Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to all my Canadian friends. I hope it is a peaceful weekend for everyone, hopefully with some time to spend with friends/family or just being by yourself and enjoying the outdoors in the beautiful Fall weather. I'm doing Thanksgiving dinner here for daughter & family tomorrow, so a bit of stress that I'm trying to manage. I'll be meeting my granddaughter's boyfriend for the first time, which I am looking forward to. Feeling very grateful. :)

Hello everyone,

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I first started drinking alcohol when I was around 16 years old. In the beginning, I only drank occasionally and in small amounts. Over the years, however, my drinking gradually increased. For the past two years, I have been drinking regularly, and eventually, I realized that alcohol had started taking control of my life.

I have now decided that I want to stop drinking and recover, but I]]>�
Since stopping alcohol, I have been experiencing several difficult symptoms. I struggle to sleep, have disturbing dreams and sometimes wake up sweating. My body shakes, I experience anxiety and nervousness, and I often feel restless and uncomfortable. I also find it difficult to concentrate.

My mood has changed a lot, too. I get irritated over small things, become angry more easily than before, and sometimes feel like isolating myself from everyone. I don]]>�
These changes have been difficult to deal with, and at times I feel overwhelmed. I know that alcohol has affected my life, but I genuinely want to make a change and build a healthier future.

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I have come here hoping to learn from people who have gone through alcohol addiction and recovery. I would appreciate any advice, encouragement, or experiences you are willing to share, especially from those who have struggled with sleep problems, anxiety, shaking, irritability, and mood changes after stopping alcohol.

I know recovery will take time, patience, and effort. I don]]>�
I want to regain my peace of mind, improve my health, rebuild my relationships, and learn to live without depending on alcohol.

This is my first step, and I hope I can keep moving forward, one day at a time.

Thank you for reading my story. I]]>�
One day at a time.

Four years. Time to reflect? Glad to say that, I don't have that much to say on the subject of alcohol. The AV is still there looking for cracks in my defences, but the volume is so low it only takes negligible amounts of my mental energy. It's difficult to appreciate the absence of something, isn't it? But I am very thankful that both alcohol AND the struggle to stop drinking are now a minor, almost inconsequential part of my life. It took a long time and there was no magic moment of inspiration, it was so gradual that I hadn't really noticed until I started typing! The mental space has allowed me to keep working on myself. I am still dealing with bipolar and I am still trying to work out how to redirect and supress my addict brain from seeking out physically and financially unhealthy ways to "feel good / satisfied / excited". I'm not there yet, but I'm on it. Last week I completed a challenge for charity where you hike the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales in a 24hr period. It was a real challenge for me and there was a particularly hard point on the last mountain where the exertion made me sick. I reflected on it afterwards and thought it was quite funny that the last time I was sick was almost exactly 4 years ago during my last hangover on the day I decided to quit! That's progress!

Hello my name is Justine I am new to this site and am looking on how to get a sponser. Please if anyone can let me know I be totally grateful thank you and God Bless.

last part here:
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...-145-a-21.html

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Hi everyone,

I came here in late 2024 to stop drinking, motivated by my son. I posted most days and put together around ~550 days of sober time. My goal was to be a better father and purchase a house for my family.

Thanks largely to my sober time, I (somehow) achieved this goal and now have a free standing house, which 2 years ago seemed impossible.

However, as everyone here knows, life is never straight forward. My son is facing heath issues which we haven't been able to resolve-- meaning he may not be able to properly enjoy the backyard I worked really, really hard to provide. This was hard for me to accept. I thought I'd successfully internalised the idea of never drinking again, but the reality is that after everything (work, therapies, debt etc.) I didn't have the strength I thought I had. I broke, and have been drinking for the past ~4 months.

I drank today, but something is different, and something indefinable has once again somehow clicked. It doesn't happen often and it's the same feeling I had when I first joined.

I need to begin counting days again, starting from Day 0. What works for me is simple and minimalist- count days, log workouts, and try add value every now and then for others on the forum when I think I can. The outlet this community provides everyone is really invaluable. Every child deserves a sober, engaged father. The additional issues I'm facing is no excuse. If anything it makes me being sober even more important. Whatever struggles I have are nothing compared to what my beautiful boy is currently experiencing.

I'm not in a a state to reply now but I'm not ignoring any comments - I read everything, and really appreciate any words of encouragement, because for the first time in months I feel like I'm at a crossroads where if I take the right path, everything can be turned around.

I passed 5 months sober on Tuesday. This is the longest I]]>�
Right now I feel very thankful for my sobriety and all the benefits it entails. From being more present, focused and motivated at work, to being more reliable to my friends and family around me. Feeling better mentally and physically. Able to save money and invest. No longer wasting large amounts of money on booze, dealing with withdrawal's from ingesting large amount of poison.

I recently secured a job after 18 months of unemployment. It was the longest I]]>�����
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Instead, while I was still nervous. I approached it confidently and delivered it so well, that afterwards I was told by one of the panel that I]]>�
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In fact as I was writing this post, I just had a message from a senior person at work, telling me what a great job I]]>�
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It probably won]]>���
The world is your oyster when you are sober and it]]>�

Weekenders: Web of Deceit ~

09-12 October 2026







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When first we practice to deceive]]>�




My drinking got me in all sorts of bother and from being an honest person I became someone who would lie and deceive to protect my addiction.



Very much like a spiders web, I]]>�


The strength I found to feed my addiction was tantamount to the strength of a spiders web. But unlike the spider, I eventually got myself tangled in my own web of lies to maintain drinking.



My own web trapped me, in a nightmare of booze, hangovers, regrets and deceit, until the day I eventually broke free from it.



It took a great deal of effort to free myself from the web. Though it got easier over time. Even more so when I found this forum with like-minded people who had trodden in my footsteps.



For me, and I know many people on this forum too, stopping drinking was the best action I

took for my mental health and well-being. I got my life back!



If you]]>��




Link to last thread. Weekenders; Broken SatNav/GPS]]>