Newbies Nest

[3June2013]

Newbies Nest

Londoner, it's been a while lad, so glad to see you're recovering well from New Year's! I am over 8 months AF now and let me tell you my old friend AL still wants to get back into my life. It's not as often, and it's easier to ignore, but the cravings and the brain teasers are still that close. Tough it out, be amused, but don't be tricked. We start to take for granted how healthy we feel, be begin to forget the shittiness of it all. Read back, your posts, other early posts, it will help you to focus on why we've kicked AL out of our lives and why we have no reason on earth to invite him back.

[3June2013]

Newbies Nest

jane LOL yep we've all got that "bad guy" lurking there but the good guy always wins, right? The longer you feel good the easier it gets to stay that way, I promise!

[gracieb]

Newbies Nest

Rational Recovery was a big help to me when I quit for a year once. I've been trying to go over it and get that same click, but I've been having more trouble with identifying it and then realizing it is not me this time around. But you can just passively watch the addictive voice chatter and see it as another entity that is trying to get you to identify with it and thus use you physically, rather than seeing those thoughts as your own. It's kind of a trick, but it does help with the chatter.

[TJAF]

Newbies Nest

[QUOTE=spicoli0420;1627159]This is only day 2 for me and I am hanging in there. A little shaky, a headache, and my thoughts are scattered-But I am determined to win this battle. My girlfriend is here and brought me a lot of Vitamin Water and water to keep me hydrated. I also have been using Glutamine as well.

Spicoli
I drank for nearly all of my adult life and prior to quitting was drinking a fifth of vodka a day. I quit cold turkey and as most people will tell you it was a rough at first. The severity of symptoms are different for everyone but If you experience. DTs (bad shaking, hallucinations, vomitting, seizures) or other really bad withdrawals don't fool around get to a Doctor.

I had mild tremors, through the roof anxiety, trouble sleeping, and trouble focusing to start but was helped by staying hydrated and for me I took valerian root. A real sedative is better. I also took a good B complex and Milk Thistle. Eat, exercise, stay hydrated and don't be afraid to ask for help... talk to people, MWO was great for that.

You are going to get urges. Dont try to deny it or ignor an urge, ride them out, they pass quickly. Remind yourself why you arent drinking. Stay close post often and stay strong.

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Morning, Nesters.
Even after 3 years, the beast simmers just below the surface. I know that I am one drink away of it all over again, so it is just a matter of vigilance, BUT it gets considerably easier to deal with it all. I know the games that Dick Head plays, he will pull out all the stops to get me to cave! He is just like a relentless lover who will tell me anything I want to hear just to get back in. I have his number now, and I WILL NOT FALL for it. I'm not going backwards! Drinking and AL is a major step in the wrong direction. Recognize that any thought you may have about drinking is a last gasp to keep the addiction alive. he is trying to live in you, so keep your guard up! Dont feed it, whatever you do! Nothing has changed, you are still addicted to AL, so stay away from it at all costs! You will NOT be sorry!

If you could look at your progress on a graph, you would easily see that where you are today is 1000 times better than where you where when you first came here! I know it is for me! Keep going, one day at a time! Byrdie

[NomoreJim]

Newbies Nest

Hello All
I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was gathering ingredients to cook a meal for myself and found a full bottle of white wine. I have no idea where it came from since my drink of choice is whiskey and I rarely kept it in the house (in the barn was safer wife never goes there). I had a sudden very strong urge to open it. I was the only one at home so it would have been easy to do. My very next thought was [B]I DON"T WANT TO BE AT DAY ONE AGAIN[B]. I thought about all of the advice that I have read here so I left the house for about an hour did some arguing with myself and was actually scared but I came back and I am happy to say that the bottle is still unopened on the shelf. I think that I will dump the bottle out and attempt to find where it came from to keep anything like this from. happening again. Here's to another sober day!

[Dottie Belle]

Newbies Nest

MAE all,
So glad to see everyone kicking AL's arse....it is a good thing..I am getting close to 6 months and it does get better with time...it does rear its ugly head but it is easier now to whack it a good one and move on...great feeling..
We got 4 more inches of snow on top of the snow we already had but it looks like the roads are good so we are going out..I need some time out doing something...anything.....
Have a great AF day!!

[DreamThinkDo]

Newbies Nest

NomoreJim;1627386 wrote: Hello All
I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was gathering ingredients to cook a meal for myself and found a full bottle of white wine. I have no idea where it came from since my drink of choice is whiskey and I rarely kept it in the house (in the barn was safer wife never goes there). I had a sudden very strong urge to open it. I was the only one at home so it would have been easy to do. My very next thought was [B]I DON"T WANT TO BE AT DAY ONE AGAIN[B]. I thought about all of the advice that I have read here so I left the house for about an hour did some arguing with myself and was actually scared but I came back and I am happy to say that the bottle is still unopened on the shelf. I think that I will dump the bottle out and attempt to find where it came from to keep anything like this from. happening again. Here's to another sober day!

