Misc Sober Crew Recovery/Sobriety Support

[Joeyw88]

Hey guys, this is going to be the Sobriety/recovery thread for us miscers. This is a safe place to post about your story and receive support. We can celebrate recoveries and sober dates as well as having a place to post about struggles and relapses.

This is for everyone in their own recovery and recovery does not have be limited to recovery from drugs and alcohol. This will be a total recovery forum for those with addiction struggles as well as those with mental health struggles and recovery from abuse/trauma.

I'd love to see everyone be supportive and help each other. Recovery is immensely more difficult when doing it alone. By helping each other, we can help ourselves!

Edit: ****ing autocorrect on phone lol

[Duckliver]

Good stuff man

Was buying some water and red bull with my family Waiting outside. Kept eyeing the liquor bottles and thoughts of sneaking out early in the morning and drinking passed through my head. Had the same thoughts walking past the bar when I was taking my kids to the kids pool.

5 years sober atm. Vacations trigger me I guess. Wasn’t any serious thoughts and I shut them down right away because I know where it leads. But idk I’m pretty sure I will always have a little devil voice that whispers in my ear every now and then.

[0rders]

In on first page. Would be nice if mods could sticky this.

[SoutheastBeast1]

In. We're all gonna make it.

[Joeyw88]

Good stuff man

Was buying some water and red bull with my family Waiting outside. Kept eyeing the liquor bottles and thoughts of sneaking out early in the morning and drinking passed through my head. Had the same thoughts walking past the bar when I was taking my kids to the kids pool.

5 years sober atm. Vacations trigger me I guess. Wasn’t any serious thoughts and I shut them down right away because I know where it leads. But idk I’m pretty sure I will always have a little devil voice that whispers in my ear every now and then.

That takes some serious strength! Like you said, you could have easily gotten away with it. But instead you practiced integrity and commitment to recovery. And also congrats on the 5 year mark! I will be there some day!

In on first page. Would be nice if mods could sticky this.

Glad to have you here!

In. We're all gonna make it.

Hell yes we are!

[Krackerjacked]

Never been into drugs/boozing but was definitely addicted to sex/porn/fapping.
Been really tempted to give it a go tonight but I’ll hold strong.

Pulling for all of y’all srs
I know it’s easy to turn to a substance when life gets you down but what I like to remind everyone is this: Without the lows, the highs aren’t as sweet
We’re meant to feel it all.

[gregr507]

Good to see a positive thread here, have a bump to keep it going

[Ironmanlet]

Lol at "safe place", you know this is the misc...

There is no safe place here. Posters beware.

I am in. Haven't had a drink in years. Not sure what the date was. I just stopped.

in to give and receive advice and just to BS.

Never been into drugs/boozing but was definitely addicted to sex/porn/fapping.
Been really tempted to give it a go tonight but I’ll hold strong.

Pulling for all of y’all srs
I know it’s easy to turn to a substance when life gets you down but what I like to remind everyone is this: Without the lows, the highs aren’t as sweet
We’re meant to feel it all.

dopamine is dopamine.

[Joeyw88]

Never been into drugs/boozing but was definitely addicted to sex/porn/fapping.
Been really tempted to give it a go tonight but I’ll hold strong.

Pulling for all of y’all srs
I know it’s easy to turn to a substance when life gets you down but what I like to remind everyone is this: Without the lows, the highs aren’t as sweet
We’re meant to feel it all.

Hell yeah brah! Hold strong, I know you can. And welcome to the thread! Like I said in the original post, this came be recovery from anything and everything. It’s sad that some people are quick to say that fapping and/or porn can’t be addicting. Pretty much everything can in one way or another. And yeah you are dead on; what drove much of my use was the avoidance of pain or discomfort whether that was physical, emotional, or spiritual pain. But I have to accept that pain in a part of life and avoiding it only makes it worse eventually. It has helped me grow and in a weird way I am glad for it.

Good to see a positive thread here, have a bump to keep it going

Thanks for the bump. Hopefully has some amount of benefit to many on the misc.

[GoobyPls]

started drinking in high school then college started and it ramped up, did a lot of embarrassing stuff I think of to this day. some bridges were burned. going out to a party was like playing russian roulette (with a fully loaded gun, lol). when I got my own place would drink with the brahs every weekend, then that turned into drinking by myself so I could try to limit the stupid shiz I could get into (still managed). would usually start friday after work and then wake up on sunday wondering what happened, some crazy shiz. got fat, lot of heart break because girls would bounce fast when they realized Im an alcoholic and did some stupid shiz.

5-6 years ago after a bender something in my brain just switched and I quit drinking. not sure what happened and sometimes Im worried it will switch back but so far so good. It was actually pretty easy for me, zero struggle or temptation, like a miracle. lost a bunch of weight, started banging hbbs again (looks like I deaged 10 years, Im 37). I never had a problem with other substances so I still do those and party so its not like I had to lock myself at home and stop having a social life. it was always the alcohol fukking me up.

life is 10000000000000x better now, its like I was reborn

[redraider86]

Nice thread, OP. Still on spread with you! It's a good day to be sober. Even though I'm feeling a little "meh" it's a bajillion times better than any other day. I'm at two years on 1 week!

