Newbies Nest

[rooniferd]

Newbies Nest

RunningCourage;1412800 wrote: Hey AF - sorry about the 3-day bender. But just as Byrdie and Slay have said. It can happen. That's ok. It is ok because the most important thing is that you recognise what happened, you're facing it head on. And even if you feel "ah, feck, I failed." please DON'T. It's not AT ALL failure. It's part of the learning. And you're posting here again, and you are looking at the options to help you - realising for you the benefits of face-to-face contact with peeps.

Well said, RC. I completely agree.

I may not be an expert on sobriety, but I sure have learned a lot along the way. Especially about "failures" and slips.

BTW, for you newbies, just a quick history about me. I am a 44-yr-old single woman who has been drinking pretty heavily as a social outlet almost my entire adulthood. On Aug. 4th, I started taking Antabuse, which is a prescription drug that forces you not to drink. Basically, if you drink while taking the drug, you get really sick. I tested the waters three times by "forgetting" to take the pills, and each time I beat myself up pretty bad.

But the important thing is that I learned from my mistakes. After falling and getting up so many times, I have finally started to turn those self-loathing sessions into lessons. What did I do wrong? How did this happen? WHAT TRIGGERED THIS?

So, in reality, they aren't failures. I mean, sure, you screwed up your goal and you probably let people down, including yourself. But each time you get back up, your resolve is that much stronger, and you've learned something new about YOU.

Your list of what works and what doesn't work keeps getting longer and longer, until one day, all those trials and tribulations of running on that hampster wheel finally pay off, and you GET IT. Just like a scientist performing trial and error to find a cure, you finally reach the answer. You finally discover the key to sobriety.

But it takes work to get there.

And you cannot give up!! Stay determined!

Ask any person on this forum who has a long time of sobriety behind them. It doesn't happen overnight, but it will happen! Byrdie is living proof!

OK, enough rambling at 6:30AM!

Love to all!! :l

[kuya]

Newbies Nest

I have just come home from the second night in a row out socializing and had a great time sober.

What I realise tonight is that I am gradually doing ALL the things I used to do but now I am doing them sober! I am home in bed having had a fabulous sober time, going to sleep soon with no guilt to wake up to no hangover or remorse. I am looking forward to tomorrow, next week and forever......... Because I quit drinking, all this is mine.

77 days sober sure does bring a HUGE reward, folks.

Just keep trucking, never look back and never regret quitting :h

[Mick]

Newbies Nest

Mornin all..just thought I would pop in...and see whats happenin...Good mornin Byrdie, how are you doing?Quite a few new faces in the nest...2 things to remember...never give up..thats when you do fail and also wish I could but I cant...wrong..everyone one can..its tougher for some than others but believe me its possible..keep at it :goodjob:

[Yogamom]

Newbies Nest

Good morning. You are so right Kuya. And Rooni. A beautiful Saturday, I am not hungover. Looking forward to a cup of coffee and even might call a friend that lives in this city. I drank mostly at home and in private, I had stopped calling people. So, being alone with no plan is risky. But, I will not drink. No how. No way. It is my gift to my two teens I am here with. I know I think they don't know, but they are pretty smart. And The deserve better than a wino mom.

[kuya]

Newbies Nest

Yogamom;1412916 wrote: Good morning. You are so right Kuya. And Rooni. A beautiful Saturday, I am not hungover. Looking forward to a cup of coffee and even might call a friend that lives in this city. I drank mostly at home and in private, I had stopped calling people. So, being alone with no plan is risky. But, I will not drink. No how. No way. It is my gift to my two teens I am here with. I know I think they don't know, but they are pretty smart. And The deserve better than a wino mom.

The gift we are giving our children is immeasurable, and it will mean so much to them, both consciously and subconsciously

[Lavande]

Newbies Nest

Good morning Nesters

Sunny but chilly here this morning - seasonal I guess.
Glad to see some happy campers today making progress toward their goals

Wishing everyone a great AF Saturday!
Lav

[Navasana]

Newbies Nest

Hi again and thank you for the welcomes. It means a lot to me!! The first thing I thought when I opened my eyes and saw the sun rising was what a blessing that is. The second thought was I slept through the entire night!! I have a busy weekend and will not be dragging and faking that I feel well! I look forward to getting mor involved and getting to know my fellow travelers. I am struggling with the site a bit. We so not have Internet yet due to hurricane sandy. So I am using an iPad with 4g and find fretting around a little tricky. Once on my home computer I will explore with abandon and order some things from the health store. Thanks to Kuya for the slow cooker suggestion. That will be key for the coming days/weeks till I feel relaxed and confident during the difficult time. 5-8 or so. I also realized this morning that that is a relatively small window or hurtle in my case and that helped too!! Have a beautiful Saturday everyone namaste.

[mama bear]

Newbies Nest

I pop in and read occasionally and I want to shout out to all you newbies......you inspire me and I remember when I was a trembling mess two years ago and Lavande welcomed me.
You can do this and here's some velcro to keeep your little baby butts in the nest:h
Mama

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Morning Nesters! Gosh busy night here! Great to see all the visitors!

