Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Good morning! I live alone with my English bully and two cats, have no immediate friends near me outside of work (and I work an hour away so they're not right next door to me) and my family is then an additional 3 hours away from me. One of my stumbling blocks (I've tried quitting many times) is keeping my mind occupied and being able to either ignore thoughts of drinking or being able to turn my mind to something else when the thoughts DO land into my mind.....does anyone have any tips for how they kept their minds in check at around Day 3 (my personal highest is 5 days).....I'm entering Outpatient Treatment on Monday but I'm (in most lots of life) and overachiever and I have it in my head that I want to be able to walk into treatment and honestly say I'm almost 5 days sober.....I know that doesn't sound that promising...5 days.....when compared to the rest of your life staying sober but right now it's important to me.....any advice?
In each case I needed other tools to turn to because if I went too far down the mental thought path toward a drink, there was no turning back.
I found that scheduling things at the hardest time of day helped. My hardest time of day for me was between 5 and 7 p.m. If I made it past that time, I didnt have much trouble afteward. So....I would schedule a walk with friends, a pedicure, a meditation class, a movie. Those are just some of the things I scheduled in early sobriety.
Also I remembered HALT (hungry angry lonely tired). If I was any of those things I dealt with them. Hungry? Eat a sandwich. TIred? Take a quick nap...Angry, force a smile, meditate, say a prayer, or all three.
Most important to me was AA meetings, early on. It gave me people I could call when I got that squirrely feeling. They'd help me through it.