In on first page. Would be nice if mods could sticky this.

Done!

[Joeyw88]

started drinking in high school then college started and it ramped up, did a lot of embarrassing stuff I think of to this day. some bridges were burned. going out to a party was like playing russian roulette (with a fully loaded gun, lol). when I got my own place would drink with the brahs every weekend, then that turned into drinking by myself so I could try to limit the stupid shiz I could get into (still managed). would usually start friday after work and then wake up on sunday wondering what happened, some crazy shiz. got fat, lot of heart break because girls would bounce fast when they realized Im an alcoholic and did some stupid shiz.

5-6 years ago after a bender something in my brain just switched and I quit drinking. not sure what happened and sometimes Im worried it will switch back but so far so good. It was actually pretty easy for me, zero struggle or temptation, like a miracle. lost a bunch of weight, started banging hbbs again (looks like I deaged 10 years, Im 37). I never had a problem with other substances so I still do those and party so its not like I had to lock myself at home and stop having a social life. it was always the alcohol fukking me up.

life is 10000000000000x better now, its like I was reborn

**** yeah! That’s the **** I love to hear. It’s inspiring and encouraging, for me at least. I can’t speak to other’s thoughts. I know I’m in early recovery, but I’ve already noticed a huge difference in my life quality.

[Joeyw88]

Nice thread, OP. Still on spread with you! It's a good day to be sober. Even though I'm feeling a little "meh" it's a bajillion times better than any other day. I'm at two years on 1 week!


Done!

Thank you so much, I appreciate you getting this stickied. It’s always a good day to be sober; some are just filled with more challenges than others. And I can totally related to the meh. I don’t know if you can attribute it to PAWS, but I know post acute withdrawal can be a bitch even though it gets better over time! Wow amazing work on soon hitting the two year mark. The idea of recovery is so simple, but the execution of that plan is so complicated lol.

On a more broader note, if people are unaware of post acute withdrawal symptom, I suggest looking it up (or I can explain it in detail here) because it’s good to know why you might feel not so great on some days even without a clear reason. Also, it helps to know that because you know that it’s only transient and it’s the process of the brain healing.

Also, I highly recommend keeping HALT in mind, although I also tack on a B. Bored, hunger, anger/anxious, loneliness, and tiredness can all be triggers for relapse.

[NosyJossie]

I don't drink because I really hate hangovers and I'm unable to drive.

[Joeyw88]

I don't drink because I really hate hangovers and I'm unable to drive.

Those are some valid reasons for drinking!



And ****, today has not been a great day. I feel like I’ve been getting sick the past few days and now having pretty bad kratom cravings. I hope everyone has been having a good day/Mother’s Day.

[Devine88]

Over 10 years off of my drugs of choice.

No meetings. Nothing like that. Just done with it.

To anyone struggling, just know it will get better, and you will come out on the other side of this better than before.

[DTRrex]

IN!! Great idea.

Been a heavy drinker for about 5 years now with a handful of breaks lasting anywhere from 1-6 weeks. But I drink daily and it's had several pretty serious negative impacts on my health and my relationship with my girl. Gained a ton of weight, blood markers are terrible, puffy face, and it kills any motivation to eat well and train.

Was at a family gathering yesterday and killed an entire bottle of vodka on my own. Feeling pretty run down today.

I'm planning to taper down slowly over this coming week to get to zero drinks. Unfortunately, I drink enough (frequently and amount) that I'd go through pretty bad withdrawal if I went cold turkey.

Will update this thread with my taper-down progress and how everything is going. Looking to do a few months of sobriety at least... but maybe needs to be forever. Guess we'll see.

[DrugsToGetBig]

cool thread mane

been sober from marijuana for over 13 weeks now after smoking daily for almost 7 years

[Joeyw88]

Over 10 years off of my drugs of choice.

No meetings. Nothing like that. Just done with it.

To anyone struggling, just know it will get better, and you will come out on the other side of this better than before.

Congrats! That's a long ass time! I'm glad that you were able to just step away. I can't do that and I especially can't do it alone.

IN!! Great idea.

Been a heavy drinker for about 5 years now with a handful of breaks lasting anywhere from 1-6 weeks. But I drink daily and it's had several pretty serious negative impacts on my health and my relationship with my girl. Gained a ton of weight, blood markers are terrible, puffy face, and it kills any motivation to eat well and train.

Was at a family gathering yesterday and killed an entire bottle of vodka on my own. Feeling pretty run down today.

I'm planning to taper down slowly over this coming week to get to zero drinks. Unfortunately, I drink enough (frequently and amount) that I'd go through pretty bad withdrawal if I went cold turkey.

Will update this thread with my taper-down progress and how everything is going. Looking to do a few months of sobriety at least... but maybe needs to be forever. Guess we'll see.