I have a chocolate hangover this morning....bleh. I bought these chocolate shaped turkeys for our Thanksgiving dinner next week...21 of them. They began calling me soon after I got them. We are expecting 20 people. This is much like the AL Brain thinking...I see a pattern. Addiction Head I call it, or Dick Head, for short. I snuck in and ate one...I was immediately sorry I had. Now this morning they are all in there mocking me...I am considering eating one and then running to the store to replace it! As you can clearly see, Dick Head is alive and well in me. This is why I don't drink NOT ONE DRINK! I guess I'm just wired this way and that is that! I'm going to ask hubs to put the mocking birds (so to speak) in the cooler so they are out of my grasp.

Nava, I broke down my problem times just like you are doing...from 5-8 at night were my really rough times. I saved all my magazines for these hours, picked up some knitting or baked something. Once I was past 8, I was good...except one time, I'll tell you about that later...UGG. You are among folks who understand!

Welcome everyone, Yoga, so glad to see you spending quality time with your tweens... I should have made notes so I can mention everyone, but hubs is tapping his foot to leave....I'll be back later...I think we have an award going out today! Hugs to all. Byrdie

[Slaythefear]

Newbies Nest

Morning all! The nest sounds positive this morning. I feel sober, positive and productive today. (Although, while mopping my floors, I hit a wet spot and slipped full slap power onto the floor...should be an America's funniest video episode. Slow and steady or fast and hard? That's for Kuya.) I'll take that fall over the other I had prior to ten days ago. On that note and to address the topic of falling, I'll add an applicable quote:

"?You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.?

Ralph Marston


Kuya, you are achieving my goal. I may not be ready for that today, but tomorrow can present it to me with the work I do today. To Slay: Patience grasshopper.

Have a great AF day all.:l

Love,

Slay

[Catbuddy]

Newbies Nest

Hi all,

Slow Saturday morning with rain dumping out side. I just wanted to add my experience with cooking for Nava.

I love(d) to cook, my absolute passion, stress reliever, creative outlet. But since I gave up AL, I can barely bring myself to make one dish, let alone a meal. This is something deep inside, a feeling of discomfort and disinterest when I walk into that kitchen. So, I'm not pushing it, not trying to resolve it right away. One thing I have noticed is some healing happens on its own. Some I will have to figure out with behaviour mod, new strategies, etc. But I think it's best if I just stay out of the kitchen right now.

So, prepared frozen foods (which I never bought), takeout, supermarket rotisserie chickens, and one pot meals that get you several days of meals from one effort. And the slow cooker, of course.

One benefit of the AL free diet is there is room for more food, stuff I would never touch before. So yesterday, being sick, I made chicken soup with dumplings. Oh, yum. Little pillows of heaven.

Have a great AF day everyone!

Cat

[Dottie Belle]

Newbies Nest

Morning all,
Off to buy dad some clothes...his are horrible looking...he did not like to shop ever so I guess after mother died he just kept wearing the same old stuff....
I am still not sleeping well..cant turn off my brain with all the things i need to do. Glad I am off work next week...maybe I can get some things done and relax a bit.
Dottie

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Cat, I love to cook, too. It was sometime before I could comfortably get back to preparing a meal without my sous chef (wine). It comes back to you, once you get thru that first set of FIRSTS .... you will find YOU under there. My cooking is actually much better now because I am not half crocked. I actually had a party once and left one of the appetizers in the oven all night. A wonder I didn't burn the house down.

Here's something you might try...turkey breast in the crock pot, 2 cans chicken broth and one packet of Good Season's italian dressing mix. Cook for about 6 hours and you have THE most moist turkey! I drain out part of the 'renderings' and pour a couple jars of turkey gravy in there. It is awesome (and easy!) seasoned perfectly. B

[Kradle123]

Newbies Nest

There is no doubt now that the more AF time I get, the worse I feel about myself....
This seems completely assbackwards to me as I read everyone's steady progress and increasing happy quotient.. Maybe this is just more of the self absorbed narcissistic part of my personality that lead me down this road in the first place....I don't know.

I do know that it feels as though nothing has changed....

I am happy however that Penis Thread has restored the good humor back onto the boards...that is a good thing.

Anyway, want to still post so I don't go completely over to the dark side....

?

[Alcoholic]

Newbies Nest

Kradle123;1413063 wrote: There is no doubt now that the more AF time I get, the worse I feel about myself....
This seems completely assbackwards to me as I read everyone's steady progress and increasing happy quotient.. Maybe this is just more of the self absorbed narcissistic part of my personality that lead me down this road in the first place....I don't know.

I do know that it feels as though nothing has changed....

I am happy however that Penis Thread has restored the good humor back onto the boards...that is a good thing.

Anyway, want to still post so I don't go completely over to the dark side....

?

Yes, penis unite us all.