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Post Info TOPIC: how do you decide your "sobriety date"?


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how do you decide your "sobriety date"?
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is it from your last drink? over time i have seen every kind of addiction you can imagine in the "rooms", putting down the drink is not enough for a lot of us. however i know that denial runs deep and it can take awhile to see a problem in our  lives whether it is gambling, sex, prescription drugs ect. so as for myself, i quit taking cakes some time ago. i have been confused about what qualifies as my sobriety date. i havent had a drink since feb. 17 1987. and im grateful for that, i only feel like i have a true sober day if when i go to bed at night, i havent done anything to hurt myself or others, and i mean that on every level, and i never get that feeling consecutively. so whats your opinion on this? would appreciate some feedback. thanks guys.

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MIP Old Timer

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Mine is the first day that I didn't drink, otherwise wouldn't you be celebrating your last drunk?

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My last drink was July 18 1996, but the last time I used was July 23 1996 I smoked some pot. So my birthday is July 23rd. Where I come from if you aren't Clean you aren't Sober.
Bob.

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Last mood or mind altering substance entering the body, unless you are using a prescription medication that is prescribed, and are not 'abusing' it. That's what I learned. Sober is about state of mind, about facing stuff, and not about running away in the bottle, or with any form of "dry alcohol", as they call it.

Just what I have learned in the rooms. We all know, in our hearts, when we truly became sober.

Joni

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Happy to say the day after my big HOORAH of boozing, October 21, is my sobriety date!

Now if I can just give us this dang sex addiction!!!! Hahahahahaha!

lani

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RE: how do you decide your "sobriety date"?
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cindy wrote:

is it from your last drink? over time i have seen every kind of addiction you can imagine in the "rooms", putting down the drink is not enough for a lot of us. however i know that denial runs deep and it can take awhile to see a problem in our  lives whether it is gambling, sex, prescription drugs ect. so as for myself, i quit taking cakes some time ago. i have been confused about what qualifies as my sobriety date. i havent had a drink since feb. 17 1987. and im grateful for that, i only feel like i have a true sober day if when i go to bed at night, i havent done anything to hurt myself or others, and i mean that on every level, and i never get that feeling consecutively. so whats your opinion on this? would appreciate some feedback. thanks guys.



I had my last drink and collection of dope on 3/15/88 which made my sobriety date 3/16. I would think your sobriety date starts when your active participation in your addiction stops.

Jim

Some days are diamonds and some days are stones



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Hiya, Cindy x My sobriety date is the first day I didn't drink since my last drunk so that makes mine 1st October 2006. Oooh, spanning a couple of years now, that's nice! lol I've not always worked a perfect program & have acted out on some defects since which I've had to learn from but that doesn't mean everytime I make a mistake I'm back on square one. I'm taking it as progress not perfection & there have been some definite behaviours & situations to move away from but besides smoking at times I've used no other drugs or chemicals to escape into & stayed clean & sober. (I'm not including anything prescribed there, if those are relevant & required evreything has its place). My Day1 is the day after my last drunk so I'm giving myself some credit. I haven't done it alone of course & it's been 1Day@aTime. Would you like to share with us your sobriety date based on your replies? Like Jim C says ~ some days are diamonds & some days are stones. Welcome to MIP, Jim. Well done with your sobriety. I hope you'll continue to share your ES&H with us, Danielle :)


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Sobrietyspell wrote:

Hiya, Cindy x My sobriety date is the first day I didn't drink since my last drunk so that makes mine 1st October 2006. Oooh, spanning a couple of years now, that's nice! lol I've not always worked a perfect program & have acted out on some defects since which I've had to learn from but that doesn't mean everytime I make a mistake I'm back on square one. I'm taking it as progress not perfection & there have been some definite behaviours & situations to move away from but besides smoking at times I've used no other drugs or chemicals to escape into & stayed clean & sober. (I'm not including anything prescribed there, if those are relevant & required evreything has its place). My Day1 is the day after my last drunk so I'm giving myself some credit. I haven't done it alone of course & it's been 1Day@aTime. Would you like to share with us your sobriety date based on your replies? Like Jim C says ~ some days are diamonds & some days are stones. Welcome to MIP, Jim. Well done with your sobriety. I hope you'll continue to share your ES&H with us, Danielle :)



Thanks Danielle, I would love to stick around. I have been trying to come up with something to do at work anyway, lol.

