How Did You Do It?

[mama bear]

I have the opportunity for a fantastic new job....final interviews are next week.
This is critical to my self esteem and my family's finances. Alcohol is NOT part of a successful plan here....
My question is this.......how did you long term abstainers, or anyone with periods of sobriety, do it? What was your "AHA" moment?
Did you use meds? Cold Turkey?
I am looking for pearls of wisdom to help me keep my head in the right place.
I know what I need to do....now i just gotta do it.
I want to blend all of your stories into my mental "Sobriety Quilt", if you will.
When I am feeling anxious or weak, I will mentally wrap myself in my quilt and hear all your sweet voices whispering words of encouragement and sucess.
Please share!!!
Maybe my quilt will comfort others, as well
Thanks and much love to you all!!

[Coco-Nut]

How Did You Do It?

My One Piece of Advice

DO NOT LOOK AT EMPTY BEER BOXES ON THE STREET.

[Coco-Nut]

How Did You Do It?

OK, I have another....

This is working lately (now that I've achieved the tremendous count of 24 days - ha ha):

I think about how I will feel waking up in the morning and knowing I've blown it. How the realization will be coupled with a horrid hangover. How the hangover and the disappointment will go with me to work, where I will be less than effective, bitchy and downright miserable.

I also find it helps to pour a Non-AL drink as soon as arriving home. Don't let yourself get thirsty - stay hydrated.

And - when you really think you are going to give in, set the timer for 15 minutes. Tell yourself you must wait until it goes off before caving. Usually by the time the timer goes off, the craving has passed.

Hope this helps, Mama - from your old penguin pal - Coco :h

[K9Lover]

How Did You Do It?

I committed to using Antabuse. I changed my routine for the first couple of weeks...spent less time at home in the evening (my drinking spot!) and began filling my evenings with anything to fill the time, a movie, shopping, dog park...etc. By the second week I was out of the habit...not that the cravings were necessarily gone, but the "habit" of cracking a beer at 6:30pm was broken. Are you still considering Antabuse Mama?

[Coco-Nut]

How Did You Do It?

Oh - and one more thing...

Good luck with the new opportunity!

[mama bear]

How Did You Do It?

thanks goober head!!!
first stich on quilt...dont look at empty beer boxes on street

[mama bear]

How Did You Do It?

thinkin about it k9...gotta have the funds first....definately need to change routine...good one!

[K9Lover]

How Did You Do It?

Also, keep reminding yourself how important this job is to your finances and your self esteem, like you said. Is alcohol really more important than that? How would your self esteem be if you lost this opportunity because of AL? Not very good, I would think.

The whole left side of my body is bruised from when I drunkenly fell in the shower the other night. That's my reminder right now. Maybe you have a particular bad moment you can think of when the craving hits?

:h

[mama bear]

How Did You Do It?

ouch honey...I am sorry....i guess i could rub the scar on my head when i fell and split my head open....good one K9!!!

[spuddleduck]

How Did You Do It?

mama, my best one for not drinking is to fast forward a few hours, then a few more hours, then to the next day and how i will feel... its never a pretty picture. simple but it helps me....and good luck withe the interview

[hart]

How Did You Do It?

Money is a good motivator for me, especially with two alcoholics in the family! Think of what things you could afford w/o booze in your life.

[not tonight]

How Did You Do It?

Hi Mama Bear - First of all, congratulation on the final interview! I am very excited for you.

My ahha moment came last April after a visit to my parents. My father has been a serious, although high functioning, alcoholic for as long as I can remember and even longer. My mother is a closet alcoholic. My father's body is beginning to slowly breakdown after years of abuse. His blood pressure is off the charts and as a result one of his legs is swollen 3 times it's usual size which limits his mobility and prevents the doctors from treating the basil skin cancer on his calf. However due to medication and longevity in the genes, he could probably survive anther 20 years, but they will be degenerative and painful. I do not want that for myself.

Aside from the physical ramification of alcoholism there is the emotional. Neither of my parents take a great deal of interest in my sisters or I, or their grandchildren. Alcoholism makes you selfish and embalms your emotions so that over a period of time you become unable to create and maintain intimate relationships with others. I do not want that for myself or my children. I want to be present in their lives, in the best condition possible.

In short, after the visit I realised that the dysfunction of prolonged alcoholism had to stop with me, I have to bury it. That was my motivation.

ODAT is an important goal, don't look down, just straight ahead. It's important to have a plan, and I have found that a big part of maintaining sobriety day to day is keeping up the fundamentals. Healthy eating, sleeping, water and exercise. When these start to lapses the cravings have a much greater chance of swaying you, especially at the end of the day.

Avoid social situations where there will be alcohol, unless you are 150% sure you can abstain.

I have a picture of myself on my iphone of me the morning after the last night I drank heavily. When I get tempted I pull it out and all the despair, chaos, shame come screaming back.

Finally stay as close as you can to MWO. If you think you might drink make a deal with yourself that you wont take that first drink until you have spent 15 minutes chatting about it here.

You seem to have such a way with people that I am sure this interview will go well. I will be sending good thoughts your way over the next 2 weeks!! YOUR CAN DO THIS!!!

[Chillgirl]

How Did You Do It?

Mama - I went cold turkey, I wanted the pain done with and to move on with a new life. I spend a long time going over my plan before I quit which I think was my biggest ally. I really said Goodbye to AL over and over in my head and visualized what life would be like without it.

Also like K9 I changed my routine, mine was the opposite to hers, I stayed home away from the bar and never had AL in the house, also like Spud, I used the fast forward button if I was tempted and imagined the heap of shit I'd be after just having that "one"!

I've had several broken bones and was honestly scared Id kill myself so it was a relief to know that was over. I also went through a ritual every morning for months, and still do often, of opening my eyes and realizing Im not hungover, I smile to myself, have a huge stretch and think of a few things I'm grateful for before getting out of bed.

I hope this helps form part of your patchwork quilt & that you knock 'em dead at the next interview :l

[Chillgirl]

How Did You Do It?

Not tonight - I love the iPhone photo idea! Brilliant.....

[one2many]

How Did You Do It?

I couldn't do it until I wanted to badly enough.....I always found an excuse, a reason why "today" was not the day.

I finally realised that I wanted it more than anything in the world, I did'nt want to be a drinker anymore. I got serious. I stopped. I started to value myself and my family and I changed my mindset and saw that alcohol was bringing nothing good to my life.

I did not use any medication but if I had needed it, I would have done so. After all, look at the amount spend on booze, the price of Antabuse pales into insignificance.....if you really want to be sober, you will do ANYTHING to get it.