2 days ago I celebrated my 2 years sober again. Again, because years ago I had a long stretch of sober days too but relapsed after 5 years.
My doc is alcohol. I started to drink when I was 16 year or so and it increased in my student days. I noticed I had a problem around the aged of 30 I guess. Tried to quit multiple times but couldn’t get more then 30 days sober 
Decided to give myself an ultimatum: 1 year.
1 year to get sober myself otherwise I would go to see my doctor and ask for help.
I search for a sober forum on the web and found one in Dutch and signed in. Stayed sober for 5 years, relapsed and had my final day one at 18-09-2018.
This is what helped me, maybe it helps someone out here too:
- No alcohol in my house for the first 3 months of my recovery
- No alcohol related events for the first 3 months of my recovery (so no: pub, festival, restaurant, concert, etc)
- Inform my family and close friends about my sober plan so they can support me and don’t offer me drinks.
- Avoid the wine/beer section in the supermarket
- Fill my refrigerator with healthy foods and alcohol free drinks.
- Buy enough chocolate and sweets to eat for when I have cravings.
- Look for activaties and hobbies to fill in time. Like walking in nature, run, reading, watch Netflix, listen to recovery podcast (recovery elevator is a good one
), work out, gardening, studying something new, etc. - Reduce social media to protect myself
- Getting a day counter on my phone and smart watch to focus on my amount on sober days.
- Getting myself a sober peer group to support me in my recovery like TS ore AA.
- Getting myself a meditation app filled with breathing exercizes and meditation. (Insight timer for example)
- If I have cravings I try to find out where they come from using H.A.L.T
If that won’t work I come to TS and talk about it. But sometimes just reading all your stories help
- I used a vitamin B complex supplement to get more energy during the day. Also I used a melatonin supplement to help me with my sleeping problems in the first few months.
- Celebrated every milestone! I gave myself a small gift like cake ore a nice t shirt ore whatever to celebrate my effort. At least in my first year I needed that! And gave myself a big gift when I reached my one year: a big back piece tattoo!!
- And last but not least: make it as small as possible. Focus on today. Today is douable! If you do that day after day you will get that long sober stretch.
Pffff…that was a long talk…
Did you read it all?
Then I’m proud of you 
Thank you for being my sober peer group!!
I’m sober also because all of you!! 
Congratulations on 2 years 
was so relatable. Especially for someone with anxiety, the best advice I have ever received was to just take it one day at a time. However I like the way you put it more…”Make it as small as possible.”
. What is different in your sobriety this time? What are the biggest differences you notice between the first and second year? I’ll be hitting my 1 year mark next month (unless i fuck up) so im always curious what ppl notice between year 1 and 2. Nice 
job, well done!
