Maintaining long term recovery
I “do” treatment well. It’s the 9 months-18 months that i relapse during. I’m desperate to maintain long term sobriety. Please let me know what works for you “old timers”(a term of endearment that I would/will give anything to earn.)
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This is something I'd also be interested to hear.
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First, you need to ask God to deliver you from alcohol, and stay in constant pray. Give your life over to the will of God. God's in control.
Next, get to the underlying issues that are causing you to medicate yourself with alcohol. That's the key. Learn your triggers. Stay away from toxic people and toxic places. That may be family. Get a hobby or pursue your passions. Get into therapy to help you navigate through all your challenges.
Will it be challenging??? yes! But life on the other side is sooo beautiful!
Get to those issues, please.
Praying for you, and all the best.
I just read that you love playing guitar! Great!!!!
I sing, play alto sax, and some piano.
This is what I focus on. I'm in a community band, jazz band, a duet, and teach full-time. AA meeting don't work for me personally. Find what works for you, and commit to it.
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Good morning,. Great question!
While we all have common threads on what brought us to using, to suffering, to not living our best lives, every recovery is also unique and different.
If you could view my gratitude yesterday 1-7 "grateful for reasons" this best sums up what keeps me going.
Over the course of my sober way of living, I grew and developed reasons to keep going, keep fighting, keep living one day at a time. Some of my reasons were always there, but I drowned them out with alcohol, but other reasons I had to develop and put in place as I continued along my journey. Just knowing my reasons to stay sober is also not enough. I could know alot of something, but knowledge is useless unless I act upon it. I have to believe in the reason, live it, and know I want that to continue, and I will work hard for it to make that happen.
It wasn't as simple as me knowing "I want to stay sober". I had to believe that I wanted to stay sober, then figure out how to continue that, how to work towards that, and put in all the effort I had. It's not only believing that when everything is going well in my life, only living that when I'm feeling good, it's also, and more importantly, living that when life is treating me badly, when I am down on myself. I have to understand that there will be good days and bad days, ups and downs. But how I act and react will make all the difference in my mindset, in my sober life. Gosh I feel like I could talk so much on this point, but there is not enough room 
Find reasons you want to stay sober, need to live sober, and live by them, adapt as you need to.
Over time, I also learned more about myself and developed values I want to live by.
Fatherhood - being a present and caring father
Mental Health - being more positive with myself and to myself, developing a healthy relationship with myself
Physical Health - getting some exercise in weekly, and eating better
Honesty - honesty with others and more importantly with myself
Follow through - if I say I am going to do something whether for myself, family, work, etc, I do it. And more importantly because I had such a people pleasing attitude, follow through includes learning to say no, when I can't do something, not saying yes to always helping others because I need to put myself first at times, so I can become able to help others because I am taking care of myself
I am not saying I am on top of these values everyday. That's unrealistic, but I do my best to follow them. Include them in my life, one day at a time, and I believe in them! Find your values to live by and adjust them as needed.
Hope this helps! Grateful for you!