based on my prior history of alcohol related incidents (ambulance rides because i drank rubbing alcohol to try and stop the shakes, 3 times through detox and outpatient, i feel like i have a solid understanding of what patterns i need to look out for in myself. SO heres what im feeling. Im feeling like if i stop going to a.a as often and switch over to a different type of recovery program that im setting myself up for relapse. Every time i stopped going to meetings and calling people, i ended up convincing myself that drinking wasnt the issue and continued to end back up in the same terrible place everytime. Im nervous that somehow that thinking is going to come back and bite me in my ass again. Im feeling confident right now and thats scary because usually when i think i know what im doing, i dont lol. any thoughts would be helpful.
I do the same thing. I go a few days without drinking and think that I’m fine, that it’s my depression and bipolar disorder that is the problem. Alcohol makes all of that so much worse. Right now I want to get through a week. Just one week where I’m completely clean. What a feeling that would be. I guess my advice would be to just remember all the bad times that you had because of alcohol. I put myself in so many dangerous situations because I was drunk. I never want to feel that way again. I want to feel better and alive without alcohol.
@Steve92 I use to go to AA and NA meetings when I first got serious about my sobriety. Then it got to be to much because I worked all the time and my AA home group was on my way home so I would just go their. NA is the same to me same principles and everything. But if you feel this is a trigger stay with what works for you if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it. That’s been my way of thinking for the last 27 years. Good Luck
My experience with relapse is getting to comfortable with where I was in sobriety and becoming complacent. And thinking it was okay to put myself in situations where I felt strong enough. So I’m trying to get thru the steps at a decent pace and mix my meetings up so I don’t keep hearing the same shares from the same people. I went to a 2nd step meeting on Monday and questioned if I was even supposed to be in AA. But I needed to hear what those people had to say to keep my self in check and remind myself that I have to keep a contact with my H.P.
Yep , overconfidence and complacency saw me relapse despite leaving 3 rehabs with what I thought was a fully loaded toolkit. Like it’s already been said, if it ain’t broke. …
Any particular reason you’re thinking of dropping meetings?
Complacency and ego are red flags, you know this. I suggest keeping it interesting by going to a completely different meeting when you feel like this. It gets you out of your comfort zone, you meet new people. Go and just listen…really listen. If you go to AA, go to an NA or CA just to shake the trees. We get too comfortable with our home group and boredom sets in…it’s time to kick it up a notch. Also, speaker meetings on CD are awesome to listen to in your car…ask about some at a meeting. And maybe add a new book to your sobriety library.