DRY 16

[vxa2]

If you're quitting alcohol for a brighter sober future come and join us here. A very welcoming bunch supporting each other every step of the way.

Link to Dry 15

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/2726334-Dry-15?msgid=65047780#65047780

Hi everyone,

Has anyone seen this documentary risky drinking on Sky Atlantic, very interesting and honest.

I had a recycling strategy and stunt booze so there'd be a bottle of wine in the fridge and a backup one in the wardrobe for quick top-ups. I think I posted on here once about my kids catching me drinking wine in the wardrobe and just seeing it as completely normal. They must wonder where the White Witch in Narnia keeps her prosecco.

Sorry you're having a shit evening Vidorra. I've been making my ring this evening. I go to jewellery school and have a very exacting teacher. In 2046 when I finally finish it I'll have a chunky silver band with a girdle round the middle and a stone set into it. I've got an old garnet ring (inherited from my Aunt) so I want to recycle the stones. The process of making things gives me that calm. It feels like I'm counteracting those years of hitting the self destruct button.

Morning all. I remember the recycling debacle well...I used to siphon off bottles and put them in a bag in the utility room cupboard and take them to the recycling bank. This was when we just had a recycling box that had to be put on the street for all the world to see and wasn't very big. I used to quickly open front door and check no one was looking then clank the plastic bag to the boot of the car and clank it to a fairly remote bottle bank a few miles away - how bloody ridiculous!!!! We live on a route that lots of people walk by to get around and I didn't want anyone to see what we had consumed over a two week period, however when I used to walk about and look at others I used to raise my eyebrows at some peoples consumption - absolute hypocrite! A few years ago they changed the open boxes to a blue wheelie bin with a lid so I stopped the fiasco of running to the bottle bank and just made sure all the bottles were at the bottom and all the cereal boxes and paper were on the top should anyone feel the need to open the lid and have a look in! What's actually quite funny is the amount of becks blue I get through the wheelie bin is more full than it's ever been and makes a heck of a noise as it gets emptied! I was telling my neighbor the other day that I gave up booze for 3 months before Christmas and now nearly a month since Christmas and I could see the bewildered look cross her face as she was probably thinking well what the hell is all the clanking into the recycling bin constantly! I am hoping one days she realizes its the becks blue and not anything else, although living next to me for 10 years I am sure she knows more about my previous consumption than I think

Yy to the recycling stuff and stashing spare full and empty bottles in the wardrobe for later :(
Its really common amongst drinkers

Can't deny I did sometimes keep a bottle of vodka upstairs I could swig on while my wine sat downstairs so it appeared like I was drinking less than I was

That sounds lovely Rrross, I'm sure it'll look fab when it's finished and what a great symbol of your sobriety. I understand, soothing to create something and lose ourselves in the process when we've been very destructive.

Lou, I have a tendency to turn the bottles to the 'alcohol free' label, yeah like anyone ever pays that much attention. Really I want to make a big sign pointing to them 'this is AF, not booze'

I don't have Sky but do want to watch it efc as I've seen it mentioned on some recovery forums. Did you see it, what did you think?

Got through last night ok. Had let Headspace fall by the wayside, made time to do it and did feel a bit more settled after. Had a dream of going to a parent teacher meeting after drinking and stinking of booze. I was gutted in my dream of having to reset my days, the old familiar guilt and shame, worry about people smelling it off me. Never so relieved to wake up and find it wasn't true. What a way to strengthen my resolve.

Feeling a bit more productive today and sorted out kitchen cabinets and junk drawers. Poor shredder didn't know what hit it. Time to get myself organised again.

Been a horrible few days here. Weather appalling, matched my mood which was low, sad, dreary and gloomy. I have reasons to be gloomy and it may well have been a bout of PAWS as well, as that can come for some time after we get sober.
So, I took care of myself, let myself feel, what I was feeling , gave myself a bit of self care and attention and thought about ways I could improve things where possible. One thing I did NOT do, was pour alcohol down my throat. That just makes bad things, even worse.
So today the sun is shining for the first time here in more than 10 days (!) , I feel brighter, and my tax return is filed. I did a financial review while feeling a bit low, and saved myself some money each month by cutting out or changing various unwanted or over expensive payments. I'm 124 days sober today and I'm off for a swim later .
Keep on keeping on lovely sober warriors :)

viddora yes it was really interesting, talked about a spectrum of risk and followed four people at various stages of alcohol abuse.

sobersarah sounds a productive day. I'm off for a swim (sit in sauna!) tonight too.

Still feel strange on a Friday night not drinking but the thought of waking fresh tomorrow is worth it.

Hi Team.....

My Friday rock and roll was having a fancy yoghurt after dinner..... but am still in the self love phase where anything goes so long as it's not booze, and still less calories in a fancy yoghurt than a bottle plus of wine...

A new PB in training this week, just!! But a PB all the same...

Off to bed soon, training with some new people tomorrow so need to be on it!!

Sleep well.....

Hi folks just a quick check in from me to see how everyone is doing.

For me things going a lot better, been for coffee with DW a couple of times and we are getting some help to see what we want, I think our marriage has the potential to be better than ever. If I was still drinking I don't think we would even be talking to each other

Hi all - just checking in on day 250 !!!

For some reason, last night felt really hard - I think it's been a while since I had a friday night, no-one to talk to, no kids, nothing to do. It all just felt a bit meh.

Didn't drink, and now that I've checked my app and seen that I've hit another milestone, I'm feeling v happy that I didn't crack and get wine!

The Bored/Lonely cravings seem to be the hardest ones for me - I'm fine when I have an actually bad day, but when the day is simply so-so, I still have the occasional urge to drink. Boo.

