What it was like then and what it's like for us now. For those with a year of sobriety

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 4:20pm

Hello Fungus, how are you my friend!

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 4:21pm

Hello Jan. Nice to meet you. I’m glad that I’ve been of some use my friend!

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 4:22pm

All good here Menno.

siand · July 1, 2020, 4:25pm

Good luck catching up, I struggle with the daily check in thread if I miss a couple of days!

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 4:26pm

I’ve decided not to bother. I’ll find things out as I go along.

DarrenUK · July 1, 2020, 7:13pm

@anon12657779 good to see you back mate

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 10:31pm

Hey Daz,
How you doing?

C_8 · July 1, 2020, 10:39pm

@anon12657779 Hiya Geoff. Lovely to see you. You’ve been missed

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 10:43pm

Cate. It’s not like we haven’t chatted!
Oh, and by the way, you are a hotty do you know that? I’ve seen that picture you posted.
Am I allowed to say that these days?
I don’t know.
Sorry if I’ve offended anyone.

C_8 · July 1, 2020, 10:50pm

You have just made my year!!

anon12657779 · July 1, 2020, 10:52pm

Yeah, not bad for an oldy!

emc2018 · July 1, 2020, 10:55pm

I can relate to ALL of this. I feel like I could have written this @siand Thank you for sharing. You have such a beautiful way of articulating things. You have a lot of courage and I really admire that. I am grateful that I am here and a part of this community with you

DarrenUK · July 2, 2020, 6:18am

All good thanks

Got a year under my belt now, good to see you back

anon12657779 · July 2, 2020, 6:23am

Wow, another year celebration I missed. Well done bud. When was that?

DarrenUK · July 2, 2020, 6:31am

28th June mate

anon12657779 · July 2, 2020, 9:39am

Well done Daz.

anon12657779 · September 20, 2020, 11:46am

So my turn.

In 2016 I finally admitted to myself and my wife that I had a problem.
Namely: I’m an alcoholic! I have no control over alcohol.
It took me a further two years, a couple of journeys to AA and several relapses for something to actually get through my thick skull that whatever I was doing wasn’t working.
Why?
Because I didn’t really want sobriety.
Why?
Because I still thought I wasn’t that bad! After all, isn’t an alcoholic an old man sleeping rough with bottles of cheap cider after loosing everything?
I still had a family, a good job and no DD/DUI’s.
To this day I cannot pinpoint the exact reason.
All the truths were there for me to see, all the truths that would see me end up that old man.
October 31 2018.
My wife and I had had a boozy night. She’d said that she was going to be going sober for November and asked if I would like to.
I laughed.
We passed out on the sofa.
I woke at 04.00 saw a bottle of wine and drank it.
Then drove myself to work, buying more on the way. I drove into the yard and thought “I can’t do this no more!” Those exact words. Don’t know whether I was referring to drinking or working and drinking or even life itself.
I drove home, drinking more, no idea what I was going to do. Sent some drunk texts and passed out on the kitchen floor.
Woke to a lot of texts and missed calls from family concerned.
I made up my mind then and there, No More.
I downloaded a counter and found this forum.
The rest is history.
Painful, tearful, sad beautiful history.
I followed everyone’s advice, why? Because what I had been doing wasn’t working.
I listened to people who had been there and were where I wanted to be.
People like
@aircircle
@MandiH
@Englishd
@TMAC
@CaptAZ
@funnydad
@Fireweed
@ChicagoT
@SassyRocks
@Dejavu
To name a few.
What they all were saying seemed to work for them, so it made sense to forget my ego and listen to experience.
However we get through is a personal thing.
Many use the gym and fitness, I tried, following a thread on here, but it didn’t take.
I read about a endurance event over a mountain in Wales that Special Forces use for selection.
That got my interest.
Found a company that offered the experience and cracked on!
Who would of thought that I would find myself cycling, running, walking, basically getting and keeping fit.
Yesterday was the culmination of over a year’s worth of training.
Even though the event was cancelled, a group of us decided to do it anyway as it had been moved once already.
Bearing in mind that guys half my age have to do the 15 miles, 866 mtr run in under 4 hours.
My time was 4:12
I found myself head down and getting on with it.
My mind centered on one goal, very much like my sobriety, head down and don’t let anything get in the way.
This is, I feel, the only way that we can treat our sobriety.
None of this, what about Christmas, birthday, pandemics, etc.
Nothing get in the way.
One year is such a short time in the scheme of things. I know, at the time it feels like forever, but once that year is over, I looked back and thought wow!
I’m now a couple of months away from my two year anniversary and I’m a totally different person to what I was a year ago.
All it take is determination, and drive to reach the goal.
One year, and if we are working on the reasons behind our drinking drugging, one year, should be enough time for us to see the difference. To taste the difference.
Mindset and support. It’s there for the taking.
We just have to be brave enough to take it.

SassyRocks · September 20, 2020, 11:50am

These posts always get me teary and yours is no exception!! Thank you for sharing your story and being here. We are all such works in progress and have so very much to learn from everyone we cross paths with. I admire your tenacity and physical achievements. Congratulations!!!

anon12657779 · September 20, 2020, 11:57am

Thanks Sassy. Your support has always been there. Such an inspiration for us all.

MandiH · September 20, 2020, 12:00pm

Soooo proud of you @anon12657779!!! Your growth has been incredible and I’m truly honored to call you my friend! Thank you for sharing this. This was no small accomplishment, you’ve been doing huge and great things and I’m so thankful that we can share this journey together thanks to TS. Much love my friend!!