Only human

@Bunto These are the words I need, thank you.

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Thank you for this and God bless! I don’t know where I’d be if not for Jesus, probably dead in a ditch somewhere.
I’ll overcome this, and so will you. You’ve learned your lesson faster than I have, if I have at all.
As long as we keep getting up after each fall… I’m not excusing relapses; I’m saying that you’re right and there’s nowhere else to go but up when you’re at the bottom and that’s where we all start from. I’m coming to terms with that. I hope and pray that we’ll all make it.

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Thank you for the encouragement :blossom::pray: It means a great deal.

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Thank you, appreciate that. Take care…getting sober requires constant and many times repetitive work, over and over until your will and brain is massaged enough to actually make the right decision - stay at home with no bottle and make first 24hrs sober. One day at a time. Omg why am an addict with these “wise” thoughts :smiley: :grinning: :grinning:

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I flipped a car into a ditch during a Spring sleet storm late one night and passed out. Came to with rain and snow coming through the broken window, water on the floorboards up to the seat. The car was below the level of the roadway, so no-one could see me. I don’t know how long I was there. I was wearing just a light jacket. I climbed out. My feet were soaked, up to my knees. My jacket was overwhelmed by the sleet in a matter of seconds. I walked across the road to a pay phone (that phone stayed in front of that store until maybe 2010 - it was the last working pay phone in Franklin county Vermont) and called a tow truck. The truck arrived in about an hour and I was trembling uncontrollably, literally had my teeth chattering in my head, lost control of my shaking hands. The driver got me in his cab and ran the heater full blast.

There was one other time, might have been later that winter, that I was exposed to a snowstorm, under dressed and drunk, crashed into a body of water. Those two brushes with hypothermia and near death were, guess what? Not enough to stop me drinking. God watches out for fools, drunks, and Englishmen - my Scottish grandmother would say that. And she was married to an English drunk fool, so she should know.

I got sober on a mild day in April, when my higher power visited a message on me. “Everything is going to be alright. You’ll be able to stop drinking now.” That message gave me the faith to take the actions so that I haven’t taken a drink since. I marked 19 years sober last month, and that message is absolutely the cornerstone of my sobriety. Not only because of the meaning of it, but because it happened, because grace was visited on me that day.
:pray:

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Thank you for sharing your story; 19 years is incredible! And you’re still here helping other people even though you don’t have to… I’ll leave a flower here for you :hibiscus:

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How are you doing @Soli ? Just wanna check on you :cherry_blossom:

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Hello @erntedank! Thank you for remembering me. I’m hanging in there. It’s getting easier now. I’m working on my attitude because I think this entire sober thing can never be maintained if I don’t work on the underlying causes. I’m trying not to relapse and taking it one day at a time. Sometimes one hour at a time. I now think addiction isn’t the problem at all, it’s just a symptom. Keeping busy, trying to avoid triggers (which I learned about after countless relapses), and looking on the bright side by counting my blessings. I’m still sober :relieved:
Thank you again for checking up on me :pray:
Virtual flowers for you: :hibiscus::cherry_blossom:

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Hey Soli! It sounds like you’re accumulating some sobriety and beginning to work through root causes. This is so great. Everyone on this thread has given you such helpful advice. If I can add one more suggestion from my own experience? I highly recommend reading or listening to the book
This Naked Mind by Annie Grace.

Someone had posted how it had helped them and I thought, why not. I had found myself going for stretches of sobriety (months) and then fooling myself into thinking I could drink moderately again. Spoiler alert: I couldn’t. No one can. There’s also a free 5 day challenge. This book explains exactly how the science of alcohol works and it was incredibly helpful in changing my mindset. Other books thst are similar include Alan Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Drinking Alcohol.

I recommend this book because your posts suggest you’re trying to use willpower, white knuckling, abd self-flagellation. Those methods can prevent us from drinking in the VERY short term (hours or days) but if you want to thrive and repair your relationship with yourself and others, you need a different way rooted in self-compassion, loving accountability, and an understanding of exactly how alcohol impacts us and why you are drinking in the first place.

From your last post, though, it sounds like you are already taking steps in the direction of self compassion and loving accountability. I hope you are able to keep giving yourself the tools to repair your relationship with yourself!

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Got a lot from both of those books!!!

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I think it was your recommendation I took up a few years ago! I’m about to reach 4 years in July thanks, in part to that book, my own work, and this anazing community. :rainbow:

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Oh wow!! That is fantastic to hear. 4 years is wonderful. I am happy for you. :blush: This community helps me so much as well. It was instrumental in my education and as a support in early sobriety. :butterfly:

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60 dyas! It took 23 relapses.
Thanks everyone for being here. This really is a wonderful community :heavy_heart_exclamation:

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Congratulations on your 60 days!!! So happy for you!! :people_hugging::partying_face::heart:

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Thank you! :blush::pray::two_hearts:

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Nice! Congratulations on 60 days @Soli! :tada:
Keep building those sober muscles. :muscle:

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Thank you so much! :smiling_face::pray::cherry_blossom::two_hearts:

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Congratulations on 60 days!!!

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Thank you!! :smiling_face::two_hearts::cherry_blossom: Couldn’t do a single day without this community :heavy_heart_exclamation:

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How are you doing @Soli ?

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