100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

[Byrdlady]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

I am still convinced that I still have a final to take somewhere! Peppersnow, gosh, I have that one, too! I meant to drop the class but didnt and then have to show up for the final! Wow, I had no idea that was a classic!

Glad to know others have the same crazy dreams! Byrdie

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

You'll do it Soft Focus - if you truly want to!!!!
You know what you need to do

[Rahulthesweet]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Hello Nesters or should I say long term absentees ...

For me life is now at quite a different juncture. And as I see it I am living life ! There was time not long ago I was so happy, delighted as the life was giving me those wonderful experiences. So should I saw I was finally awake and was noticing so many things which were already there. Then life has it's ups and downs with down moments one tends to feel and experience the same.

How can once escape worries and tensions or not such great moments. One escape can of course be an AL. This reminds me a guy whom I remember always as a smart hunk - one of the blessed , really smart ones who was rich, with women drooling over her since he in high school. He got married to a beautiful girl, inherited fathers business and at this stage of his life is is in Cambodia, divorced and living his life has a hippe ... Basically enjoying ! Now is thats what is escapism ? Leaving everything and succumbing to basic necessities of life along with drugs and AL ? Or is it leaving everything and becoming a"enlightened" guru or saint.

How does one escape from worries or life, or pleasures of life ... I guess one cannot one has to face it ! But then again the prospect of escape does looks so attractive especially during tense moments. My question was for us alcoholics is that's what leads to relapse ? Escape or search for escape from reality ? Or at least an illusion of one ? Bombarding the brain with drugs so that it stops thinking and be one numb ... Numb to the extent it just looks for drug and drug and noting else pleases it ... It sure us an escape but not what I call escape to heaven ... Rather to hell...

As I see some amazing ... Wow ! Pics of this guy living in Cambodia sounds and looks so cool ... Giving away everything but then it's not what would call running away rather than anything else.

I guess once cannot escape from life. One has to live it. Experience it's ups and downs. I will face them ... But for me escape is not from life or reality but from drugs which used to give me the illusion or at least blind me of it.

I am still free ... Free of drugs and that freedoms also gives me chance to experience life ... Where I am on a challenging juncture and thank GOD I am free ... Free to choose wisely, think thoughtfully and take a decisions.

I don't know what I was writing but just thinking out. Don't get the impression I am going towards relapse but yes my guards are on ...

[NoSugar]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

It doesn't sound like you're heading for a relapse, Rahul. It sounds like you're recognizing that the way you feel right now with all the work stress is what used to lead you to drink - to escape.

You've done a great job paying attention to all the positive changes in your life and being grateful for them. I think that is part of what makes you strong enough now to make it through these tough, tense times.

I bet the life your friend is living in Cambodia does look pretty appealing right now. But he is also giving up many of those things that you have become grateful for. I bet the pictures he shares are the ones that romanticize his new lifestyle -- just like all those photos on FB of people having a great time drinking. We don't see the "after" shots.

I hope you give yourself some short-term rewards - a run in a pretty place, a new book, a massage, .... an ice cream .

You're doing so well, Rahul. It has been great to see you become a sober (but still fun!) man.

:h NS

[Rahulthesweet]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Thanks nosugar for sharing your thoughts. This week is critical and important I am sure by next week there will a lot of tension free days for me ...

[Samstone]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Maintaining, movin, and groovin. Hope everyone is well. Thinking of you Brydie...
Sam

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Same here Sam - busy, busy

Hello to everyone!!

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Same here Sam - busy, busy

Hello to everyone!!

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Same here Sam - busy, busy

Hello to everyone!!

[Pavati]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Hi, All:

I have a question for you long term long termers. Do you still get the "tug" or whisper in your ear? I was on a ferry yesterday - a place I ALWAYS have a beer. DH had one and I admit that I got anxious and looked at that damn thing longingly. It didn't take me long to think through the drink and change my thinking, but I would like to someday ride a ferry without that happening to me.

Thanks in advance for your wise responses. I am feeling stronger and better each day, and I really do go for long periods without even thinking about drinking myself. Of course, I have to think about drinking all the time because it is EVERYWHERE, but not for myself.

Pav

[Myluck]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Hi all, hope you all doing well. Pavati, I am not getting whispers or tugs. Just sometimes when I am watching a movie and I see people drink there and I am just getting mad at myself for being not able to drink sociably or "moderate". I was talking with somebody (here at MWO) recently and I said : " I am know I can't moderate, therefore I will not drink at all and I am at peace with that". So, I am interested what long time abstainers got to say on that....

[NoSugar]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

I agree with you, MyLuck. Now that all the hullabaloo of quitting is a pretty distant memory, it's just one of many "facts about me". I accept it along with the rest and am so glad to once again feel good about who I am. I bet the frequency and intensity of those thoughts fade, Pav. A friend who has been sober for 8 years still experiences them occasionally so perhaps they don't disappear but maybe they become like other fleeting memories that we have now and then but are just that - memories.

[Sunbeam]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

My husband drinks wine, a moderate amount daily. Once in awhile my gaze lands on the bottle. My thoughts are consistently "nope, I don't want any." I think having it in the house constantly made it harder for me to quit, but stronger now. I could have some, nothing bad would happen right away. I was never a daily drinker. But gradually I would increase the frequency and amount. I would lose the control I have over my life now, eliminate many of the free choices I now make. I'm not turning down that road.

[Lavande]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Myluck, having occasional thought of AL is perfectly normal. I think the trick is to observe that thought but don't dwell on it & push it right out of your head! We choose not to drink AL each & every day so that we may preserve our freedom from addiction

[Byrdlady]

100 Day Club members/Maintenance Thread

Pav, I do occasionally have a stray thought...the difference is today I know what to do with it and before, I let it take over. The other day I posted to someone that getting sober is a SKILL. I firmly believe that...because the more we practice what to do and say to ourselves, the better we get. I'm with Lav, I don't give those thoughts a chance to take root I PUSH them out. Then I visualize myself gulping vodka or wine from a hidden bottle in my closet. That does the trick for me, nothing AT ALL romantic about it now....it's just a BAD memory! There may as well be rattlesnake venom in that glass!

Byrdie