What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Life is hitting hard and I don’t know what to do…. Relationships are terrible when there is so much shit from the past. I am in this place where in the past, I could go get high and it would solve all my problems. I’ve been sober almost a year now and I’m still having the same issues as when I was high but now I don’t get high anymore and I’m having trouble fixing stuff. I really wanna explode but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I feel super hopeless. I prayed till I’m blue in the face and things only seem to progressively get worse. Whatever was in me in the past that allowed me to hit the fuck button and go get high died and that was really the only thing that made me feel alive so I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to fix anything and patience isn’t easy for me. I have all these emotions but truthfully and honestly, I’ve never experienced any of them and sure as hell don’t know what to do with them, but Getting high isn’t an option so if anybody has any other options, I’d be glad to know what they are.
Getting high wasnt solving anything it was just delaying dealing with the inevitable.
Its time to face the issues head on, break them down and begin addressing them 1 by 1.
Do you have a group you’re a member of? That helped me get my feet on the ground:
If you walk 100 miles into a forest, it takes 100 miles to walk out.
Addiction takes a toll on our health, on our relationships, on our reputation, and on our integrity. It takes time, a lot of time, to correct these.
With relationships, we need to remember that we can do what we can to repair them, but ultimately, it’s not up to us, so we must be patient and allow others to heal at their own pace.
Recovery is a lot more than being sober, it requires a lot of work and patients. We all need help and someone to guide us. Do you work with a sponsor?
You’re beginning to actually feel your discomfort. That in itself is good. And you want to crawl out of your skin. Imo the important thing is to constantly acknowledge what you’re feeling. The reality of it. This way you’ll connect to yourself. The more used you get to feeling what you’re feeling, how bad it actually is, the more you can inquire into what might be going on that made/makes you that way.
Do you have any chance to get yourself a therapist? Without my psychoanalyst, I don’t think sobriety itself would have been enough for me to make any progress w my shit. Emotional pain shit.
Best of luck. You are really really not alone in feeling the way you are.
When I quit drinking, I had no idea what to do. My first thought was “I need to go to church.” Idk why, bc I hadn’t gone in 20 years, but it was something. It did help, but I knew I needed more, so I found this community. Amazing 
as I’m sure you know. I learned about recovery, but I still felt stuck. One day, I’d had enough and decided to take the advice I got here and try AA. What did I have to lose? I loved it and went back everyday and learned even more about recovery. Priceless things I’m forever grateful to know 
I’m not saying this is what you should do, but you’re wondering
The answer is something. Anything. If what you’re doing right now isn’t working, try something new. If that doesn’t work, keep trying until you find something that does. If/when that thing stops working, find something else. You need to change your recovery for your recovery to change you. Dang, that’s a good line 
Seriously tho, expand your horizons on all things recovery. Something will help 
I am finding a combination of gym, AA & hobbies are working for me at the moment. Gym takes care of that wanting to explode feeling. AA keeps me working on recovery and my hobbies help with being a creative way to fill time and enjoy being sober.
To calm your mind….
-move your body in a way that requires you to pay attention…. Running, biking , swimming
To feel that you are gaining some control of your life….
-tidy or clean up your home
-plan and make a meal and eat it. Even better if you can do that with or for someone else who can be kind
To reduce the feelings of isolation…
-get to an AA meeting
-then go to another one
- talk to people on this forum
To learn more about how others move through this part…
-read all over this forum
-get to other online resources about recovery and really dive in to the learning
It’s a challenge to learn what to do in your life, but you can do it! The reality is that humans are pretty amazing when they stop trying to destroy themselves with poison.
Now go put in some music, get outside and get some fresh air and move your body! You’ve got this!
I have 4 weeks left in the program I’m in, it’s faith based and I need something else. I’m going to try NA when I get done here
I don’t have a therapist but I feel like it would probably help to talk to someone that isn’t biased
I don’t have one yet but I will be getting one when I get out the f this faith based program, have a month left here. Been a long year
Sounds good. Finding healthy connections and working on myself in order to be helpful and to be a good friend, that has been very helpful for me in recovery. Hopefully it will be helpful for you too 
If you find a group do what the ones with good sobriety do, even if you don’t know why.
Old AA saying ‘fake it till you make it’.
Good luck 
&
… You’re early in your journey…
To get sober I made wholesale change in my life.
People and places were the first to go.
Drunk people like company…I don’t go to bars or parties.
I started walking around the trail system we have here in Toronto…then bicycle riding around town…I started with just a few K a day…now I do around 30k (spring summer fall)…Winters are tougher for me…but it’s still important to my soberity to be active …so walking it is.
Although the activity itself is beneficial, it’s the casual interaction with others that does it for me. Chatting with peeps
as much or as little…then off I go.
I’m past age 60, but still go skateboarding …doing anything that’s of mild interest or no interest at all…also free activities put on by various groups are good to occupy time…
I bought annual passes to Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario…which are great places to go anytime, but Winter is good, for as much or little time as I like. The annual pass is key…pay once, go all year. The free included classes, lectures…etc are a whole new adventure.
That’s some of what I have added over the past 6yrs being sober.
This app was/is important to my journey.
Be well friend,
It’s sucks that our problems don’t vanish when we get sober but unfortunately they just don’t. You will need to find new ways to cope with your stress. I’m hardly an expert as I’m very newly clean and sober but some of the things that are working for me so far are
- Exercise
- Journaling - I have a guided one I use in the morning to help me set my intentions for the day and another one for my random thoughts
- Checking in here daily - most days multiple times
- trying new little things to put a spark in some of my mundane daily tasks for example new recipes to cook for my family
- tried a couple new hobbie activities still looking for one that really is for me though
- Graditude- taking time everyday to think of all the things I have to be grateful for . Surprisingly this is most helpful on my bad days as a reminder of all that is still good
- Reaching out like you are right now when it’s tough
So many great folks with advice, experience and knowledge. I am bookmarking this topic and come back to as I need it. Congratulation on your sober time. I am glad you found us.