AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

[Turnagain]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Greetings FABba-Dabba DOers....

A hearty slap on the back to YAH for reaching that 30 day milestone! There's nothing wrong with riding that pink cloud. You just keep growing it.....I know you can do it. My cloud turned into the prettiest shade of purple over the past year and to be honest, with so many exciting things to discover about myself and so many amazing experiences to enjoy now that I don't have the burden of addiction weighing me down...I am content to stay up here. This kind of high beats anything you could drink or smoke.

LillyE and ShueShoE will tell you there are clouds full of fabulous footwear. Us web-footed EEE types have seen them from afar. Love the new avatars, ladies!

Welcome to this cozy little AF corner of the cyber world Irie, Molly, Kuya, Freefly and all lurkers. This is a great place to learn how to live successfully without the toxin, alcohol.

I've got a truckload of paperwork to deal with on the cloud today. File, shred and repeat. I'm wearing garden gloves - no need to give blood to the cause.

[TheSunFlower]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Finally catching up on the threads. I am still dealing with the flu bug...

I liked kaslo's post from yesterday. I still wonder why long term abbers post here vs. in long term? It seems like your post would have been understood there.....and some here have not made the commitment to be abs forever. They come here to learn about abs.

Everyone uses this thread and others for their own reasons. I personally don't use the board for accountability or counting days. I don't feel like I have to slink on here and report every aspect of my day. If I drank or not.

Some were driven away and will not come back. And that is a shame. I like some of the information I get here. And I wish for some they would understand that dipping your toe in the land of abstinence does not mean you have to make a pledge here to be helped.

Like someone said.....this is not a "program". There is no set path. So instead of making a pledge of 30 days in the beginning, when you are most likely hungover....why not just 1 hour? Personally, that works for me.

So there you go.....I will be sober for at least the next 60 minutes.

[Kaslo]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Good morning abstinence fabbers. Its still morning here. I am after responding to a few PMs and sending one to Mick. Check yer mailbox Mick. Explanatory mail there for you.

Sunflower, the others will correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that this was a daily thread started to give thanks for yet another day of sobriety and the clarity and beauty of a sober life, which cant be beaten out of us, no matter what life throws our way. And of course, everyone is welcome.

There has been a tradition too of being frank and honest, and engaging in conversations about how we each achieved our goals. Usually with humor and grace. And the occasional gentle and loving arse-kicking, usually as a LAST RESORT. This has a basis in human physiology. The first three months are tender and sore, and support and sympathy and calming is what is usually needed. But after 30 to 90 days, very often the brain starts to play tricks on us. It tells us we are ok now, and we can go off and have a nip. This is actually a physiological response, supported by brain chemistry, gut chemistry, etc. Sometimes its exacerbated by residual depression and the biochem that goes along with THAT. Its a very dangerous time.

If you are ok with planning only 60 minutes ahead, and that works for you now, that's great. What ever floats your boat. But as you go, plan ahead a bit more and more.

Everyone have a great AF Day. One thing is for sure.


K.

[CanToo]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Happy Tuesday!

Shue - Where did you get those? Nice.... You don't wear those on the treadmill do you? :H

I will be on the water tonight privately celebrating 40 days AF and 9 days of Movement. I love this phone app (iQuitIt).

Here's to doing it one day at a time (whether you are 4 days AF or 400). :happy:

Thank You LillyE. You're like my own little cheer section. Much appreciated.

Well I should go. I'm at work and don't usually come on here during the day. Good to see the old thread coming back.

CanToo(ing) into a better life.

[FreeFly]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Hello sweet Lilly, and thank you for the invite to this thread. I've sort of passed it by in the past as I thought it was for 'serious' AF'ers and didn't feel 'worthy'. Well I'm ready to be one too. Thanks for all the welcomes

I do have a plan Lilly which I'll elaborate on another time - bit tired this evening and feeling quiet. Plan to keep it fairly simple and balanced - that's where I'm safe. Reading some interesting stuff at the moment about the difference between the path of pleasure (always a duality on that one with its friend pain) and the path of joy. That's the path I intend to tread with its friend peace of mind.

Hello Irie - yes we do seem to mirror don't we. I read your post yesterday and thought 'that's me' too. Was a daily wine drinker and now am racking up days but want to be free of it all. Let's do this Irie - 30 and beyond.

Hi to everyone here - looking forward to getting to know you all.

[Lavande]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Good evebing all,

Had a very long & very busy day watching grandkids but all went well

Glad to see you here FreeFly!
This is the land of the seriously commited AF'rs, no more stepping back
Freedom from the chains of AL is Absolutely Fabulous!!!!

