Not alone! But 33 days is very good without alcohol, isn't it?
I'd say that getting past 90 days is significant in early sobriety. Somewhere between 30 and 90 days, one starts to feel really well and it's seems hard to focus on the process of recovery, which involves substantial changes. "The same man will drink again".
Before AA, I made it a couple of months and single months here and there. When I began going to meetings regularly I got 1 and 2 months several times, over the course of 2 years, but could never get 90 days. Right at 2 years, of going to meetings steadily, I made a substantial commitment to acquire a certain sponsor, go to meetings every day, begin writting a 4th step, scheduled a 5th step and before I knew it, my 1 year anniversary was happening. 19.5 years later, it's been one very enjoyably smooth ride full of unbelievable gifts. It really does "Keep getting better" every year.
Put your recovery first in front of everything else. Work hard for it, because you only get out of it, what you put in. Make friends in the program and have fun. This a life long passion, not a death sentence.
I tried to quit drinking many times without the help of AA. But, despite having good intentions and the best of motivations, I simply couldn't keep sober on my own.
I then went to AA and had a period of getting a few weeks sobriety and then drinking again. I have found that through working the steps, doing AA service (even just making coffee or helping to clear up the room at the end of a meeting) and attending regular meetings all helps this alcoholic to stay sober. I couldn't have got sober and stayed sober without AA.
Try getting to 90 meetings in 90 days and sharing how you are feeling and how it is going for you. You'll find that you are not alone and also you'll get lots of positive advice and support.
Please keep posting and letting 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
Hey Paul! I fell off the wagon for years and a hundred thousand times. I didn't think, for a long time, that I really had a problem, I just needed to not drink so much. So I'd go and try to have just a couple, but of course because of my allergy that was impossible. AA was never suggested to me and the only thing, I thought, I knew about it was that it was for skid row folks. My blue collar drinking progressed to, me isolating and drinking 24/7. Near the end alcohol some times stopped working. I couldn't get drunk. All I was doing was maintaning a level so I wouldn't shake and could, if you want to call it this, function. I didn't want to drink long before I was able to stop. And that did not happen until I found myself in the rooms of A.A.
I picked up my white chip in my first meeting and haven't had a drink since 2-18-05, (Grace of God and AA). But, thats only, I believe, because I've done what was ask of me. I guess you could say I was blessed with the gift of desperation. Does this mean I can't relapse? No!!! I've seen people 15, 20, 25, and 30 years sober go back out. If I can always remember my bottom, what I leaned that first year and apply the steps in my life, I may have a good chance of staying sober.
So if you really think about it I did all my relapsing before I got to AA. No one chip wonder here.
Keep coming back, Paul. If you want what we have & are willing to go to any lengths to get it.. These are the '12 Steps' we took which are suggested as a Program of Recovery.. See your Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous & attend your meetings for the answers in how to stay stopped.. I had an emotional rock bottom & managed to stop for about two months by myself. I thought I had it licked & went to AA in curiosity.
I joined on the Monday & took a drink on the Friday! A complete surprise to me. I didn't really go to many meetings & found I had a further three slips after that one, every other week. I learned so much from those drinking experiences each time as I found & realised that what people were saying the rooms was coming true for me too so I got serious, took & Sponsor & started to work the steps. I haven't had a drink since & have had the obsession removed as a result of this Program.
If it worked for me it can work for you! Goodluck, Danielle x
-- Edited by Sobrietyspell at 18:57, 2009-01-08
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Progress not perfection.. & Practice makes Progress!
Hi Paul, I am also Paul, and alcoholic, and I have fallen off the wagon just yesterday, after only a few days of sobriety, and this has happened a few times over the last month...prior to that had fourteen months, so I do identify with you and those feelings of hopelessness, but I try to at least be glad that I had that time not drinking, and consider how I could have killed myself or others in that time if I was drinking, and I do know that the period of not drinking was a time where I discovered a happier way of life and of looking at myself and living with my own fears and insecurities (and even actually recognising some of them for the first time....i am sure there are more to be discovered).
So, I have kept going to AA over the drinking time, though intermittently, I confess, went to a meeting, Wed, then Thursday this week, then drank after the Thursday one, in the afternoon, but today, Friday here in Australia, I am clean and sober, and going to another meeting at 8pm, so I am hoping to start another recovery period, with meetings every day, have a person in mind for a sponsor, and even after one day, I am feeling positive. I don't want to feel like I do when I drink, and I know that AA can help me feel better, like it did before, and I do know that I receive love and acceptance from the people in AA, and also some examples of what I would like to have....
