The house that G built.

[scottish lass]

The house that G built.

Hmm - thats a bit of a different pic there Mr G......
Glad things are going well....

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

Thanks SL, gidday y'all,

Day 1 of week 2 of rehab. Today was our 3rd CBT session. Part of it is identifying our core beliefs about ourselves e.g. the negative beliefs such as....'i'm not good enough' or 'i'm just a failure as usual' or 'i'm never going to lose weight'. etc. whatever our core beliefs happen to be. They are often formed by conditioning/environments we grow up in. We talk about challenging this sort of thinking whenever it comes up and triggers our drinking/gambling/junk food behaviour. The idea is to go with the flow and surf the urges. We can't often change our ingrained core beliefs BUT, we can learn how to manage them and REDUCE our stressors and negative reactions to that thinking when it comes along. It's very cool stuff. A little complex at first, but simple.

Take it easy out there. Yo!

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

Rehab Observation:

We seem to have lost a couple of folks over the weekend. Not sure yet whether they've dropped out or had something on today. Will see if they turn up tomorrow. There are about 10 of us in this group, all different backgrounds of course. More than half/most folks are newly sober and straight out of a 7 day detox into this program. Some have been drinking hard the last 2 yrs, others 20 yrs straight and one or 2 like me who have had a few recent AF bouts of time. I'm reminded of how i was when i came here late 2008 from heavy 24/7 boozing. I was a frightened mess. Some of the group are new to sobriety and haven't yet gotten any strategies or support e.g. like this site. 2 guys have said they are struggling last week and they are 2 out of 3 who didn't turn up today. These guys are serious drinkers 24/7 style and it's worrying when you hear them talk and i just know and recognize the drinking thinking and how helpless they feel. Hope they're back tomorrow.

So it's a little rough going, but that's what booze does to us. It's a cool friendly group, and the facilitators are friendly and knowledgable. I know a lot of what we are learning, but still learning new bits and pieces plus reinforcing stuff.

2 quick take away strategies for cravings are the 3 D's: Delay, Distract, Decide.

and HALTS: Hungry. Angry. Lonely. Tired. Stressed/Sad.

I'll be sure to add more points of interest as i go.

Take it easy.

G bloke.

[paulywogg]

The house that G built.

Thanks for sharing Mr.G,i hope those two guys show up also,i've noticed a pattern in people that when they start voicing the struggle,it usually leads to drinking,i've seen it in me at least,hopefully those two just had other plans,sounds like you're learning some awesome new skills

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

Me too Pauly.

How are you doing?

Tuesday morning here in Oz. First up i have a 1 on 1 motivational session with a counsellor so this will be interesting. Nothing too heavy, mainly about where my thinking is at around drinking and where i want my thinking to be, from what i understand, so looking forward to it. A CBT approach. The fella taking me through this 1 on 1 (the first of 4 sessions) has been facilitating many of our sessions so i know him a little, he doesn't piss me off, and i see he's pretty cluey and experienced with this caper.

Hope all's well out there.

L8tr, Yo!

[free at last]

The house that G built.

Mr. G,
Enjoy reading your posts. You sound like this program is working for you.

All's well with me. June was completely AF for me, now onto July.

Warmest,

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

free at last;1677573 wrote: Mr. G,
Enjoy reading your posts. You sound like this program is working for you.

All's well with me. June was completely AF for me, now onto July.

Warmest,

Great stuff. Kick some ass! :goodjob:

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

free at last;1677573 wrote: You sound like this program is working for you.

Yo FAL,

You know, i think it might be. 2nd week out of 6 now, and the CBT sessions where we pull apart our thinking is proving to be interesting and i'm tipping useful. Stepping back and pressing the pause button. 1 on 1 'motivational enhancement therapy' session was good today. One question we'll be addressing in next weeks session is why do i
go back to drinking? I was thinking on the way home tonight that one reason i drink is i use AL as a strategy to avoid doing great things or things i love doing/acheiving. WTF.

Nutrition class tomorrow, drumming, and some liver health education.

CBT is the new black.

[scottish lass]

The house that G built.