:goodjob: Jim, :goodjob:! Dump it, pass it on to somebody, whatever - but get it out of the house (and barn)!

[lead366]

Newbies Nest

YES JIM:

Get it out of the house--------PRONTO...Its not today...but maybe a moment next week or next month

BOOT IT!

[muldoon]

Newbies Nest

good job jim, you can handle this.

[DreamThinkDo]

Newbies Nest

MAE Nesters!

Last night was a quiet one in the Nest - hope everybody had/is having/will be having a lovely AF evening!

Here's some coffee to get you going - and to keep Dottie busy :l:



I had a strange evening last night - I was at a friend's place for the usual weekend braai, when a mutual acquaintance invited himself along for the evening and then monopolised the entire conversation - it really was a wall-to-wall monologue. Now this person bored me to tears in my drinking days, and in the past I would have drunk as much as possible as quickly as possible to deal with boredom. I listened to him as much as I could (and as politely as I could), and spent a lot of time "helping out" in the kitchen. It didn't cross my mind once last night to have something to drink - not even to drown out the monologue.

The evening might not have turned out as we had wished, but somehow just the fact that I got through it without even thinking that I could have something to drink, was a sign of how far I'd come in four months - thanks to so many great people on this site. It's a simple thing, I know, but a big milestone for me.

Have a lovely AF Sunday, all!

[Lavande]

Newbies Nest

Good morning Nesters,

Nice coffee cup DTD - looks like something my grandkids would like too
Glad to hear you are enjoying the benefits of living AF. There will always be boring individuals out there in the world. Best to ignore them & not drink AT them

Just heard another snowstorm will be arriving Tuesday. I am seriously getting sick of this
We're breaking all kinds of winter records here in this area - swell.

Wishing everyone a great AF Sunday! Enjoy your day!!

Lav

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Good Morning, Nesters!
DTD, great job on your milestone. I would have never thought that I could go an evening of socializing without my 'liquid conversation' but sure enough, it's not only possible, but better!! When I think of the things I drank over. Using 'over' as a glossing tool not as a 'get back at them' vendetta kind of thing. Drinking to fit in, drinking to be comfortable, drinking to take the edge off, drinking to drink!

It feels like I've been let out of prison! And the hell of it is, I thought I was happy there and was afraid to leave!
As I look around the boards, it is really amazing the sheer POWER of ALCOHOL. There are threads where people pay big money for high powered meds and suffer thru the side effects of them just so they can sip a drink a couple times a week (I stole that line from a friend)....or they put themselves thru the agony of trying to drink just a couple a night and the gyrations we go thru to try everything in the book to make it work and it's just not going to. AL demands too high a price. It wants ALL of me.

I know that no words of mine are going to change anyone's mind, but if you could get some distance from AL to see just how powerful the addiction is... All the toil and agony we endure JUST so we can have a drink of AL?? It makes perfect sense when you are doing it, but it is insane when you are on the other side of it.

This thought was provoked by a thread I was just reading about where we hid our stash. The day I cleaned mine out and had 37 One liter boxes to get rid of should have scared the hell out of me, but it didn't (this was one month's worth of empties). And that was my stash, I was still openly drinking (actually, I was moderating during this time), so can you imagine just how much I was taking in? And I STILL defended it.

Addiction is scary. Do whatever it takes to break free and then stay quit! That's my advice for today! Don't wait another day and say' I'll do it tomorrow' because tomorrow never comes. Stop defending AL and start BLAMING it, because it truly is the MAJORITY of the problem....everything can be worked out, eliminating this ONE thing will be the single best thing you do.

Hope everyone has an easy day today! I think the sun is trying to peek out here! Byrdie

[Dottie Belle]

Newbies Nest

MAE all,
DTD thanks for the lego's...just love them..
Speaking of something to do, we saw a dog at the event we went to yesterday and are going back to day to take a second look. So we might have 4 doggies before the day is out...That will keep me busy walking them when the darn snow melts...
Got yet more snow last night...but it is supposed to hit 50 later this week...WooHoo..heat wave!!
I am finding the longer I am AF the easier it is to ignore the situations that drove me to drink in the past.. not that they dont still bug me but I am developing other coping skills that I have been sorely lacking....time to get it together I guess...

[DreamThinkDo]

Newbies Nest

Byrdlady;1627749 wrote: DTD, great job on your milestone.

Just realised that I have reached a proper milestone today - I had my last drink exactly four calendar months ago today - tomorrow is the start of my fifth month sober!

I am going to go to bed very grateful, and humbled, and proud.

Thanks so much to everybody here - I could not have done it without your support and advice.

Dotty, did you go home with an extra set of paws in the car? Enjoy the new addition, if so.