Haven't touched a drop in...

marienbad

Lady is a tramp wrote: »

I'm sober almost seven months now I guess, but my big news is that after many months in and out of institutions, I'm now in the real world. Moved out on my own a week ago and I'm doing great. It helps that I've the most fabulous amazing counsellor in the world, who has been figuratively and literally holding my hand every step of the way - she is amazing, goes above and beyond for her clients. Everything in my life is finally starting to fall into place - I'm very happy and grateful these days.

Outstanding , enjoy yourself . Onwards and upwards .

aabarnes1

Lady is a tramp wrote: »

I'm sober almost seven months now I guess, but my big news is that after many months in and out of institutions, I'm now in the real world. Moved out on my own a week ago and I'm doing great. It helps that I've the most fabulous amazing counsellor in the world, who has been figuratively and literally holding my hand every step of the way - she is amazing, goes above and beyond for her clients. Everything in my life is finally starting to fall into place - I'm very happy and grateful these days.

I am very, very happy for you. Well done

petes

365 days

I'll be honest, it's only because of an app that I knew that, checked a while ago and saw it was coming up. Don't really think about the days though.

Hope all is well with everyone

28 hours. This is going to be a long road i feel.

marienbad

Deleted User wrote: »

28 hours. This is going to be a long road i feel.

Just take it today at a time and you will be surprised how times passes .

marienbad

petes wrote: »

365 days

I'll be honest, it's only because of an app that I knew that, checked a while ago and saw it was coming up. Don't really think about the days though.

Hope all is well with everyone

Well done petes , really delighted for you .

clairewithani

petes wrote: »

365 days

I'll be honest, it's only because of an app that I knew that, checked a while ago and saw it was coming up. Don't really think about the days though.

Hope all is well with everyone

Well done, great achievement

Over 2 days now. Let's get through today

realdanbreen

Deleted User wrote: »

28 hours. This is going to be a long road i feel.

Just get the bit between your teeth and go for it. Everyone is different but my mantra most morning is 'f**k you drink you ain't dragging me down today'

hubba

Just finished a great book - Alcohol Explained by William Porter (yes that's his name for real!). It's very factual and might be more suitable for the cynical and/or science oriented amongst you. It's a tad repetitive but that's deliberate to drive the key points home. You can read a sample from the site 'www.alcoholexplained.com.

bikubesong

148 days.

Feeling so good about myself and my sobriety at the minute. Long may it last, a day at a time.

marienbad

How another year has flown , another decade . So much has been given to me just a day at a time . Thank you everyone here and everyone in the 'real ' world that has helped me on my journey .

Starting again today. Wish me luck

Amazingfun

15 years sober for me (Feb 7th ) and the adventures just get more interesting :-)

AA was and is the place for me and many others who seem to be stayin sober, so for anyone strugglin, ya might give it a whirl. It's not for everyone, but for alkies of the hopeless variety, it's for us even when we thought it wasn't

Best of luck!

Kunkka

Great achievement Amazingfun!

Chopinlist66

Amazing fun, well done, so difficult to do. You and others here are terrific people with tremendous backbone. Take off my hat to you all.

Went to the doc for a long chat, feel better already, having been stop start stop start over the past couple of months.
Seems I have been trying to self-medicate for an underlying generalised anxiety disorder. Prescribed short-term course of valium, then taper gently after a fortnight, followed by a repeat visit to GP to see how I am doing. He wanted me to take longer term meds such as Lyrica, which I never heard of until today but he agreed to let me try this way first. If I stay off the wine, hopefully I will be okay. Liver enzymes are down a good bit, meaning I had made some progress alone, but I need help long-term. Feeling positive and supported by GP. No wine, not gonna get me any longer!!

tinpib

Deleted User wrote: »

Starting again today. Wish me luck

If you feel like writing more then by all means do, get it off your chest, that's what this forum is for. You are not burdening anyone, I like reading about other people's experiences.

But if you don't feel like it then that's fine too.

