Congratulations on having the courage to do the right thing. You DA MAN!
11,315 days one day at a time
- Thread starter Smoke
- Start date
Smoke, you and I must be twins separated at birth. Your sobriety story sounds almost exactly like mine. I quit drinking 11 days before my 21st birthday - though by that time I had lived 3 years in Wyoming where the drinking age for beer & wine (at that time) was only 18. My last drink was Halloween 1984 - 10,636 days ago.
I also believe in Christ as my higher power. Grace is an amazing and wonderful thing. In my drinking days I swore I'd never live to see 30, and if I hadn't stopped I probably wouldn't have. I've seen a lot of lives ruined by it and like you, I can't see any benefit to it any more.
I've only recently quit tobacco - after nearly 35 years. I've only got 110 days tobacco free and am still chewing a couple of pieces of nicotine gum every day. Can't say I don't still have a craving for it every time I smell someone smoking, but I'm feeling so much better that I absolutely refuse to go back to doing that to myself.
Congrats brother on celebrating 31 years of the really GOOD life!
P.S. For anyone reading this who thinks quitting might be for them but is "turned off" by the idea of relying on Jesus or God for sobriety, the good news is you don't have to! That's what works for me and Smoke, and some others, but I initially got sober through AA, not through religion or the church. So if drinking is causing you problems, give AA a try. What do you have to loose? If you don't like it your drinking problems will be cheerfully refunded.
I also believe in Christ as my higher power. Grace is an amazing and wonderful thing. In my drinking days I swore I'd never live to see 30, and if I hadn't stopped I probably wouldn't have. I've seen a lot of lives ruined by it and like you, I can't see any benefit to it any more.
I've only recently quit tobacco - after nearly 35 years. I've only got 110 days tobacco free and am still chewing a couple of pieces of nicotine gum every day. Can't say I don't still have a craving for it every time I smell someone smoking, but I'm feeling so much better that I absolutely refuse to go back to doing that to myself.
Congrats brother on celebrating 31 years of the really GOOD life!
P.S. For anyone reading this who thinks quitting might be for them but is "turned off" by the idea of relying on Jesus or God for sobriety, the good news is you don't have to! That's what works for me and Smoke, and some others, but I initially got sober through AA, not through religion or the church. So if drinking is causing you problems, give AA a try. What do you have to loose? If you don't like it your drinking problems will be cheerfully refunded.
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gaucho1
Member
"What do you have to loose? If you don't like it your drinking problems will be cheerfully refunded. "
Very Good!
"Very Good!
vigil617
US Veteran
And Smoke, the greatest thing about what you say here is that any of us can "fill in the blank" with whatever problem or issue we have, and the answer will be the same as the one you found.
Our human concept of Power is so vastly insufficient to understand what real Power is. And that's great Good News to us all.
Blessings....
S&WIowegan
US Veteran
I'm very glad to hear all of the comments from those who got away from alcohol before it killed them(or innocent others). I was a heavy drinker well into my 20s or early 30s, including blackouts(boy are those scary). I finally scared myself to the point of becoming an occasional drinker of one drink. I'm so thankful I pulled back. I had a very good friend who was a"functioning" alcoholic so he didn't have a problem, right? We were professional associates when suddenly he dropped out of sight. He finally called me and explained his family had done an intervention and he had been in rehab. During this call he mentioned all the people in rehab who were so much worse than him. I knew then he was already off the wagon in his mind. He drank himself to death!
My big battle was cigarettes. I quit in 1987 so I guess it's 26 yrs. I quit only once because I have known so many people who have quit 100 times...NOT! I was a 3 packs of Camel regulars/day maniac. It helped that my kids wanted us to quit, laws and regulations were making it ridiculous to smoke by forcing smokers to sneak around and smoke on loading docks. The great thing about quitting is how quickly I found myself disgusted by the smell of smokers and smoke. The desire is completely gone.
My big battle was cigarettes. I quit in 1987 so I guess it's 26 yrs. I quit only once because I have known so many people who have quit 100 times...NOT! I was a 3 packs of Camel regulars/day maniac. It helped that my kids wanted us to quit, laws and regulations were making it ridiculous to smoke by forcing smokers to sneak around and smoke on loading docks. The great thing about quitting is how quickly I found myself disgusted by the smell of smokers and smoke. The desire is completely gone.
Doug M.
Member
Congrats. While in college and law school I was involved in serious research on the effects of alcohol, I could not keep that up and am a 2 with dinner, once in a fat while kind of guy now. I am fortunate to not have whatever combination of factors could have made me more at risk of a problem. I know a few too many folks who have gone through it; some recovered well, some are dying slowly.
bgrone
Member
Ditto
Ditto to all the responses you have received. I am coming up on 23 years in Feb. So I now have more years sober than drunk by a couple. Its a far better path you have chosen keep up the good work.
Jim in Iowa
Ditto to all the responses you have received. I am coming up on 23 years in Feb. So I now have more years sober than drunk by a couple. Its a far better path you have chosen keep up the good work.
Jim in Iowa
Fishslayer
US Veteran, Absent Comrade
Newcomer: "I'm not even sure if I'm an alcoholic."
Old Timer: "That's ok. You'll do until one comes along."
Normies don't generally think about it...
Rastoff
US Veteran
Congrats. I drank my last full beer in Jan 1988. I was not an alcoholic, I just decided it wasn't a beneficial pastime. That and Gal 5:19-21.
I'll lift an iced tea to your good health.
I'll lift an iced tea to your good health.
samandglove1
Member
Happy for you
Not the easiest thing to stay vigilant. Great work.
Not the easiest thing to stay vigilant. Great work.
Just saw this one... a big congrats Smoke..... gotta love it, "one day at a time" works for me!! 27 yrs here.. What a ride, not always perfect, but a heck of a lot better than it was... God has done for us, what we could not do for ourselves...
