Tag: sober

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Haunted

Posted on by New and Shiny

Tonight, was interesting…I didn’t drink but I seriously thought I might. It’s funny how quick that can come even after feeling so steady in sobriety.

I was out this evening in traffic -which gave me lots of thinking time. I was thinking about all the people in my past and I could FEEL all the feels all over again.

On my way home, I drove past a liquor store and thought “it would be SO easy to drink right now. Hubby’s away…I’m home by myself. No one would know”. I must have driven past six liquor stores – seriously how many do we need in Atlanta! I started having an argument with myself about how I needed to get my shit together and stop glamorizing alcohol. Then I thought about how I have a whole cabinet full of vodka still just waiting for me to get home.

Seriously …what the fuck.

I thought I had this shit figured out. I thought I had my shit together. I thought my past didn’t bother me anymore. I thought I was stronger than cravings. Apparently, I am fucking human and alcohol is still a bitch that could easily take over me again if I let my guard down.

I’m home now and in a totally different head space – but oh how easy that thinking came!

I guess I’ve figured out that in my current life – I know how to tackle this sobriety thing…but now that I’m dredging up shit from my past…I almost defaulted to the only coping mechanism I had back then – alcohol.

I am ok now, but I’m posting this to hold myself accountable for the rest of the night and also to help prepare someone else who may get side-smacked with cravings when thinking about the past.

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Pride

Posted on by New and Shiny

I am proud of myself for…

…taking a chance at a new life even though I thought it was impossible
…learning to stop and appreciate all of the amazing things around me and in my life
…putting myself out there and being open and honest with the HSS group
…giving meditation a chance and admitting it’s WAY better than I thought and that IT’S CHANGED MY LIFE
…beginning to learn how to drive my own bus and let others drive their own – stopping myself when I begin to be judgey or start thinking all those “you shoulds”
…not drinking for 53 days and having no plan or desire to let ethanol back into my life!

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Now I have something to lose

Posted on by New and Shiny

Is this a thing – fear of losing what’s going good? Lately, although I have had this immense and overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude, I am also constantly worried that I am somehow going to lose all these great things that I’m just now realizing I have. I look around my life – and I am so thankful for everything I have and everyone in it. I’m amazed that I have gotten where I am in spite of my drinking. I now love my home, my job, my family and I just can’t believe how easily all of this could have gone away and how lucky I am to still have it all.

Although I am so super happy with so many things now, I still have this annoying, constant worry. Like I’m waiting for the bad part of all of this…like wouldn’t that be some shit …if when I FINALLY appreciate what I have, I lose it?! When it would ACTUALLY hurt me, it happens?

Am I crazy? I don’t know why I can’t just be happy with all I’ve discovered and learned to appreciate…why I have to worry about losing things when I have them.

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Alcohol made my anxiety

Posted on by New and Shiny

Yesterday, I went to my second concert SOBER! And it was pretty easy – ya know why? Because I struggled but successfully got through the first one, AND I prepared my ass off both times. This time, even though I had been through it once before, I still rewatched the cravings video, meditated, and visualized the whole concert alcohol-free …because my biggest worry is that I will let my guard down one day and BAM!

Because I enjoy facing challenges (no I really, really don’t lol) – I am also attending a work dinner tonight. This is a dinner with a client that I have worked with for years but have never actually met in-person. My social anxiety is ramped up high.

The team I’m meeting must have mentioned “wine and dine…did we mention wine” like ten times by now. So I gotta figure out how to turn down the wine without making it awkward. This will be my very first experience being out with drinkers. I’ve been out places where people are drinking, but in the last 46 days, I haven’t been WITH people who drink. I think it will be good practice for two more occasions coming up soon.

I’m thinking these guys don’t know me well enough to ask why I’m turning down wine – BUT I gotta prepare for that regardless. I’m either going with “ugh no thanks – I won’t sleep for like three days if I have any”…or “no thanks – I’ve been fighting a sinus infection for two weeks, and I don’t wanna jinx anything”.

Ya know what’s funny. For twenty years, I’ve been drinking to “face my fears and handle anxiety”. And now that I don’t drink, I am doing SO many more scary things with SO much LESS anxiety! And each time I do something hard, it gives me this amazing confidence and I love myself even more for it. It’s like I’m watching a little kid learn how to “do life” and I’m all proud of her!

When I drank, I “knew” alcohol caused anxiety. But I didn’t really believe it. But here’s the proof! I’d have never gone to this dinner before! How ironic that they haven’t ever visited Atlanta until now…exactly when I’m prepared to handle the meeting!

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Good but poopy day

Posted on by New and Shiny

Yesterday was AMAZING and was real evidence of how much I’ve changed. I live in a new neighborhood and by being the first to have moved here, somehow I’ve become a sort of “social chair”…which is ironic as fuck because I am the most socially anxious woman on the planet….orrr I USE TO BE. So I arranged for a neighborhood Meet & Greet yesterday and it was supposed to be outdoors, but hell froze over and for some reason it was 34 degrees IN ATLANTA when I woke up. So with only a few hours’ notice, hubby and I decided to host the party IN OUR HOUSE instead.

Everything that could have gone wrong beforehand, went wrong. My dog apparently pooped somewhere…and the Roomba (robot vacuum thingy) apparently ran over the poop. So while we are running around cleaning other things thinking the floors were taken care of…Will (what we named our Roomba) was actually running around smearing dog shit all over our house and white bathroom rugs!!!! Also, I’m getting over a cold…so of course, I had a major coughing attack and I literally peed my pants RIGHT BEFORE THE PARTY.

