How do you?

How do you find yourself after quitting alcohol? I started drinking at age 20 and now 35. I've been sober for 18 days longest I've gone without a drink in a while. So I should be all happy but instead I find myself feeling sad tonight. Questioning myself... everyone has a hobby or something they're just good at but I cant figure out what's mine. Is alcohol the only thing I'm about? :pensive:

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It will take time to find things you like. I don't know about everyone but drinking really held me back with finding my true self. I say give everything a few tries and see how you enjoy it. Hobbies have come and gone for me…some have stuck around. There was one thing I only gave one shot too and that was gardening. I hated it! Lol so I didn't really give that another try but anyways I'd try and be less concerned if you're good at something and instead have fun with it. Paint.. make a mess ….. try a new recipe with a friend. I've messed up a few but we laugh about it and then have to order out lolll etc. But you'll find your things just give a few things a shot. :slight_smile: I've been surprised that I really enjoyed things that I was sure I wouldnt have. Big thing for me was I stopped telling myself how I was and tried to wipe the slate clean and give things a chance. Feel free to message any time :slight_smile: great job on starting your sobriety and wanting to learn more about yourself.

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I felt the same way… And sometimes still do. I was all about craft beer and now I have the whole part of myself that seems useless. It fades with time. Keep trying different things. I found that at the beginning, just keeping busy helped me stay sober. And meetings :blush: make that your hobby for now, great way to meet new people and get support.

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Thank yall for responding. I will definitely take yalls advice. I'm going to look into different things to try out to see what exactly I like that will keep me busy. Last night was pretty depressing and my way of handling that would have been my bottle but as I wake up not feeling sick and adding another day under my belt I'm so happy I didnt!!!

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Omg that is the best feeling!!!! Not feeling sick alot. Glad you'll try some new things. Keep us posted about it. I could always use ideas to to try. Great job on starting strong too :slightly_smiling_face:

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It takes a while in the maze that is life to find the new path. Keep looking, sometimes the journey is as much fun as the destination

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This is a hard one. I don't know how many times I tried…

What finally is working for me is letting go. Letting go of total control of my life, having faith, truly letting go of who I was.

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I have this exact same dilemma. I went straight from being a child, to being a drunk, to now. I never had time to forge an identity. I have no idea who I am. I also feel like I've wasted the best years of my life. Yeah I'm a little down this morning not gonna lie! :sweat_smile:

I'm trying to live my life now as a living amends and trying to be a good example and a good influence on the world, and that helps me sleep at night, but it's not always personally fulfilling. Where's my love life, my career, my family, my personal happiness? It feels like I left that stuff at the bottom of a bottle somewhere.

I don't mean to be a bummer but I really do relate.

One thing I can say for sure is that if I start drinking again, things will be 1000x worse. I know I have the foundation for a good life in sobriety that I'm building every day, and it's not like I'm 100 years old, I still have a lot of life to live, my addict brain just wants everything now now now, when I need to really just do the next right thing, relax, work a good program, and let my higher power take care of the outcome. I can't control that anyway. I can only control my actions and how I respond to outside stimuli, which is a very narrow list of stuff. And that's okay. I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

We're both new in sobriety. This stuff doesn't happen overnight. Us merely not picking up is a miracle, and I'm happy enough about that for today :heart:

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