I really don’t crave and haven’t for a while. I just think about how horrible my life was and where I was headed when I drank. Life is so much better now. I enjoy waking up again and living.
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That’s your alcoholic brain telling you it’s not worth bothering, because you’ll always feel shit.
But you won’t you know!
Part of the acceptance of having a problem with alcohol, being an alcoholic, is accepting everything that goes with it as far as I’m concerned.
Yes for a while you will be thinking about drinking all the time.
The way to help alleviate these feelings is to change your mindset about your relationship with alcohol!
I no longer drink. I am not a drinker.
Having said that. It is also important to take it one day at a time. And that means facing each day as it comes. As long as you don’t drink today thats fine, deal with tomorrow when it comes.
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After 35 years of drinking, I would not have known normal if it slapped me upside the head. 
. Honestly, there is only the present moment, “normal” or not, it just is and I’m better off not to judge it by social rules.
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I’m sober 14 years, all of it in AA. I still think about it from time to time. I do not crave it, that was taken from me as a result of the step work I did with my sponsor.
If I craved, I would drink. And I’d be dead now, by my own hand.
There are miserable mf’s everywhere, even in AA. I can choose to do the things that keep me happy and free. Those things might not work for you. It’s not that AA is guaranteed to remove alcoholism from us. It offers a framework to be content in abstinence, that we can use as well or poorly as we choose.
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This is a tough one. I’m coming up on a year and feel better than I have in years!! With that being said I still have the thoughts of drinking from time to time. You learn to process it in a healthy way. I have to agree with @mleclaire about going to dinner with people who are drinking. That’s probably the hardest part of this whole thing. Alcohol is so normalized and even promoted. You never hear a server say “would you like a shot of dope with your burger?” I enjoy going out to eat or hanging with family and I understand that they might sometimes drink. The key is to know when enough is enough. If they start going at it to hard I quietly make my exist. Over time the cravings go away. You may have the thought every now and again but it doesn’t have to consume you.
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Took me like 70 days, lots of meetings, lots of walking and lots of putting things into perspective helped me turn the corner.
Life’s never been good. It’s all about perspective, you’ll never see a forest through the trees
Thank you for sharing this! I am going to stick it in the back of my head. I am trying to tell myself to drive towards the 9 months-1 year time frame, this seems to be a common time when people are getting past that immediate craving stage. This is really helpful reading everyone’s experiences.
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Physically? It took about 4 days…maybe a week.
Emotionally? I’m not sure I’m there yet…but every day is better than the one before.
Will I ever be normal or happy?? I don’t know. But honestly it’s because I have no clue what “normal” or “happy” are. I’ve used alcohol to fabricate those feelings my whole life. So part of my recovery is discovering just what it means to be truly happy.
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This is spot on @Opentheclouds, When I tried quitting smoking, I talked to some ex smokers who said even after years of quitting, they still had cravings. I pretty much said what’s the point of even trying? I ended up smoking for another 7 or 8 years. Same with drinking. Even now, 260 some days later, the “cravings” are nothing more than a fleeting thought that evaporates as quickly as it materializes.
To me, craving alcohol is like having a craving for lobster. I like lobster and I’d like to have a lobster. But I’m not gonna go get me a lobster because it’s really too much of a hassle. So I move on. 
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Fantastic analogy!!! LOL
I agree. I don’t think cravings will ever be 100% gone. But the difference is how I react to the cravings. For me the consequences are not worth it so I make myself a tea instead.
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