Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

[retteacher]

Happy New Year one & all. I couldn't be more grateful. I just want to continue to learn & grow as I gain more & more sobriety. Now that I've stopped drinking for a fairly significant period of time, I feel my sobriety deepening.
-I'm not nearly as nervous, anxious, & afraid as I used to be.
-I know how to get through situations that used to baffle me.
-I'm more focussed & productive.
-I'm enjoying life, because my mind is clear.

I'm hoping to get to know all of you a little better & better in 2008. Mary

[Hannah]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Mary - Happy New Yeara!!! And such a good year, a year of real positive growth for you, you must be (and deserve to be) so proud of yourself!


Yes, sober is the way to go ------ you know that, and are such an inspiration for all of us at MWO - and I thank God for people like you here, you are the glue that holds us all together! May you have a blessed and happy 2008.

[retteacher]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Hannah: Thank you so much. I can't help coming to MWO & sharing my successes & thanking everyone. My alcoholism (I'm not afraid to admit it) was over-shadowing everything. It was sapping my energy & siphoning all the joy from my life.

Obviously, if I get to experience the good things in life more fully sober, then I'll have to experience the difficulties of life more fully. I'm finding that I'm not so afraid of that as I used to be. The habit of numbing out through my troubles & problems is breaking ever so slowly. I'm not accustomed to confronting challenges, but the more I do it, the more comfortable I'm getting w/it. Mary

[Breez]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Happy New Year Aberooos!


Wishing everyone little celebrations, good health, good sobriety & every thing else good!


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[rustop61]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Hi Mary and everyone to come

Mary, you should be so proud of yourself. What an amazing way to start the NY. I know you are roughly 80 somthing days AF. Not alone are you starting a new year but you have nearly reached the magic 90 Days. Let us know if you feel any different when you get past it.

Happy New Year everyone. May all your wishes come true in 2008.

Rustop

[retteacher]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Rusty: I'll be hitting 90 days on Thursday, & I've read that 90 is a sort of magic number. Supposedly, my brain will have become more or less reset in terms of impulse control. I definitely don't feel the pull to drink as much as I used to. I can ignore the fleeting drinking thought much more easily. When I was in my binge & stop stage when I first came to MWO, & if I'd have the fleeting drinking thought in the car, I actually turn the car around & find a liquor store. I can't explain how grateful I am to not be experiencing all those awful wild-goose chases of buying liquor, drinking, & disposing of bottles. Awful!

Take care everyone & come here to MWO regardless of what stage of progress you are in. Love, Mary

[treeman]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

starting a one month af.....feel confident for a change...

happy new year all..

[Ask For Help]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Start of 30 days

Hi all: I've watched this forum for a while and am now looking for partners in the first 30 days. Let me know if this is the best place to start. I am not the most computer literate (don't know how to use all those icons!) but am sincere in starting the new year out right.

I have struggled with controlling my drinking, and have been seeing a counselor, which has really helped me re-focus on "taking care of me". She encouraged "let go of the guilt-as it won't make you drink less", and that's advice I've been able to take to heart.

So I've had a good holidays, and jumped out of bed this morning with a new hope and committment . . . but mornings are always easiest, and the truth is in the 5 - 9 PM pudding, as it were.

Hope to find some help here.

Tx

:new:

[tylyr]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

retteacher
Many, many congratulations. The longest I've done in 70days, and then I gave in - thought it was alright, but of course it isn't. I'm going to try again, and I'm going to keep on posting. it really is giving in to the first drink that does it. I know that wonderful feeling of getting up feeling good about myself, fresh and headache free! I need to keep a hold on that feeling I think Tylyr

[Redgal]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Hey, I am going for 30 days as well! Count me In!!!!

[retteacher]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Everyone who's working on a January goal today:

This daily thread is a great one to come to if you need to discuss what's going on or to just check in. Any thoughts you have are worth sharing...that's how we help each other. Nobody has the magic formula...we're all here working on our mod/abs (in my case abs). If anything happens & there's a slip, the most important thing to remember is not to stay away. Absolutely no one is judgemental here. Staying away is a formula for binging, binging, binging.

If you're really new to MWO, the Newbies in Need ODAT (one day at a time) is very good on the Just Starting Out Forum. I use DrinkTracker (look on the forum page down toward the bottom). It was a real motivator for me, because I like to see a visual representation of my progress (i.e. a string of zeroes).

Good Luck, Mary

[MyOwnWoman]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Hi everyone. Thanks retteacher for being so inspiring. 90 days Thursday - how wonderful!!

AskForHelp - Welcome. This is a great place to be. What you said about letting go of the guilt - SO true. The less guilt I harbored for drinking, the less I drank. The more guilt, the more drunken nights. I've cut way back on the number of nights drinking which has helped immensely to let go of the guilt cycle.

And now - I'm going all the way, baby. I had tried joining in on these 30 day threads before and failed every time, so have stayed away cuz I got tired of embarassing myself.
But now - enough is enough. It's Jan. 1st, and I'm going fully and completely AF.

To new MWOers - if you don't find the success you are looking for as immediately as you'd like to see, DON'T GIVE UP. I've been on these forums for several months, broke many promises to myself, but get closer and closer to the goal all the time. And at long last, I believe that I am going to have true success now - in large part, due to these forums and my friends here.

2000 is gonna be great!

[Determinator]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Happy headache-free New Year to ABland!

although I concede that I did some moderating last night I managed to exercise an enormous amount of willpower and NOT overdo it. First NY's day without pain since 1999 I think. wow. Last year at this time I drank in the morning because I was so screwed up and hungover....just the memory of that hurts. whew!
however I will continue to think and act as an AF person since that is what saves me from that old lifestyle.
our party was a huge success and I'll be posting some recipes for sure.
to everyone just starting this path have heart.....you can and will do this if you put in the effort!
Be well everyone

[lucky 2.0]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

MOW- you are 8 years behind!

[janka]

Tue. - Jan. 1, '08

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year blessed with many happy surprises!

Congratulations Mary on 90 af days! I too will celebrate 90 straight af days on Thursday, we can be AF-day buddies, almost like birthday buddies. The time actually did go by pretty quickly, once the first week or two had passed. Wow! What a relief and what a difference in the way I feel!

Many thanks, over and over agin, to all my MWO friends for steady inspiration and thoughtfulness and much needed comfort. I am so very grateful to all of you, j