Day 2 AF

[notevergivingup]

Goodmorning to you all. Attempting day 2 af, boy I hope I can get through it. What's awful is that I used to have no problem going 2 or 3 days without. It was when I hit the 4th or 5th that I would start to go crazy and now I've been jumping out of my skin when I try to make it past the second day, this can not be good. Wish me luck, I'm wishing all of you the same!

twosox

[Karl1981]

Day 2 AF

hi there. i wish you luck i am on my 4th day now and not going to well.. very hard

but keep trying ive been told it will be worth it in the end!!!

GOOD LUCK

[notevergivingup]

Day 2 AF

Hi Karl,

Don't give up, I'm praying for you. It's morning here so the urge hasn't popped up yet, hopefully, it won't.

Twosox

[bald headed old guy]

Day 2 AF

twosocks, Karl!
Hi! I've not yet had the pleasure of talking with either of you, so a big
:welcome: from the Bald Headed Old Guy!
Congratulations on the progress you each have made, these are MAJOR steps. You also have found what I consider to be the most helpful, supportive and positive place on the web to work on overcoming the Beast! I've been on here since Jan 8 2008, and it has helped a great deal.
Both of you have mentioned that you are coming up on your ugly days; here are some ideas that may help you make it through this time period and gain some more self-confidence. When ever I started to feel urges, I would get on line and get into MWO, see if someone was on chat or read some of the posts, go over some of the older postings and find out that I was not alone, and others had been down this road. Another thing I needed to get past was my desire when I get home in the evenings to have a glass nearby all the time, so I substituted cranberry juice and soda mix for the wine or drink I would usually pour.
I wish you both all best and hope to talk with you again soon!
Please keep us posted on your progress!
Stay Strong!
BHOG

[Not Happy Hour-Happy Life]

Day 2 AF

TwoSox and Karl,
Don't forget the importance of water..... there's no such thing as too much. Adding lemon, lime helps your liver with detoxing.... so does cranberry juice, believe it or not.... Try to avoid caffeine if you can for the first couple of days. Tea- whether hot or iced, will help too. Vitamin B Complex is the MOST important supplement you can take right now. You can do this, Two Sox and Karl..... just one hour at a time. Don't worry about later today.... it will sort itself out then. Keep looking forward. :heart:

I just spent some time going through some of the 1100 posts that Chief (Don) has contributed here.... if I was your teacher, your homework today would be to click on Chief's name, and "Read All Posts by Chief". Don joined here about a year ago, and has been honest and open with his journey. Today, he is close to a year of being sober.

Just in case you are still new to this format and cannot find his posts, I've gone through some of his posts that might inspire you to stay alcohol free today.

1. On Don's 6th day of sobriety, he journaled this:

Hi Everyone, Today is day 6 for me and I feel great! I did have a situation yesterday that I want to share. As some of you know I've been doing good the last couple of days, posting alot and really taking an aggressive approach to this whole deal. Well yesterday everything is going along fine and then around 4:30 pm out of nowhere came this very sudden and VERY strong craving and urge to drink. You know the one, where you're almost 'robot like' and I actually started to think about buying beer. Well, and I'm SURE it's because I've spent so much time here the past week, I recognized what the hell was going on and I said to myself and to The Beast "O.K. let's go to the store". So I got in my truck and I drove to the gym, still VERY much in the middle of these cravings. I changed into my running clothes and started running. And here's where it gets good. After running about 15-20 minutes I started visualizing The Beast down in a hole in the ground popping his ugly head up out of the hole trying to get out and it was growling. Everytime it would pop up from the hole I would literally SLAP his ass. This went on for a few minutes. It would pop up maybe 15-20 times and every time I could see myself just slapping the Sh*t out of it and then it finally went down in the hole and I visualized slamming a trash can lid down on top of the hole. Finally it did not pop up again. Now, the whole time this is happenig I'm running around an indoor track and there are other people running and walking of course and at the end when I slammed the lid down I was still running and felt so good and happy I actually had goose bumps and was grinning from ear to ear and I realized that other people were noticing me running and grinning and a few smiled back.! They had no idea what the hell was going on and it was just so funny. I know I probably need some sort of therapy, but hey, it was war... I had to take him down!!! BUT, the lesson is Never let your guard down, the SOB will be quietly waiting in the wings for an opportune time to strike. Pretty wild, huh? I thought you might get a kick out of that.. Don

