Newbies Nest

[Icanwithoutacan]

Wow Pinecone is an oldtimer! Happy birthday
And happy 100 to Matt ---- I remember being so excited with 100 days .... Enjoy it eat 100 of something fabulous
Food tastes so good sober doesn't it????

[See the Light]

A big [ATTACH=CONFIG]303[/ATTACH] to all the new posters! Ican, blackflag, rednose, gardener, and anyone I've missed! MWO is definitely making a huge difference in my life! The people here have made my journey much easier with their wisdom and support!

I think there's a birthday to celebrate today as well..

Happy Birthday Pinecone! 3 years is amazing to me!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]304[/ATTACH]

Amazing Pinecone...what an inspiration to all of us!!! Congrats!!!

[rednose]

Hey all, Thanks to all the support and wisdom I woke up this morning with day one AF.
I had a pretty good night once I made it through the witching hours from 4 to 8 pm.
So many helped out with encouragement.

Thank you all.

rednose

[NoSugar]

Congratulations Pinecone, Matt, and Gardener on 3 years, 100 days, and 3 days! All days AF are accomplishments that mean so much. Look at all the people who would give anything to achieve just one.

Gardener, I'm so glad you've returned. There are still a bunch of women here in our fifties (and forties and sixties) who like gardening and cooking and used to like wine (way too much). If I remember, you have a pretty active social life which made quitting entirely pretty tough. Is that still one of your main obstacles? Hope you have a new plan to get yourself free of this burden once and for all!

xpost, Rednose- You achieved day 1! Congratulations!

[KENSHO]

Hi Gardener! I'm sorry you have been feeling the pain of the drinking cycle, but I'm glad you are arriving at a point where you are sick and tired of it. I was stuck in the bargaining thing for awhile too - it's so amazing what our addicted brain will do to try to convince us that we CAN, if not SHOULD, have "just a little". The unfortunate thing that most of us here (ALL of us, according to Byrdie's research) are not able to have just a little without it turning back into a destructive cycle of too much, too often. In my opinion, THAT's the secret we need to come to terms with in order to get past the bargaining... there is no such thing as "a little" for us - and if we truly have just one or two, we are completely unsatisfied and are at war with ourselves trying to beat down the craving.

NONE is so much better than struggling to have "a little"!

On the subject of MATT... may I just say WOO-fucking-HOO!!!! You are solid and walk the talk and lead for so many others with kindness and humor. Thank you for being here and congratulations on your achievement! I'm still on your tail (just a little behind but I'm not straying this time), so keep blazing buddy! I love to hear how much happier you are with all of those days under your belt!

Another tough day at work ahead (I actually love my work - just a wee bit too much right now). And it's 4 degrees here! I'm going to get a sweatshirt (and maybe a hat!). Have a good SOBER day everyone!

[Eloise]

Hey all, Thanks to all the support and wisdom I woke up this morning with day one AF.
I had a pretty good night once I made it through the witching hours from 4 to 8 pm.
So many helped out with encouragement.

Thank you all.

rednose

Awh Rednose, that first week is so hard, felt like time was standing still for me. Honest to god it gets easier and you will eventually feel so much better for it. I heard this in the beginning too and, naturally, thought "whatever, get out of my face your optimism."
It is all true.
As a matter of fact today I was thinking 'why does alcohol make us so moody and negative." Sucks.
Congrats on staying sober today.

Pinecone - I am so happy for you! And wish you another three years of sobriety.

[Pinecone]

Hi Gardener, welcome back! I remember you from a while ago. I'm glad you came back because it means you are still in the fight. Congratulations on your 3 days! I think that fear is a huge obstacle that keeps us in a drinking pattern, even well after we really want to quit. That fear is such a lie, and it does not come from the "real you." It feels like it does because fear is a powerful and primal thing that is supposed to protect us from a real danger. Be brave for a little bit, but then you won't have to; you'll be enjoying AF life too much to remember that fear. I remember the bargaining too. The approach that worked for me was to not engage that "voice" in any way. Shut it right down. Byrdie used to teach us "NO, HELL NO!" and it works great if you say it out loud. I haven't seen that phrase around a lot lately but let's bring it back!

Matt, congratulations on your 100 days! Awesome job! I've really enjoyed your posts, thank you for being here.

Rednose, thanks for checking in! You made it!
Hi, Ican! It does taste better, doesn't it.

[Pinecone]

ABCowboy, thanks for noticing and posting that!

Byrdie, Ican, STL, NS, Eloise thank you so much for your kind words. I'm very touched.

[blackflag]

Hey pav!

Day 2 here. I like that little note Byrd. I'll keep that in mind. Not feeling too bad today but I struggled to be with it this morning when I woke up. Doesn't help that it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home.

[Matt M.]

.

Kensho~.. may I just say WOO-fucking-HOO!!!!*

Ken~Your awesome. Thats all.
Oh I forgot, out of everything you wrote, that was by far the greatest. I'm not sure why? Thinking about adding that to my sig:egad: I have issues..

