ALCOHOLICS: RECOVERY & FITNESS (Serious Only Please)

[Forge3]

I can only give you my experience, no advice. I had tried everything out there under the sun, tons of inpatient /outpatient programs,doing it my own way,other programs, tried AA and it didn't work, tried the steps and they didn't work. Only at the bitter end when I was desperate enough to do anything people told me to do did something happen. I went back to AA and did ALL the work and ALL the steps. Life then changed for me and I haven't looked back. No more sleeping in doorways for me ! lol.

Or on somebody's lawn

[wlang72]

Hi Mark, keep up the good work, take one day as its given to you and you'll be fine. Is there a Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting near you? If you've never attended one, you might wonder how this would help, but the therapeutic value of one suffering addict/alcoholic helping another is without parallel.

Wade

[Meatpants]

“Come to the edge.”
“We can't. We're afraid.”
“Come to the edge.”
“We can't. We will fall!”
“Come to the edge.”
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918


Have a great day folks.

[Twineagles]

Beth, No shame in losing a chip and coming back. Like I said, in NA we do white key tags if you want to try our way of life for 24 hours. I have enough white key tags to make a wedding dress. LOL And enough orange ones (30 days) to do a couple of the bridesmaids too. LOL I think all of us who are not perfect stumble from time to time. I even see people with 6-8 years forget they are in the program and stumble. The only shame is not coming back. Beth, we love having you here and all of us learn from you. Stay with us. BIG HUGS

[GirLInterrupted]

Beth, No shame in losing a chip and coming back. Like I said, in NA we do white key tags if you want to try our way of life for 24 hours. I have enough white key tags to make a wedding dress. LOL And enough orange ones (30 days) to do a couple of the bridesmaids too. LOL I think all of us who are not perfect stumble from time to time. I even see people with 6-8 years forget they are in the program and stumble. The only shame is not coming back. Beth, we love having you here and all of us learn from you. Stay with us. BIG HUGS

Thank you!!!! that means a lot to me, and I certainly plan to

[thepowerwithin]

Beth, No shame in losing a chip and coming back. Like I said, in NA we do white key tags if you want to try our way of life for 24 hours. I have enough white key tags to make a wedding dress. LOL And enough orange ones (30 days) to do a couple of the bridesmaids too. LOL I think all of us who are not perfect stumble from time to time. I even see people with 6-8 years forget they are in the program and stumble. The only shame is not coming back. Beth, we love having you here and all of us learn from you. Stay with us. BIG HUGS

I agree with this! There is no shame. It's only in your mind. It's a celebration! I relapsed after after 10 years.....did I lose everything? No way!! I still had all the knowledge I had gained during that time. No drink could take that away from me. I had done so much family of origin work my first go round....come to terms with so much from my childhood.....forgiven so much.....let go of so much.....changed. I didn't lose all that by drinking. Picking up a white chip for me is simply a way to celebrate that I am coming back and ready to make another go at it. If I feel ashamed of that, then that's about me because more often than not the people are there to receive me with arms open wide and a smile on their face. Beth, I understand exactly how you feel. I can only see it this way now .

[GirLInterrupted]

I agree with this! There is no shame. It's only in your mind. It's a celebration! I relapsed after after 10 years.....did I lose everything? No way!! I still had all the knowledge I had gained during that time. No drink could take that away from me. I had done so much family of origin work my first go round....come to terms with so much from my childhood.....forgiven so much.....let go of so much.....changed. I didn't lose all that by drinking. Picking up a white chip for me is simply a way to celebrate that I am coming back and ready to make another go at it. If I feel ashamed of that, then that's about me because more often than not the people are there to receive me with arms open wide and a smile on their face. Beth, I understand exactly how you feel. I can only see it this way now .

You've come a long way baby!!!! I'll get there one day. Baby steps. You guys are the best

[GreenWave1]

at 10:06 PM EST, it will be 8 years since i put down the drink. thanks for all your help.

Sorry I'm late on this: Congrats! You are an inspiration.

[GreenWave1]

Hi everyone. This is my first post in here in 11 days. I have been lurking and reading the posts. Today is my 18th day of sobriety. That is through 3 weekends and the last one was the toughest (boredom, restlessness) no friends around and I endeavored to keep myself focused and finding things to do.

Mark

Well done man. You are doing great. Stay strong.

[chodan9]

my early sobriety had a few false starts, I finally got the program but had to go up and get a new white chip a few times.
I dont count any sobriety as wasted as it is such a rare commodity for folks like me. Every time I went back out it further reinforced how incapable of controlling my disease on my own is.
I learned, but the experience was a hard teacher.