Still - 250 days!!!! And on the positive side, this is the first time I'd even thought about drinking for ages

Way to go finnish, 250 and not letting the urges get to you! Well done. I struggle with the bored/lonely feelings too. Hardly like drinking made it exciting or wine was sparkling company either, funny how the mind works.

That's fantastic news user, I hope it all works out for the both of you. Are you going to go to counselling together or something?

BG my rock and roll Friday night featured numerous cups of Twinnings lemon and ginger tea (new addiction) so you're in good company. Hope the training went well today and congats on the pb.

I'll keep an eye if I can get it downloaded elsewhere efc, kodi has stopped working for some reason. Probably needs updated.

This time of year and lack of sun does not help at all sarah, everyone I have been talking to lately is fed up at the moment. Myself included. Good job saving yourself money.

Well so much for clean living having a good effect on my skin. My rosacea has started breaking out for the first time since the summer. Typical.

Brilliant Finnish. What app are you using?.

I've had a craphouse few days. It was my birthday earlier this week and I hate my birthday. It brings up a lot of issues from my childhood and a lot of issues from being NC with my mother and a lot of issues to do with self worth. This year I think was worse because it's the first one since my Dad died.

My usual escape route is to hit self destruct and seek oblivion (last year I stopped eating and knocked back two bottles of wine a day for a week). The last few days I've just stopped caring about being sober and about living a healthy life and being around for my kids and husband. I've really struggled to see anything positive to keep me hanging on in there. Being kind to myself has gone out of the window completely. I dunno if I've got PAWS or if I've become so hard wired to get fucked for the third week in January that I'm having trouble breaking the habit. It's been bloody hard and it's shocked me because I'd been sailing along in my happy sobriety and this desire to throw everything away came on so quickly and so fiercely. And now I feel like I've had a huge setback because I've been listening to the emotional voice that thinks it's unfair that I can't drink and now I've got to turn all of that negativity around and it feels like getting back to that good place is going to be like pushing an elephant up the stairs. And I'm on my period and I've got a cold and I was so mad with the world yesterday that I punched a cake! It felt so good though.

Punching a,cake is so much better than punching yourself, though.

Hi folks, seems to be an awful lot going on at the minute and not all of it good, I think that part of it may be the time of year, the anti climax with Christmas being over, going back to work etc etc.

vidorra we have started and the conversation has gone from "never ever getting back together" to "if we do get back together" - but I think both of us need to make changes to our thinking or behaviour or it will not work. As for you Rosecca it may have flared due to the cold, I know my eczema flares and it's to do with going from cold to hot central heating, and this causing the skin to dry out.

rrross sorry to hear you are having a shit time, but if you think of the added pressure or anxiety alcohol causes is it really worth adding that to that pressure?

Feeling rather dim, but what is PAWS, looks similar to HALT??

It's silly o'clock, it's freezing outside... best get up, more training to be done!!

Have a good Sunday all...

Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome link about it here
This is a very good website and his book is brilliant

Is there anywhere that has a list of all the 'staying sober' tips? There's some really good ideas here. It would be nice if they were all in one place.

I think sarah and vxa were talking about putting a list of resources at the start of the next thread twogoats

I'm really pleased you and your wife are making progress user, hope ot keeps moving in the right direction for you both. Possibly could be that, usually heat and sun trigger it so could well changes in temperature. Been slapping on the prescription meds and calming down a bit.

Rrross, how are you feeling today?

Hello everyone' just checking in...and very well done Finnish. I thought I'd better let you know that I am not committed to staying dry any longer. I feel I now have my previous drinking pattern under control and although this time last year I was heading the wrong way down a one way street I am no longer that person. Since I went dry in August I have completely changed my mindset. I have had max 2 bottles of red wine since last August (not in 1 sitting!). So I now think of myself as a very occasional drinker. There's no drink in the house anyway. I don't think the "babes battle bus" is for me...sounds like a permanent battle with self control to me. If it's ok with you all I would like to continue to lurk here. I didn't just want to disappear, just for the record really. I hope I can do this...if not I'll be back, my head hung in shame ! I wish you all the best, and respect to you all !

Climbing back on the wagon. Fell off last night, it was my birthday and I decided I'd try a drink or 2 and see what it was like. The plus side was I didn't drink very much, but the down side was today I feel tired and grumpy and have been snappy... and I have to say the booze did nothing to enhance the evening. Feel a bit dissapointed I did it, especially since I managed Christmas and new year dry and happy. I guess I will learn from it and move on! Will be back to post more often and off to catch up on how you are all doing! Happy Sunday evening all.

That's great news patchwork and I wish you the very best Hope not to see you you again if you get what I mean

Big days or events like that are always a challenge Captain. Sometimes falling off the wagon is a good learning experience if you see it didn't make you enjoy the night more. Happy birthday!

Unfortunately there's no way to sticky a post at the top of the thread, the only thing we can do is make it the first post in a new thread. If you look back to page 24 I did a big post with a load of useful links :)

Still here. Still sober. Waves to all the newbies and not so newbies !!

Finnish congratulation on your 250 days

waves back

Tired but optimistic today...

Please can I join you?
I got to a few years sober then have slowly begun to crumble. My rock bottom was in 2008 and I'm not as bad as I was by a long way. I thought I'd reset my clock and that I could drink normally. I thought that because I wanted it so much then it would be so! But it isn't.
I'm sick and tired of battling this and just want to try to break free from the cravings and destruction of having alcohol in my life.
I went to AA on Friday for the first time in many years but I really don't know if I can stick with it.
I've been reading back on this thread and wanted to say hello to other newbies and say congratulations to those who've got past those first difficult weeks and months and are making a break for freedom from the prison that is alcohol