Sounding Good Mr G-man!
Keep it moving forward
PS - prefer this photo to last one!!:H

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

scottish lass;1677892 wrote: Sounding Good Mr G-man!
Keep it moving forward
PS - prefer this photo to last one!!:H

Hey SL.

The last photo was of an Australian chef who used to be on t.v. here. He was quite O.C.D. always cleaning the edges of his plate and commenting on any slight mess or spills on his cooking bench, so a bit of a character.

Wednesday morning and it's rehab time. Git it.

Take care out there.

[available]

The house that G built.

Keeping an eye on you Mr G and you are sounding positive.

May the sun shine upon you today although you may have to go to Sydney to see it.

At least your toupe is not flying off in the breeze!

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

available;1677942 wrote: Keeping an eye on you Mr G and you are sounding positive.

May the sun shine upon you today although you may have to go to Sydney to see it.

At least your toupe is not flying off in the breeze!
Thanks Ava. The sun was indeed shining here today. It was such a nice day, i left the toupe at home, and went for a long easy run along the beach. What a recharge.

jane27;1677986 wrote: Well that explains a lot! Its so nice to hear your posts about how its going. The friends that I know that have gone to rehap....its so dramatic and choppy it almost seems like they got kidnapped, brainwashed then placed back on home soil. You sound really good. Is is a challenge to knit the pieces together ie(time spent at the rehap then time spent at home?

Is it coed? High fives for you G.:l x

Gidday Jane,

High 5's back at ya. Yep, co-ed. An even representation of blokes and sheila's, maybe one more fella. It's a very inclusive, holistic vibe there. The facilitators are always telling us they are there to learn from us too, so it's a real sharing of info. It is also based around CBT sessions, with financial counselling, nutrition, drumming, mindfulness, relaxation, friday gym or yoga, all thrown in. It's a friendly atmosphere with no pressure. People can take a break anytime, leave the program and re-enter it at a later date, and if someone drinks overnight, they are encouraged to speak to a counsellor and try to work it out and get the person back into the program a.s.a.p. It's only if people are constantly turning up after having drank the night before that they'll be asked to come back when they detox properly and get sober again. It's an abstinence based program, but the counsellors will work with you wherever you are at. e.g. if you want abstinence, in our 1 on 1 sessions, we'll work on that. If you want to moderate, they'll work with you on that. No 12 step or religion, just CBT working on our thinking, and restoring balance to our lives.

Today we had a morning of nutrition stuff but the nutritionist was sick so i went for a run. She shouldn't have had that Big Mac on the weekend. The arvo was some drumming and a session on the liver, which i missed, but no big deal. Mindfulness and CBT tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

[K9Lover]

The house that G built.

Yo Mr. G! You sound good...I am so proud of you! I agree with you...MWO is my special secret...I already have enough competition around here for your affections. LOL :H

Seriously, you are doing awesome...keep up the good work! :h

[Guitarista]

The house that G built.

Thanks Niner. :h

How are things with you?

Jane, CBT shows us how to address that negative self talk....e.g. the 'shoulda', 'coulda' done this etc. And replace that talk with solution focused talk like ok....what can i do about it?

We did some mindful practice today using 'tapping.' I'm new at tapping, but this is pretty much what we did today.

example. To relax try this:

lift a hand and tap with 3 fingers on the karate chop area of the other raised hand.

How it works. We focus on 3 things.

1. This part of the hand is an acupuncture pressure point/meridain point. When we tap such a point, it sends a direct message to an internal organ (not sure which one in this case).

2. Breathe from the bottom of your tummy deep breaths in and out as you tap hand.

3. Speak out aloud an affirmation. e.g. to relax say......'I am calm'.......'i am relaxed'..........'deeper and deeper'......'i am calm'........'i am relaxed'. (talking of what we want NOT what we don't want)

Do the same on other hand.

There are a few other points to tap on the hand and face/head too.

I am told our voice speaks to our conscious mind, and the tapping speaks to our subconscious mind. The idea is to do this BEFORE we get too stressed/angry/wound up. Head off those negative feelings/cravings at the pass John Wayne style.

P.S. I recall some Tapping info on the site somewhere in the past. Maybe in holistic section.

[paulywogg]

The house that G built.

EFT,Kuya used it to quit smoking,there's videos on youtube you're doing awesome Mr.G