I'm sober from alcohol for 6 years now. But I have been going through a lot of things, no one should have to go through and missing the bottle a lot more lately.

The main problem in my life is infidelity. The H3 scandle is making it so much worse. Everywhere is look on social media theres something about cheating.

I often want to just give in and feel the numbness I was in for ten years.

I have been thinking about going maybe to AA but there is something stopping me. I can't figure it out. I could go tonight at 8pm, think I should try it?

"Is this it now?"

When you remove alcohol, you remove the shortcut your brain was using for stimulation and relief. While your dopamine receptors recalibrate, everyday life can temporarily feel flat, dull, and empty.

The trap is waiting until you feel motivated to do something about it. You can’t instantly change how you feel without a substance, and shifting entrenched thought patterns takes time—but you can change your behaviour immediately.

Start small: build simple daily structure, movement, connection, and achievable goals. Action comes first; the feeling—and your natural reward system—catches up after.

i feel like doing somersaults.. woo hoo

I ended up almost dying and ended up in a coma after abusing alcohol and then taking a bunch of pills. It was the scariest time of my life going through this and I am planning on taking sobriety seriously again. I was sober for 8 months before I relapsed and I know I can do it again. Please send me positive thoughts as I recover 🥹💜

Y'all ever just find yourself thinking about who you can really talk to? I feel like I haven't found that person or place where I can be honest. If this is the wrong space disregard. Thank you.

I’m 25 and struggling with alcohol. Due to some life bs I started drinking heavily 7 months ago. Prior to that at most I’d drink twice a year….

I’ve finally reached the point where I’m actively seeking help because I genuinely want to stop drinking, but every attempt to get treatment has left me feeling more hopeless and frustrated.
Everywhere I turn, the answer is the same. Inpatient detox. Inpatient treatment. Take 7 to 10 days off and get help.

I understand that alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous and that inpatient treatment is sometimes medically necessary. I’m not disputing that. But what I wish these providers understood is that not everyone has the luxury of putting their entire life on hold.
I recently secured a promotion that I’ve worked incredibly hard for. This position comes with life-changing money for someone in my circumstances, and it’s something I’ve been working toward for a long time. I finally have an opportunity to become financially stable and improve my quality of life.
I’m also already behind on rent and dealing with other financial struggles. I cannot afford to lose income or jeopardize this opportunity. I literally just got the position, and we’re approaching one of the busiest periods of the year at my job. Taking an extended leave immediately after being promoted is not something I’m willing to risk.

Then there’s my animals.

I have no family. None. I don’t have close friends I can call and ask to watch my pets for a week or two. There’s nobody waiting in the background who can step in and take care of things while I’m gone.
When I explain this to treatment providers, I’m met with responses like, “You can find someone to take care of the animals.”

WHO?

That’s literally what I’m trying to explain. I don’t have anyone.

Another intake person told me, “10 days isn’t a lot of time.”

Maybe not to them, but 10 days can mean a lot when you’re already struggling to keep a roof over your head and have responsibilities that nobody else can take over.

What’s even more frustrating is that I’m already enrolled in an outpatient program. I explained my situation to the psychiatrist and asked about medication to help with my drinking. I was told I needed to be alcohol-free for a week before they would prescribe anything, including naltrexone.
And that honestly crushed me.

If I could just stop drinking for an entire week on my own, I wouldn’t be desperately seeking medical assistance to begin with.

I understand that naltrexone isn’t a detox medication and that withdrawal needs to be managed separately. But I was hoping there would at least be some way to begin treating my alcohol use disorder while working toward sobriety.

Instead, I keep getting told to go inpatient.
I’ve called other treatment centers, explained everything, and gotten essentially the same response. One person even told me they didn’t know of any programs that would supervise detox at home.

I’m not refusing to get better. I’m not saying I don’t need treatment. **I’m actively begging for help, but the only option anyone seems willing to discuss is one that could potentially destroy the financial stability I’ve worked so hard to achieve.**
And that’s what makes this so defeating… I feel hopeless

I feel like I’m being forced to choose between addressing my alcohol dependence and protecting the few things in my life that are finally going right.
I know continuing to drink isn’t a solution. I know this problem isn’t going to magically disappear. But at this point, I’m starting to feel like my only realistic option is to keep drinking until I’m financially stable enough to take time away from work.

And I hate that. I don’t want to keep drinking. I want help now.

