I got out of treatment a couple months ago and I’ve had two slips. They were pretty bad. I’m doing better than I was before but when those slips happened.. it was back to the races. I need to start doing something different in my recovery. These slips can’t be happening. I need to get sober and stay sober.
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Don’t beat yourself up man. This isn’t an easy task at all, that alcoholic mind is extremely convincing but if you can wake up every day and keep your sobriety as your number one priority which I have failed to do many times before and it will certainly lead to slips, you have a much better chance at staying sober. I always put other things ahead of my sobriety and kept wondering why I couldn’t stay sober.
What are you doing to hold yourself accountable? Do you go to AA, working the steps sponsor? There’s medications - Antibuse, Naltrexone, etc. There’s IOP’s out there that make you blow randomly in to breathalyzers throughout your time with them on top of groups and one on ones to keep you accountable and get to the root of why we drink and keep slipping, etc. For me, the first time I left rehab I was riding the pink cloud and didn’t have a single plan set up when I left because I thought “I got this.” Lasted a few months and then slowly started back to my old ways. Fast forward 2 years and I’m back in impatient rehab which I depart tomorrow to which I immediately go in to IOP with the breathalyzer randoms and antibuse. I also workout daily, meditate daily and start each day giving thanks for at least 10 things I’m grateful for. After 90 days of that, I’ll jump down to a lesser program of OP, we meet once a week and still have to breathalyzer every day, I’ll then switch from Antibuse to Naltrexone for another 90 days. After 7-8 months that compulsion side of drinking should subside making it, in theory, much easier to stick to sobriety. I’m also doing EMDR therapy with a therapist which is helping me workout the root causes of my drinking. Not saying this is what everyone, or anyone needs in any way, just sharing what I have done differently this time to stay sober in hopes it might give you some ideas. Ultimately whatever you do, make sure you add some physical fitness and healthy eating to the mix and ensure you have some accountability or someone you can call when you have a bad day or get an urge.
Keep up the good fight brother, I know hundreds of people through the years of being in recovery that have been sober for a very long time and every single one of them say their lives are absolutely incredible and liberating compared to their previous alcoholic life. You got this, one day, sometimes one hour, sometimes one minute at a time.
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