Battling urges early on

Emotional Support
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Does anyone have any advice/tips on battling urges early on? I had my last drink last Tuesday and find myself wanting to drink for no apparent reason. Maybe boredom or habit. I’m almost to my first clean week, and obviously don’t want to set myself back again and start over, but I’m struggling to get it out of my mind today

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First thing is to know that urges and cravings are not going to kill you and you aren’t depriving yourself of anything by not drinking. These urges will pass with time.

To pass the time, try

  1. Go for a walk.
  2. watch YouTube videos of peoples experience going sober for a year or even 30 days
  3. Take a hot bath
  4. Play a crossword puzzle
  5. Hit up an AA meeting
  6. Do a few loads of laundry
  7. Clean and/or reorganize your house/room
  8. Pace back and forth

I’ve done all these early on, keeping your mind occupied is key.

You’ll get through it.

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hi, fellow Claire! my advice would be:

  • go to a meeting (online) everyday - i did the 90 in 90 which i highly recommend.
  • go shopping for seltzer water and keep treats on hand to keep your mouth busy. the weight will come off as the sweets/cravings dissipate.
  • persist through it all
  • HALT method: are you hungry, lonely, angry, tired

you can do this! :heart:

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This video helped me out early in my recovery get through cravings.

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Anything!
Absolutely anything that distracts the mind at that precise moment.
I would literally change whatever I was doing and start doing something else and it would be enough for my mind to change tack and forget about the cravings.
This list of what you could be doing is endless.

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Like others have said, distract distract distract. The cool thing about cravings is that they usually pass pretty quickly. Find something to occupy yourself until you forget. I tend to BLAST music and clean the kitchen, or I write. After a few minutes I tend to feel much better, even if I thought it was unbearable just before that.

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Recovery Elevator has a series of free videos for navigating early sobriety which I found useful. And the podcast is great too :+1:

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What are your hobbies? Or hobbies you had before drinking became the hobby?

I found myself building and fabricating things when I got sober. It’s only grown since. Started with a coffee table… since then I’ve given our home quite a reorganization, built beds, islands, gonna be making a custom pantry and cabinets here soon.

Walking also helped me a lot. I walked to specific destinations at first, to the store for dinner… also helped with not over spending cause I had to carry it back lol, to meetings, to a park. Eventually I enjoyed walking just for walking, allowed me to mull things and let go of things, stick walk a lot today, hell I’m walking right now :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:.

Don’t buy booze, avoid the booze aisle, focus on the good that is happening in life because of sobriety.

Say no to the only drink that matters, the first drink.

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image

This helped me a lot in the early days. Some days I was all four, so had lots of candy and naps. Also came on here for hours at a time. Ummn… on at least two occasions I took my anger out here :flushed:

If you want it bad enough, you can do it :+1: It is a journey though :muscle::pray:

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Check this out, @Yoda-Stevie posted it earlier and it’s pretty inspiring. Alcohol does nothing good for you.
Stick around, you’ll love it!:smile:

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Keep active go for walks try a zoom meeting and try get someones phone number or email so when you feel anxious give them a call . put some music on dance your heart out i used to put on my kilt and swing the boys no undergarments thats a true Scotsman lol wish you well