I was a bit stressed as she clearly wasn?t okay and it was the middle of the night, I was late into work and had a very busy day ahead of me in a pressured job with daily deadlines. Not only was I late I was also going to leave early at 3.30pm to get to the vets, in the competitive team I work with even taking time off for a sick child is viewed as a nuisance and inconsiderate never mind a cat. Now before becoming AF this situation would have driven me straight to the bottle and it would have been the first thing I reached for whenever I possibly could, even if it was in the middle of the night. It would have been my crutch and excuse to continue drinking all evening tonight.
I?m AF now 11 weeks and the way I coped was so different, I phoned into work and delegated a couple of pieces of work (would never have done that before due to the irrational fear of the competition) and then rescheduled a couple of appointments and the clients were fine with the change. I?ll make up the hours lost easily by catching up with a couple of things at home. But the thing that has stunned me the most about this is that until I logged on to MWO to check on everyone tonight I have not had one single thought of drink or drinking. Not once in the early hours this morning or all day ? not one single thought. I am amazed and feel that I have really turned a corner in my thinking and my attitude.
I always thought that my pressured job contributed hugely to my stress and alcohol consumption, when I quit drinking I knew that I would have to find another job, however what I am learning on a weekly basis is that thinking is a load of crap. It was the other way around, it was the drinking that lead to the anxiety, stress and sleepless nights that then made me unable to cope with my work. Now that my head is clear I can see with great clarity that I can not only cope well at work but I have more experience, knowledge and better customer relationships that many of the people I work with ? and I don?t mean that in any boastful way.
To those of you who are struggling with the ?stresses? of life and feel you need alcohol to get through them, if you could only get some AF time under your belt you might find that while the stresses are still there you are able to cope differently without alcohol confusing the picture.
Dewdrop :h
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