While my sobriety has been going very well I have lost touch with the community of my fellow alcoholics.
I’ll be two years sober in June, and with everything that’s going on in the world right now–i know this is pushing a lot of borderline alcoholics into full blown alcoholism. I decided to download this again as it was key to my early sobriety. I hope I can help others while gaining a source of accountability–which is magically an inherent part of helping others through your own past struggles.
I’ve thought for countless hours on how I would answer the very question you asked. It is a very difficult question since alcoholism is so intertwined in every single aspect of your life. There by no means is a recipe that works for everyone-- but I would say these were the most impactful things I did in early recovery (in no particular order).
Post a question or answer on here every day and watch that sobriety counter increase. If you relapse just tell us about it on here and pick yourself back up.
Read the book ‘Alcohol Lied to Me’ by Craig Beck. Order the supplements described in the book asap, your body needs specific things to help recover from the abuse.
Go to therapy. Pay whatever it is. If you can’t afford it–yes you can. They all (in Wisconsin) have interest free payment plans. Invest in yourself. Love yourself. Go talk to someone. I talked to someone once a week for the first 6 months of sobriety. Through relapses and more self destruction before I got better.
I’ve noticed alcoholism is very much coupled with some negative life event that has yet to be ‘processed’ or ‘dealt-with’. For me it was getting kicked out of the military and being cheated on more than once, among other things. These are relapse time bombs. Not to mention how much better the quality of life is after going through the bullshit. Difficult days/weeks, some things obviously we don’t want to talk about. But I’m telling you it’s worth it 100%. Once the drinking stops, how you feel about some of those past life events may be completely unresolved and your sober mind can’t anesthetize itself anymore. Talk to a professional
Read the book ‘extreme ownership’ by Jocko Willink. Attack life’s problems with offense and accepting responsibility for everything you have influence over.
Take a medication called ‘Acomprosate’ it’s FDA approved to treat addiction and it (or something) diminished my alcohol cravings significantly once I started taking that. I stopped taking it after 6 months of sobriety. But everyone is different. Some take it forever.
Make a genuine effort to stop telling lies, any lies to anyone for the rest of your life. lies are a skilled craft alcoholics have aquired out of necessity. Stop lying.
I hope that helps. That’s the best I got as of now. Keep it up
I really like your #3. If you can’t afford it, yes you can! Lol.
Wifey is at therapy right now. She does individual on fridays. We also do couples therapy every Tuesday. Price tag for the 2 is almost $400 a month.
Can we afford that?? Hell no! Is our marriage better than it has ever been? Shit yes!
We left a lot of shit unresolved from 3 years ago when I got sober. Like A LOT. We swept things under the rug that should have been worked on.
Back then We reconciled and jumped right back in to the fray of life. And at the end of last summer some shit came up that we didn’t know how to deal with alone. So it was either get some help or let our marriage collapse in on itself.
We got help. It’s expensive, but worth every penny
Thanks for coming back KeepMovingFoward question do remember the symptoms while withdrawal, also do you remember how long they lasted. I know that everyone is different but I am 2 months sober today and still get symptoms from time to time.
I think online meetings would definitely help in general. I myself had to work up quite a lot of responsibility to go to my first AA meeting. Responsibly isn’t easy to work up when you’re drinking. If I knew of or even thought of (which I never have until now) an online AA group. I would have gone to a meeting months earlier.
I right now dont go to AA because of the time commitment or laziness to drive/walk physically to a meeting. I actually will probably attend regular online AA meetings forever now that I know that’s a thing. This social group has always been my AA. But now I’m going to probably add remote AA meetings to the repertoire.
Hey Gabe. My main withdrawal symptoms were obviously cravings and shaky hands. I couldn’t shoot for shit at the shooting range I was so damn shaky. I wouldn’t say it was noticable at work or anything, but that probably lasted 2-3 months for me.
Yeah. No problem. My sleep was inconsistent and my dreams–which have always been vivid and fucked up-- were on a different level of that for about the same amount of time. 2-3 months. Any specific symptom you’re curious about?
Yes, my anxiety is crazy sometimes and I think it plays tricks with my body. Like right now what I am feeling is like tingling in my right arm don’t know why and four days ago I had at night time I felt like burning in my chest like heartburn, went to a Dr this past week to do a stress test and echo waiting on results next week. I do stress a lot about my health now because I didnt know that quitting alcohol gave you withdrawal symptoms first time doing this, don’t know if that is causing for me to overthink stuff , the symptoms have gone down a lot but still get some from time to time, low energy to and lack of motivation, what do you think
Great! 90% of life is just showing up, really wanting it, and putting in the effort. You do that and you’re guaranteed to get where you want to be. Good luck brother & keep checking in here!
Your brain chemistry is out of balance at the moment. I live with chronic depression and anxiety and am treated for it with medicine, which thankfully takes care of almost all my depression and anxiety. But when I was drinking at the levels I was, my doctor told me that I had essentially been nullifying my medication. So early sobriety for me was filled with depression and anxiety. I addressed this from all angles with mental health professional and medication was involved (acomprosate was added to curb cravings–highly recommend). My mental health was relatively normal after 3 months and stable after 8.
I hope you’re healthy. Use the fear of loosing your health to your sobriety advantage. Read up on over the counter supplements your body needs right now and start taking. Maybe keep your mind busy by doing a morning workout? Morning workout is something I’m currently struggling to implement.
& keep checking in here! 