GOING OUT BUT COMING BACK IN

[mario]

GOING OUT BUT COMING BACK IN

To bump a thread on an internet forum is to post a reply to it purely in order to raise the thread's profile. This will typically return it to the top of the list of active threads. Threads such as this one are bumped because they have that added interest and are great reads,And some threads which are essential reading can be stickied,meaning they will always stay at the top, In other words just what Lilly E said :-)

[Kimberley]

GOING OUT BUT COMING BACK IN

I think it's great that this was bumped because it allows more people to share in what happened to them, so we can all be on guard.

Within the first month or so, it is so easy to relapse - I did it countless times. Because you feel so raw sober and really don't know what to do. Although you have the nice feeling of clear-headedness, boy is it scary! And most people assume that sobriety and recovery means just hanging on, when it doesn't - it means work to be happy. The first things to do in early sobriety are get support and work on changing your old thinking patterns so that you can cope and don't get drunk each time you feel happy/sad/unable to cope.

I whiteknuckled it through nearly a year of sobriety and then relapsed and could barely stay a day sober for the next year because I thought I'd failed. I genuinely think shame and self-doubt kept me caught in that trap until I could barely go on physically drinking anymore and tried again.

That time, I got sober for good (so far). But the one thing that is important is picking youself up. realising that this is an ILLNESS or a disorder, not something to be ashamed about, and lifting our heads high to carry on. The illness wants us to relapse, and we have to put our hands up and say 'Look, it beat me - what can I do now to make my recovery really strong.'

If you do that after any relapse - see it for what it is, the addiction winning for a while over you - you can have the stength to come back no matter how far down the line of being sober you are.

I think that is so important for anyone that relapses after 5 months, 5 years, 20 years - the illness won for a day or a week, but get right back among the recovery people that support you, because they understand, too, that it's an illness. And they will support you to get right back to where you were.

HTH xx

[Kradle123]

GOING OUT BUT COMING BACK IN

Bumping this thread again...
I need to re read all the great insights and stories. Keep myself safe and sane.

:l:h