What does sobriety mean to You?

I haven’t quite figured it out to be honest … I relapsed after 3 months…reset & checked into rehab and now @ 18 days sober. So for me, now @ this moment… it simply means don’t use… you can’t control yourself.
Thoughts…?

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After relapsing in Nov and saying ahh, screw it, I’m back as well.
It means this time I WANT to be sober. The other times, even after bad stuff happened, I didn’t WANT to give it up. It means finally getting to do things I never could when I was drinking or hungover and having more quality time with my husband and kids.
Congrats on 18 days!

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Good morning Kayto…
The first thing that came to mind in answer to your question was “Struggle”.
(At 109 days this time) I don’t struggle not to drink for the most part, but I definitely struggle with handling life’s ups and downs (mostly downs at present) with something resembling a graceful, and grateful, attitude.
Glad you posted this prompt for thought.

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What sober means to me. Stronger relationship with family and more importantly God. It means my health, it means my happiness. And it means a hell of a lot more money in my pocket now. Quit smoking a year ago and drinking past 43 days and i’m practically rich now! Just kidding haha but really being sober is the best feeling of empowerment and in control as well as physically refreshing. It touches everyone differently, you need to reflect on your own life and see what it truly means to you and what it has changed to really see what it means to you. You will find it, and if not everyone is here to help you figure that out. Cheers on the return to sobriety, stay strong.

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For me, sobriety has become SO much more! When I quit, that was my plan too. Just put the bottle down. I was doing better sober, but I was missing a big part of the healing until I REALLY started doing the work inside. Now I’m healing my traumas that have subconsciously effected my daily living, my relationships with those I damaged using-including (and especially) myself, I am finding new ways to live my life and I’m not running from my feelings or myself anymore. I’m facing those issues and learning how to live life in a healthy way instead of a destructive way. But it all started with sobriety!

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Its a highly individual thing, what it means.

To me it means conducting my life with discipline, integrity, focus, and dilligence. Being present, being reliable, being trustworthy. It means being the best that I can, doing the best I can. I can’t put in the effort, nor can I conduct myself in such a way, if I am drinking.

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It means to be who I really am, using my gifts, talents and being the best I can be. :raised_hands:t3:

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I totally agree! Our family, especially our kids pay the price for our selfishness. Because that’s what I am when I choose to drink, selfish. Glad your back. I’m on day one again but have had a streak of 8 months sober. I was happier, healthier and had the best sleep of my life. We can do this.

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Everything.
If your not on my page with sobriety and being a benefit to my sobriety, I’ll drop you like a pair of weights at the gym. Learning that with family. But I have to do what’s best for me. I want the world and sobriety can offer that. So it means everything to me. I was a monster as an addict. Destroying everything in my path and moving onto the next with no after thought about the destruction. Now it’s time to be the hero in my own story and being sober allows me to be the narrator to my own story… Learned that line from a fellow sober addict, thanks buddy :blush:

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@sprinkles 'STRUGGLE" definitely comes to mind in my experience as well🙄

You pointed out some really positive aspects…that I (we) could apply to my (our) recovery. Food for thought! Ty

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Very well said @anon67035918. Very inspiring as well. Thanks for sharing🙏

Freedom and strength​:butterfly::butterfly:

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Congrats on 8 months! Youll get back there! I’m on day 3. Hate that I’m so low in days again, but I’m determined and hopeful this time and have faith that I can do this. In the past, it was fake hope, if that makes sense. I didn’t really believe I could do it, because I didn’t want to!

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When I first quit, it was because I was tired of the life I was living, the endless cycle of wasting my days away. Same thing, everyday, predictable. I was spending too much money AND time on booze, it was not adding anything meaningful to my existence anymore. Actually, it was doing the opposite, it was slowly killing everything that I was; my Hope’s and dreams and everything that I could become, dying.

Quitting began as just stopping the bottle, abstinence, but quickly turned into recovery.

Recovering who I was so that I can become the person I was meant to be. That is what sobriety means to me.

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Yep. I really wanted to say something cool like clarity or self-actualization or peace of mind.
But I can’t even BS myself anymore. Heheh

@Dejavu your first paragraph sounds just like me🙄. Very insightful.

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Sobriety is my path to recovery. Recovery is my path to self recovery! Reconnecting to that part of me that was never programmed by lifes occurrences, able to be fully present and comfortable in the now. Comfortable in my own skin. Not seeking comfort by ingesting poisons that alter my state of mind. That aren’t real and have negative consequences.
I don’t want to be remembered as a drunk. Or a drug addict!

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Being sober gives me a chance to live. Continuing to drink would mean suicide. Alcohol will kill me so I choose to be sober. Being sober gives me a chance to look honestly at myself, to work on and with myself and to try to fulfil at least some of my potential. Being sober means I choose not to deprive myself of a chance to have fun in my life. .

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Very well said and words to live by :pray:

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