Ways To Help You Stay Sober During The Holidays

The Holiday season is upon us and with the giving of gifts, having Christmas and New Years parties become somewhat difficult for those that are in recovery from their past addictions.

There are many ways to help you stay sober during the Holidays such as your thinking and your mental attitude.

In the beginning of your recovery you are really fighting to stay sober.  Your body that has been so used to alcohol in your system and then to have nothing alcoholic is a bit of a shock to your your system.  You go to that Holiday party and watch as those that are drinking and thinking they are having a wonderful time, and I am sure they are, at that moment.

You mouth starts to water and wishing you can have just one beer, a glass of wine or a nice mixed drink.  The problem with that is you have made a pack with yourself, (I hope) to never pick up a alcoholic drink again.  This pack or promise to yourself to never drink again should have been made when you finally surrendered to your addiction.

You took the right steps in getting clean and sober, and now the huge job is to stay clean and sober. The Holiday seasons are full of temptations to the alcoholic. I know for myself when I quit drinking alcohol, the first few months were torture to me. I surrendered to my addiction in October of 2009 just two months before the Holiday party were to begin.  I thought to myself, " how in the world will I ever be able to go to these holidays and parties and watch people drink while I remain sober?"

The way I handled those temptations to drink are as follows and I hope they will help you through this Holiday and many days and years to come, not just Holidays.

• I began to prepare my mind and my feelings of what would happen to me if I were to break and relapse.
• I thought  to myself if I were to drink at these Holiday parties what I would be ruining and all the hard work I did to get where I was at that moment and sober.
• I said to myself that every minute I remain sober at these parties I will be closer to leaving the the temptation to drink.
• I stay strong and determined not to drink and keeping that promise to myself that I made some two years ago.
• I mad sure I had enough coffee to hold in my hand as I sipped it slowly as I was having conversations with all that were drinking alcohol.
• Before I knew it the end of the night was near and I remained clean and sober.
• Ever since those couple of parties I went to it has become so much easier to be around those that drink alcohol and my urge to drink has passed and it doesn't bother me one bit now to go to parties and watch other drink their brains out.  In fact, I watch them now and just how they change with each drink that was drank.  I often wonder to myself, "was that me two years ago?"  If so, I was a mess as those that are pounding them down and thinking they are having a blast.
• I go home sober and awake with a clear head with no hangovers.  I wonder how they felt after their night out drinking?  I bet not like me!
• I continue to tell myself just how proud of I am of my own self and I should be, just as every person that had an addiction and surrendered to it and now living a life of sobriety.

So make your Holidays safe, sober and fun.  Remember, you don't need to drink alcohol in order to enjoy this time of the season with Christmas and New Years right around the corner. In fact, I can truly say for myself, it is much more fun being clean and sober and the best part of it is that you will remember the night to be remember.  Don't blow it and take that one drink for if you are like me, you will be back right your started at day number one and I know I don't want to start all over again after working so hard to get where I am today and you should feel the same way if your were smart.

Don't drink and don't give in EVER!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE AND ENJOY THIS SPECIAL TIME OF THE YEAR BEING CLEAN AND SOBER!!!

How And When Should We Take Action Of Our Addiction

When someone is addicted to drugs or alcohol they seem to forget the true meaning of their life and let their addiction take their life over.  The question is how and when should we take action of our addiction before it is too late?

The thing is, if we continue on this path of self destruction how long do you think we would be alive, and how many years of our lives do you think would be cut short because of our actions and lifestyle?  We are not going to live forever as we all know, but why in the world do we continue to kill ourselves with an avoidable addiction?

Everyone knows what these addictions can and will do to us, but no one knows exactly when.  It could be that our health fails.  It could be that we were involved in a automobile accident that may have disabled us forever or possibly kill us or an innocent person or persons.

When should we take action on these addictions we have before it is too late?  What has to happen to us before we realize we are doing wrong by abusing our bad habits, whether it be drinking alcohol or using drugs? 

In my personal experience with drinking alcohol, and drinking it for many years, I have learned that my life was going no where fast.  Everything I wanted to do, or a dream I might of had always seemed to peter out because I would stumble upon a road block in my quest of doing something and just simply gave up. 

I had no self-esteem and no positive attitude in my life while being addicted to alcohol.  I thought, as probably many alcoholics do that everyone in the world is wrong and the alcoholic is right, meaning, we the alcoholic thinks we are doing no wrong and we do not have an addiction to alcohol.  We live in denial each and everyday, but really have no idea that we are.  I called it , "blinded by my addiction."