[boathead]

there was a guy in my town....has since passed away. he was in the AA program for 40 years. and he had maybe 10 slips in that time, maybe about a year each.

and i recall another guy scoffing, intimating that the man was a joke, and that AA clearly didn't work.

and i'm thinking, yeah right, the guy put together 30 years of sobriety thru those 40 years. good for him. and good for those around him. that cannot be considered a failure in any respect in my book.

[Twineagles]

there was a guy in my town....has since passed away. he was in the AA program for 40 years. and he had maybe 10 slips in that time, maybe about a year each.

and i recall another guy scoffing, intimating that the man was a joke, and that AA clearly didn't work.

and i'm thinking, yeah right, the guy put together 30 years of sobriety thru those 40 years. good for him. and good for those around him. that cannot be considered a failure in any respect in my book.

Incredible perspective. I never thought of the accumulated clean/sober time that way. Very inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

[GirLInterrupted]

there was a guy in my town....has since passed away. he was in the AA program for 40 years. and he had maybe 10 slips in that time, maybe about a year each.

and i recall another guy scoffing, intimating that the man was a joke, and that AA clearly didn't work.

and i'm thinking, yeah right, the guy put together 30 years of sobriety thru those 40 years. good for him. and good for those around him. that cannot be considered a failure in any respect in my book.

Absolutely! That's what I'm talkin' bout Willis!!!

[thepowerwithin]

there was a guy in my town....has since passed away. he was in the AA program for 40 years. and he had maybe 10 slips in that time, maybe about a year each.

and i recall another guy scoffing, intimating that the man was a joke, and that AA clearly didn't work.

and i'm thinking, yeah right, the guy put together 30 years of sobriety thru those 40 years. good for him. and good for those around him. that cannot be considered a failure in any respect in my book.

Great way of looking at things . The only failure in relapse is not sobering up again. I certainly was humbled and learned a lot about things I needed to work on during the 3 or so years I was out.

[jdc84]

Hey just started aa 3 wks ago beginning with a trip to detox. I have wasted about 10yrs in a drug n booze induced fog and decided it's time to end it and become a good man. I am about to enter a rehab prog in a week and a half and could use a little advice from those who have beaten this. Thanks for listening.

[NoSlak]

Hey just started aa 3 wks ago beginning with a trip to detox. I have wasted about 10yrs in a drug n booze induced fog and decided it's time to end it and become a good man. I am about to enter a rehab prog in a week and a half and could use a little advice from those who have beaten this. Thanks for listening.

For now it may appear as a waste. One day your experience over the last 10 years can help countless others who have been where you've been but thought they had been the first ever to experience what you already recovered from.
Keep your desire, willingness to get sober. They'll probably send you to AA as most rehabs do. I've been in a ton of treatment centers and they all sent me to AA and AA is where I got sober. All you need to become sober is an open mind, honesty, and willingness
. At 27 I was homeless, no education, no job skills and asking for money on a corner so I can buy bottles of Royal Gate with. Since I've been sober I've traveled the world, ran my own business, have had amazing miracles happen, followed a dream career that had been closed to me because of my record and most of all know what peace and serenity means without living with the obsession to drink.... Ya, I thought I had " wasted " my life to......
Good luck JDC. May you have a long and slow recovery.

[boathead]

this is my advice: you know how at the beginning of weight training we try to convince ourselves that this shiiit feels good? hahah. eventually we know longer need convincing.

same with early recovery. sobriety is so foreign to us that it is uncomfortable....eventually you'll realize that this sobriety stuff is great. you won't need convincing anymore.

[jdc84]

Thanks , what do u guys do for sober fun now though beyond hitting gym? Where do you go for meeting women, etc?

[Meatpants]

Hey just started aa 3 wks ago beginning with a trip to detox. I have wasted about 10yrs in a drug n booze induced fog and decided it's time to end it and become a good man. I am about to enter a rehab prog in a week and a half and could use a little advice from those who have beaten this. Thanks for listening.

I have 9 1/2 years in, and I don't think I will ever say I have beaten this. I don't believe I can ever beat this. Give it everything you have, keep a very open mind, and have faith that no matter how difficult times may get, life will get better than you ever imagined.

Good luck to you.

[Twineagles]

Hey just started aa 3 wks ago beginning with a trip to detox. I have wasted about 10yrs in a drug n booze induced fog and decided it's time to end it and become a good man. I am about to enter a rehab prog in a week and a half and could use a little advice from those who have beaten this. Thanks for listening.

First, remember you can never have a better past, only a better future. Look forward to a new beginning, not backwards to a wasted past. Second find a program that works for you and inside that program, groups that work for you. I'm in NA and I have three groups I'm comfortable in. Groups reflect their individual demographic membership, so if one doesn't work, try another. Third, 90 meetings in 90 days. And finally, the most important, you only have to be clean and sober Just For Today. You don't have to be clean and sober tomorrow. If you feel you cannot make it through today without using, tell yourself, "I'm not going to use today, but I'm going to use tomorrow." Looking at a lifetime of clean/sober can be daunting because drugs/alcohol were our best friends. And if you stumble, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep coming back.

