Does anyone get to a point during the day when you really want a drink? Mine is around 4:30. Close to the end of the work day. I call it my “witching hour.” What do you all do to overcome the urge at this time?
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Hi, mine is around 3-5 when I get have work. I want to go to a bar, have something to eat/drink and then it’s all down hill from there
It all about finding a new routine.. we are so creature of habits. I found new things to keep busy and learning new skills or old or new interests that I enjoyed doing.
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I don’t know how long you’ve been sober, but for me, the mental obsession has been lifted, but I still have to go to meetings because I have to be constantly reminded that I can never drank like normal people a day at a time and that’s coming from somebody who relapse after 17 years
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It’s that reward for tolerating another day. That was my thing. I could put up with all the bs of the day, knowing that at 5pm it was adios time.
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I think about it from time to time but the only thing I ever want or crave is a margarita. So Mexican joints feel like they would be kinda triggering? I've been getting my fix from this one taco truck. I also am nervous of spring/summer and the urge. But all I can do is literally one day at a time. But you can prepare a nice dinner, do retail therapy, avoid triggers, get on this app🙂
Drive a different way home
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I also have a time of day when I want to drink, I try to find something to keep myself busy that hour or so and yes I'm also worried about spring and summer. But, I feel like I will enjoy my outdoor activities more if I'm not hung over or day drinking etc, so I'm going to be strong. You can do it!
Some sugar might help. Our bodies get use to all of the sugar in booze….. when we stop drinking we also take away that sugar. Protein and something sweet.
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I’ve been at my moms for 5 days, completed protected and isolated. I go home tomorrow and it will be everything I have to not drink. I go back to work Thursday.
Reminds me of the movie from 1976, Dawn Of The Dead. A group of people are hiding out from zombies in a shopping mall. In one scene Francine and Steve are hiding on the roof looking down at the zombies when Fran asks what the zombies are doing there, "why do they keep coming here?" Steve replies "Some kind of instinct. Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives."
We have to replace these times and places with other things, healthy things, to get rid of that muscle memory.
Yesss this. Mine started on the way home from work and I would decide, every single day without fail, to just give in “for only one drink” when I got home. It was never one. Once my brain was actually convinced and I had some
Days under my belt, this urge minimized. I still get urges but not for the witching hour. Mine are now when I’m with friends enjoying relaxation, or occasionally to just chill out at home or drink with my partner. They are easier to deal with. I had to find other replacements for the dopamine and other rituals and it took time but it worked.
Sure, I get that feeling sometimes. Then I remember that a drink is never enough. And the inevitable black out/hangover guilt shame regret fear cycle. And hurting people who love me. And hurting myself. And I remember getting fired and getting arrested. I remember jail and court. CPS and IOP. Lawyers fees and the “blow and go” on the car.
Then I am so f’ing grateful that I don’t have to do any of that 
anymore.
Mine would start around lunch time at work when I started planning and thinking I deserved my after work drink which would turn into crazier as every time… also after I get home from work was my hardest because that’s when I could actually start boozing so now I have replaced it with exercise first then after I’m done if I still keep thinking of boozing I go in the hot tub or go for a walk…start cooking anything to distract myself….
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Work on your spirituality your in good shape