How to take action is very simple and how I did it was to simply make up my mind and told myself, "enough is enough" it is time to surrender to my addiction to alcohol and start to live a clean and sober life again.I changed my attitude and my outlook on life and told myself, " my life is worth far more to me than an avoidable and foolish addiction.  My life is precious and I only have one of them so I better make the best of the time I have left here on earth."

When is the time to take action depends on each person, and just how depended they are on their drug of choice.  If you think you have a problem with alcohol or drugs then I would recommend sitting down and take a good look at your life, what you are doing to your one and only body and what effects you are having on your \families lives as well.  Just maybe if you care about our self and your family you will begin to see the light that being addicted to anything has no positive results whatsoever.

Without taking action in anything in life you will remain stuck where you are for the rest of your life and never be able to enjoy what life has to offer, (seeing it with sober eyes.)

1. Think positive.
2. Stay focused on getting sober and staying sober.
3. Believe in yourself and God.
4. Never let anything or anybody get in your way to becoming sober.
5. Steer clear of your alcoholic friends to avoid temptation to drink or use.
6. Ask for the HELP you need to start you on your road to recovery.
7. Don't be embarrassed or a shamed of your addiction and tell everyone you are surrendering to it.
8. Keep yourself busy so that you have no time to think about your past addiction.
9. Eat well and healthy foods.
10. Drink lots of water and drinks that are healthy which will help in flushing those toxins out of your system.

These are just a few things I did when I decided to get clean and sober and maybe you will find some things that will help you and add them to my list.

* I am not a Doctor or Therapist by no means, but I do have experience in drinking and abusing alcohol with makes me a professional in that part !

Sobriety is a wonderful thing.  I just wished I would of surrendered years ago when my children were growing up, but as they say, "better later than never."

God Bless all those that are struggling with an addiction, and remember, you are not alone.  Never give up on yourself.  You can and will get clean and sober as I did.  The big thing is taking ACTION,  having the WILLPOWER, DETERMINATION and the DESIRE to get sober and stay sober, and it will happen.

How A Positive Attitude Helps With Staying Sober

Many of us that are addicted to alcohol sometimes have a hard time keeping a positive attitude in our everyday living.  I for one was one of those people until I tried my luck a being sober.

Once I surrendered to my addiction to alcohol I found out just how a positive attitude helps with staying sober.  I have written many articles on HubPages.com on alcohol addiction, my life with alcohol, and just how I was able to surrender to my inner demons and be able to stay sober.

When we are addicted, not only to alcohol, but any sort of substance that can harm us and hinder our lives the way the addiction wants to, we tend to be a bit negative in our ways of living.  Most of us loss our self esteem and just let our addiction start to run and ruin our lives a little bit at a time until our addiction drives us right to rock bottom.

I caught my addiction pretty much before hitting rock bottom just by a hair.  I was on the verge of losing everything.  My home, my wife and my family if I didn't do something about my addiction to alcohol fast.

I first sat down alone and started to think of all the positive thing there were in drinking alcohol and came up with nothing, but it got me drunk.  I then thought of all the negative things of drinking alcohol and came up with many, such as:

• Physical appearance has changed.
• Weight gain.
• Loss of interest in things I once loved to do.
• Started to steer away from family and friends.
• Wanted to drink alone.
• Thought about the end of my work day to open that first beer.
• Never went anywhere unless there was alcohol served.

If any of these sound familiar to you, maybe you should sit down as I did and think of just how alcohol is ruining your life and the ones that love and care about you, such as you spouse and family.

So, once I got out of the denial I lived in and began to start thinking positive thoughts I began to plan my new life and got myself ready for the change of my life once and for all. 

I wanted to be clean and sober in worse way , but I was afraid of how my body would react without alcohol in it and in my life.  i had put my sobriety on hold for too long and it was time to change my life around.

I started by thinking positive as I said earier and continued to tell myself that I can and I will overcome my addiction to alcohol.  I would do anything to get sober and stay sober.

I made a promise to myself two years ago, that if I surrendered to my addiction and became sober I would never be able to pick up an alcoholic drink again for the rest of my life.  Once I was fine with that promise to myself then it was time to pick my start date and begin my recovery from the addiction that had run my life for so many years.

Having a positive attitude in life no matter if it is surrendering to an addiction or anything in life that you want  to do it will happen.  Remember, negative thoughts give negative results and Positive thought and attitude give positive results.  I know for a fact that haviing that positive attitude helped me so much and still does keeping me sober.

i write these articles and Hubs in hopes that it will help someone out in the world that is suffering with an addiction and to tell then to never give up hope of getting and staying sober.  It is all what you want out of the one and only life you have, so don't mess it up with poor health, car accidents or any foolish thing that alcohol makes you do or does to you.  If you believe and truly want sobriety back into your life you WILL be able to achieve it.

