Day 6
Back to work. Meh. I’m going to get some dinner, bath and a meeting before bed. It’s a week tomorrow. Grateful to reach that milestone.
Nothing profound just aiming for another 24
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Every 24 is a noteworthy success. Even more so early on.
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Day 7
Work was good. Eaten dinner and waiting for a meeting. New bedding has arrived (I may have underestimated what a feather duvet was going to do to the dog 
but that is another story). I’m sure it will be fine once he stops fully investigating it and/ or barking at it. He might just hate the colour. It’s bright pink with mandala type patterns on it in ALL the colours.
I wish I had known that pepsi max has caffiene in it! Water it is tonight until I get to the shops tomorrow.
Happy 24 everyone reading 
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Congratulations on your first sober week! Well done! 
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Day 8
Work was good and I finished late tonight. I am so happy and grateful to be doing sober regular people things. Finishing work tired, getting some dinner, nice bath and fresh pj’s while I wait for the online meeting at 9pm.
Just over a week ago I would have still been in my pj’s from however many days before and started drinking the second I finished work. Maybe some drunk tv watching and then passed out in bed. The life I want for myself is finding its way back to me.
Grateful for regular people things.
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Day 11
Sundays have always been simple for me. Church, weekly shop, visit with my parents. That should be easy enough but now I am sober again I know there is temptation around every corner. Feeling good today and I have the tools to navigate this day without drinking.
Grateful for one more day.
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Day 12
Lets do this day. Fuelled by coffee after very little sleep!
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Day 14
I found an in person meeting locally. Now to get the courage together to go. I love the online meetings and go to one every day but I know I need a sponsor and start working the steps.
Life is pretty good and I am able to say yes to the 3 questions I ask myself every evening
- Have you done something for your sobriety today?
- Have you done something for your spirituality today?
- Have you done something for your self today?
I find myself doing things mindfully and identifying which category they belong to as I am doing them. I hope I can make that a habit and way of life moving forward. It brings a sense of peace and accomplishment without getting ahead of myself.
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Hi and congrats on walking this path! I am at day 11 now(no etoh in 2024 so far). I have been lurking here until today. Happy to be sober right now and looking forward to another day of sobriety.
I wish there was a daily check in thread for all the people who quit during a certain timeframe. I like to be held accountably to a group of people in similar circumstances.
Anyway, I will be checking the boards here daily to keep myself grounded during these early days.
-Solar
Day 11
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Workng on day 19.
I read some great things about addictive personality over on the daily check in thread that got me thinking. I have always thought I have an addictive personality, in my family we joke that we are all “Alles of niks”. It means everything or nothing. Its true in a way. We do it with hobbies, fitness, diet, gaming, pretty much everything. We go all in for a while and eventually it falls away and we move on to something else which we do 110% until it fades and we move on again.
I was wondering, what if I don’t have an addictive personality but instead I am just not very good at moderating myself? This week I am going to work on moderating myself. Being mindful with my time and allocating suggested time slots for what I want to achieve so I don’t spend 7 hours knitting after work and neglect everything else to do that. I won’t be too strict since it is early days in sobriety and that remains my number 1 priority but I can make suggested time slots and see how it goes with trying to work within them.
@SolarEclipse checking the boards daily and actively contributing has been a huge part of my recovery. It always gives me the strength and courage to keep going for another day. Seeing people enjoy life sober helps me so much to know that I too can have and deserve that peace and joy.
Happy 24 everyone.
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Day 21
Getting ready to start work and very grateful to wake up sober and celebrate 3 weeks. I’ve had a few things happening this week that would have sent me over the edge anxiety wise. Old sofa’s being collected to donate, new-to-me sofa’s being delivered, new-to-me car being collected and some significant work deadlines. It’s interested to see the difference already in how I can cope with these things sober. Just patiently waiting for the next thing on the list to happen and mentally checking it off. Sofa’s were collected last night and I would have been stressing big time over having no-where to sit and relax. Instead I just dusted off the garden furniture, brought it inside and prettied it up with some throws and pillows and have a place to sit and watch TV until the new-to-me sofa’s arrive.
It is wonderful what a clear head can achieve!
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Day 21…you really are doing amazingly…its so good to read your thread each day and see how you are changing and settling in to your sobriety, in the least patronising way possible…im really proud of you 
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Hi Fiona, welcome to the app 
I’m an alcoholic too and I’m in day 11 too which is the longest I’ve managed in years.
I lurked for a while too until I decided to become more active in these forums. Don’t be a stranger and reach out if you need to!