JimC


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i use my date i first got drunk (f) minus my date of birth (b), divided by the product of my age (m) and my dog's age (d). this is multiplied by two and the overall figure is divided by the number of letters in your first name (variable 'v'):

thus:

(2((f-b)/(md)))/v

hope this answers the original question without too much mathematical controversy. actually, mathematicians often argue that the variable, 'v', gives an inaccurate figure of up to ten days.

Q) moral of the story?
A) you will be less baffled if you just live one day at a time!!!!!

happy sober new year everyone who visits this site.

all my love,

senor mouse
x

wink
  



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RE: how do you decide your "sobriety date"?
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I had a lot of unsobriety dates and picked up a lot of white chips.  I didn't think that I was ever going to get it. So my sobriety date is very special to me even though it's one day at a time.



-- Edited by StPeteDean at 06:36, 2008-01-08

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I had my last drink at around 1 am, and went to a meeting the next day... so the exact date of my last drink and of my first meeting some 19 hours later are the same and I use that as my sobriety date.  It was a Monday.  I have not had a drink of alcohol in any form (including cough syrup, mouthwash, etc... I don't use them) since.

My marijuana sobriety date is actually earlier than that.  I quit smoking pot with any regularity long before I quit drinking - alcohol was always my drug of choice - but I did do it occasionally.  Random guess, my last pot smoke was 6 months before my sobriety date.

I don't think it matters how you figure your sobriety date - date of last drink, first day sober... some people if they were forced to get sober while hospitalized or incarcerated don't count any sobriety until they are on the outside.  Whatever works.  I do think it's important to have a sobriety date, not that it confers any superiority over those with less time... but the vast majority of people I know who are sober know their sobriety date.  If they can't quite think of it, they probably aren't sober.  There are people who truly don't remember their sobriety date -- but they usually just pick something close and go with it.

I am in that situation with Alanon... anniversaries aren't quite the same as they are in AA.  I dabbled in Alanon here and there before becoming a regular, and really don't have a legitimate anniversary date so I just picked something from the year I became a regular and went with it.

Barisax

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First day after my last drink......KISS, for this kid!



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RE: how do you decide your "sobriety date"?
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cindy wrote:

i only feel like i have a true sober day if when i go to bed at night, i havent done anything to hurt myself or others, and i mean that on every level, and i never get that feeling consecutively. so whats your opinion on this? would appreciate some feedback. thanks guys.



"We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection."

Thank God the program of Alcoholics Anonymous only asks me for progress, not perfection!


 



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thanks everyone, grateful for your insights.

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" Sobriety Freedom from Alcohol "  This is what AA lit. say. I point out when you read the preamble it is quite clear what we do, Tradtion 3 in long form opens the door too all " Hence we shall refuse none who wish too Recover " Doesn't say what we're recovering from Huh ? And finaly  I point out AA's founders day June 10, 1935 it is the day of Doc Bob's last drink not the 1st day without a drink. . .  So every year on july 1. I celebrate the last day I drank and recall what happen on that day " That made not DRINKING a really good ideal " I pray I never forget that day --- On the back of the chip is all that matters not the number on the front so I rember Eph.  2; 8-9

 



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MIP Old Timer

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The sobriety date I use is actually the first day I didn't drink. I never gave it much thought, but that's a bit like saying my birthday is the day after I was born. I suppose the true date is when my journey in recovery began which was the moment I put down the drink for the last time. On page 180 Dr Bob uses that method.

God bless,
MikeH


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Interestingly, historians now pretty much agree that June 10, 1935 was not the date of Dr. Bob's last drink.

The AMA convention in Atlantic City didn't begin until June 10, 1935. Based on the sequence of events leading up to the convention, the actual date of Dr. Bob's last drink was probably June 17, 1935.

 

http://alcoholism.about.com/library/blmitch5.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 



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