Will I be disappointed?

Just finshed 30 hours. I drank mostly daily for 5+ years, 3 to 20 drinks a day. Little breaks here and there but not many. I did taper a day or two before quitting. During day 1 I did have a few thoughts of drinking but nothing major. Should I expect a left hook of cravings?

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You probably will yes. Best to reach out here when that happens or thing about how you will handle them.

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Yes. Your mindset will dictate how you handle them. If you feel that youā€™re being deprived of booze thatā€™s not good. If you think booze was depriving you of a better life that is good. There are plenty of resources to find tools aiding you recovery. Best wishes

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Drinking every day conditioned my mind to think about drinking and conditioned my body to expect alcohol and to behave with alcohol on board. One idea I had to get used to was that when I was drinking every day, due to the amount of time it took me to process the alcohol out of my system, I actually had just a few hours each day with no alcohol on board. And that changes a person.

It made it easier for me to interpret the feelings (emotional and physical) of wanting a drink as conditioned responses rather than cravings. Thatā€™s probably a product of my over-educated brain, but there it is.

My obsession with drinking, the fascination with it, the concern about what others were drinking, the thoughts that I ā€œmust be missing out on some funā€ etc, that took longer to resolve and took more work than just staying dry. I credit the AA program with being my pathway to recovery. But anything that does what AA did for me is what is needed, I think.

How AA helped me get sober:

  1. It provided the non-judgmental atmosphere and people I needed to talk about my drinking and my recovery. That environment existed outside of AA only in my therapistā€™s office, and I only saw her once a week. I now treasure Talking Sober for that same reason.
  2. I helped my interrupt the thought/emotion/behavior cycle associated with drinking and replaced it with a cycle focused on sobriety. Think about the rewards of sober living, feel good about being sober, do things to stay sober.
  3. It gave me specific things to do in a day, like reading and journaling and whatever prayer/meditation/contemplation of the Universe and Divine that I could handle. Going to meetings took a lot of time, traveling to and attending and fellowship after and traveling back.
  4. It addressed the spiritual hole I was trying to fill with drinking, that connectedness that I craved and never was able to find on my own for more than fleeting moments.
  5. It sold me on the idea that ā€œany fool can stay sober for 24 hoursā€, then helped me break down that 24 hours into 6 hours sleep, 2 hours going to a meeting or other sober activity, 1 hour commute, 8 hours of work (and staying at work and doing my actual job!), 3 hours eating/bathing etc, leaving me only 4 hours per day of idle time to deal with cravings on my own.

There are blessings showering on you now :pray: as you begin your journey.

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Yes, I think we all have cravings in early sobriety. It is normal. It is how you deal with them and change your response/reaction. Glad you are here! Great place to learn about the changes ahead.

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I think this is a huge point. I have thought about this a lot. When I was drinking, even ā€œsoberā€ me wasnā€™t me. It added up to decades of not really being me.

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I have decided to take a different approach to it. I have a strong science background know a lot about neurotransmitters. I also understand what alcohol does to neurotransmitters. So rather than think that man I need a drink Iā€™d rather think. What do I need to do to balance out these neurotransmitters? I feel itā€™s taking it away from me and place it on what alcohol does. Biochemically. But this is just my approach

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I educated myself on the neuroscience of alcohol addiction and so have all the others on this thread. Itā€™s part of our recovery to have this knowledge, but that alone isnā€™t what got and kept me sober. A psychiatrist can help you with the chemical part. We can help you and support you in actual Recovery. Glad you are here.

@SinceIAwoke Dan, thank you for taking the time to post the above reply. Pure gold.

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Yes exactly, a new response and reaction, great way of approaching it. This Naked Mind by Annie Grace had a lot of helpful information for me as well if you are interested in more reading.

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Itā€™s one thing to educate yourself about it. Itā€™s another thing to have a plan of action. For example, withdrawal anxiety is a lack of gaba and excess glutamate. So when you start to feel it it takes some gaba and green tea which has l theanine. L theanine binds to the glutamate receptors therefore causing any relax. I prefer a plan of action rather than saying thereā€™s something wrong with me and I just have to whitenuckle it.

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I like to understand what is behind our addictions too, Iā€™m not really satisfied with the notion that Iā€™m addicted to alcohol because I drank too much and became too weak to say no.

Catherine Gray mentions Marc Lewis, a neuroscientist and ex addict in her book ā€˜The unexpected joy of being soberā€™. I like the way itā€™s broken in simple terms for everyone to understand.

ā€œThe paper says that neural pathways in the brain, including addictive pathways, are formed in a similar way to hiking trails. The more a hiking route is used, the smoother, wider and clearer it becomes. It becomes the default, easiest route. Should you need to forge a brand new path through the forest (or form a newborn sober neural pathway), the paper points out that it will be arduous initially. ā€˜At first, this new path will be narrow, difficult, and slowā€¦Over time, it will become a well-worn, comfortable path. It will be just as easy as the original path.ā€

I gave up alcohol before and was over a year off it when I stupidly thought I was in control again. What it taught me was that the old drinking trail might get a little weeded over, but it will always be there. I just need to keep choosing the sober trail every day.

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Look up Fit Recovery on YouTube. He has some great info. Also look up Dopamine Nation.

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I also think itā€™s about recovering neurotransmitter balance while breaking the habit. Would be hard to break the habit with out of whack neurotransmitters

Thanks, Iā€™m familiar with Fit recovery and Iā€™ve read Anna Lembkes Dopamine Nation :+1:

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I would think most peopleā€™s first day of quitting is after a major bender. They feel ill and realise :wine_glass: Ng is their downfall. They then sober up and become fearfull of the thought of never :wine_glass: Ng again and how their whole social life will change and scared that they will miss out.
The cycle then restarts

I agree, and I didnā€™t say that was what you were doing. This Naked Mind is really good.

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Day 3 down. No physical cravings. Thoughts but nothing overwhelming.

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So Iā€™m traveling. Used to be a big trigger. Not so much anymore. Sitting at the bar, because there is like an hour wait and I donā€™t like to wait. Ordered tea and am having a great day despite the issues I had getting here. :smile_cat:

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