It’s the beginning of my day 4, physically feel better but my anxiety is through the roof, so broke (financially). I’m at EHN it’s a government center that helps people with mental disorders and substance abuse issues. I also have a psych np here and have been prescribed meds which I haven’t taken because I barely managed to quit drinking 4 days ago, so I’m waiting for withdrawals to completely go away.
Anyway, after my appointment I walked to the pharmacy area where they told me it would be about 30 min wait to pick up. My brain IMMEDIATELY thought oh I could just go out and drink a beer while a wait, there’s a bar and a restaurant right across the street. I fought with my own thoughts for a good 5 minutes.
-whats one beer gonna do? No harm?
nooo, you got this far, don’t.
-but it would be just one, just to ease your nerves-
you hardly have any money, 5 bucks to your name
-that’s enough for one, let’s get out of this place. You don’t belong here.
Then I thought of ALL YOU sisters and brothers here, in this community with me, and you guys gave me the strength. I kid you not.
So I sat my ass down in the waiting area, amongst my fellow people, most of them comprised of the homeless, and other’s with serious mental issues, less fortunate than me. But here, here we are all the same.
I love you guys.
You really stood up for yourself in that moment and used your tools! I hope you know that you can do this every time an urge hits. You’re developing your toolkit!
Thanks for sharing! This helps people like me believe in the power of our community here. We are not doing this alone.
Well done! You’re doing it! 4 days is a huge accomplishment! I love the excitement and the appreciation of the folks starting out fresh in sobriety. It’s exciting and inspiring. You help us stay sober just as much as we help you friend.
The program of aa is incredible. And it’s because of the people in it. The friendships and honesty. The fact that I never feel judged by “friends of bill” is huge.
Judgment is one of the reasons I started drinking in the first place.
Hey I’m proud of you for going to get help from your doctors. That’s another task that is NOT EASY. It’s counter cultural. Where people say just get over it and buck up.
I’ve been on medications for over 14 years now. Not the same ones but I’ve finally only last year got onto the corrects med and finding some others that are helping also. It’s trial and error but once you get it right with the help of your doctors it’s a game changer.
It helps with sobriety. For me anyway because a lot of my addiction were only effects of mental challenges and traumas form past and even present.
All that said. I’m proud of you. You’re doing it. Keep it up and keep reaching out. We are all here for each other brother.
Thank you so much for your words. I’m not gonna lie I’m a bit apprehensive about starting with medication (severe depression/anxiety) and Naltrexone. I’m scared of how they might make me feel. But I think I’m ready to give them a try.
Anything to improve my life and help me not fall back in the hole.
For what it’s worth, it’s a ton of us struggling together, as we speak… you can do it! Watching YouTube vids/podcasts regarding other people’s stories helps me a ton. It takes it all away. I too have been experiencing extreme anxiety due to the nature of my job. I would’ve so downed a bottle of wine, or 2, but then I close my eyes and reflect on the infinite reasons why I should not and how the booze won’t tale the problems away… that’s what has worked for me so far on my 17th day…:
Can it be any worse than hangovers?
I doubt it (and from experience it’s really not)
Good luck and great work on pushing the thoughts and staying where you are
In my experience, it’s important to keep talking to your medical team about how different medications make you feel, so they can adjust accordingly. There is definitely no such thing as ‘one size fits all’ in mental health, so keep speaking up!
Hi, when I want a drink, I memorize my last time, when I drank. And the feeling and the shame, that I had the next day. It helps me not to take the “just only one” drink. Stay strong!
I promise you it’s definitely not worth it. I relapsed after 8 months of sobriety and have been struggling to stay sober (and it all started with just ONE drink, or so I said). The thing is, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Stay sober requires you to do one thing and one thing only, JUST DON’T DRINK! You’ve gotten this far, in another 3 days you’ll be 7 days clean, 3 days after that you’ll be 10 days clean, 4 days after that 2 weeks, and on and on it goes. All you have to do is not drink! You got this!
I’m not gonna lie I’m a bit apprehensive about starting with medication (severe depression/anxiety) and Naltrexone. I’m scared of how they might make me feel. But I think I’m ready to give them a try.