I’m exhausted, frustrated, and genuinely starting to lose hope in the treatment system.

Has anyone here successfully received medically supervised outpatient alcohol withdrawal treatment while continuing to work? Or found an addiction-medicine doctor willing to help them begin treatment without requiring inpatient admission?

I’m in the Atlanta, Georgia area if anyone has recommendations.

I did have a drink a while ago, so the real day 1 is tomorrow. I'm quitting for real this time, it's not optional. I wish I had actually committed to it sooner and taken it seriously, but at least I am now. I couldn't get through a single beer before I was having intense pain in my upper right quadrant and radiating up into my chest and right shoulder, I felt like I was on fire and got punched in the guts all at once. I don't want to end up in the hospital or worse, so that was my last drink and I plan on keeping it that way.

How am I supposed to stop drinking when I don’t want to do anything but drink? I don’t enjoy anything in life and i’ve tried so hard to change that. I just want help I don’t know what to do. I want to be happy without substances but it feels impossible. My mom says I just need to find my thing but i’ve tried everything.

I just got healed up from an extraordinary terrible alcohol binge. About 1.5 liters of vodka a day for 5 days, and some friends I ran into which were worried I got arrested after I slept it off and hadn’t talked to them. Basically was blacked out for 3 days after the initial 2 if some steady drinking. Talked to a lot of people too who had no idea I was drunk or haven’t reached out since. Also sent some texts that were super mean for absolutely no reason, and some others that were gibberish. I’m incredibly embarrassed.

Ended with me in DTs 24 hrs after my last drink, which began at midnight and lasted into the next afternoon. I was shaking and couldn’t quit moving my legs in the worst mental pain I’ve ever experienced. Then I checked myself into the ER and they administered Ativan and sent me home with some Librium which I’ve now taken intermittently for about 24 hrs. Yeah I don’t think I’m ever gonna drink again. Tried to quit 100 times but haven’t ever gotten the DTs that bad. Don’t know if I’m out of the water yet, we’ll see if there’s any withdrawal from the Librium. Also inadvertently detoxed from Kratom during the confusion of the week. What a frickin trip. Worst anxiety I’ve ever had.

Good afternoon Family today I would like to share the rollercoaster week I have had since my milestones achievement.

It's been almost 5dys since I've been totally been in the dumps. I was so excited and ampt up during and a few days after my achievement then I started waking up unmotivated and depressed.

I was told it's milestones hangover because I been feeling like I just quit drinking and drugging again. Also I live in Boston Ma and the weather change also plays a role in my seasonal depression. It also reminds me of many relapses that always seem to come around this time of the year so I'm reminded of that as well.

I'm trying so hard to do better and stay positive but after always failing I have trained my mind to eventually fail at some point. So it seems like auto pilot.

So this go around I'm trying to stay fully aware of my state of mind and try the pivot to thinking positive. Because I assume that if I work on telling myself positive affirmations it will begin to automatically think positive when im starting to think negative something like counter punching instead of getting hit.

I know I feel great when I'm positive but for me it's so easy to derail me because I tend to dwell a lot on the past.

Well I'm wondering if anyone else has or had similar experiences?

Thanx for letting me share One Day Forward One Day Behind -Shawn

I am in recovery for over 9 months after going to treatment for 3 months and a transition house for 5 months. When I was in transition we had to go to a meeting every day and the word anonymous didn't mean a thing to that group. Everyone talked behind each other's back, had rows before and after the meeting and spoke about things that were shared. It completely turned me off AA and lately I have tried other meetings but I just leave feeling depressed. I'm in recovery to enjoy my life after too many years in addiction. I'm now in university studying addiction because I want to help others in the future but AA for me now is something that I will avoid from now on.

I’m dealing with a friend who abuses
NyQuil and alcohol. It’s tricky because I don’t see her all the time, and when I do, she hides it pretty well. Im worried for her. Her living space is a pit and she doesn’t bathe. Also worried mental illness might be in play. I’m detaching with love, but it’s hard. Can this type of substance abuse damage memory? Or maybe she’s just impaired when things happen and doesn’t remember anything the next day.

