10 years sober today

[All done drinking]

So very awesome. If I may ask, can you share some words of wisdom as so many of us get tempted after months or years of sobriety thinking we can now handle one or have an occasional drink. How have you been able to keep your head on straight when faced with those thoughts, or maybe they have never occurred? Just curious as that seems to be the big relapse downfall, that we think after some time under our belts we can now handle alcohol. Sad, but true for many.

Addy (All done drinking...yes!)

[Pavati]

Great stuff, ATT.

That honesty piece is key - staying honest to ourselves about what alcohol really does to us, and honest about quitting.

Thanks so much for sharing your success!

Pav

[Byrdlady]

Wow, thank you for reaching out and showing us what 10 years looks like! It is wonderful to know that life gets better still and AL is never the answer for us. Well done! Byrdie

[jane27]

Congratulations & thank you for coming here to share your achievement with us!

[ATTTT]

All done drinking.. I think that the worrying part of your post to me is this "thinking we can now handle one or have an occasional drink" Once you remove that thought its simple. You CANT have one drink. Its not an option. Dont entertain it. At its basics this is the core of my sobriety, just dont have one drink.

I did not do the MWO program - I'm not even sure what it is.. 10 years ago it was about using Topimarate for moderation which I dont agree with at all - certainly I always knew that would be useless for me..... I did my own (in answer to some questions I have got). Total sobriety, honesty, exercise, meditation, and then some more honesty. Facing up to myself has not been easy but has been well worth the effort.

Have I thought about drinking in 10 years, well of course I have.. have I entertained it.. I'd be lying if I said no.. but if you hold onto the honest that ONE is the problem because ONE = too many then the strategy is around making sure that ONE does not happen. I used this site in the beginning as I didnt tell my 3D world what was going on.. and that was hard as many here entertain moderation and lets face it the site was set up as an avenue for sale of Topimarate.. but the more I read and the more I got honest with myself, I knew there was no way that drugs would help me.. I was an all or nothing person.. I did purchase Campral but never used it.. Night times were hard, I would take myself to bed early to reduce drinking hour cravings.. Meditation helped (getting out of this head is a lifetimes work, haha) On this site there would be waves of 'slipping' and even enabling of slips.. but me, I'm a 100 percent sober person and each time I saw someone choose to drink (which is what a slip is) I used it as motivation not to be like them but to keep on going. I know it sounds harsh but I"ve had to be harsh on myself.. no easy path to sobriety for me.. I took years before I did anything about it.. and of course now I wish I'd changed sooner.. but thats in the past. I'm ok now and thats fine by me.

Thanks to the rest of you for your kind words..

ATT

[lex]

Meditate, exercise,

honesty, humility, gratitude,

repeat ...

repeat ...

repeat ...

[Byrdlady]

ATT, what was your name on the old site? Is it you I have seen posting every year on your anniversary? Seems like that person's name was three words, maybe At This Time or some such? Byrdie

[All done drinking]

All done drinking.. I think that the worrying part of your post to me is this "thinking we can now handle one or have an occasional drink" Once you remove that thought its simple. You CANT have one drink. Its not an option. Dont entertain it. At its basics this is the core of my sobriety, just dont have one drink.

ATT,

Thanks for your concern but I wanted to clarify that I personally do not have those thoughts, if I could edit what I said I should have worded it that "some folks" rather than some of us which implied I was one of them. I actually just posted a post on Newbie's Nest today about how even an "occasional" drink is a deadly thought. I understand your statement about using other people's slips as your motivation as we must be constantly diligent in our quit or it's too easy to relapse. Far easier than a lot of people think.

Congrats on your success with this.

~Addy

[little beagle]

ATT thanks for sharing with us. It is inspiring to see real long term sobriety. It CAN be done.

[Pinecone]

ATT, thank you for your posts and congratulations on your AF time. It is very useful and also reassuring to see some of the mindset type things that have helped you. I agree with you about the absolute need for brutal honesty with one's self. This is such a condition of deception that without honesty success is doubtful. Thank you very much for three good food thought!