100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Destiniey, great to see you here
Life is good!

[kuya]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Tonight I went to dinner with some clients whose company I enjoy. They were all drinking when my daughter and I arrived, and got a little loud but we had a nice meal then came home at 9pm.

My daughter went to spend some time with her friends online and I swam for an hour under the stars....it was too beautiful to describe, the kind of night sky that makes you well up with tears. The starry sky was so vast and I so small and my time here so short.....but that didn't matter.

I was struck by how fortunate I am, how good my life is, how content I feel.

Financially I am currently broke yet feel wealthier than anyone I know.

None of this was possible before, I would not have gone out just sat home with a bottle of vodka looking forward to an anxiety riddled day and more vodka.

Tonight the sky was the limit....I finally appreciate what that means

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

That's nice to hear Kuya
I just mentioned in the Daily AF thread that mindpeace is THE best gift we can possibly give ourselves
Why would we ever want to mess with that??

[Byrdlady]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Gosh, Kuya...I have goosebumps from reading your post. Sobriety IS a second chance...it is the cure that disease we have. If you think of any other disease we get and try to treat, we are happy with only partial results! PARTIAL! not to mention the side effects...we're willing to live with all those things! In this case, we get our entire lives back. We wanted so badly to be out of the hell that AL put us in, and we are finally there! There is nothing like MindPeace!! It is truly a gift! I'm so happy for you!! XXOO, B

[Hippyman]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Peace of MIND is the greatest gift that sobriety has given me. It can be your too, if you want it badly enough!

[Sunbeam]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Great thoughts, how peaceful life can be without alcohol. So many times I've said I have a great life, why did I mess it up with alcohol??? So now I sit here peacefully by the fireplace with my dog, gazing across the snowy fields I see though our patio door. Life can't get much better than this.

[FlyAway]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

FallenAngel;1454318 wrote: I was wondering what "boundaries" other long termers have set for themselves. (This thought crossed my mind yesterday as I posted about taking juice at communion).

Here are the boundaries that I live by:

~ juice at communion, not wine

~ cooking with alcohol is okay as long as the alcohol will be burned off. I don't seek out recipes that call for alcohol, but I have 2 favorite recipes for cornish hen & marsala chicken that would not be the same without the right flavor of wine. Last year I made a beef dish that called for wine & I purposely went out & bought AF wine for it.

~ I won't allow myself to drink AF wine or beer on a regular basis. I have given myself permission to have these, but I have only had 1 AF beer & 2 glasses of AF wine in my 5 1/2 year sobriety. I know that too much of that taste will bring back the beast. I loved vodka & tonic, and only in the last couple of years have I allowed myself an occasional tonic water... I think of it as a real treat.

~ no liqueur filled chocolates or desserts.

~ mouthwash & cold syrups with alcohol are okay. I never abused them, and they are not a trigger for me. I guzzled wine... not mouthwash! :H

Boundaries, hmmm. I don't go to church so I don't have to worry about communion. I do cook with alcohol. It's not a trigger for me. Actually I've had alcohol in the house the whole time since my first day AF. My husband is a drinker and likes to have a stocked bar. Vodka was my poison of choice and about a week after I quit my husband went out and bought a half gallon jug of vodka for me. I was pissed at him at the time, but the bottle is still sitting on the shelf. I've never had AF beer or wine and don't want to try it. Liqueur chocolates don't appeal to me. Mouthwash and cold syrup is not a trigger for me either.

It's honestly like I flipped a light switch in my brain. I'm am just done with alcohol. I can be around it and I'm fine. Actually I'm not fine, I'm repulsed by it. The smell is awful. I can smell it on my husband about 4 feet away. Yuck!

[kuya]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

FlyAway;1455102 wrote: Boundaries, hmmm. I don't go to church so I don't have to worry about communion. I do cook with alcohol. It's not a trigger for me. Actually I've had alcohol in the house the whole time since my first day AF. My husband is a drinker and likes to have a stocked bar. Vodka was my poison of choice and about a week after I quit my husband went out and bought a half gallon jug of vodka for me. I was pissed at him at the time, but the bottle is still sitting on the shelf. I've never had AF beer or wine and don't want to try it. Liqueur chocolates don't appeal to me. Mouthwash and cold syrup is not a trigger for me either.

It's honestly like I flipped a light switch in my brain. I'm am just done with alcohol. I can be around it and I'm fine. Actually I'm not fine, I'm repulsed by it. The smell is awful. I can smell it on my husband about 4 feet away. Yuck!

I am also surprised at how early my indifference to alcohol kicked in. Seeing others inebriated is a GREAT deterrent also

[Byrdlady]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Kuya, talk about an about-face....seeing people drunk now makes them seem sad and pathetic...and I WAS that person. Come to think of it, I WAS sad and pathetic! UGG!

[kuya]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Byrdlady;1455132 wrote: Kuya, talk about an about-face....seeing people drunk now makes them seem sad and pathetic...and I WAS that person. Come to think of it, I WAS sad and pathetic! UGG!

As we were driving home my daughter said ' mum, how can you stand listening to them? They were so boring!'

I really must find some more sober friends! :H:H

[Mick]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

got to agree with you KY......watching and listening to people in their alc induced states of mind seems funny to start with...but after a while and you have heard how good they are how macho they are how much everyone loves them, how they are the funniest and sexiest people in the world..it tends to lose its "funny "appeal..Have you also noticed that when someone is drinking they need to shout everything..its as if the world around them has gone deaf..and when they pat you on the back or shoulder its like a southpaw..just in case you didnt realise they were there and directing their slabber towards you..I can say that....I was one of them!!!

[kuya]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

That's why I don't understand the appeal, or the struggle once you have a decent amount of sober time.

I understand the addiction, that is biochemical, the rush of endorphins. I understand if something TRULY tragic hits and you say 'feck it, I hate the world and I don't care if I live or die'.

But I don't get the continued longing and battle against something that has messed you up so badly. Particularly when life has been so much better sober.

All the folk at my dinner last night know they have a problem but it seems there is safety in numbers.

Maybe that's it ......just wanting to fit in

Can someone enlighten me?

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Kuya,
That's an interesting thought! As a kid I worried about 'fitting in' I guess as much as anyone. But as an adult I couldn't care less. I have always been comfortable doing my own thing ~ be it right or wrong
For years I drank myself into oblivion on an almost daily basis, now I don't drink at all. I suppose that's why we need to accept our past as an 'education' of sorts for now we know better
I hope every serious drinker in the world comes to the realization that AL does not make life better. I hope it happens sooner rather than later!

[Sunbeam]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Kuya, I gave up on trying to reason why I drank. There certainly was no reason, though I could dig up excuses. What was at one time an occasional pleasure became an addiction. Now I'm done, and I can choose what I want to do in my life instead of working around alcohol.

[Byrdlady]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Sunbeam, isn't it exhausting? Working AROUND AL?? Until it is finally the central axis of our lives.
Kuya and Lav, there IS safely in numbers and that's why I think checking in to this site is so important. The outside world pummels us with messages that AL is the right thing to do, makes us _____ ! (insert your vulnerability here). Sticking with folks who have the same 'allergy' makes us all stronger....to see that you CAN live/thrive without AL when in the early days it seems so impossible. B