I am fairly new in sobriety and I keep hearing the terms abstinence and recovery thrown around a lot at meetings. Do they have different meanings to you guys and have they changed as you have stayed sober? For me abstinence is just about not drinking and recovery is about getting better and trying to get my life back..
Welcome to MIP. It's a good place to be and adds a quality to my sobriety. I hope that you'll stick around.
For me abstinence is all about not drinking and recovery is all about getting on with the rest of my life. I need AA to help with my recovery and also to keep me from picking up that next fatal drink. I can't do it any other way and I tried hard enough for long enough!
Please keep posting and let us know how things are going for you, won't you?
Take care,
Carol
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
Hi Sean, Welcome Welcome!! So glad to hear you are going to meetings. Yes, you got it. Abstinence is not drinking at all, and recovery from alcoholism is what we strive to achieve in AA which is a recovery program. For me it was re-entering society, and becoming productive in real practice, not just my own deluded mind. I am still recovering one day at a time, and I am so glad to meet you I could vibrate. Keep going to meetings and don't drink between meetings. Roderick
Hello and welcome Sean. I once quit drinking for a period of ten years (give or take a year I think). I did it through shear will power, wich by the way I do not suggest trying. I drank again and stayed drunk another ten years. The time I was dry, I was just that... "dry" but no where near sober. Sobriety to me is a way of life. Thank God, I am now "truly" sober two years. I practice a more spiritual way.. living right, treating others right, working the program... The first time, I was simply a "dry drunk". Those around me were miserable and so was I. Sobriety is about happiness. Trying to just stay dry, "abstinance"... without the program to replace the alcohol, can make one very unhappy. Glad your here. :)
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My warranty on tomorrow has run out. My guarantee on the past is void. Nothing is going my way... and I like it like that.
Miller2 pretty much hit it on the head. I might add that sobriety is life changing and brings true happiness whereas abstinence, often possible for a certain period under sheer will power, brings anything BUT comfort. "Dry drunks" tend to be barely hanging on and miserable as the obsession to want that drink still runs strong. In spiritual sobriety, I am not obsessing over wanting that first drink like I once did, and am focusing on contributing to life (my own and to those around me).
I have been sober for just over a year and LOVE it! I never dreamed that it really would be possible to live not wanting to drink and that such a life could be rich, full and fun!
Welcome aboard. I sincerely hope that you find as much gladness in your sobriety as I have.
I am fairly new in sobriety and I keep hearing the terms abstinence and recovery thrown around a lot at meetings. Do they have different meanings to you guys and have they changed as you have stayed sober? For me abstinence is just about not drinking and recovery is about getting better and trying to get my life back..
Thanks to all who respond..
Sean
Hi Sean, I'm new too the whole soberiety lifestyle and all that jazz. It's a huge anxiety filled change, but I take one day at a time like with the rest of them. I wish you and everybody well.
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