Sober Selfies #9 (shirts required please)

Key West!

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Have fun!! One of my favorite places! My friends and I were just planning a trip down there in a bit when we can all get the time coordinated!

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Hello TS friends,
Iā€™ve been staying away from the forum for some time. It is difficult to be back and write this. Iā€™m hurt by some things Iā€™ve seen occuring regularly on the forum. Iā€™ve addressed people privately but wanted to make a public post too.

There have been topless pics recently and discussion about the no-topless-pics guideline. Iā€™m a porn addict so seeing a topless pic of a man or a woman is very triggering. Needing to deal with bare skin in my daily life and then having to face that on a sobriety forum too is too much for me to cope with. Not only are such images triggering but they also are breaching my sexual boundaries, which takes my mind and body right back into the time when I was sexually abused and raped. Understandably, that causes terror, fear, helplessness, pain and anxiety in me still today.

With the abundance of social media outlets available, I do not understand why it upsets you that you canā€™t post your half naked pictures or other sexist content on a forum that also has recovering sex and porn addicts. Even if you donā€™t agree with the no-topless-pics guideline, would you please at least respect those addicts whom it was designed to protect? We take our sobriety as seriously as you take yours. Youā€™re not only disregarding a guideline but the people behind it.

I wonā€™t be able grasp alcoholism like alcoholics do, but I can still do my best to respect your recovery and not post pics of alcohol, for example. Iā€™m perplexed why I canā€™t have the same in return. Instead, some people are posting and making fun of triggers that I still struggle with immensely. I find that hurtful, undermining and unsupportive.

Furthermore, Iā€™ve experienced that there are double standards regarding nudity and substance abuse on the forum. Some addict groups enjoy the protection of clear and justifiable guidelines whilst challenging and disregarding the same guidelines for others. For example, a pic of alcohol gets flagged and removed without any fuss whereas flagging and removing a topless pic usually creates an uproar. Then PMO addicts like me get backlash from people not understanding how it is even possible to be triggered by it. I get told I should be able to tolerate nudity since itā€™s natural. Well, so is alcohol and but you still donā€™t need to see it here. It is really not fair and makes me feel like my addiction is of less importance. Iā€™m not an equal with others and my words mean nothing. That is frustrating.

I have muted, ignored, scrolled past, tried not paying any attention and been on self suspension to cool off but I have reached my limit now. I no longer feel safe and welcome to this forum and that makes me really really sad. My country has no support groups for my doc so this place is basically all I have. I canā€™t control anyone elseā€™s behaviour, only mine, so Iā€™m seriously considering leaving this place to protect my sobriety. Ironic, isnā€™t it?

Take care, stay safe.
Olivia

Disclaimer: I have no admonitions towards the moderators. Our co-operation on the matter has been very good and they are doing an outstanding job.

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Thank youā€¦
As always your way with words is more than i could articulate!

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Looking good Danni :smiley::ok_hand:

Day 270
I had to show you guys our summer light.
Current time in Sweden for this selfie 22.20 (aka 10.30 in the evening) itā€™s almost daylight 24/7 here now.

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My selfie today is an old picture but my sister got me the sweetest birthday present :heart:

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Iā€™ve definitely joked about it bc I joke about anything so from the bottom of my heart I apologise and thank you for opening my niave eyes. :v::heart:

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Thank you Paul. I appreciate this very much and weā€™re good :+1:t2: have a nice day mate!

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My bad Olivia. Iā€™m sorry, I wonā€™t make light of the no shirt rule again.

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To my horror, this has made me realise that I have done this too - even as recently as yesterday. I commented on my eating habits early in my sobriety journey on another thread. I can only apologise if that was a trigger for people with issues around food. It didnā€™t cross my mind for a moment.

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This is a tougher one because our bodies are craving the sugar in alcohols absenceā€¦ we are obviously better off as alcoholics eating sugar over drinking alcohol if thatā€™s what it takes to stay sober in early days. The shirtless selfies are totally unnecessary. This one is tougher, i guess when suggesting sugar in early sobriety we should label it with a tw.

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Yes. I will do that in future. Or maybe just avoid mentioning it, or send a PM.

490 days!!! That means I get TACOS!

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When isnt it a good day for tacos?

If thereā€™s one thing I love in NoVa itā€™s Taco Bamba, the rest can suck off

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Another day 6ā€¦feel great this time

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What a beautiful picture! You must feel so proud, congratulations!! :tada:

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54 days

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Day 12 today for meā€¦

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Thank you Dan. Your apology means a lot to me. No hard feelings. Have a nice day :blush:

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