Monday Meetup - Join us weekly!

[PnorkelPW]

@BonsaiBeginner that's soooo great to hear...........it's amazing what perseverance will do. Learn from what works and just keep trying

Waking up feeling good without the regret of the night before is a feeling to hold on to..........keep going

[PnorkelPW]

@BonsaiBeginner that's soooo great to hear...........it's amazing what perseverance will do. Learn from what works and just keep trying

Waking up feeling good without the regret of the night before is a feeling to hold on to..........keep going

[ScorpionPW]

Thank you so much for sharing that with us @BonsaiBeginner, that is absolutely fantastic!

How good is it to not wake up with a hangover! I don't miss that one bit

It's so inspiring to see you kicking goals and finding things to motivate you to keep going, I really hope you continue to share your journey with us because it's so wonderful to see and it helps us all.

It's all about the baby steps when finding a new way to live and all of a sudden we thread periods of time together and everything feels easier, little by little as we continue on the journey of recovery.

[Peace Dove]

Hey @OceanSky,
Just wanted to check in and ask how are you going?

[PnorkelPW]

Howdy All………..another Monday is upon us. I’m around again between 8pm – 10pm AEST checking out the forums.

How was your weekend??

What worked??

What didn’t??

How did you look after yourself??

[BonsaiBeginner]

It is Monday again and I made it through another weekend without a hangover. Hubby didn't bring home wine on Thursday or Friday, which was good because it was harder not to have a drink this weekend.
Lockdown restrictions easing meant we could go out for dinner on Friday night. I did have a lemon/lime & bitters but only one and resisted the urge to have a cocktail with my daughter. I kept reminding myself that I wouldn't sleep well and would probably end up with a morning headache and inflamed sinuses.
Saturday was harder. I felt great for the first time in weeks and started thinking of drinks to celebrate!!!!!! The day was filled with study and then an assessment in the afternoon. It was hard and I was extremely worked up by the end. I wanted a wine or vodka to wind down. There is vodka in the freezer. It belongs to my daughter. It has been there for the last 3 weekends and I haven't touched it. I was really tempted to have a shot but I went out and watered the garden with a coconut water and soda instead. It helped and the urge passed.
Hubby did bring home wine on Saturday night. I did end up having a glass. It took me an hour to drink and I didn't enjoy it. My face went bright red in reaction. I wonder if the hypnosis is helping me not enjoy the wine and not ignore the minor allergic reactions?
I am thinking ahead though, to when I finish study for the year next week. Part of me is already planning a binge and the other part is listing all the reasons I shouldn't.

[Keita]

It's been a while since I've been on these forums. I suppose a huge part of that was, I wasn't having as much difficulty with managing my alcohol consumption as I used to. For someone who struggled to go a week without alcohol, who would laugh at the thought of doing a dry July, I have now been completely alcohol free for 6 months.
I'm so proud of myself for this achievement, but it hasn't been an easy road. The struggle has been REAL! Especially with these lockdowns we keep having. Every time I feel myself get to the point of a total meltdown, I still meltdown, just not to the point of going "F this, I'm gonna get f'd up, f you all" cos, bruh sometimes I do be feeling like this on the daily! Then i remind myself of how far I've come, and how far I'm yet to go.
These forums, at the beginning of my journey have been a huge help even with just being able to vent how I'm feeling and what I'm going through and that's made all the difference. Maybe not in a major way, but those small steps do count.
So this is me, still making those small steps to get to where I need to be.

[Lhiver]

heya @Keita That is such an amazing achievement! Congrats on 6 months without a drink!

It sounds like you've developed some better strategies for coping now then turning to grab a drink immediately. That's so important, especially at the moment with the uncertainty of lockdowns! And also moving forward, just having good coping strategies in place sets you up so well as you move through your journey. As you said, you can still have the melt down, (we all have them, honestly) but you've got to learn how to manage it safely.

Are there any techniques you'd like to share that have helped you over the past few months?

I'm so happy to hear that these forums were useful, that's really all we want to do is give people that space to vent and share where they're at. It's great to now that you found there here

[Lhiver]

@BonsaiBeginner Great work! It isn't easy letting urges pass, but what you did, weighing up the pros and cons, and doing something instead to take your mind of it are great responses! The more you let those urges or cravings pass without acting on them the easier it becomes!

The hypnosis might be helping you there! I want to say I'm really impressed with your forward planning. Knowing that finishing your study will be a major trigger and working out how to manage that ahead of time shows a lot of awareness and determination! Good on you

[PnorkelPW]

Hello Monday Meetup!!.................let's see what this week brings

Last week was tough for me with plenty of challenges at work that left me drained and without motivation for the weekend. I ended up just lounging around and not achieving much which left me disappointed by the time Monday morning rolled around. This week is going to be better. This week I am focusing on little goals and what I can do give me that sense of achievement I've been missing.

It looks like I've got some positive feedback to read this week so let's get started on a fresh week with fresh focus..........positive focus!!