Well it sounds like you have great insight and can acknowledge that there are some amount of consequences from drinking. Yes, please update! I'd love to hear about your progress and success although we will still be here for the bad times too!

cool thread mane

been sober from marijuana for over 13 weeks now after smoking daily for almost 7 years

Hell yeah, congrats! Past that 3 month mark! I really dislike it when people say "oh you can't be addicted to marijuana", "its not that bad/natural", "you can't have withdrawals". Honestly, I think most anything can be addictive and have withdrawals, even porn and fapping. We are all so different, at least on a biochemical level, so just because one person hasn't had issues quitting marijuana, doesn't mean others will.


Thanks to everyone for sharing your stories so far and for the support!! Like I alluded to in the original post, we can help ourselves by helping others. It is amazing how sharing your story and no matter how big and small of a detail, can really resonate with someone else and help them.

[pengh]

Good job sticky....

[Joeyw88]

Good morning misc, I hope everyone's morning is going better than mine. I did sleep at all last time and was late getting ready to head to my intensive outpatient group, so I didn't get a chance to eat. I'm sure the acronym HALT is known to many of you and if not, it stands for hunger, anger/anxiety, loneliness, and tired. So I'm two for four on those. I'm not worried too much about relapse potential, but I am having pretty strong cravings while on the bus.

[Motiviert]

I'm in on crew. Great thread

[Joeyw88]

I'm in on crew. Great thread

Glad to have you here!

[brahnotah]

In on this, on day 9 of no ciggy and no alcohol, day 4 nofap. Best I've felt in years, chubby cheeks have gone double chin has gone and cardio through the roof

[Joeyw88]

In on this, on day 9 of no ciggy and no alcohol, day 4 nofap. Best I've felt in years, chubby cheeks have gone double chin has gone and cardio through the roof

**** yeah! Nice job on being past the one week mark for cigarettes and alcohol and also nice job on the four days of no fap. Glad to hear you're already having benefits!

[2010JW]

Going into my second week of no greenz. Legit been lowering dosages until I finished my stuff and on week two. First week was easy but now i'm getting the withdrawals and weird af dreams. Dreams have been weird, vivid and insane. But whatever to get my mind and body back on track. No lie though, socialization is like night and day now. Can't wait for more progress.

I don't miss that chit. 5 years of daily smoking set me back so much. But now i'm getting my life and health back

We are all gonna make it brahs. We are stronger than pleasures we don't need

[redraider86]

Good morning misc, I hope everyone's morning is going better than mine. I did sleep at all last time and was late getting ready to head to my intensive outpatient group, so I didn't get a chance to eat. I'm sure the acronym HALT is known to many of you and if not, it stands for hunger, anger/anxiety, loneliness, and tired. So I'm two for four on those. I'm not worried too much about relapse potential, but I am having pretty strong cravings while on the bus.

Hope IOP is great today

Lonely and tired are big ones for me. And it's hard to distinguish the L sometimes - I'm not actually alone, I have an incredible support network, but if I feel misunderstood or unheard, I feel lonely in my own mind and need to reach out to someone (usually in the program). Understanding the difference has been huge for me. I also went to sleep last night at 9:30 because I was tired, hehe. I'm so glad I make the decision to go to bed now, ya know?

[Krackerjacked]

Hold strong y’all
Had a stomach bug this weekend and quarantined to not risk getting the wife sick with how far along the pregnancy is.
Was super tempted to fap but I held out.
Ever forward brahs!

[Joeyw88]

Going into my second week of no greenz. Legit been lowering dosages until I finished my stuff and on week two. First week was easy but now i'm getting the withdrawals and weird af dreams. Dreams have been weird, vivid and insane. But whatever to get my mind and body back on track. No lie though, socialization is like night and day now. Can't wait for more progress.

I don't miss that chit. 5 years of daily smoking set me back so much. But now i'm getting my life and health back

We are all gonna make it brahs. We are stronger than pleasures we don't need

Congrats on going on week two of no weed! The withdrawal can definitely **** with your sleep and appetite! Glad you are already seeing benefits already.

Hope IOP is great today

Lonely and tired are big ones for me. And it's hard to distinguish the L sometimes - I'm not actually alone, I have an incredible support network, but if I feel misunderstood or unheard, I feel lonely in my own mind and need to reach out to someone (usually in the program). Understanding the difference has been huge for me. I also went to sleep last night at 9:30 because I was tired, hehe. I'm so glad I make the decision to go to bed now, ya know?

Hey thanks! I had a good session, we are in person after doing Zoom for so long, so it's much better. And yes, I can definitely relate to the L. My counselor said it well: 'you can be in a roomful of people and still feel the most lonely".

Hold strong y’all
Had a stomach bug this weekend and quarantined to not risk getting the wife sick with how far along the pregnancy is.
Was super tempted to fap but I held out.
Ever forward brahs!

Excellent! I can imagine it was not an easy thing to do, so good on ya man!

[resoog]

slowly i'm starting to see what you homies are talking about. i feel like i'm digging a hole and i have a ladder but if i go too deeply i am going to have to use my cell for godsakes