About to hit my two year alcohol sobriety anniversary next week. It's been particularly rough with a lot of death in my family plus fallout from the will which has left our family completely estranged. I'm honestly so proud of myself for keeping it together.
Sobriety is hard so good luck to anyone who has to deal with it. I struggle with alcohol and right now I've been sober for about a month because I overdid it on a night out and it scares me how easy it is for me to get to that point. Every time I start drinking again I convince myself I can handle just one drink because every once in a while I can...but most times it just leads to me saying yes to more and more drinks. I hope one day I can figure it out, and the same for anyone else here who's in recovery or struggling.
One month is proof you can keep at this! I'm not sure where you're located in the world, but there's probably an AA meeting nearby that you could check out! Going to a 12-step meeting might be scary when it's unfamiliar and you're not sure what it's all about, but in my experience, the main benefit is having a community of people you can call when you feel that urge to pick up the first drink. Sometimes that is what makes all the difference is talking to someone who cares about your sobriety (like a sponsor) right in the moment.
I've thought about it but the majority of them being religion and/or spiritually-based completely put me off. I could look into the ones that aren't though because I know they exist.
I had those same reservations, before I went to rehab and had no choice but to check out 12-step programs. Lol. In fact, everywhere I've gone I've met people who shared my aversion to the religious connotations of the 12-step language.
I can only speak to my experiences doing AA in Los Angeles and New York City, and not as much for other places. For me, it's never been a religious program because I have no interest in churches or a "Heavenly Father" (I have never been religious and don't want to be).
Instead, I have found AA to be spiritual only insofar as asking you to operate on the assumption that there is some kind of "higher power" behind the machinations of the universe. That is, what is something greater than myself that I can believe in
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I'm not sober in general but in April it will be 5 years since I've had alcohol. I will say, I feel like way more younger people now are recognizing their bad relationships with alcohol and trying to fix them, honestly super proud of everyone, alcohol is everywhere and is so embedded in socializing, it's hard.
i feel like i’m seeing anecdotally more of an awareness than maybe there used to be also that there’s a gray area between “definitely an alcoholic” and “totally healthy relationship with alcohol,” and i hope that trend persists. i’m not sober but i’m a fairly rare and almost entirely social user of anything (alcohol/weed rly) and even without being sober i have sometimes felt weird about the embeddedness of alcohol in our culture or how normal people find it to feel like they need a drink to relax. like, i’ve never done a drynuary because january is a hideous month for going out anyway and cutting down from somewhere between 1 and 6 drinks in the month to zero does not feel meaningful to me lol. but i have friends who’ve done it who found it a real challenge and that would be really scary for me to realize about myself even if my drinking didn’t seem to be causing problems. it has seemed to cause them to reevaluate their relationships with alcohol and try to be more mindful which i think is good
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You dead on about the socialization part! Especially with how isolating the pandemic made people. I go out to punk shows and stuff at bars and it’s wild how social dynamics are when sober.
i’ve turned into such an emotional mush, i legit fight the urge to break into tears whenever i read about a youngin getting sober/sharing their story. i’m just like yes!!!!! you beautiful!!!! angel!!!!!!! i love you!!!! lol. but you’re right, i have noticed this as well and it just makes me so fricken happy and proud
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Sobriety is hard so good luck to anyone who has to deal with it. I struggle with alcohol and right now I've been sober for about a month because I overdid it on a night out and it scares me how easy it is for me to get to that point. Every time I start drinking again I convince myself I can handle just one drink because every once in a while I can...but most times it just leads to me saying yes to more and more drinks. I hope one day I can figure it out, and the same for anyone else here who's in recovery or struggling.
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I've thought about it but the majority of them being religion and/or spiritually-based completely put me off. I could look into the ones that aren't though because I know they exist.
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I can only speak to my experiences doing AA in Los Angeles and New York City, and not as much for other places. For me, it's never been a religious program because I have no interest in churches or a "Heavenly Father" (I have never been religious and don't want to be).
Instead, I have found AA to be spiritual only insofar as asking you to operate on the assumption that there is some kind of "higher power" behind the machinations of the universe. That is, what is something greater than myself that I can believe in ( ... )
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addiction runs on both sides of my family and it's horrible and can destroy lives. I wouldn't wish that type of pain on anyone.
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