Lady is a tramp

So I'm three, nearly four weeks in the "real world" now ... feels more like several years! It's crazy, the longest few weeks of my life! And I don't even mean they've been particularly good or bad - it's just, I guess you're kept so busy in Cuan Mhuire (where I was for the previous seven months) that time goes quickly in there, but then seems to pass soooo slowly on the outside.

In a meeting today someone said, "If you're thinking about going to a meeting, just go, and you can think about it later." It's so true! I'm not going to say I get something out of every single meeting I go to, but it makes me feel good that I've committed an hour of my day to my recovery. It's so important for me to prioritise it above all else right now.

Amazingfun

Kunkka wrote: »

Great achievement Amazingfun!

Thank you, but honestly Kunkka, I consider this a great gift, nothing near an achievement. I am not being coy, I really mean it.
All I had "achieved" on my own was burning my life to ground numerous times
The recovery program of AA, the "precise clear cut directions" is what changed everything for me and continues to in fact, as I spend a lot of time sharing my experience with sponsees, etc. It brings a lot of joy (as well the occasional pain in the butt, lol) into my life.

As well as that, I want to emphasize that as nice as it is to have a milestone like "15 years": time away from drink means almost nothing when it comes to alcoholism, in my experience. I have known people sober much longer than myself to go back out, and that is a horror- storyline I never want to be my own.

This really is a "way of life", and I have to live it with that "One day at a time" attitude lest I risk a return to my old ways.
AA terms it a "daily reprieve", a phrase that smacks of getting the last minute call from the Governor, sparing one from an execution, lol---not too far off reality for a lot of us, and it certainly applies in my case. The benefit of seeing things this way is it tends to keep me from resting on my laurels, as sloth and forgetting where I came from is very much in my nature.

My "time" is far more important to my loved ones and friends who saw me drinking myself ever closer to the gutter, ya know? As each year has rolled by, their trust both in me and my sobriety strengthened too, giving them much needed peace and solace in place of the years of worry, fear and strife I used to cause them. I really love that.

Anyways, I am ramblin. Just want to say best of luck to all the lovely newcomers and lurkers. It's NEVER too late to lay down your misgivings and give the sober path, whatever one you choose, another try.

Irish_rat

Passed 500 days last week. I wanted to make that lifestyle change to better myself.

Can now say I've my own house and got nearly 100% in both the subjects in my level 8 that's part-time.

Now I'm seeing someone and things might change in the future.

tinpib

Via Reddit/stopdrinking I am 419 days sober.

Drinking barely enters my head at all which is great, sobriety is my new normal, but sobriety doesn't magically transform your life into something amazing. You need to take action, so I might post a more detailed update in a month or 2.

scriba

Today is my 146th day of alcohol free living. I feel happier, better able to cope with life, and clear about the nature of my relationship with alcohol and my reasons for letting it go. I have rarely done anything for myself, but I'm starting to think I've done something pretty good for myself here.

Best wishes to everyone on the thread, both the wonderful posters and those of you peeking in!

flex_manion

Probably 10 years now

How?

It's like this...

For people - not me - who are allergic to peanuts:
Peanut Consumption = Possible Death

For people like me - who's brain is allergic to alcohol:
Alcohol Consumption = Possible Death

... and I'm afraid of dying.

Laeot

345 days..

Next stop : one year ...

I ****ed up again. This is so hard

gifted

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I ****ed up again. This is so hard

Start again...

Glen_Quagmire

Ok so I've been trying to come to terms with giving up the drink for a few months now with no joy. Part of me really wants to do it, I think I will have a better quality, more successful and happier life without drink but I honestly don't know how it will ever happen but people have obviously done it so it's not impossible.

Anyway I went out last weekend and woke up Sunday with one of the worst hangovers in a long time and I said to myself again that's it now I'm gonna give this another serious shot here to quit.

I didn't want to drink that weekend as I had something important on the Monday which I wanted a fresh head for so I was actually furious with myself all Sunday and Monday and most of the week actually. Each of the days during the week I kept thinking how mad I was at myself for allowing myself to drink that weekend and have myself feeling crap on the Monday on such an important day where I needed to be at my best. This feeling lasted all week.