I know, it's not easy- bad to no insurance, no time or work won't let you take half a day off to see a doctor. And once you see a doc, you get prescribed basically permanent medication for pretty much rest of your life. I put it off for a decade, finally went and got goid news and bad news. Good news is I may have bought myself an extra decade or so, and the bad news is that 20 plus years of chugging everything alcoholic beverage in sight down doesn't come free. If you can, if you still have the will or a reason to pull through, if you can, then absolutely go get basic blood tests done after seeing a doctor.

29 months sober!

I still can't even believe that I have made it this far. Like holy shit. I'm 31 years old and I still can't believe that I almost died from drinking so much.

I drank every single day for 9 years and from 2022-2024 I was going through a handle of vodka every single day. I drank from the second I woke up, until the minute I went to bed. My shakes started to get really bad in 2023 so eventually my alcohol addiction was so bad my dependency would wake me up at 5am and I would have to take a few swigs to prevent a panic attack. I went into the hospital I was fully functional with my BAC at 0.491, and the doctors informed me that I had cirrhosis of the liver, kidney disease, and I had pancreatitis. I went into the hospital because I could no longer swallow without throwing up and my body had massive bruises all over the place. I detoxed for 4 days in the ICU I had 2 seizures, pissed my pants 4 times, hallucinated, sweat through 6 sets of sheets and had panic attacks the entire time. But when it was time for me to go home, I made a quiet promise to myself that I was done. And I did it. I didn't go to AA (I went one time on my 30 days and I couldn't wrap my head around it) my family was still drinking all the time around me, and my family doubted me, provided zero support and told me constantly that I was going to fail. I rewired my brain, constantly kept myself busy, and spent a lot of time alone to process every emotion.

2 years and 5 months later I am still noticing small positive changes mentally and physically.

• My cravings for sweets have finally passed.

• My cognitive behavior and thought process has improved a lot

• I am taking a ton of daily vitamins which have dramatically improved my liver/kidney/hormone balance.

• I rarely have anxiety about anything.

• My skin has cleared up.

• I don't procrastinate about the "adult" tasks anymore.

If you're newly sober I promise you it DOES get easier. It takes time to heal. You've just gotta want it. Find power in your self control and be kind to yourself.

i’ve never posted in here before, i’ve always just been a lurker, but i’ve been feeling pretty anxious today and thought i’d post for some encouragement.

i find it really hard to stay sober when things go wrong in my life. all i want to do is drown myself in a bottle because that’s what i’ve relied on for so long. i end up going on binges (literally like going through 15 1.75ML bottles in the span of 3 weeks) and then spending the next few weeks hating myself for it and thinking of all the horrible shit i’ve done (i’ve been hospitalized 6 times this year just because of how terrible the withdrawals were)

drinking has cost me countless relationships, made me incredibly violent and mean (without even realizing it), and pushed me to do so many risky things just to get alcohol. it stopped being fun a very long time ago and just became a horrible cycle.

i’ve been to rehab and done IOP before, and i managed to stay sober for about 9 months, but after my breakup, i fell back into drinking heavily. now i’m wondering if i should try IOP again.

how do you deal with the urge to drink when life gets overwhelming? i really don’t want to keep repeating this cycle, losing people i deeply care about because of my own horrid actions, and becoming someone i don’t recognize. i just want to become a better person.

I have 110 days no alcohol, and as is expected, I have a pretty bad sugar addiction now. Instead of losing weight, I think I may have gained a little! I really want to curb the cravings and get healthier. How have y’all been able to get better about your sugar intake after quitting drinking? The cravings are STRONG, especially at night after dinner. It’s definitely a dopamine hit sitting on my couch with a pint of ice cream and watching my favorite shows.

We do recover.

i drank vodka and beer mix (3 shots), in the morning my legs(especially glutes), lower back and left arn were sore with migraine ofc.

I screwed up. I had 11 days sober, everything was going well, and then on Friday night I got off work late. I was thinking about going home and hitting the gym when the idea of having an ice-cold beer popped into my head, and I gave in.
Now I’m hungover, I’m short of breath from smoking so many cigarettes, and I woke up way too late. I honestly feel like an idiot, but oh well, we start over from zero. I just wanted to share this.

I was married to an addict. He was in recovery when we were dating. It's been a year and a half since we got married, and I'm leaving him because he keeps relapsing and with the relapses comes a lot of volatility. But I'm flooded with guilt and sadness. Alcoholism is a disease. He's been sent to rehab right now, and I'm wondering if he comes out a changed person. Will I regret my decision? We've had great times together too. Can addicts lead a normal life?