I SO DON’T MISS THAT
THINGS SOBRIETY HAS LEFT BEHIND
THE HANGOVER
Remember those? We may remember those horrible mornings, but it’s pretty likely we didn’t remember the horrible nights before, right? It used to be kind of funny, in a way, wandering around in that fog with that headache and that inability to function fully. It was kind of fun to head right back out there for a Bloody Mary or whatever with that ridiculous excuse that a morning drink would solve the hangover problem. Funny until we started showing up at work with a hangover everyday or not showing at all, while watching our job security slipping away. Funny until we realized that that morning hangover drink was becoming two or three, and starting to last into the day and onto the night and repeating every morning with that funny hangover that slowly became not so funny anymore. The retching, the runny nose, the bloodshot eyes, the shakes, the loss of appetite, the sheer wreck of it all. Not so funny anymore. But, now blessed with recovery, we’ve left behind those hangovers and mornings have become a beautiful thing again. Leave them behind, but don’t ever forget the damage they used to do.
THE BANK BALANCE (IMBALANCE).
It’s probably a safe bet that many of us at some time or another have tried to calculate just how much we have spent on drinking or using. Usually, though, we are likely to under count just how many dollars we have blown. One reason is we simply don’t know given the absurd amounts of money involved in all things alcohol and drugs; the restaurant and bar tabs, the bottles on the way home, the restocking later that night, doubling of provisions for the weekends, the silly, drunken splurges we can make only when hammered. DUI’s, smashed up cars, higher insurance rates, etc., etc. But there are other reasons we have not really calculated all the money we have blown on our addictions. It’s our nature to downplay. We just can’t quite be totally honest with ourselves about the financial cost of it all. And, for many of us, we really just don’t want to know. Courtesy of the National Institutes of Health is this calculator, if you dare. But as you use it and, perhaps, begin to cry, think in terms of how much more money you have now in recovery that you didn’t have when drinking? Awesome.
https://www.rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/tools/Calculators/alcohol-spending-calculator.aspx
REGRETS, WE’VE HAD A FEW
Regrets suck. But we all have them. For us alcoholics and addicts, we likely have many. And we mean many. Any 12 step meeting will be loaded with shares involving regretful behaviors, actions, occurrences, decisions, thoughts and resulting consequences. While regrets are things best left to our pasts, our current focus on the present is one of the many blessings of recovery. How awesome it is to wake up and not have to worry about the wreckage of the night before. How nice it is to know we are moving forward with our sober lives, finally taking steps to move away from our struggles with relationships, the law, the jobs, or finances. How sweet it is to live a life where our current actions, behaviors and motivations may no longer lead to regrets.
THE OBSESSION
We’ve all felt it. “The domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.”, says the dictionary. When in the throes of addiction we were obsessed. We were thinking day and night of our Drug of Choice. Thoughts of it were persistent and dominated our thoughts entirely. Where is that bottle I bought last night? Do I have enough time to grab a quick drink during my break? How’s my breath? Will that cop light me up? Am I driving ok? What if my dealer doesn’t show, or rips me off, or worse? What if I can’t find that bottle and its 3am? We were obsessed. Many of us would be so consumed with anxiety or fear or both, we were paralyzed. Some of us drove ourselves into panic at the very thought of not having our drink or drug even when we had it. For many of us that fear and anxiety drove us to other drugs and still more problems, legal, financial, and otherwise, and still more obsession. But it’s not that way anymore. Yes, we still think about our drugs of choice. But we are no longer obsessed. Our thoughts or feelings are no longer dominated by that persistent desire. What a blessing this recovery thing is. To have that all-consuming, horrible obsession released from us. We’ll still think about drinking and using from time to time, but now we have tools to deal with that. Obsession lifted.
From your friends at www.commonbondrehabcenter.com and www.just4usgirls.net.