Different people have differing experiences with urges and temptation. I have left booze long enough that it pretty much leaves me alone. During times of prolonged intense stress the thought and urge does come a bit, but I've gotten through quite a few very intense things that my stress tolerance is very high and urge to use very low.

However, I can relate about the urge thing, as I just quit smoking about 4 months ago. My girlfriend had to quit for medical reasons and I decided to support. I crave cigarettes much more than she does.

OK, to answer your question with a question. Even if the urge/temptation never goes away do you want to be more healthy?

I get uncomfortable feelings from time to time smahon but ti be hinest the urge to drink is very rare now...just isn't a useful answer to the problem.

Might feel now for you that the urge will never go away but chances are thats not true. Its possible to live without a drink and not want one...hang in there see if it's true for you

P

What makes you think the urge and temptation will never, ever go away? Maybe right now it feels like you have to use all your strength and energy to resist, but in time you won't. In time, when someone offers you a drink, you'll be able to say no thank you with a smile on your face, and that will be the end of it.

Keep at it, and it will get easier. Notice the benefits of staying sober and focus on them. Breathe, relax, enjoy your life. Those urges and temptations will shrink as long as you don't let them hypnotize you.

You can do this!

everyone is different, i admit. I smoked cigerretes for 20 years, from age 13 to 33. 20 years total. I think after I quit. I may have had a total of 5 drags off a smoke. Smoking to me is now is a total turn off. I can't stand anything about them. I don't want to tell on my self, but i admit , in my time, i did a little more than just booze and smokes. I no longer craves cigerretes and "other stuff", but alcohol still haunts me. The thought of booze goes through my head everyday. But all I know is that if I say no and fight the urge, I will be fine.

The cravings don't go away while actively drinking.
The point is to live the best life we can possibly live. For me the point is to live peacefully and happily sober.
My first few months of sobriety were exhausting though....

It depends upon how you live you life. You have to accept life as it is with its good times and bad times.`When you are in the drinking mode you use alcohol to escape the bad times. "I got so upset I had to get drunk" As you enter sobriety you have to face these problems rather than avoid them by getting loaded. The more that you learn to face them the easier it gets. After awhile you don not even think about drinking when those daily problems pop up.

You build of strength and when the big problems come you had a lot of practice. Sometimes a person falls, like i did. It's a matter of going back to sobriety again, but its not like starting over from scratch.

So what's the point. Well, my bother died from heart problems caused by his drinking. I have a good heart and so far 20 years more life than he had. More important is that I enjoy life. I did not enjoy life when I drank.

The urges and temptations do lessen and fall away. I am 6 months sober and every now and then a thought to drink pops up unexpectedly (old habits die hard I guess) but it's easy to resist as I remind myself how fabulous I feel without alcohol in my life :)

Hello smahon,

I was so desperate for alcohol that I would have drank whiskey out of an old shoe. I drank all sorts of stuff, including home brew of questionable standard and origin. If I had kept drinking until the money was all gone I would have continued my descent to the next lowest level until I could not go down any further. Yet, I do not drink today and have not had a craving for alcohol for a long time. I was on holiday (vacation to the Yanks) a few weeks ago and there was a bottle of free wine on the dinner table every night, with another free bottle available if the colour was not right. Yet, I drank water and thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

In order to get over the urge and temptation I had to accept that I cannot drink safely. Then I had to become willing to do whatever it takes in order to get sober. I disagreed with many of the good suggestions that were made by people who had been sober for a long time and thought that I knew better, which was ironic, since I could not stop drinking and they had. However, since my choices were limited I went along with what those sober AA people had suggested and do you know what the urge and temptation vanished.

The big question is: Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

What's the point? Sobriety. Knowing that I love myself enough to make healthy choices.

I sometimes crave McDonald's, too. But I know it's poison and I don't want to give one red cent to big businesses that make money off killing people.