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How long have you been sober and how did you do it?

Mehm

Mehm

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This could be a good place for people to check in with their sober time. If you want, please mention what type of program you've used (if any) and how your life is different now than when you were using.


I'll start off by saying I've been sober for 2 years and 3 months. Before that I was an alcoholic, high mess for 13 years. Now I go through ups and downs but not having to use everyday is amazing. I went the AA route. I work all 12 steps, have a sponsor, go to meetings, and do service. So far it has worked very well and I haven't had to relapse once.

How about you?
 
Oh I like this thread...

Mehm, congrats on rocking the sober time, what a phenomenal accomplishment.

I do my clean time in stages because each substance has been it's own epic battle.

56 days off meth (yaaaaayyyyy meeeee)...I'm seriously throwing myself a party Tuesday when I hit 60 days. A no drinking, no drugs bbq with all my loves who helped.

30 days today off benzos

7 days no drinking (again)

I saved every dime I could and relocated to a small town in the mountains. I started meditating and researching eastern philosophy. I started volunteering. I beat the ever living shit out of a punching bag and chopped wood. I hike and run and take a ton of vitamins. I only eat healthy food (except the delicious double double animal style yesterday because I went into the city). I have allowed myself to be loved to fluff by my friends and siblings and I started to truly believe I deserve to be loved to fluff. I am FINALLY addressing all the reasons I ever used. I play constantly with my son and revel in the wonder of children. And I cry and don't admonish myself.
 
1 month & 3 days - IV hydromorphone, 2 1/2 years.

One day I finally woke up and realized how much I was ruining my life, the people I lost, and the memories that I had of the past years were just fragments...etc I quit cold turkey- no taper. I'm the all or nothing type. When I do something I put my heart & soul into it, so I knew if I wanted to quit I had to stop all at once. I knew I didn't have the self control to taper.
 
^^are you using any sort of program or just white knuckling it? Are you sober from other drugs too?
 
Mehm said:
^^are you using any sort of program or just white knuckling it? Are you sober from other drugs too?
Click to expand...

I am not using a program.

I have to work on benzos, because I've noticed those are becoming more of an issue each day for me now that I've quit opiates. I've had a lot more anxiety since I quit opiates, so it may be stemming from that, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I have a lot of just generalized anxiety about every day things.
 
1 year 2 months from all pills and powders,
i got 1 day with alcohol, i went out to a concert last night , i had a guinness and a shot of beam, nothing big , but still a drinks a drink
i do drink occasionally ,
i go to na, i dont do step work , i got a sponser but i dont really use him like i used too . i just try to make meetings ,try to live spiritually,

i dont know , in the beginning i thought meetings were kinda like penance for all my partying, but somehow , it began fhealing my spirit, it has helped me look at myself, my actions,
 
deaf eye said:
i go to na, i dont do step work , i got a sponser but i dont really use him like i used too . i just try to make meetings ,try to live spiritually,
Click to expand...

Ha.. i'm the opposite.. work the steps have a sponsor and talk with him.. but avoid meetings.. hit ny home group every week or two.. to each there own.. clean off opiates and benzos.. since aug.. clean off H since last jan.. clean off coke since awhile.. have a strong recovery going.. and i'm content and happy.
 
6 years and 3.5 months clean from a 10 year heroin addiction.

I went to NA/AA meetings religiously for 2 years. After that I just went it alone. NA/AA taught me the value of self-awareness. The most important message coming from the programs for me was changing people, places and things.

I decided for myself that I just wanted to move on with my life and stopped going to meetings. However, if I were to ever feel the need to relapse a meeting would be the first place I'd go.

My life is healthy now both physically and mentally.
 
stilesface said:
I saved every dime I could and relocated to a small town in the mountains. I started meditating and researching eastern philosophy. I started volunteering. I beat the ever living shit out of a punching bag and chopped wood. I hike and run and take a ton of vitamins. I only eat healthy food (except the delicious double double animal style yesterday because I went into the city). I have allowed myself to be loved to fluff by my friends and siblings and I started to truly believe I deserve to be loved to fluff. I am FINALLY addressing all the reasons I ever used. I play constantly with my son and revel in the wonder of children. And I cry and don't admonish myself.
Click to expand...

That is really inspiring, stiles. You DO deserve to be "loved to fluff" (I love that expression!). And I can't do a double but it's gotta be animal style all the way on the burger, but never the fries.;)
 
15 months from all drugs (alcohol is a drug). I go to NA meetings. I got an awesome sponsor. Reading through step 2 right now. Hit 1-2 meetings a day. Life is fucking great today.
 
I am so glad to see this forum! I used to frequent other forums on Bluelight, but the more committed that I become to sober living, the more I would like to find support with others who are also committed to this goal. I currently live with three roommates in a clean and sober house. It is a mutual agreement, not an official Oxford house or anything. My roommates do the twelve step programs, but I didn't go that route. I did it through my own willpower and support from friends.