I rarely drink Monday to Thursday so Friday is always my trigger day. So as you can guess yesterday I was feeling that Friday feeling and was thinking a few beers would be nice to close out a busy week in work. I kept telling myself no though and was sticking to my guns this time.

I went to the shops yesterday to get some groceries and for most of the time while I was there the little red devil on my shoulder was saying "just get a few beers what's the harm it's a Friday you deserve them". I walked over to the drink section and looked for about 5 mins at all the different beers and to my surprise I actually walked away!

I was driving home, still with the little red devil telling me to get beers and I thought maybe if I get some sparkling water and a mixer it will take the craving away so off I went back to another shop to get these. While in the shop I went back over to the drink section and again contemplated getting a few beers as per my usual Friday custom, but surprisingly enough I walked away again.

While sitting on the couch last night I felt like something was missing for most of the night, it was difficult.

Well today is another day and I feel I will be listening to that little devil on my shoulder again telling me to go and have a few pints for the rugby. I will try my best to say no and keep strong but I honestly don't know if I can.

Anyways that's my story, if you've made it this far thanks for reading..

scriba

Glen_Quagmire wrote: »

I went to the shops yesterday to get some groceries and for most of the time while I was there the little red devil on my shoulder was saying "just get a few beers what's the harm it's a Friday you deserve them". I walked over to the drink section and looked for about 5 mins at all the different beers and to my surprise I actually walked away!

I was driving home, still with the little red devil telling me to get beers and I thought maybe if I get some sparkling water and a mixer it will take the craving away so off I went back to another shop to get these. While in the shop I went back over to the drink section and again contemplated getting a few beers as per my usual Friday custom, but surprisingly enough I walked away again.

Beating the drinks aisle in the shopping (twice!) Is no mean feat, although I'm not sure I'd have gone for a second round of temptation. Drinks for the six nations is always a massive temptation - I'd been doing it for twenty years. Now I watch at home in front of the fire while exchanging whatsapp messages with my buddies about being ridden by various refs. It's not the same, but it's what I do now. I don't know, if I were you, I'd try think about how you were feeling last Sunday and Monday, and focus on not wanting that. Then set up an alternative plan to keep you out of the pub today. You can do it.

Glen_Quagmire

scriba wrote:

Beating the drinks aisle in the shopping (twice!) Is no mean feat, although I'm not sure I'd have gone for a second round of temptation. Drinks for the six nations is always a massive temptation - I'd been doing it for twenty years. Now I watch at home in front of the fire while exchanging whatsapp messages with my buddies about being ridden by various refs. It's not the same, but it's what I do now. I don't know, if I were you, I'd try think about how you were feeling last Sunday and Monday, and focus on not wanting that. Then set up an alternative plan to keep you out of the pub today. You can do it.

Yeah the six nations and pints just seem to go together so well. Today will be a serious text of will power, I'd say it's 50/50 at best.

Can I ask, do the cravings and temptations ease up after time and if so how long before they subside?

scriba

Glen_Quagmire wrote: »

Yeah the six nations and pints just seem to go together so well. Today will be a serious text of will power, I'd say it's 50/50 at best.

Can I ask, do the cravings and temptations ease up after time and if so how long before they subside?

I'm probably the wrong person to ask. When I gave up, circumstances (house move, new baby etc) meant that I didn't have any spare time to think about going for pints. All my spare time (and potential hangover recovery time) is taken up with baby time. That's been an easy-ish thing to do, because I'm lucky enough to still be able make that choice pretty clearly.

Funnily enough, the first time I thought about going for a few drinks on a Saturday was the Scotland game. And it was a craving for the chats and laughs and pseudo analysis with friends. Goes to show how we can hard wired by habit, right? I would say, for me, I'm getting used to recognising the desire to do things like that, and setting it against where I actually want to be, and what will happen to me if I go for "just a couple". Repeatedly making this decision has helped me develop a kind of habitual way of thinking to counter my old way of thinking. I don't know if it makes it easier, but I'm more used to dealing with it.

6 nations will always be a dose. I'm glad we're not on for a slam this year!