I pledge to quit drinking

[InSpiteOfEverything]

Beginning of April, and I'm still feeling pretty good. No alcohol since mid-January or so. Just touching base...

[manuel_moe_g]

Congratulations, InSpiteOfEverything! Please keep us informed on your progress, we here are cheering for you!

[InSpiteOfEverything]

Thanks! And here I am at the 6-month mark, no alcohol & no adderall. One of the challenges I have is what to do with myself in the evenings. There are only so many nights you can sit at home watching TV or reading. I'm not suffering from loneliness, mind you, just occasional boredom. How do people find social things to do once they've stopped drinking?

Also, I'm not sure how best to contribute to the forums here. I feel somewhat guilty for just recording my own experiences without effectively (or often) responding to other people's posts, questions, and experiences. It just seems like I should have something more meaningful to add here, but I'm not sure how.

[Murphy]

Congrats on 6 months!

And don't feed badly about your contributions to the forum. If you need to talk about you, you need to talk about you. It's a good and healthy thing to do. I'm not sure I've said anything meaningful on here to anybody...I just try to offer support when and where I can.

[Fargin]

"I like long walks at the beach." I do, I live 10 minutes walk from six kilometers of beach and if I don't know, what to do with my evening, I walk a couple of hours. A walk be as, if not more, interesting than watching TV. I mean, I see a few ships, I hold my breath, when a flying seagull crosses my path. For some reason I'm very worried about getting shit on by seagulls. I don't know if you live near any interesting evening walks, but I've found it to be a decent alternative to being miserable in a small apartment.

Your own experiences, victories and defeats are important and inspirational to others. Some of our issues are so deeply ingrained and thoughts are so automated, they can be difficult to become aware of. My own awareness started with this podcast, listening to other people's stories every week and that slowly developed an awareness, a desire and courage to attempt to change and improve myself.

Putting words on your challenges can be a help to yourself and definitely to others.

[InSpiteOfEverything]

It's been 14 months, and I'm still doing without Adderall and alcohol. Feeling good, most of the time, without the emotional highs and lows that used to characterize my feelings. I still struggle with anxiety and with unproductive avoidance strategies, but I'm in a much, much better place than I was when I first started posting here. Last fall I trained for (and then ran) a half marathon in December, which was a great experience. I've never run that much before and found it very rewarding. So far in 2016 I'm keeping up a regular exercise schedule and it helps a great deal with being anxious and with making myself tired enough to sleep reasonably well at night.

I appreciate the contributions everyone has made to this thread, and it's very helpful to go back and read over the conversation from the last ~2 years.

If you're struggling with giving up some substance because it's negatively affecting your life, please know that you can do it and that you shouldn't be afraid to ask for help!

[oak]

I am glad things are much better.