Hi so I know everyone is worked up over this, but the last two days have been really hard for me. Im asking the other people in the group for ideas on how to stay busy and stay clean with all the chaos going on. Thank you and stay blessed
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Hey there…I know it’s hard to stay calm during these really difficult times but try and tune out the news, it really is just something that sets you up for failure. Worrying will do you no good as my therapist says worrying is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Try to focus on what you can control like your own health and what you’re doing to keep yourself healthy and safe. It’s getting pretty intense out there so stay put, hunker down and find some good Netflix to watch. I went to school in providence! Love that little city…Must be hard being in a city but just keep your distance and be smart. I got myself some paint supplies and have been cooking a lot. The outside forces can only affect you if you let them. Stay safe
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Man, I got nothing better than what @mleclaire just wrote. Find distractions until we can get some idea of what will be happening when. Hang around here, play some video games, learn how to make ridiculous and hilarious videos for YouTube, learn about another culture or period of history (or both), pick up a book. Do ANYTHING but drink or use. And in this case we will put obsessively worrying about things out of our control into the same category as drinking or using. Because, to be blunt and honest, that’s where this shit will lead.
I get my small dose of news in the morning, then I do things for the rest of the day that stray as far as possible from worrying and obsessing. I haven’t been off work since I first got sober in June of 2017. It’s really weird being off work, brings up a lot of memories from being off during that time. But, I let myself feel that for a short time, acknowledge it, then move onto other things for the rest of my day (when possible).
Keep you head up, buddy. One minute at a time if you have to. I know I do, still, some days.
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This picture is helping me a lot these days:
I put my Facebook on pauze and read the news “only” twice a day. I focus on this day and not further otherwise I panic.
Hang in there!
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I am wearing out the sernity prayer lately in these troubling times @Tone401
Even the amended version:
God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, Courage to change the one I can, and Wisdom to know that it’s me.
Stay strong!
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I think, based on my own nonscientific anecdotal experience that we have forgotten how to “be still and just be”. We have conditioned ourselves to needing constant interaction and activity. Thinks about it. Do you take your phone into the bathroom?
So now we are separated from so much stimuli, all that pentup energy is building, like pressure on a geological fault, or under a volcano. This is a dangerous place for a recovering addict. An eruption can mean relapse.
I am used to the discharge of mental and emotional energy throughout the day, with morning and evening recharging through physical training, and mental stimulation. I have noticed a certain level of anxiety building, myself. Being aware is the first step in finding healthy alternatives to the disruption to my “normal”.
Compare and contrast you “days before” to your “days now”, and look for healthy substitutes where you see gaps. Let the pressure bleed off slowly, in a controlled fashion, and it might help. Some suggestions: write good old-fashioned letters to friends and family, because it takes more time and thought than a phonecall or email. If you can, select some relaxing music, and take a walk while the sun is shining. If you must remain inside, grab that book you’ve been meaning to read, and read it while sitting in a sunny window, on your porch or stoop. Check out www.darebee.com and select a quick workout to do, every day. Bake something from scratch.
One thing is for sure, I won’t drink because I don’t drink. I am a non-drinker.
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I have never seen this version of the serenity prayer. This is especially powerful for me right now. Thank you!
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I do!
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Thank you and I really like that version of the serenity prayer, I’ve never heard it before.
You are most welcome. I heard it a few times in meetings. We keep what we have by giving it away. Ty for reaching out and right when i needed it. Amazing how the program works that way. 
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I book marked this… thanks Claudia! Stay safe lovely lady! 
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You too Sarah!
Hello Tone401.
I feel you. I am going through very difficult time now, too. I am sober 7months and good 3 to 4 months of sobriety I was experiencing a pink cloud. Life was amazing! I was successfully not drinking. I got promoted in my new job, I had the biggest holiday of my life and so there were so much enthusiasm and excitement in my life. Sober life looked perfect to me and I never wanted those mega happy feelings to dissapear. But…they did…
After some time I started to be anxious in my new role in work, if I do everything right. Also travelling every day to and from work for 2 hours each way started also little bit suck. Now all the Corona virus going on. I am living in UK, having all my family back in Czech. They were suppose to come over in April, now nobody knows when we will meet again. I am quite depressed, even more because my boyfriend’s brother decided to take his girlfriend and join us in their mother’s - only two bedroom - house. He had fevers and I didn’t agree him to come, but I have no word here. Fortunatelly it looks like he is ok, but we are 5 people in this small house. I can see how my boyfriend’s brother is pissed off me, because I said that I don’t want him and his girlfriend to be using our bed in our room as a place where to relax during the day. So they are stuck in the living room where everybody is spending a day and so they’re having a zero privacy. I can see how difficult it is for them, too, but it was their decission to come, knowing all circumstances.
Yesterday, they invited over some their friend. Now, when nobody should be visiting. Me and my boyfriend are working from home, so it is 24hrs/day all together in one small house. Everybody has own habits, different time to wake up/ go sleep…you all certainly know how it is to be sharing space.
Believe me, I am getting mad and all this is reminding me why I used to drink. Situation like this seems to be easier get over when I could be drunk…
BUT!
It wouldn’t be a solution, would it? All the depression which alcohol brought to me whenever I got sober after drinling, was much worse than this. It is hard, I sometimes cry and feel fu*king powerless, but I CAN cope, because I am strong. And because there are worse things in the world.
I want never forget all I had to go through when I used to drink. My life was horible.
So instead of drinking, I decided to accept all the situation I am in and all these things which are happening to me. And I decided to think about them. To take and learn all I can from it all.
And I started meditations. I have never really meditated because I have not seen a reason why people do it.
I am finding a peace when I manage to calm down my thoughts and neutralize them. I am allowing myself to ask questions, because there are answers in the silence, coming just from my heart.
When I meditate, I can hear myself much better and I am realising who I am and what I want.
I love myself and I became to be my own accompability partner. I don’t care if I look crazy, but I talk to myself like to my friend if I feel I need a support.
Meditation and remembering all the things I went through and all I have achieved, gives me a power to go through my life no matter what.
Just stay positive and calm. World is not about enthusiastic happiness, but about balance and calm mind
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If I’m honest I spend a lot of time playing games on my phone these days.
I color or play a few of the games that I’ve found that help with my anxiety when it starts getting high.
I’ve even found myself paying to get rid of ads on some games or payiyfor in game purchases so I can do different things 🤷
Most are on iOS or Android being that I just switched back from the iPhone back to my Note 10 this week
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I have been writing my feelings down alot lately so it’s not building up inside of me I just can’t wait for this virus to be over with so I can start going back to work and to meetings