Been sober for 14 years - WHOOT WHOOT!!!!! Burned my promising future to ashes then started a long process of rebuilding. I feel like I've crossed the finish line.
EXCELLENT CONGRATULATIONS. Happy for you. It's tough. I'm 5 years. Never celebrate. You don't graduate. ONE DAY AT A TIME.
22 years, though I say I had a three week break in the middle. Same thing, the future was nothing but blue skies, until I realized that there is a difference between walking on air and walking off a building. I couldn't stand AA once I realized I'd gone all atheist.
@renegade I disagree. I am OK with a little celebration. What I have done is an achievement and I'm proud of myself. And the "one day at a time" mentality made a lot of sense to me at the beginning, but I don't cling to it now. I live my life as a non-drinker. It's who I am. I occasionally miss it and think about it, but it's not a huge struggle anymore. Thanks for the kudos though! There was a time that I very seriously believed that there was no way I could ever be happy without alcohol. I imagined that sobriety would be a non-stop hell, but the opposite is true.
Yeah. Sober 5+ yrs.
www.smartrecovery.org is secular.
I am. There is a group here for that. [agnostic.com]Recovery
I didn't even know this existed.
Yes I've been clean 4.5 years I was court ordered but I'm grateful to b clean Im still struggling with the whole higher power thing but I know that I'm addicted to drugs so i keep coming back
I have never been to AA but my partner still goes to a meeting occasionally and he says that you choose your own higher power - I havent got any answers about the prayer at the end but you could maybe meditate thought it if you could see it as a poem .
Stay as long as it's helping. Don't worry about the higher power thing or the other dogma. It is therapeutic and helpful to simply be around people who understand your struggle.
I am actually recovered thank fuck. I was addicted to smoking tobacco, nearly addicted to speed and booze but not quite. I smoked weed all the time for a while. I've glue sniffed, eaten a couple of sorts of mushroom, acid, tippex, ecstasy, coke, opium, which culminated with life to get me sectioned in a lunatic asylum 5 years ago. I'm am now clean since then though ive gave up tobacco 13 years ago, booze 9 years ago and all the others apart from weed were just really trying stuff.the weed was 5 years ago. my mind was a real mess probably before I took anything too. ive learned to deal with it now so anything is possible.
In and out of recovery. Very anti-12 Step. Found out about 'Smart Recovery'. Feeling better about my odds of staying sober now.
I will look up Smart Recovery. I don't drink too much but I drink a lot.
Yes. Food. specifically sugar and carbs.
how do you deal with it?
@dianahdz88 I had Bariatric surgery in 2015. I see a therapist and take do mindfulness meditation and for acute anxiety I take CBD and THC as a patient here in FL.
I've been self recovering form alcohol. it's only been a month but had gone some months without it before.. but im still trying.
You should definitely try meetings..they help immensely
And if AA doesn't work, look into smartrecovery.org, a secular and non diesase based cognitive behavioral therapy platform.
@Fibonacci1618 I had to look his up a little while ago. Secular means non-religious. so non-secular is back to being religious.
@CallMeDave thanks for the editorial. ?
[aabeyondbelief.org] and [aaagnostica.org] and a meeting list for those who don't believe. [secularaa.org] I know that I have posted these sites before, but I want to make sure people know about them. Also there is a secular AA convention coming up this summer in Toronto. Should be great!
Awesome thanks
Yes. I think most of humanity has some sort of addiction. Some are less destructive than others, and it would seem for me anyway, that I need to focus on those. Life is full of surprises.
@carlyhorton Hi Carly , I didn't say what I meant correctly. I was trying to say never let down your guard , the demon is always waiting for that. You are doing FANTASTIC luv and I mean that. Sorry I put it wrong.
Thanks, and no apology needed The "not letting your guard down" thing, I totally get it. A friend who helped me a lot in the beginning holds it all a little too close, I think. She's been sober for 20 years or more and now has a great job. But she wears her past like an anchor around her neck. It's like her current success and stability is an anomaly and that she is, at her core, a weak, pathetic, and deeply flawed person. I just don't see her this way at all, and I wish she'd forgive herself. So, you didn't put anything wrong, I think I was thinking of her when I read your words.
RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC 5 YEARS SOBER
Smoker for 40 years. Quit 3 years ago.
GAMBLER , cannot stop. Ruining my life
Well...that was depressing to read. Seek help. Seriously. They have groups and counselors for that.
2 down 1 to go.