You guys sure know how to make a man feel so special!
100 days was unimaginable a hundred days ago (ok I'm not going to lie, that sounded ignorant) osteroops:
I know we all say it, but I owe it all to you freaks!
We are all searching for someone whose demons play well with ours.. I found the place!

Pine~ trying to sneak by with 3 mf'n years! What's up with that? Pure greatness! Thanks for your kind words.

[Resolve]

Pinecone - I recall last week you posted about the disconnect between our drinking self and essentially our real self. As you said (and I'm paraphrasing), it creates a disharmony that doesn't allow you to be the person you want to be, who you are meant to be. That really has stuck with me. What I didn't realize in your words of wisdom was your AF date and your then impending 3 year AF anniversary today. Wow - Congratulations on such an achievement! I look forward to your continual insight along the way. It's especially through the journeys of you and other long-termers, and all that you share, that we can hope to achieve such milestones.

Matt - your 100 days is a significant accomplishment. Way to go and keep it going!

Rednose, Blackflag and other "new" faces - I'm new here as well. This may not be your first rodeo but the fact that you're here is a great step. I know too that posting for me raised my accountability and put real skin in the game. Being here and putting yourself out there is that important acknowledgment that you are tired and done with how you've been living. I had much time to think of the many negatives associated with drinking and took time to think each through and list them out. Quite a long list, and I bet many of us here have a great deal of overlap. And oddly not one positive aspect to drinking for something that I invested in with so much time and consumption of my thoughts and self.

But there is not one negative, not one associated with being sober. It's the best most positive gift we can bestow upon ourselves and those in our lives. Each AF day is a good day, as in a really good day. And each day from here can be that.

[NoSugar]

Pinecone - I recall last week you posted about the disconnect between our drinking self and essentially our real self. As you said (and I'm paraphrasing), it creates a disharmony that doesn't allow you to be the person you want to be, who you are meant to be. That really has stuck with me.

This disconnect is something I think about often. Looking back, I cannot believe that that was me. I behaved so differently than I used to behave or do now. It makes you wonder what personality really is -- who is the real person? Jekyll or Hyde? I ran across this awhile ago and think it is a good argument that we are Dr. Jekylls - that alcohol turns us into Mr. Hyde:

The contrast between the two paradigms can be illustrated by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic parable of addiction, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the psychogenic view, the insane, murderous Hyde is the real person, with Jekyll merely a facade. It taps into deep currents in American thought—the notions of original sin and the Freudian Id—that beneath the inhibiting veneer of civilization man is inherently evil. Alcoholism merely releases this deeper ugliness by removing the inhibitions. In vino veritas ["in wine is truth"]. The task of therapy is to engage and civilize Hyde. Treatment fails because the contemptible Hyde is willfully incorrigible. He deserves the stigma and scorn of society.

Within the biogenic paradigm Jekyll is the real person, and Hyde is a neuropsychological distortion created by the addictive chemical. Hyde exhibits the same kind of deterioration of personality and character as victims of such other progressive brain pathologies as brain syphilis or a brain tumor. Body, mind, and spirit (including willpower) are biologically compromised and subverted to serve the addiction. Given time for healing, in alcoholism the brain syndrome is reversible. The task of therapy is to restore Jekyll to sanity and self-hood, and to start him on a path that will preclude a return to the addictive, transforming chemical.

http://www.lakesidemilam.com/alcohol...sm-revolution/

[available]

Hi Nesters

Pine a huge congrats on 3 years, time flies when you are having a life! Have an enjoyable day, i love reading your posts.

Matt, Matt, Matt, well 100 fecking days, so proud of you and how far you have come. Love your posts and love you! I bought an electric toothbrush and a new bra to celebrate my 100 days maybe you could do the same.

Hi newbies, great work on your days and we get more and more of them when we dont drink. Whatever time your witching hour/s are then park your butt on MWO and read and post. Change your routine so that you dont get enticed into thinking you deserve/need a drink. Post like a lunatic, someone will be here. Dont let that voice tell you that you werent "that bad". You are that bad, you are on here and you are an alcoholic.

Off to work i go, have a great day everyone.

[Eloise]

Hey guys- lots of positive writings here. I love it!
Today as an art day and I am feeling quite good about it.
I have been way too moody lately.
I am now making a conscious effort to think about how I am feeling, if I have eaten enough and do I need to exercise.
Kind of worrying about how incredibly cranky I have been lately, but today was a good one.

[See the Light]

Besides mediation apps (which are great), if anyone was looking for help sleeping, just chillin’ or being less cranky (no one in particular :happy2 and has a smartphone, I really like this app called “White Noise Lite”, which is much more than white noise (it plays a variety of relaxing noises and has a cool clock function that I use at work)..it is free for the base app (10 sounds) but has a 30 sound upgrade option too…