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 you’re being deprived of booze that’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. That’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 “must be missing out on some fun” 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:
- 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 therapist’s office, and I only saw her once a week. I now treasure Talking Sober for that same reason.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- It sold me on the idea that “any fool can stay sober for 24 hours”, 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 
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 “sober” me wasn’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 I’d rather think. What do I need to do to balance out these neurotransmitters? I feel it’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. It’s part of our recovery to have this knowledge, but that alone isn’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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It’s one thing to educate yourself about it. It’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 there’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, I’m not really satisfied with the notion that I’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 ‘The unexpected joy of being sober’. I like the way it’s broken in simple terms for everyone to understand.
“The 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. ‘At first, this new path will be narrow, difficult, and slow…Over time, it will become a well-worn, comfortable path. It will be just as easy as the original path.”
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 it’s about recovering neurotransmitter balance while breaking the habit. Would be hard to break the habit with out of whack neurotransmitters
Thanks, I’m familiar with Fit recovery and I’ve read Anna Lembkes Dopamine Nation 
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I would think most people’s first day of quitting is after a major bender. They feel ill and realise 
Ng is their downfall. They then sober up and become fearfull of the thought of never 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 didn’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 I’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 don’t like to wait. Ordered tea and am having a great day despite the issues I had getting here. 
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