100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

[Pavati]

Thanks for the replies, Byrdie and NS.

Hi to you, QW, and welcome!

xo
Pav

[Lavande]

Pav, just like birdie mentioned - the pity parties are fewer & sometimes only last a matter of minutes for me, ha ha!!
At this point I am way more afraid to think about what condition I would be in right now if I had continued the way I was 7 years ago. Would I even still be alive? Who knows? At least now I am reasonably sure that I have a few good years left in me to enjoy the grandkids & have no regrets whatsoever
That's why we keep our quits going with lots of gratitude too!!! Relax & enjoy your 2 year AF anniversary tomorrow!

[TJAF]

Pav. Don't just enjoy your 2 years of freedom revel in it. You are beating the odds and that should be cause for an awesome celebration. You are free! Hallelujah!

[STEADFAST]

Happy Friday everyone! Friday evening here in Melbourne, and I still think of the "butt velcro" I used when in the Newbies Nest!

Welcome to you, QW :thumbsup:

And Pav, CONGRATULATIONS on two years! :welldone:

I can relate to those who still get the niggles about drinking. I don't experience 'cravings' any more, but there are still times I feel a wistful longing to drink......

......Having said that, I am so grateful and lucky I still have a job! It was quite a shock to be asked to log off the P.C and pack up my stuff and be marched out of the office by two senior managers. My workmates just stared. Very lucky the assessing psychiatrist saw fit to verify with my private GP (general doctor) that I have been AF free since 29/4/13. Drinking on the job is grounds for instant dismissal, but because it happened three years ago, and they couldn't actually prove it despite my drunken emails, I am still employed. My manager, IT, and God knows who else know far more about me than I would have liked, but I can still be proud that I'm AF. So any thoughts or niggles about drinking are tempered by the knowledge that I was walking on a knife-edge. Sobriety is fantastic!

On your note, Addy, I too have accessed MWO at work and was concerned about it being found out. Personally I won't be accessing anything non-work-related on the work PC any more. But so long as you don't put too much identifying stuff on MWO, you should feel safe and secure. It occurred to me that those who know my history could probably identify me if they bothered looking for me, but they know already so am not going to worry about it.

A great big Aussie g'day to you Guitarista!

Travel well everyone - no hangovers, no wondering what one said or did, no regrets = a great weekend!
Steady x

[Lavande]

Stopping by to say HELLO!
December is whizzing by at a high rate of speed, ha ha.

Looking forward to another happy, healthy & AF holiday season with all my MWO friend

Peace to all!
Lav

[Sunbeam]

Peace to you, Lav, and to all my friends here. I'm loving that our weather has been so warm, and I've been able to continue playing outside in my gardens.

[STEADFAST]

Hi 100 Day Clubbers, hope you're surviving the crazy season. You might like the warmth where you are, Sunbeam, but we're in the middle of a heatwave in Melbourne Oz! Makes people a bit "troppo" , and they drink even more than already occurs at this time of year. So glad i won't go thru the "dry horrors" any more! Take care everyone, love, Steady

[Lavande]

Hi there Sunbeam & Steady!
It's suddenly very cold here, below freezing actually. BUT it will be very warm & zero chance of snow on Christmas, ha ha!
Crazy weather but it keeps me on my toes I guess.

Steady, it's nice to be doing what we know is right for us. Let the others soak up all the AL they want. We won't have any hangovers to deal with on Christmas

[All done drinking]

Hello 100 dayers. Glad to be a member of this elite group as it's not as easy to get here as one may think. Too easy for that bad little voice to nag at people telling them they can handle "just one" now that they haven't had a drink for a week or two and then they're right back at it again. It's good to have a thread where people understand the importance of fighting daily and how relapse really is right around the corner for anyone/everyone which truly makes it a daily battle to remind each other to armour up and to stay strong.

Have an enpowered day friends.

~Addy

[NoSugar]

the importance of fighting daily and how relapse really is right around the corner for anyone/everyone which truly makes it a daily battle to remind each other to armour up and to stay strong.