My sober time has not been continuous. I have relapsed many times. However, I have been sober from my drugs of choice - amphetamines- for over a year. I was basically forced to be sober by circumstance (serious physical and mental health problems) but the longer I stayed away, the more motivation I amassed to keep it that way. I wish I could say I was completely sober. I still use prescription opioids when they offered to me for free - about once every month or two - but the last time I was offered I said no. First time ever! So, I am making progress. I don't have very much access to those, so I am not struggling too much, but I know I can do better, so I keep trying. I mostly struggle with cigarettes lately. I quit a daily smoking habit but still tend to relapse once every couple weeks when I have panic attacks. I have also been sober from psychiatric medication for a year, and manage my anxiety with strict adherence to nutrition, mild herbal remedies, meditation, and vigorous exercise.

Some of you may remember me from The Dark Side (possibly... it was a while ago). I am happy to say that I no longer need to frequent that forum. Since I have gotten sober, my life has gotten so much better, and I have so much more hope for the future.
 
2 years 6 months and 14 days

I got involved in NA and began the process of changing my perspective, ideas, attitudes and behaviors.

I aked for help when I needed it. People cared for me and showed me love when I was at my worst. They didn't judge because they understood exactly what I had been through and what I was going through.

It wasn't easy in the beginning but it was so fucking worth all the pain from change and the foreign territory of life without drugs.

I'm still involved with NA and intend to always be involved.

I never knew life could be like this and am extremely grateful.
 
Herbavore.....yay for animal style. My brother lives in South America and I taunt him with In-N-Out pictures, I finally got my five year-old to start loving on the grilled onions. I read something you had posted about Mavericks and was watching "Chasing Mavericks" and thought of that beautiful Nor Cal coastline. It's easy to overlook the natural beauty that surrounds, but we are quite lucky! And the fries must remain plain...
 
Around a year and a half off opiates. On suboxone. Quit cigs 2 years ago. On nicotine lozenges.

A year and a half off stimulants. Many years off marijuana.

I have an occasional beer (but really have no desire for alcohol).
 
8 months for alcohol here, and many years for my other DOCs like opiates, Dexedrine, drogas psicodélicas- como marijuana, hongos magicos, y LSD. I do not do the 12 steps or programs but if that works for you then that's fine. Instead I talk to friends, relatives, and other addicts who are sober and I don't drink, use anything, give into cravings, and I no longer go to bars or dance clubs for the most part but when I have been to them since being sober I did not drink and I did not stay long. I don't have any friends anymore who use illegal drugs but most of my friends drink and they know that I do not anymore and that I am sober, and even if I'm out with people and they do offer me a drink I just say no thanks and drink water or something non-alcoholic like tea instead. It's not easy but I just take it one day at a time.
 
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Its good to see a lot of clean people in here. BL is one of my resources for staying clean as I can talk about recovery here in SL, relationship issues in SLR, and glamorize and "act out" in DC lol.
 
After months of being sober and a quite spectacular crash falling off the wagon I'm back to I think day 40 off the booze. Before that I'd got to something like six months or so before the minor relapses started creeping in, quite often only a day long with me throwing most of the booze out here and there. Started just before Xmas, Xmas Eve actually was the big trigger as the stress of an alcohol soaked big family dinner loomed ever larger.

I had to break my alcohol habit with Antabuse first, sledgehammer to crack a nut Pavlov's dogs type aversion therapy the first time out, my first real success with it going back to around April / May last year. Before then I'd been on it a while but playing with the meds and trying to out-fox them so I was protected through the week to try and keep my job down but safe enough from a potential reaction to still get blottoed at the weekend with three day binges. ( Warning: do not try this at home folks. It can be deadly thinking you're cleverer than Antabuse and immediate alcohol poisoning! )

After being caught out a couple of times with truly awful reactions, one of which had me needing my ex call me an ambulance convinced I was having a heart attack spending a night in A&E I decided it was time to stop pissing about and knuckle down. It worked for a wile then winter depression, loneliness and despair kicked in undoing all my efforts. Now I'm back on the Antabuse and feeling strong again with no desire for alcohol whatsoever. I have to force myself to remember to take the meds because the booze just isn't an issue at the minute, I'm glad to be rid of it.

I'll post on my beating heroin later cos this is long enough and that's a tale in its own right . . . .

p.s. I'm not what an AA / NA member would call sober. I don't work the steps or any other program. My recovery is mine to own, not attributed to anything outside of myself beyond what help I get from the addiction unit medication wise. I still use other drugs. I'm sober as far alcohol and opiates ( 10-11 years free of that one ) are concerned and define myself as sober because they're the two drugs that became problematic as far as true psychological and physical dependency / addiction went. All else is recreational drug use I can take or leave at will.
 
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While I have never had an addiction to any particular drug, I was a poly-drug abuser for several years when I was young. I had to be high--it did not matter what the substance was, though I could never tolerate alcohol. I stopped doing drugs long before my friends and I did it by beginning the long and scary process of discovering who I was--looking at all my vulnerabilities and deciding on strategies that would change them to strengths. It wasn't really conscious--I couldn't have used those words back then--but I see in retrospect that was what I was doing. I realized that I took drugs because I was very afraid that I was not good enough and they kept me from having to deal with that. I also realized that the prescribed role for my gender/culture/social class/age/time was totally not me and that I had been feeling crazy over that. When I decided to see myself as sane and the horrendously boring and constricting role as the insanity, things started falling into place. It has been years since I used anything but occasional weed. I am really happy to not need drugs.
 
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