Admitting That You Are An Alcoholic Is A Step In The Right Direction

One of the very first things in being able to achieve your sobriety is admitting that you are an alcoholic.

By admitting you are an alcohol is a step in the right direction in finding your sobriety and start to live a clean and sober life again.

In my personal opinion and my personal experiences with being addicted to alcohol is that admitting you are an alcoholic is somewhat a hard thing to admit or to swallow. The word seems so harsh, but it is the truth whether you want to admit it or not.

For myself and many alcoholics out in the world today, we all have a problem admitting that we have a addiction to alcohol and we tend to live in our own little world of denial. I know that I lived in denial for many of years and never wanted to admit I truly had an addiction to alcohol no matter who or what was said to me regarding my addiction to alcohol.

I can honestly say, I never thought I had any problem whatsoever. That my friends is truly living in denial, somewhere I never want to be again.

In October 2009, I finally saw the light and finally realize I was an addicted to alcohol for the first time in my life. What came over me one night change my life forever.

I was sitting in my garage drinking my beer all alone as usual, when all of the sudden a voice can into my head. I heard the voice of God and him giving me a second chance in life. Now it was up to me me to listen and obey or ignore the voice and continue down the road to self destruction.

Or course, I listened to my God as he spoke with a calm and serene whisper in my head. He was given me a chance to get out of the denial that I was in and given my a second chance at life before it would be too late. I never experienced anything like this in my life. This whisper from God changed my life forever and I have been clean and sober since that night in October 2009.



It takes a real strong person to be able to admit that he/she is an alcoholic and when they finally admit it, they also ask for the help they will need to get their lives back to sobriety and start living a clean and sober again.

So, I you think you might be addicted to alcohol, take that first step and admit it to yourself and get out of the denial you have lived in for so long. You won't be sorry, believe me, I admitted I was addicted to alcohol and I did something about so that I may live a longer and healthier life.

The voice of God has stood by my side each and everyday giving me the strength and the willpower to stay sober. Taking each day one at a time is the best thing I could have done. I used to count the hours and then days being sober and look now, I am counting the years. I have been sober for a year and one half and it seems like it has only been a few months.

You will see for yourself that your life will improve in every aspect as you stay clean and sober. For me, my life is just about perfect now. My marriage is wonderful, when before, I would say it was ready to hit rock bottom, as I was, if I didn't stop drink alcohol.

Give sobriety a chance, and give your own life a second chance at living a clean and sober life, you won't be sorry.

How to Stop Drinking Alcohol

Have you ever wondered why some many people go overboard when it comes to drinking alcohol? Sure, we all want to have a great time when we are out and about with our family or friends, but where do we draw the line between having fun and getting drunk?

We all know how to drink alcohol, but do we really know how to stop drinking alcohol? This will be a question we will always ask ourselves throughout time.

Alcohol is everywhere in our society today and so many are becoming addicted each and everyday, unfortunately.

As young people start on their way in life, many think that drinking alcohol is the cool thing to do in order to impress their peers. Little do they know by starting to drink at such a early age some will become a prisoner of the bottle. The tolerance to alcohol will become greater as they continue to drink and party away like it was their last day on earth, and for some, unfortunately, it very well may be.

What I learned through my experiences with alcohol and being addicted to it was that my attitude and outlook on life was pretty negative which kind of made me feel worthless. So, what did I do? I opened another beer figuring this would be the fix all of all my problems.

Alcohol will never fix anything in life, it only makes things thousand time worse than they really are. Many people turn to alcohol in hopes that their problem will just vanish, and yes it may vanish when the person is in the drunkin state of mind. They forget about their problem, but only for a short time while drinking. Once the drinking binge stops the problem still is there the next day.

When you finally admit that you have an alcohol addiction you must then make up your mind to surrender to it. As hard as it sounds it can be done.
Many of people are basically afraid to quit drinking do to the fear of living with out their crutch.

They may worry about alcohol withdraw and everything that may go with quitting an addiction. We can not let those thing stand in our way of sobriety.

Here is a few tips that helped my become clean and sober.

* First I changed my attitude from negative to positive in everything.

* I looked at the pros and cons of drinking verses sobriety.

* I basically looked at my life as it was in all areas including the
effects it had on my family and their lives.

* I made a promise to myself to never pick up a drink again for the rest of
my life, no matter what happens that may give me the urge to drink.

* I prayed to our Lord God for the help and strength to be able conquer
this addiction once and for all.

* I had to leave behind some of my drinking buddies that were a bad
influence on me, and kept myself from things that may have given me the
given me the urge to drink.

