Today is my 5 year anniversary of being alcohol-free. Celebrating with some Shirley Temples with the hubby tonight. Life is good!
Congratulations on your 5 year mark, I am super proud of you.Enjoy your vacation that's coming up.Have a wonderful day and I pray you have a wonderful vacation as well.
This is so awsome. I know you feel great! Compared to how I bet you felt 4 years and 364 days ago I bet you don't even feel like the same person. So happy for you...Don't forget the rock pics!
Could you please share how did you control your urge for Alcohol for the past 5years, it would be really helpful for others. I have heard that according to recent research ketamine, which itself is a recreational drug can reduce alcohol addiction
Well done! I'm proud of you. We have the same problem, my dad was drinking for many years. He is 61 now. It was a real problem for the whole family, I remember this horror when we were waiting for him at home and afraid of what he will do today. But he is about 2,6 year anniversary of being alcohol-free. We asked help from many specialists, especially practice that help an addict. But to tell the truth, I continue to live in fear that once he will break and will start drinking again.
I know some sober addicts that are on the wide spectrum of disorders other than addiction, e.g. bipolar affective disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, etc. They use medication for their disorders and have been sober for years. But, before they were aware of their disorder(s) due to misdiagnoses, they self-medicated by discovering alcohol and other drugs, including nicotine. These drugs, to some extent temporarily relived their pain and suffering engendered by their disorder(s), until they understood the difference between symptom (using) and problem (them). I’m on the OCD, ADHD spectrum, including PTSD from childhood, but I don’t need medication for these disorders, where some others do. Here’s an answer to your question, using myself as an example of how I got sober. I posted this before on this forum........................................................................................................................................... I tried for years to be abstinent from alcohol and finally I did it. My brain was rewired due to coming within a nanosecond of losing my life. But, even though I was abstinent from alcohol, I continued to smoke cigarettes until again my brain was rewired, due to becoming blind in one eye for 5 minutes. I finally achieved sobriety and not once in 40 years has the desire to drink or smoke returned. In other words, abstinence isn’t sobriety!
You did a great job. You've done a lot of work on yourself and your life. I think you've rethought many things in your life and prioritized them. I'm sure it was hard to make such a serious decision and radically change your life. Did you have any breakdowns? If you have, I can recommend the website theluckiestclub.com It helped me a lot at one time. I went through the same as you, and I can say that not drinking is the best thing ever to happen to me. Subjectively, I feel two orders of magnitude better than when I used them. I don't pine for the "old days" at all; on the contrary, I remember them with horror. There have been qualitative changes in my life that I couldn't have dreamed of. I've travelled to a lot of countries, and I work as a development director for a big company
I congratulate you on the fact that you have not been drinking alcohol for so many years. You are doing the right thing because I believe that alcohol is a legal drug sold in stores. I used to drink a lot of alcohol in my youth and thought it was cool, but now I'm 35 years old, and I understand that I'm an alcoholic and need to be treated. After all, I drink either vodka or whiskey every day, and sometimes I drink one bottle. My friends advised me to sign up for an Online Alcohol Support Group on this site -- https://www.theluckiestclub.com/join-community, and try to overcome my addiction by attending such meetings. I don't know if it will work.