Made It! One Year

[n_g]

Yesterday marked my 365th consecutive day without drinking, and I just want to say THANK YOU to all the SMART volunteers for everything you do!

[aspirit]

Congratulations!

Way to go!

[fenquat]

n_g, big congratulations on getting to this point. Would you care to share what helped you the most or what surprised you in the past year?

[a7u]

One year is a great milestone. Congratulations!

[Athena1966]

That's fantastic! You are an inspiration.

[Peg1960]

One Year! Congrats to you

[patrickrn1]

Cool, now you can drink tomorrow, until today becomes tomorrow and then you can drink the tomorrow after that, and so on and so on.

[emoney75]

Amazing! I'll be excited to be able to post that grade of accomplishment. Until then, bottle me up some of that strength!

[LMR555]

Congrats!! Woot Woot! Good work and choices.

[James1981]

Congratulations that is an amazing achievement

[cthome5]

Congratulations. That is awesome for a problem drinker.

[Hass]

stop kidding yourself pm1 you will get drunk on your way back to the future

- - - Updated - - -

Cool, now you can drink tomorrow, until today becomes tomorrow and then you can drink the tomorrow after that, and so on and so on.

stop kidding yourself pm1 you will get drunk on your way back to the future

[df2]

Congratulations Barnstoolboy, great milestone!

[n_g]

Thanks everyone!

I feel great! I really feel like a different person than I was a year ago. I'm much more optimistic about my future -- instead of seeing myself wasting time on a bar stool, I now see myself striving to attain a set of goals I've laid out.

fenquat, you asked what helped me the most and what surprised me in the last year. As far as what helped the most, I think there were three main things:

1) Visiting the SMART website and reading people's forum posts, especially in the beginning. When I was starting out, I visited the website pretty much every day, and spent a good hour or more there each time. It helped me stay motivated and also gave me ideas for coping with urges.

2) Ordering the SMART Recovery Handbook and completing the worksheets in it. I found the CBA and Change Plan worksheets to be especially valuable.

3) Finding other things to do in the evening instead of sitting around drinking. I'd take walks, read books, cook, watch movies (I like documentaries), etc. I also started exercising more (mountain biking) during the day or early evening. This was related to an item on my Change Plan worksheet (getting more exercise), but also seemed to help keep my mind off of drinking -- it's hard to think about drinking when your mind is relishing in the thought of bombing down a hill on your mountain bike.

Another thing that helped was going to face-to-face meetings. I'm fortunate that there's one in my area, and that the people who attend it are very supportive.

As far as what surprised me, I guess the one thing that surprised me most is that when I was getting started I thought it was gonna suck "having to abstain" from giving in to the urges. But I found out that the rewards associated with not drinking vastly outweigh the little bit of discomfort that might arise when an urge comes along. In fact, for me there's a kind of positive feedback loop -- the more I abstain from drinking, the more I'm able to experience the rewards that come from not drinking, and the more I experience those rewards, the more motivated I am to abstain from drinking.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who posts to the forums.

I'm looking forward to many more years with no drinking.

[fenquat]

Thanks for taking the time to make this further post. I love it

[Beachdre]

You sound like you are in a great place. Keep on that track!

Dre

[tjfox26]

good job im so proud of you

[Gordon1]

Wonderful effort n_g!! Thankyou for asking the questions fenquat, and thankyou VERY much for sensational answers n_g

Inspiring

[revup6117]

congratulations hughk. I'm just beginning my journey again. I really want o do this and am very grateful for finding smart recovery. hope to be able to say the same next year .for now this is day 9 and I'm thrilled. revup

[umqf9828su]

Good to hear.
Very hard task

[yassine]

Congratulations and Thanks for sharing this with us
Anyone must reading personal growth books

[Gentoo]

Hey n_g,

Good for you! I wish you more of the joy that comes from the non-drinking life, today and days to come!

Gentoo

[Edelweiss777]

That's an awesome milestone! I've never been able to quite for so long. Had 2-4-6-8-9 months of sobriety throughout my life but it would be awesome to say that I've been sober for a year. Good for you and Thank You for sharing your experience!

[Akd1881]

Congrats, N_g!

[aummm]

Yesterday marked my 365th consecutive day without drinking, and I just want to say THANK YOU to all the SMART volunteers for everything you do!

what worked for you? what did not work? what changed in your life to support this accomplishment?

again, congratulations! bravo.

[fenquat]

aummm, I asked that same type question a bit ago (GMTA), you can find the reply on post #14 of this thread. Enjoy.

[Bobjensen]

Congrats ......WTG