2. And when prompted about why he didn't give in, Don replied,
?I don't know why but this time I've decided to not just sit and wait for a weak moment. I've decided to engage the enemy.... probably has something to do with spending 20 years in the military. It's fascinating but now that I've made it to Day 6, I'm kind of having fun beating this. There is no way I can turn back now. I hope some of my craziness will rub off on some of you that are really struggling through the first 3-4 days. Those were the toughest for me. I think I just finally got it through my head that this is something I will always have to be aware of and it will never go completely away so I may as well try to at least have a little fun with it. It's funny but the first few days I would think, "Oh my God, I have to go through another day AF", now I wake up and think " Yeah baby, another day AF, I can't wait to get started!" It's amazing how not having the alcohol in your system changes the way you think and see things. I really listen and learn from people like Starlight and Retteacher who are much farther along than me and they are still very much aware of the possibility of a relapse and they cherish their sobriety. Maybe that's it- when we first start out we look at sobriety as kind of a negative thing but then when we have it we start to appreciate it and see how ludicrous it is to live a life of compulsive drinking. Just thinking out loud. Hope everyone is having a good evening. Don
3. The internal strength found in this Chief is clearly evident in recent posts.... when friends cry out for help, Don simplifies all of the internal voices we hear justifying alcohol. Yes, alcohol lives in the gray matter, but Don focuses on the black and white:

Why keep making it a battle? It's much easier when taking a drink is not an option....no worrying about it...no planning to drink and then being depressed and guilty after you do...

If taking a drink is no longer on the table, it allows you to totally get away from the Beast, instead of continuing the battle day after day...

I think the real issue with quitting drinking IS dealing with life and all it's emotions sober...It's a learning process....it's an experience to go through to learn more about yourself...it's a ride..

I've said this before, but for me, the pain of drinking became worse than the pain of quitting...

That's when I knew I had to quit. Not try. Not mod. Quit.

So you just have to sort it out and decide when you want to stop "trying" and, instead, make a "no turning back committment" to just do it..

So guys, if you need a strong mentor, look Chief up. PM him, or find him in chat. Don is an inspirational motivator that I look up to, and I know that you can rely on.

:heart:
Patty

[KAT20]

Day 2 AF

NHHL, Thanks for posting Chief (Don) 's struggles. I think I will look all of them up.

[notevergivingup]

Day 2 AF

bhog and not happy hour - happy life (by the way love that name) thank you for the posts. I've gone weeks without a drink before and I know how absolutley wonderful it feels. Today I am trying to remember all the great times I had when I was not drinking and how great I felt. I've read Chiefs posts before and they are great.

Twosox

[LVT25]

Day 2 AF

Wow, Patty, you have been busy! Thank you for posting some of BHOG's posts. you do a great job here you know.:goodjob:

[Not Happy Hour-Happy Life]

Day 2 AF

Thank you LVT.... how are you doing with the no-smoking? :woot: :exclaim:That was truly harder for me than going AF.

Actually, I researched Chief, but BHOG (Bald Headed Old Guy) is another one of my heros. Another person that threw that bottle down, strapped on the boots, and started climbing that hill. :l

[WA]

Day 2 AF

Hi and welcome back....glad to see you but miss the cocker spaniel:l
Jacqui

[LVT25]

Day 2 AF

Patty--
Oops! That is a good example of the odd things my brain does sometimes. I notice doing or not doing things I should have or thought I did, or I talk to someone about something their grandkid did, but it wasn't even her grandkid??? I hope I didn't kill too many brain cells over the years!!
The not smoking is going ok. I thought I had to have 1 when I was around my smoking/drinking friends-instead of obsessing about it all night--I did have one--and it tasted like crap--just like I knew it would. Didn't want another! No social events planned in the near future--hope to use this time to get more AF and do away with the ciggies 4-ever!!:thanks:

[Not Happy Hour-Happy Life]

Day 2 AF

LVT, I do the same thing.... think one thing, blurt out another.
Congrats on the not smoking.... okay, so you tasted one and it was crap... THAT is wonderful!
My uncle told me once that nicotine is so addictive~ it takes 7 seconds from the time you light the match until your brain says, "AHHHHH".... It helped me realize that I only needed to outlast that 7 seconds,
and then I could get one over on that Nic-O-Tine!