Yes it does. It gets better in the same way cleaning your house gets better: one day, one step at a time.
Your addict brain is fussing in the same way a spoiled child fusses when the child isn’t getting what it is used to getting. It’s habit and routine, and you’re changing the routine - to a routine that won’t kill you and destroy your relationships - and it doesn’t really matter that the change is a healthy change; your brain (like all brains) is a creature of habit and will try to “flow” in the way it’s used to. (It’s like a river. A river follows the path it’s flowed for years and years, until you build something to redirect that river, to channel it in a different direction. Redirecting a river takes effort and attention
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You will look back on this time as the biggest and best change you ever made in life, and it will lay the foundation for the fulfilling things you will do in the years ahead.
You have been living so long in “numb mode” that your sense of what’s “good” in life is just numbing the bad. Addiction and the “addict mind” of avoidance and escape has made your sense of “good” into just being “numb”.
As you learn and grow, sober, one day at a time, you’ll find fulfillment and happiness and satisfaction and you’ll get to a point where you can’t imagine giving that up for the poisonous numbness of alcohol. Why would you want to?
It is one day at a time and the early days especially are just about determination and persistence.
Have you joined a recovery group to help? There are online ones and in person:
Take care and don’t give up. Remember: your sense of what’s “good” and what “sucks” is way off right now because your standards have been distorted by addiction. Don’t let that sidetrack you. Stay focused and keep asking for help ![]()