Can anyone give me any insight on how long it takes for your emotions to even out? Like, sometimes the littlest things make me do a 180 & I hate it. I know I can’t be in a perfect mood all of the time but I hate being so touchy.
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It took me 40 days and I completed my 4th and 5th step around that time too
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They don’t, you just get better at your reactions to the ridiculousness of the world.
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Notice out of all your past posts 1 thing is missing. Getting plugged into a recovery program. Sobriety is a WE program. When these emotions arise that’s when you need others to have your back that have been where you’re at. Can’t do this alone.
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I agree with KBR. Get into a program. The first part of the program is simple, don't drink/use. The biggest part of the program is working out some character defects.
@k. Bradford R that’s why I’m on this platform
Okie dokie. Just don’t pick up and everything will work it’s way out. Hope you have a good day.
I do expect everything to work out because of my faith. I’m not saying it will be easy but the only thing I need is God & my family. This platform has been very helpful to bounce things off of & I appreciate everyone here.
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While the platform is fantastic there is no substitute for face to face. On here you may or may not get a response, in a meeting you know that your question will be answered immediately. You might give a program a chance.
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10-4 good buddy. Lol.
The difference between being sober and being in recovery is huge. Being sober is removing alcohol/drugs from your body. Being in recovery is replacing alcohol and drugs with a program which, when worked daily, will provide you the tools to be happy, joyous and free.
An early program of recovery, preceding 12 step, was called the Oxford Group. It relied on Christianity and the Bible. Many of its practices were used as the foundation of the program Bill W and Dr Bob brought into existence in the 1930’s.
I was incredibly resistant to 12 step meetings. I tried everything else I could possibly think of, and most of them I tried many times over. Nothing kept me sober. I finally went just to prove my dad wrong. To prove that I was right, and that it was a religious cult of lunatics. But I’ll be damned. The people in the rooms felt just like me. They knew my experience. And they taught me how to stay sober like only another drunk could.
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And to answer your question, about 6 months of working with my sponsor.
Very well stated!
Hey ! Maybe it was due to the long holiday summer party weekend… I mean every where I turned Alc was in my face. On line, grocery store, IG, FB the local news. I too was a tad keyed up. Glad that holiday is OVER personally. How ya feeling today ???
Honestly the big swings leveled in a couple months but the medium to small ones take a life time. It is really the root of why we use. At least for me I use to assume that no one else had as strong of emotions as me and I was different or I thought my life was harder than others then I realized that everyone has the same stuff going on and me as an addict alcoholic never learned how to deal with my emotions. There is a great book on this called 12 things to do now that the booze is gone, I think that was the name, it's all about emotional sobriety. Very good read!
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@dan131331 thanks for the book recommendation. I’ve often thought that same thing…I started drinking at 13 so basically my emotional maturity is that of a 13 year old. I have to re-learn how to deal with things all over again. As well as learn what I enjoy.
It's probably different for everyone. But it also depends a lot on what you put into your recovery. Nothing changes if nothing changes. If you've chosen the program of Alcoholics Anonymous,
(good choice) I highly recommend that you get a sponsor that can take you through the 12 steps.
There are promises in the big book that do come true and start to happen somewhere in the middle of doing all the steps. It is in fact the psychic change that is mentioned in the doctor's opinion. Without this psychic change there is very little hope of our recovery.
The Promises
The Promises of AA
As laid out in chapter 6 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholics who stay sober and work the Twelve Steps will see these Promises come true:
Promise 1: We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
Promise 2: We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
Promise 3: We will comprehend the word serenity.
Promise 4: We will know peace.
Promise 5: No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
Promise 6: The feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
Promise 7: We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Promise 8: Self-seeking will slip away.
Promise 9: Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Promise 10: Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
Promise 11: We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
Promise 12: We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
What do the Promises mean?
The Big Book's Promises mostly describe the change in attitude that will transpire within the alcoholic, "sometimes quickly, and sometimes slowly." They may take time, but they "will always materialize if we work for them."
Please note how it says
"work for them."
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Heather
In addition to my first rather long comment I want to leave you with something else. It comes from a chapter in the big book entitled the doctor's opinion.
In this paragraph it explains why we drank, why we couldn't stop and what is needed in order to recover.
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are
restless, irritable and discontented
unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the
phenomenon of craving
develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an
entire psychic change
there is very little hope of his or her recovery.”
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