Reality check

[daybyday]

Reality check

Thanks Katie, I'm just watching the beautiful sunset here, nice to be enjoying it sober.....are you just starting your day there?

[KatieB]

Reality check

It's now the afternoon here.. I have been busy calling and booking removalists for my move next weekend! about to go and sign the lease..

[daybyday]

Reality check

Wow, you'll have a busy week and weekend! Talk to you soon and take care.

[Quit Quitting]

Reality check

Well done DaybyDay

You are showing yourself what an amazing person you are. Never forget this is something you have done for you. Keep at it and I hope the issues you have had to deal with are easing.

Spuddleduck ref the smoking - I signed up to some health thing on the TV years ago and they sent a chart with three rows divided up into 8 seperate weeks. This was to be put somewhere obvious. Each day you did not have a ciggie you ticked a box, if you had a ciggie down to the next row and start again. Three strikes and you are out. Once these ticks started and it was week 1, week 2 and so on no way was I going back to day one again. A bit like my climbing out of a bottle which I am now on rung 15 and 1/2 way to the top

[Stargazerlily]

Reality check

What a great and thought provoking thread.

It sounds like grief and feelings your feelings for the first time. It is hard and painful, but it is what people have to do, without the drink. I loved Bossman's advice: feel the feelings but take a bath, and any other healthy activity to get you through.

Just let yourself feel your feelings.....all of them. Sometimes, many times, we can't solve the problem, but we have to deal with it. Do healthy things for yourself, and you will get through it. You are strong and brave and are learning a new way to live. A real way to live.

I thought it was interesting when godschild said that she drank for ten years over her child's death, maybe to avoid feelings, but after becoming sober, she had to deal with her grief anyway. And it was probably just as fresh as if it just happened. What courage.

[godschild]

Reality check

Stargazer, You were right on about my drinking to avoid feelings and when I had to deal with her death in sobriety, it was just as fresh as the day I took off her off life support, along with the physical, emotional and sexual abuse I experienced as a child. I used alcohol to numb those feelings and for years it did work for me, I was extremely self destructive, but after a while alcohol no longer worked and I was in such pain that I couldn't bear it. Dealing with all of those things sober, along with other situations that I caused as an adult due to my drinking gave me a freedom. It was very painful to go through but Im so glad that i did. Getting my feelings out about those situations gave me much peace and serenity and I didn't have to carry that burden anymore. Getting sober is not easy, changing the way I lived was not easy, but for my sanity I had to do something different.