Hi all, got 7 months today :) I am very grateful but I find myself thinking about drinking lately, now I know I wont and I call my sponsor or get to a meeting right after the thought but I was wondering if anyone else had similar feelings around this "stage" of sobriety. Thanks again! Off to the drive in movies tonight with my wife to celebrate :)
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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Well done on your seven months,a day at a time. Great going, Sometimes a thought of a drink pops into my head,its natural I am an alcoholic after all.
Today like you I hope you worked that through and where it would take you. That's what I do..I look at it as drinking a bottle of bleach. vomit. Fear, loneliness, despairer, and the loss of my loving family.
AA has given my family peace of mind that I am doing what I have to today,therefore that gives them peace :}
Yes it happens but,we deal with it the best way we can. With all the AA tools at out finger tops.
Enjoy you evening out with your wife. :} And well done again. xx
Well done Steve and I've got a smile on my face, really happy for you and for me, frankly, you showing how this program works, ODAAT.
As your question, I said something very similar to my sponsor around the same time you have - he suggested that I take a look at page 181 of the Big Book. I felt a lot better after that. :)
I didn't think about actually doing it. I personally was more scared that it would happen somehow out of my control....Like I would get "struck drunk." I felt that way up til I have a year sober.
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
I didn't think about actually doing it. I personally was more scared that it would happen somehow out of my control....Like I would get "struck drunk." I felt that way up til I have a year sober.
I have the same fear so I go to a meeting where I went to rehab just as a reminder of how much I don't want to go back there as a resident.
and well done on the 7 months. Sounds like everything is going well in your life at the moment, which is as it should be. But when you ask around the ones that slipped, for some, things were going badly but surprisingly, for others, their lives were great, so it seems our sobriety is not dependent on external circumstances, good or bad. That's my experience. When it comes right down to it, people most often fall off the wagon becasue the haven't done the work required to recover. Often it is something to do with steps 4,5, and 9, a secret kept, and amends we refuse to make, or the fact that we haven't honestly attempted these steps at all.
Safe ground, the point where we have an effective defense against the first drink (sanity has returned etc), seems to come when we are well into step nine and not before. Thoughts of drinking relate only to how we can use our experience to help others, but are not entertained for any length of time in terms drinking ourselves. If you are seriously entertaining the thought of drinking, that tells me the obsession has not been lifted, your spiritual experience has not yet come about, and that means a lot more work has yet to be done, perhaps urgently.
Alcoholics of my type are beyond human aid. We have no defense against the first drink - we cannot think through the drink for that reason - and no human power can keep us sober. The power we need to stay sober comes from God. May you find Him now.
Congrats on the 7 months! I really enjoy and appreciate your input here at MIP. Regarding the drinking thoughts, I was thinking along the same lines as Mike above. You are still pretty new in recovery. Not sure where you are in the steps, but like it says on pg 83, If we are "Painstaking" about this pahse of our recovery(the 1st 9 steps), we will seldom be inetested in drinking. I have found this to be true.
Keep the focus on "painstaking". re-work the steps where needed.
Take Care,
Rob
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Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
Congradulations Steve!! Thinking about drinking for me isn't doing the drinking. I use to wrestle with the thought and entertain the thought and sometimes just say hello to it and at other times express surprise that it was present and during all of these events I didn't do the drink.
I didn't sweat alot over it either. There are lots of people, places and things out there that would like me to drink along. It's a daily thing the "they want" however my elder sponsor told me years ago that I was to separate myself from all things alcohol and only one of that was the "they". I left a family, wife and large group of other drinkers to be with the family I found in recovery. The thought never got me drunk once I had the program. Duplicate your yesterdays. In support.
Thanks for the topic. Congrats sir, on your 7th month milestone. Quite a feat, wouldn't you agree? You seem to have a much clearer vision of life today now that you're sober, and that's certainly great to hear. Sobriety may seem a bit daunting to us -at least at first, but for alcoholics like myself it's a far cry from the days of active addiction, wouldn't you agree? But it wasn't always that way for me -at least not in the beginning. I had a hard time making sober decisions early on -which didn't surprise me by the way, and it took more than just a courageous act on my part to conquer those fears inevitably, but I never stopped trying. My decision making had to incorporate not only sane dialogue -besides the catch phrases A.A was known for, but proven techniques as well. But how was I to do that? In order to remedy that situation effectively I had to focus all my energies on a long term solution and not just a short term fix. The solution that set my gears in motion was born primarily out of a need, but it has to start somewhere, doesn't it? For me it became quite clear, I had to give recovery a shot or at least die trying. So off I went to A.A.
I was known for two things early on, my opinions and my relapses. I muddied those waters so many times that to some people I was known as the "little alcoholic that couldn't" -no pun attended. But here's the thing though; yes, I did have my struggles early on and yes, it took me over 30+ years to get the first step, but I never stopped believing. And either should you. That's been the key to my success ever since; a sincere desire to remain sober followed by an urgent yet undeniable thirst for what I consider a better life. You remedied the situation today rather quickly and did so of course by taking the appropriate steps -talking to your sponsor *first*, then went to a meeting. Now, if that's not progress than I don't know what is. You could have had a drink Steve, couldn't you of? But you took the sober route instead -so be proud of that, okay. As far as the thoughts on drinking go, well, they come and go like the wind. But as long as you remain steady throughout and stick to that sober clause we talked about, then you'll be just fine. So do just that Steve, stick to the plan and never waver from it, alright. We 'can' change our approach to life, but only if we change ourselves first -then you can better change what happens next. So please do that Steve, for today. Congrats, once again.
~God Bless~
-- Edited by Mr_David on Monday 14th of May 2012 01:37:47 AM
Good Job, Steve! My 7 months (God Willing) is in three days. Yeah, I still get pop-ups of "drinking in my thinking". My spirit is on it's way to serenity, but my brain and body are still alcoholic. I think of the "moments of distraction" as phantom-pains, like when my nerve-damaged and numb finger gets cut and I "imagine" the pain, knowing it's impossible, but the sight of blood makes me think I feel pain. I get "drinking in my thinking" when I see a bottle-cap, an empty 20oz. can on a dirt road, the smell of pure vanilla extract and hand-sanitizer.
Hang in there...you're doing great and doing it right (as far as I can tell.) Best - Rob
Congrats to you, Steve! When the thoughts of drinking pop into my head I try to remember a thought isn't a craving and to be grateful for that. There are a lot of things I think about that I don't want to do. I just feel blessed to have found a program that has removed the obsession for a drink. I also find as I get closer to my Higher Power I can turn those drinking thoughts over to Him in prayer and ask humbly for peace of mind. The periods of serenity I get now at one year are longer and deeper than those at the beginning of the journey. Keep rockin' your program. You inspire me. :)
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I think there's an invisible principle of living...if we believe we're guided through every step of our lives, we are. Its a lovely sight, watching it work.