[thepowerwithin]

Hey jdc84, my entire first year or so was filled with many twists and turns and challenges. The one constant reminder I gave myself is that even my worst day sober was better than my best day drunk/high. My drinking had really ceased being fun....it was just a chore in looking for the next bottle. I just new I couldn't go back. I took it as a new beginning and hung onto what the promises said.....that I would be amazed before I was halfway through, and I was indeed. I decided I would stop doing things my way and let others guide me. I gave up the struggle and put my trust in the rehab/detox program I went to and followed their recommendations for an aftercare program. Once out, I threw myself into AA and got a sponsor and built a network of other sober folks immediately. I had a lot or wreckage to clean up and I needed the support. Good luck to you.

BTW, forget about meeting women.....at least for now. Focus on your recovery. .

[cowboybiker]

Thanks , what do u guys do for sober fun now though beyond hitting gym? Where do you go for meeting women, etc?

As far as sober fun, everything I do is more enjoyable because Im sober. I was misserable before.
Getting high and doing nothing.
Sit and spin is a kids toy, not a lifestyle.

As far as women go, you need to focus on yourself.
And dont think that picking up on a newcomer woman at a meeting is a good thing either.
Your baggage and her baggage is to much to carry.
you'd need a friggen forklift.

Question for you.
Are you going to take this advice from us and utilize it?

[NoSlak]

13th stepping is a mix of the second part of the 1st step and the12th step. My life is unmanageable and I want to share it with you.:/

Ya, as far as beating this, no... What I do have is a daily repreive contingent to the maintenance of my spiritual condition. The fun and girls are out there but take care of your disease first and everything else will be taken care of for you, that is a promise I was given whenI came in , even though I didn't beleive it.

[muttytwist]

this is my advice: you know how at the beginning of weight training we try to convince ourselves that this shiiit feels good? hahah. eventually we know longer need convincing.

same with early recovery. sobriety is so foreign to us that it is uncomfortable....eventually you'll realize that this sobriety stuff is great. you won't need convincing anymore.

I love this comparesoin.

[jdc84]

Yes I plan on taking this advice. It's just tough right now going from getin laid constantly and having a gf all the time to now where all I do is meetings and gym until I goto rehab in another wk an a half. I know I need to work on me and that's it. I am on a med leave from work now until early oct when I leave rehab where I wil continue with aa as I have a sponsor

[jdc84]

Yes I plan on taking this advice. It's just tough right now going from getin laid constantly and having a gf all the time to now where all I do is meetings and gym until I goto rehab in another wk an a half. I know I need to work on me and that's it. I am on a med leave from work now until early oct when I leave rehab where I wil continue with aa as I have a sponsor

[Twineagles]

Pharm, congrats also from here on your 18 months. Know lots of hard work, meetings and prayers (sometimes CYA prayers LOL) went into this.

[Corbi]

My work partners brother has battled alcoholism for a long time, has numerous DUI's and his life in general is in shambles because he simply cannot or will not stop drinking. He settled that issue last night by taking his own life, hung himself at his parents house and his dad found him. I don't know if it could have been prevented either as the family has already had numerous interventions and he quite recently told his brother as well as other family members he was going to kill himself but nobody took him all that seriously.

I beg anyone who has a family member with a drinking problem to please do all you can to help them stop.

[chodan9]

jdc84
I got clean and sober at age 24, I was single and had no plans for a relationship, I was too screwed up to inflict that on someone else LOL, I had alienated most of the girls I knew anyway.
I decided to focus on recovery for the first year before I even went on a date, after that I did date some, but I had no interest in a "relationship", I was happy to be sober and free, and actually enjoying sober sex for the first time in my life. I was more nervous my first sober sex than I was my actual first time having sex. I had no intentions of a relationship, but then I met Delilah and that changed my mind.
But dont stress about meeting women, if you do you may jump into something that's not good for your sobriety before you are able to handle it properly.
I have seen long term sobriety ended due to bad judgment with relationships.
Remember, sobriety needs to be the most important aspect of your life, without it, you will lose the rest anyway.

[jdc84]

Ya I understand I need to make getting sober the most important aspect of my life and even when I am done in rehab and back to working I don't want a relationship I find they stress me n stress always lead to booze n dope for me. I plan on working (I am a kitchen manager) so my job has lots of stress, lifting and joining a group where possible aswell as going throughthe steps with my sponsor. I am however having a hardtime dealin with anger right now as my life feels upside down without work, women and normal stuff but I guess it's a natural reaction.