

Cool :)

well, one only needs crutches if one can't walk .
learn how to walk (again or anew) and you won't need crutches.

It took me a while sober to appreciate that my life without alcohol or other ‘crutches’ was easier than with them. My brain works better, I make better decisions, those I love and value can depend on me, and I can set goals and achieve them, even exceed them. I can appreciate simple things in profound ways and make a real difference in the lives of others. I could do none of these things with those crutches strapped to my body.

Don’t worry about that pink fog dissipating. It is real, just as you are. This time is exciting and full of the promise of a full life well lived. Just keep saying yes. Onward!

It seems everyone talks about these pink clouds like a hit or a high. Then get a come down when it goes.
Maybe that’s our addictive brains wanting another hit.
After several months Sober I started to get the right amount of what ever it is that makes you happy(endorphins or dopamine I think)
Doing things to get a reward is natural.
Short cutting/ using cancels the need to work for the reward.

I vaguely remember reading something along the lines that the pleasurable sensation of completing a sneeze is roughly equal to the pleasure of orgasm.

I love completing a sneeze :) , but I also remember reading and have apparently self hypnotized myself that in order to 'get it out' looking at a source of bright light can help the process. I am the idiot searching for a clear view of the sun or at night running around the house looking for the brightest bulb and trying to screw my head into that just right position where the squinting can finally 'trigger' that sneeze, and do not speak to me during this process it kills it completely and pisses me off to no end. And then finally with just the right tweaking , after all the contortions and positioning .. finally that huge whoosh and deep deep ahhhh
hh.

All that just for the result of having snot running down my face.

Good news is a tissue and an apology to my wife for cutting her off mid sentence with a hand flurry of a "shhh!!" and the damage is done and pretty much fixed.

Indulging the brain fart that is the AV in order to get that particular whoosh( that ahhh of the first sip) and the associated damage isn't any where near as excusable ( or bless-able), even though It promises it would be just as easy as getting out a good sneeze.

I get over the disappointment of the missed sneeze ( not bright enough, or someone talking) in about two seconds .

My AV never gets over Its disappointment in missing the whoosh, it doesn't even take Me two seconds to get over Its disappointment, I just ignore It. That kind of snot I neither need or want.