[PnorkelPW]

@BonsaiBeginner there's so much good stuff in here!!!

No hangover, hubby hasn't been bringing back wine every night..........that seems like a pretty big show of support!!........didn't have a cocktail and worked some strategies not to, didn't drink the vodka and had a replacement drink instead. The bit I like about that is it gave you the time do something relaxing like water the garden and was a distraction from alcohol coz you had a drink in your hand. Sometimes that's all it's about............just doing something that allows you to ride the wave and stop the loop thinking of wanting a drink.

Okay sure you had a drink Saturday night but you only had one and you were able to identify that it wasn't enjoyable. Maybe the hypnosis is doing its thing and helping you focus on the things you don't enjoy about drinking??? I love that you're already thinking ahead to next week too. The fact that your wary of the outcome is a great sign. I wonder...........have you ever done a cost benefit analysis on drinking??? Next weekend would be great to use as an example and you've already started making a list. What you do is draw a big plus sign on a piece of paper. In the top left quadrant you write what the good things about drinking next weekend would be. The top right is for the bad things about drinking next weekend. Bottom left quadrant is for the good things about not drinking next weekend and the bottom right for the bad things about not drinking. It can be really handy to see that there's usually more to benefit from not drinking. If you give it a crack I'd be interested in the result.

I remember the times I'd stop drinking for a short period and then start to feel amazing. Ironically, that's the biggest trigger to start thinking that I'd be okay to have a drink again. I'd conveniently forgotten that the drink was the thing that made me feel so crappy in the first place but for some reason I thought it would be different this time............again..........and again...............and again. It's actually no different to drinking a bottle of poison, getting really sick and then feeling better again. I wouldn't go back and drink the poison again so why the hell did I go back and drink alcohol so many times?????!!!! It was poisoning me in the same way.

Good luck with finishing study this week and good luck with the weekend.............lemme know how you go

[PnorkelPW]

@Keita this is unreal!!! 6 months!!! Congatubloodylations!!!

Thanks so much for a raw, honest account of what these 6 months have been like for you. I think a lot of people jump on here when they're struggling with the substance but once they get some time up they forget the forums can still help. This is the stuff people need to hear. This is a story of hope.

When my substance use stopped another life started...........a life I didn't know how to live. A life that was full of tough moments........and still is. Learning to move through these difficult times was how I worked out I didn't need a substance to do life. Drugs and booze did nothing to solve the difficulties I was facing. I love that when you feel like a meltdown you allow yourself to have a meltdown. You feel the crappy times and move through them. Drinking only numbs the pain and lets it grow stronger so you want to drink more to numb more pain. Feeling the pain lets you get rid of it, feel better and not need to drink. It seems you're figuring out how to do this and I just can't congratulate you enough.

We're always here if you wanna keep venting at any time. Finding a way to release that emotion is a key to moving forwards. It'd also be great for others to keep hearing that even when life gets tough they don't have to pick up.

You have come a long way.

You do have a long way to go..................but if you keep doing what you're doing I'm sure you'll keep making more amazing progress.

Thanks so much for checking back in and giving us the update............whatever it is you're doing...........keep it up!!!

[PnorkelPW]

Another Monday, another opportunity...............A friend of mine has started a home detox today and I'm really hopeful for her. She's done detox before as an admission but this time she's trying the home thing to see if she can try and balance life at the same time. She has taken the week off work to take some pressure off which was a really smart move...........fingers crossed!!

What's great is that she's had some setbacks over the last couple weeks because of lockdowns and a mix up with appts that wasn't her doing but she's maintained focus and rolled with the punches...............aprocess that was supposed to begin a few weeks ago is starting now. It's a lesson for all of us in not giving up and staying focused on your goals. So many people would have given up on the idea with the setbacks but she's kept going. The home detox just adds a whole other element and I think that's another good reminder for everyone out there that there's more than one way to approach treatment.............it's about discovering what's going to work for you.

She's really strong minded and I know she can do whatever she puts her mind to.........she just has to believe that too. Everyone is capable of sooooooo much more without the substances eating away at full potential over time.

I'd love to hear from anyone else as to what approaches they've tried............what's worked..........what hasn't..........and why.............why not???

[ScorpionPW]

It's great to hear that your friend is having another crack...I seriously take my hat off to anybody trying to tackle this stuff at the moment. It must be a whole other layer of challenging whilst in lockdown and in the early days of recovery.

Thanks for sharing @PnorkelPW, it's inspiring to hear and is a good reminder that my "problems" pale in comparison to what they could be or once were.

How are you travelling?

[PnorkelPW]

Usually by my feet or a car @ScorpionPW ……..LOLOLOL

I’m doin orright. Coming out the other side of a funk. I just a wrote a bit about it in the Thursday Check-in

You’re right too……….problems are all about perspective. Sometimes they’re pretty big but they’re not the end of the world

How you doin???