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Original poster

First new year in sobriety / recovery - please give me some encouragement

32 replies

Nooyead · 31/12/2024 21:51

10 months down, hasn’t bothered me all that much for the last few months but Christmas and new year have really affected me. It’s all I can think about today. I keep remembering how awful I was in active addiction and I’m sat sipping a cold juice.

Any words of wisdom or encouragement? I am determined to stay sober for the rest of my life after hitting my rock bottom several times.

OP posts:
Original poster
Nooyead · 31/12/2024 22:07

MaterCogitaVera · 31/12/2024 22:05

I am so proud of you, OP! You are brave and determined and you have done so bloody well already. The first 10 months is an absolute eternity, but you have fought through it. Now, this will probably be the toughest time of year for you, but you already have ten months under your belt, so you know you can do this. Don’t just sip that juice; slurp it with abandon! Enjoy how fresh and cold and delightful it tastes, and how it will not leave you feeling sick and achy, and will not take away your sense of control over your life. The juice isn’t just juice - it’s a symbol of your strength and your ongoing achievement. The fact that you’re drinking that juice says that you are in this for the long haul, and that is really extremely admirable.

I wish you a life filled with opportunities to open a celebratory bottle of the fanciest, most delicious juice you can find. Every time you do, remember how much you’ve achieved, and how much you are still achieving every day.

This made me cry. Thank you so much. I’ve not really been ever able to tell anyone the depths of how bad my drinking got, so nobody understands how monumental by sobriety is for me.
thank you. Xxx

OP posts:
JustKeepSwimmingJust · 31/12/2024 22:07

10 months is amazing, and you can go into 2025 clear-headed

I have just had a herbal tea with a traditional Swedish festive sweet bread. The latter is a tradition here. You can make sober traditions that are still fun

Thewalrusandthecarpenter · 31/12/2024 22:05

Don't think about the rest of your life. That is, hopefully, a long time and sobriety can seem daunting. We're all just thinking about the next 24 hours - even the next hour at a time.

Play the tape forward - you can always choose to have a drink. Nobody is ordering you not to. But a single drink leads to a physical craving and to disastrous consequences, and the cycle starts again.

You have beaten the cycle, a day at a time and you can continue to do so.

Think of waking up sober and happy in the morning - and proud of yourself.

MaterCogitaVera · 31/12/2024 22:05

I am so proud of you, OP! You are brave and determined and you have done so bloody well already. The first 10 months is an absolute eternity, but you have fought through it. Now, this will probably be the toughest time of year for you, but you already have ten months under your belt, so you know you can do this. Don’t just sip that juice; slurp it with abandon! Enjoy how fresh and cold and delightful it tastes, and how it will not leave you feeling sick and achy, and will not take away your sense of control over your life. The juice isn’t just juice - it’s a symbol of your strength and your ongoing achievement. The fact that you’re drinking that juice says that you are in this for the long haul, and that is really extremely admirable.

I wish you a life filled with opportunities to open a celebratory bottle of the fanciest, most delicious juice you can find. Every time you do, remember how much you’ve achieved, and how much you are still achieving every day.

Original poster
Nooyead · 31/12/2024 22:04

Thank you! Honestly I found the first hours, days, weeks torturous. Past month 1 I started to see and feel the benefits (losing weight, relationship, the loss of all the anxiety and embarrassment). I used to mostly drink in secret so people thought that was my ‘personality’, they saw me bubbly and fun and excited etc. they didn’t see the afterwards, the suicidal thoughts, the self harm, the puking on the way to work hungover, the severed friendships and relationships and risky behaviour. Many rock bottoms such as downing pre mix cans in the toilets at work and having to shove the empty tins in to sanitary bins, I was a bloody mess.

I guess I sort of feel I’ve lost myself, even though that was never me at all. I miss that feeling of the first drink, but unfortunately I would chase that feeling for the next 5,10,15 drinks.

im proud of myself and know this is just a blip but it’s so hard to avoid at this time of year. I guess I keep repeating in my head I’ve never ever regretted a day I haven’t drank. But my GOD have I regretted days I did.

OP posts:
TwinkleLights24 · 31/12/2024 22:00

Have an early night and you’ll wake up in a different mindset hopefully.

Justcallmebebes · 31/12/2024 21:58

Alcoholism is giving up everything for one thing. Sobriety is giving up one thing for everything else.

Hang in there OP, you're doing great and it's just one night to get through. One day at a time. I'd get bathed and in my pj's and into bed. Why not check out an online AA meeting. They will be running 24/7 xx