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Shaking off the old thread to start to keep the waffle out of the Check In and Gratitude threads.
Oddly I am on day 21 in half an hours time which is where I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth nearly a year ago. Dear me… well and truly - nothing changes if nothing changes.
I don’t suppose I have ever really had a recovery plan but will say that every time I tried to stay sober I learned a little more than the time before. I’m hoping I have learned enough now because I don’t really think I have another recovery in me. Different this time is that I have AA and I am actively participating in my recovery and not just “trying not to drink”. Also just thinking about today. I am not worried about what tomorrow brings or looking any further into the future than getting to bed tonight sober. It’s taken so much pressure off the process. It genuinely is not something you can do alone very easily. I am sure there are people with the brute force will power to do it, sadly that is not I.
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Congrats on the 21 days. Im just like you. I fall off after a few weeks. I have 18 days today and very grateful. I also have been attending AA and hopefully it sticks this time around. Im glad your here and dont worry i been coming back here since 2017. And the good thing is we keep trying but yea the drinking is geeting worse with every new bender. We got this. One day at a time. Thats really all we got anyways.
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@sobernow We have got this! I feel it in my bones.
Soooo… my dad has a girlfriend.
He is 74 and my Mom died in March this year. He has been on a dating app for seniors (with my help) in the last month or so. First of all, I am happy for him and helped him get on the dating app. He is terrible alone and we knew my Mom was dying for 2 years before she passed. We had plenty of discussions around what she wanted after she was gone and my dad finding someone else as soon as he was ready was high on her list of things she wanted.
He had a few telephone calls and even a few meet ups for coffee in a neutral location etc and then he found THE one. It is so cute and funny to watch this progress. He told me last night they spoke and asked eachother if the were boyfriend and girlfriend 
It took all my willpower not to laugh but I think it’s really cute the way finding love has no age limit.
More to come as this develops!
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Super sweet and a great reminder. So sorry for your loss. Grateful that your day can get out there again. The dating scene can be intimidating. Very happy for him and you 
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I have been around this forum for quite a few years now on and off. Sometimes active and other times lurking in despair at my circumstances and wondering how to make the changes I need to make. It was always a bit daunting to try to “break in” to the groups already formed here and dare I say it, quite hard to do. Even in sobriety forums there are the cool kids and the popular ones. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is and always has been so lovely, kind and supportive but I never felt like I had “my” group.
Well something clicked. I am starting to see the wonder of how this works. How the newly sober start to connect and form a unit of understanding with the longtime sober weighing in to guide, support and even caution us against things when we get a bit cocky. Those of us that hang in for the long haul will be that familiar group in the future. That know eachothers birthdays, wait for eachothers 1000 days to appear and ask how your unwell child is doing.
If you, like me are trying to fit in and wondering when you will belong, hang around, the best is yet to come
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You are here and participating: giving of yourself and taking from others. You already fit in; you already belong.
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My home group meeting is really great and I am very happy to be there. The only thing that pushes me outside of my comfort zone is the sharing. They go around the room and everyone shares. You don’t just volunteer a share like you do in other meetings I have been to. Everyone’s shares seem so eloquent and meaningful and I still feel like a complete dork when it’s my turn. Especially tricky in a step meeting where the shares were related to the 12th Step that was covered in the first half of the meeting. I’m sure the self conciousness goes eventually and I am grateful that I am sharing and it will get easier. One thing for sure is that I really don’t want to drink. Every time I go, I feel better when I leave than I did when I came in. Without it I genuinely don’t think staying sober would be as easy as it seems right now.
Putting myself in harms way is not an option right now and I am unwilling to take risks with my sobriety. All I need to do is go to meetings and not drink today. We do have a work function in a week or so. Its a leaving do for a member of our senior leadership team. I am not worried. I have done many of these sober. I drive to the station, catch the train to London and then don’t drink because I have to drive home from the station when I get back. They all know I do that so even when ordering drinks they will ask me… lime and soda? cranberry and soda? No one even thinks to offer me an alcholic beverage. It does also mean that I can leave when it gets a bit tedious. I have the excuse of catching a train then a drive home as well.
Well my dad is still at his girlfriends house! He left on Sunday and I have not heard from him since . He is fine though I am sure since he does post in our family whatsapp group chat. I am sure I will hear all about it when he gets back on Friday. I am taking it as a good sign.
Just a couple more hours of this work day to get through and I can go curl up on the sofa and knit and feel sorry for myself.
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