Guys…It was 20 minutes before the party started, before 30 fucking strangers showed up IN MY HOUSE, my house was covered in dog poop, and I had to shower again! In the past, I’d have already been a little tipsy and anxious as hell….and that would have been the straw…but guess what? It wasn’t ! It actually didn’t even phase me! I literally looked at all that went wrong, made a list of what we had to do to fix it, delegated stuff to hubby – and we just took care of it! And guess what else? The party was a huge hit- I met some really great people, and everything worked out just fine!

Also – people were in my house with alcohol and the only thing I thought was “man, beer really smells”!

Sobriety and HSS has changed everything! Life is just easier…and better! I love you guys!

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Sick but sober

Posted on by New and Shiny

Sitting at home, sick as a dog, fending for myself because hubby is on the road. This is my “first sick” since being sober.

When I was drinking, being sick meant me being exhausted but still trying to figure out that perfect balance of alcohol consumption while still being able to take cold medication. So many times alcohol won, and I probably prolonged my sickness by days or a week.

Hubby being on the road when I was sick was always extra hard. I was already a sketchy “crazy girl” when he was gone and I got drunk. I would cause all sorts of ridiculous fights with him for no reason. Then add being sick and lonely AND drunk – magical disaster.

This time around…I’m sick…I’m a little lonely…I’m taking care of myself…and I feel bad for hubby because he didn’t want to leave me but he had to. I never considered how hard it was for him when he left. Funny how much more of the picture there is besides my drunk self and that “me me me” mentality I had while drinking.

I am so amazed at how much more there is to this world than I knew before!

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30 days!

Posted on by New and Shiny

30 days! 30 fucking days!!! It has been a beautiful, humbling, sometimes-painful, sometimes-joyful, road so far. I went from thinking I could never do this…seeing me as an old broken woman one day drinking vodka in a rocking chair….to knowing I can do ANYTHING!

Last night, I was talking to hubby about how impossible this had felt. How the last few times I went into it thinking it was likely doomed and how it ended up doomed. But this time was SO different – all because I decided to TRY something new…to put blind faith into a new way…to say fuck it- what’s the worst that can happen. I can’t believe how many things in life I’ve been missing because I thought I already knew all I needed to know! The only thing I actually know – is there is a fuck-load more to know! And for the first time in life….I’m happy about that! I hope I always have something new to learn and that I am always finding better ways to be.

Last night was the very first night that I didn’t even think about wine! I just started my lovely evening with tea, aromatherapy, and quality time with my hubby and dogs. It was amazing.

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27 days

Posted on by New and Shiny

I am 3 days away from 30 days sober. There have been two times in my life where that has ever occurred – once when I was around 17ish…I was dating a boy in AA, and I went to a meeting with him. I connected so much with the stories – even though I really didn’t drink much YET. I managed to live/breathe/eat AA from that point forward. I look back at that time ironically – as the people there LITERALLY spilt more than I had drank and frequently told me that. My own family constantly told me I shouldn’t go to meetings and hated that I thought I was an alcoholic. I worked that program anyway. Despite EVERYONE not welcoming me and not wanting me there, I fought for it. It’s ironic to me since I really hadn’t started down my alcoholic path quite yet. I made it about 18 months and then decided to go drink instead. I proceeded to develop a much larger, daily wine habit for the next 18 years.

Then I decided I wanted a baby and needed to quit drinking for that. I never got pregnant (and thank goodness as I divorced that guy anyways) …I made it about eight months and eventually took up martinis instead.

Now there have been plenty of times that I’ve sworn off alcohol since then – but never made it more than a few days at a time. A year ago, I started the middle of the night, drunk/hungover google searches that led me to Hip Sobriety School. I always swore I’d never get sober again because I’d never go back to AA. I know it works for many…and I’m so glad for that…but it really was something I didn’t want to go back to ever again. I am SO grateful to have found this place. SO grateful that Holly showed up in my inbox as I was doing my middle of the night “God not this again, not another 3am hangover, I can’t believe I did it again”. I am SO grateful that even after I decided not to sign up…that I again drank so much the next night that I drunk-signed-up for the class anyways.

This has been the best 27 days of my life!

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Oh! So bars aren’t fun afterall

Posted on by New and Shiny

Happy Monday everyone! Me and hubby had a weekend getaway to Savannah (which I now realize we only ever went to because it’s a major drinking spot). We ended up talking a lot about my drinking and my sobriety. He is just now starting to see HOW much drinking ran my life. He didn’t realize how many decisions I made were entirely based around alcohol until he had to watch me make decisions around not drinking.

This was my second time out around drinking since I’ve been sober. I found myself really having trouble figuring out what to do with our time. I guess I just had to have a slightly awkward weekend getaway before I can have more relaxing ones. This was more like an assignment than a getaway…go away and figure out how to have fun sober…lol

What I LOVED about this weekend though – is my thoughts were all about figuring out my new life vs wanting to drink. There were a couple moments when I realized some things are gone that I hadn’t considered (certain drinks I associate with positive things) but I reframed that pretty quickly. All in all the weekend was exhausting but a positive learning experience.

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Gotta start somewhere

Posted on by New and Shiny

So when I first started HSS, one of the mantras was “I am willing to start before I’m ready”, and it came on a day that I was offered a project that I was scared to accept. I decided to follow the mantra and take the job. Today is the first meeting for this project, and I AM SO FUCKING SCARED.

Before quitting alcohol, I probably would have drank a bottle of wine last night and been hungover and anxious for the meeting. Instead, I am well rested and willing to see what happens. Nervous as hell….but how bad can it really be? If I can face the world every day without wine – I should be able to go to a conference call, right!?