I have 9 years and 29 days of sobriety today

I have 9 years and 29 days of sobriety today but lately I’ve been feeling like a newcomer. I have chronic pain issues and have recently learned that my pain is greatly affected by the weather which has included several thunderstorms in the last week or so. Before I got sober, getting blackout drunk seemed lost like the only way to get through the pain that no doctor I had seen took seriously and as far as medication was concerned, and when I was actually able to get a doctor to write me a prescription,I either was allergic to the medication, it would give me intolerable side effects or it simply didn’t work so I turned to whatever alcoholic beverage I could get my hands on. That worked until it didn’t. After I got sober, I did everything I could think of to keep myself busy, working, going to AA meetings (I eventually stopped going to those when I got tired of only having access to meetings that made me feel unwelcome because I’m not a Christian and I couldn’t figure out how to convince the people running the meetings to keep their personal beliefs out of the meetings), volunteering and trying to find doctors and treatments that might actually work for me when the doctors that did take my pain seriously eventually gave up on me when my body started to get used to their treatments and they stopped working. Then my family and I moved to FL and now I am starting the search anew for doctors and treatments that might help me. Oh, did I mention that my 14 year old Golden Retriever died in September and then I almost died in February and spent over a month in the hospital and then got COVID-19 within a week of being discharged from the hospital! Having a therapist to talk to every week, going to an acupuncturist every 2 weeks and having a loving family and friends has helped a ton but I am still struggling with grief over losing my beloved dog, being several states away from my friends, daily pain flare ups, boredom and loneliness as a result of having to leave my job in January due to my pain and not drinking. Feeling lost and alone. Does anyone have any advice? My mind is completely blank at finding a sober solution. Sorry for such a long post. Thanks for listening!

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