Hi, Addy

Did you feel this way during your previous quit - that it was a struggle? My experience has been different. I don't feel like it's a struggle at all. At some point I relaxed into quitting and started seeing it as an opportunity rather than a fight. Sometimes there were challenges but I actually started looking forward to those - chances to put my new-found identity as non-drinker to a test. I agree that daily attention is needed to keep my thinking where it needs to be but I feel like I've put down the heavy armour I was using to shield myself from life for so many years. I am aware that relapse is possible, which is part of why I stay involved here, but while I respect the power of an addiction, I no longer feel afraid.

Maybe different ways of looking at it work for different people but I sure found more peace when I surrendered to the fact that I'm among a large group of people who do not handle alcohol well and so who are better off not drinking it at all. It no longer seems like such a big deal.

I hope you and all members of this thread and MWO enjoy a meaningful and peaceful holiday week. xx, NS

[All done drinking]

Did you feel this way during your previous quit - that it was a struggle? My experience has been different. I don't feel like it's a struggle at all. At some point I relaxed into quitting and started seeing it as an opportunity rather than a fight.

I love questions that challenge my thinking so thank you. My first quit was so easy. I don't think I really believed I had a problem, more of an alcohol abuse issue, but not a "real" problem, so it was kind of an "I'll show her" (therapist for co-dependency) way of thinking and I just quit, went to AA and never struggled. Really loved my life without it and never really missed it. Then as many know the story or the same one, support was gone, an Aunt through marriage was pressuring me to have "just one" wine with dinner, and it all went south. Drank for too many years and then realized I HAD to cut down as I didn't process al well (drunk on 3) so it became a 7 year battle to try to have only 1 or 2 a couple nights a week. Of course we know that didn't work because the shut off valve didn't work so sometimes it was more nights than desired or more drinks than desired and I was on the hamster wheel.

I like your way of thinking and will work on trying to get there. The feeling that it's not a struggle, because it certainly wasn't before, so no sense for me thinking that it is now. If anything, the main point for me is to find support with people sharing recovery thoughts, and stories, and to keep going somewhere for support for that as my initial relapse probably happened because I no longer had support...no internet then and a move made me lose my A.A. family. Thanks for the reply.

~Addy

[Byrdlady]

I remember thinking I had finally 'made it' when I hit 100 days, but I still had days I struggled well into my first year. Nelz was 6 months behind me and the way he spoke when he was at 6 months took me a year to achieve. I think we 'get there ' at different times. Either that or I was an extremely SLOW learner, which certainly may be the case! It reinforces Kuya's 3P belief that our thoughts control so much of our lives. He and I had both quit, but our experiences and acceptance of it were very different. B

[bear73]

hey everyone,been enjoying reading here and on the relapse thread.Thank you,needed to read a lot of this tonight - just over 6 months and combo of BS voice,people asking me why i quit and UK obsession with getting battered and especially at this time of year are combining...
I need to remember alcohol makes everything worse for me,and that I abused alcohol and it is that I'm yearning for - not the odd one or two.

[Byrdlady]

Bear, you got that right. In the beginning when I just wished for ONE, who was I fooling? One wasn't going to do me a dam bit of good in fact, I can't tell you the last time I EVER had one. All I have to do when I have those thoughts is remember the disgust and pity in my hubs' eyes the morning after my last bender. I never want to see that again. Drinking may be ok for others but for me, and most of us here on MWO it is a one way trip to hell. We've both come too far to risk it. We are so very fortunate to have found sobriety....many people never do. It's a 1000 times easier to maintain than it is to start over. I wrote the book on that one. Hugs Bear, B

[TJAF]

In this Season of excess I come to you all with a bowed head, humble and contrite. I have stumbled and stumbled bad. As I am typing this I am getting cookie crumbs everywhere. I am unabashedly trashed on sugar! Yes Yes I have done it I am a cookieolic! There I said it! No Sugar where are you when I needed you most!