How long till you started feeling better mentally?

Super hyped I’m 4 months sober but I'm struggling with EXTREME fatigue and depression

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Everyone is different but it wasn’t until I sought therapy which was month 9…. AA kept me sober and still does but with therapy I’m working on those demons .

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Yeah, love that. I've been going to therapy now for the last month which is definitely helping, I guess I am just getting impatient and my expectations might be a little high.

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The first 90 days are extremely confusing hang in there

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Yeah that makes sense, I think I am just getting impatient.. I never experienced a pink cloud and everything has just felt so grey. Finding it very hard to motivate myself to do anything productive. Just waiting for brighter days!!

Sometimes we need outside therpy

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It's different with everyone, I'm afraid. I do a lot for my program, but do things every day for my mental health.

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Are you eating well and taking care of yourself? Taking vitamins, staying hydrated? Those things are important to mental health as much as physical health.

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What helped for me (still struggling) was focusing on the things that’ll help me be the best version of myself whether it be little things daily or things I plan out, little things definitely help for sure

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From my experience, I believe it's all up to us. We get out of it what we put into it. What you're feeling right now is normal if you're doing nothing except refraining from alcohol. Alcohol was but a symptom of our problem. We have to get down to causes and conditions.

You're used to suppressing your brain with alcohol so you don't have to feel. Remove the alcohol and we start to feel good and not so good. We are learning to live all over again without picking up a drink or drug. This takes time. It's 10 miles into the woods and 10 miles back out.

That's why that 1st year seems to take so long. We also need to remember that life doesn't simply get easier because we stop drinking. We simply get better at handling life one day at a time if we are taking the right actions.

Some things in our lives are unchangeable, but some things are changeable. The cool thing about all this sobriety stuff is that we have the power to reinvent ourselves.

Don't fall into the depression trap as so many do. People these days want to take a pill to solve their problems and feel better. I call it artificial recovery. What you can do is examine your eating habits and their nutritional value. Don't forget about nutrition. That is vitally important to how we feel.

I don't know what your plan of recovery is, but for me, when I was taking the 12 steps of AA, the promises started coming true during step 9 just like the Big Book tells us.

The person who has the most to do with what happens to you in your life is YOU. :smiley::musical_note::thinking:

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I recently had to surrender myself to the universe… in other words, came to terms that things will get better as long as I keep doing what I’m doing. For the first four months I was impatient too, and that kept me going back to some old habits. Once I surrendered, things became lighter… I stopped trying to be in a rush and the pressure was off. Think about things that you’ve been wanting to do that you never got around to. For me it was cooking and gym, I do it everyday and it’s helped. While things eventually will get better with time, it’s up to us to do the work and make changes in our life with positive daily routines. Self care can be done in many way.. journal, play a sport, learn an instrument, etc. it sounds like you’re in the right track though, keep it up!

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I’m only at 80 days and suffering the same.

It took me a while. First I was depressed because of the lack of booze feeding my brain. But then once that passed I became depressed because I realized all the things in life I put on pause because I was too hungover to do them. Once I learned how to restart those goals/dreams/ambitions… I’ve been on a tear. And my depression has been elevating. At 3 months I think I was starting to figure out what I want vs what I was doing in life.

Write down some goals you want in your professional and personal life, how you actually want to wake up every morning, do you really enjoy your job(?), and if not how to get out of it. Listen to Alan Watts speak on goals and life.

You got this. It does get easier.

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For me that first year was a roller coaster. After detox and outpatient, just trying to figure out how to live life without using and without any kind of treatment was tough. It took me about a year of just focusing on me until I finally started feeling like myself again.

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Yeah my doctor prescribed me anti-depressants but I want to try and break out of this with healthy lifestyle... I guess I'm just finding it really hard to motivate myself to take the steps that I know are required(consistent exercise, healthy eating, meditation). I've been doing therapy which has helped some. I just can't help but obsess about the damage I've done to my body over the years/wasted time.

I love that. Yeah, I guess I know the steps I need to take.. I'm just losing that battle to my inner voice that is telling me I'm not good enough. Thank you for the wise words :pray:

That's exactly what I'm doing right now, living with so much regret for wasted time. I've always had goals just like everyone but I feel like the partying just stopped me dead in my tracks. I'm also just obsessing about the damage I've done to my body over the years.

I'm registered to go back to school in 2 weeks so I’m hoping that will give me some purpose.

Glad to hear you're doing better now! Hearing these stories definitely gives me motivation!

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Yea, that can be hard. You know, I’ve been purposely changing my inner narrative. We can be so negative to ourselves that when you think about it, it can be scary how mean we are to our own selves… creating awareness in this sense goes along way and making small changes also helps. What I started doing is catching myself when I have a negative of myself and consciously replace it with a positive thought. When I remember I tell myself how proud I am for doing something small like making it to the gym and showing up for myself. These things may seem insignificant but they’re not, you began to value yourself more and more. :heart:

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The DREAM. The STRUGGLE. And the PRIZE. How long did you get Loaded. Stay in the process of RECOVERY. Be a LONGTERM THINKER and be willing to stay the course. Get into ACTION

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My brain felt jumbled for the first 90 days, then I was on a pink cloud which crashed and left me feeling very anxious. I sought trauma therapy in addition to working the steps and going to meetings, which really has helped so much. It took a solid year to feel like I could start to trust my intuition a bit. Every day, it’s work, and there is a lot of learning and growing. I don’t think it ever really stops. When the compulsion to drink is lifted, then you can start to work on your emotional sobriety. Everyone is different tho! Keep going. You’re doing great.

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