[TheSunFlower]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Thank you for the clarification. I have decided to stick with Smart. It was nice getting to know everyone and I am sure I will see you around from time to time.

[porqoui]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Good Evening All......What a difference an ATTITUDE can make.

Had a great day ploughing through some of the more heavier duty documents for an upcoming trial and did it all with a on my face.
20 days ago doing the same chore resulted in a slip after 47 AF days. Look at me now.
All day I kept wondering why I was in such a good mood and I realized everytime I thought about it, I was grateful. I've never felt grateful before. It's a nice feeling.

Caysea If I remember right (and sometimes that's tricky) Mick suggested this tracker AA History Sobriety Calculator

CanToo Now you've become a verb. I love it.

See everyone in the morning. PPQ

[caysea]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Hi All
Porqou that is another great tool that Mick mentioned. It helps with adding up our af days. The one i was talking about is on this site. It is listed in the topics. You can keep track of your af days by the month. Along with other members. Seeing it on the board kicked it up for me in the accountability Dept.

[porqoui]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

caysea;1373749 wrote: Hi All
Porqou that is another great tool that Mick mentioned. It helps with adding up our af days. The one i was talking about is on this site. It is listed in the topics. You can keep track of your af days by the month. Along with other members. Seeing it on the board kicked it up for me in the accountability Dept.

:thanks: Caysea. I saw that somewhere when I was crusing aroung the MWO sight checking things out and then I couldn't remember where it was. Now I know. PPQ

[CanToo]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Another beautiful autumn evening here in the west.

Spent 90 minutes paddling with an old team mate (and some pelicans). The water was like glass as the sun went down painting the sky and clouds red. I'll take the camera on Thursday so I can share the peacefulness of this sport.

KY - you were right. Tuesday was fantasic.

How are you this morning Mick?

CanToo (the strong) :H

[LillyE]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Kaslo;1373514 wrote: But after 30 to 90 days, very often the brain starts to play tricks on us. It tells us we are ok now, and we can go off and have a nip. This is actually a physiological response, supported by brain chemistry, gut chemistry, etc. Sometimes its exacerbated by residual depression and the biochem that goes along with THAT. Its a very dangerous time.

Kas, can you elaborate on this any further? Particularly the physiological basis? Is there a term for this? Or terms I could google to find more on this topic? I'm just not sure what I'd be hunting for otherwise and I haven't come across this in any of my reading to date. I am really interested as I know this is the stage I am entering into so all this stuff is on my mind.

I read somewhere that when you don't feel like drinking is when to shore up motivation not to drink when you do - that's where I'm at right now because while I don't feel like drinking at the moment I just sense it creeping up on me somehow - that complacency.

Previously, I usually fell off the wagon around 2-3 weeks. I would have a bad drinking session, feel horrible, quit, then after around that time I'd start to feel a bit better and start to think I was making too big a deal of it all, that I didn't *really* have a problem etc. I can totally see how that could happen after 30, 60, 90 days. The mind forgets. We are geared generally to remember the good times more than the bad.

Drinking wine at home alone was a big thing for me. After 60+ days I have gotten used to being home alone and not drinking. I don't get those urges to run to the bottle shop anymore like I used to. For me right now I see two major danger zones:

1) If anything really emotionally upsetting were to happen - running to the bottle for numbing comfort, which has been a longstanding habit. I've had minor emotional upsets and felt tempted but thus far been able to fight them off.

2) More seemingly innocuous but probably far more dangerous… What I fear is that one day I will be at a BBQ, a dinner, a picnic, what have you, and someone will hand me a glass of wine or offer me a cocktail or "just a little glass of bubbly" and I will think "fuck it why not? what's the harm?" I really see this as the bigger risk and am trying to work out why that is - before it happens - and what tools I can use to fight it if that urge hits me.

Any ideas welcome

FreeFly, I'm really glad you're here and I look forward to hearing your plan (when you're ready) for finding your way to peace, joy AND (AF) pleasure. You totally belong here. I think you are ready to take that next step toward finding true freedom.

KY, I meant to add, look forward to hearing those 'deeper thoughts' when you're ready too.

L x

[Determinator]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

Freefly, I'm also at day two. perhaps we can hobble along together into our freedom.

good to see everyone, still a bit shaky here but resolved, wearing my determinator helmet.

love to all

[kuya]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

I am having a horrible day :upset:

[porqoui]

AF day Tuesday 4 Sept

kuya;1373771 wrote: I am having a horrible day :upset:

I'm so sorry to hear that. How can we help?