* I keep myself busy not only physically, but mentally as well. I had to
keep my mind away from thinking about drinking

If you want to quit drinking alcohol you must first surrender and keep a positive attitude throughout the rest of your life. You must have the willingness and pure desire to become sober. You must learn to love yourself more and give your life a second chance to live.

Some folks my need Professional Help with entering a Rehab Center where they will get the tools needed to become clean and sober and in a safe manner.

Keep focused on what you have set out to do, and believe me, with some work on your part everything will fall into place, and before you know it, your life will be what it should be, and that is living sober, healthy and longer. BELIEVE AND YOU WILL ACHIEVE Click Here"

Drinking Beer

Oh yes, the hot and steaming days of summer. One can not wait for that ice cold frosted mug of beer after a hard days work.

Why do most people go for the beer after working in the heat,or for some of us,just for the heck of it? Watching or going to a sports game we need to bring along our beer.

Having a picnic or outside party, what goes along with that, is beer. Going out on a boat for a nice afternoon cruise and the beer comes along with us.

We decide to go on a camping trip, so we pack the clothing that we will need for our trip. Get all the food and supplies ready to go. Get the tent or our camper packed up and don't forget the coolers for all the beer we will be drinking while camping and fishing.

Having a birthday party,wedding or even a First Communion, don't forget about putting the beer on the menu for all to enjoy. Beer seems to be a very popular thing to many of us when planing just about anything.

It seems to me that beer goes with just about everything in our everyday lives and seems to rank close to all the other things we need in life.

I was one that loved drinking my beer for many years too. It has that effect after so many. The effect that sometimes over powers our minds. Don't get me wrong beer is tasty after that day of work,and just sit down and crack that can or bottle open and that first sip tastes like drinking gold in a can.

There is nothing wrong with having a couple of beers after a hard days work or just chilling out watching a ball game with the guys, but some of us including myself just don't when to quit drinking. Starting out with just a couple beers then lead to a drinking frenzy.

Some of us just get carried away with the drinking and don't stop until the supply is gone. That's the problem with drinking alcohol whether being beer or spirits.

We all intend to have just a couple of drinks but as the day or night goes on the alcohol continues unless you have the willpower to call it quits for the day. Some people just don't know how to say to someone that they have had enough beer and call it quits for the day or evening.

Then there are those how yell out "hey grab me another one of those beers will you."

There is now harm having a couple of drinks, but you must learn when enough is enough and just drink reponsable. Don't ever forget DO NOT EVER DRINK AND DRIVE!

Alcoholism In A Family - Who Really Suffers?

When a person, like myself, decides to take up a habit of drinking Alcohol, we don't think of the side effects it will have upon others.  We start with a casual drink or two on different occasions.  That's okay for the ones that can handle one or two drinks, and then walk away from the bottle.  But, for some of us, for some reason or another we just crave for more and more.

The one or two casual drinks are just not enough for us.  As we continue to feed our bodies with more Alcohol,  our bodies get used to it and say to us "give me more".  As you feed more alcohol to yourself you don't see the world around you. The world you only see is the make believe world, where everything seems great as long as you are high on your drink.

You are now becoming dependent on the Alcohol, which turns to an Addiction. You think that you are fine and there shouldn't be any problems of what you are doing.  You are basically blinded to the outside world.  Everything now revolves around drinking.  I can say this because I was once blinded to the outside world and saw nothing around me but my drink and never even realized it until I became Clean and  Sober.

Some of us are what you call a working or functional Alcoholic.  You can do all the normal things in life, like going to work, yard work, family functions, and the everyday routines.  That is why I thought I had no problem at all.  I functioned just fine, so I thought.

Alcoholism In A Family can do some real damage to everyone involved..  The people that love you and care about you are on your back burner.  But, the Alcoholic can not see this happening, when it is right in front of their faces.  The families suffer so bad, and the alcoholic is happy as a lark. They try to convince us to slow down or even quit drinking all together.  As we all know, you can not tell someone, or make someone  quit unless they are willing to surrender to their Addiction on their own.

As time passes, with your addiction progressing, you then are wondering what have I done.  I have an Addiction that is now out of control.  So, all the fun times in the beginning are now turning into some bad times in the end.

So, some of us may lose our jobs, our families and friends, and unfortunately some of us may lose our Lives, all due to an Addiction that we could of prevented, only if we had the strength within us to keep this under control, from our beginning casual drink or two.

Always remember that when your drinking down that alcohol, your not only killing your body, but your are killing your relationships, friendships, and the most important the family that loves you so.

So just think about it before you tilt the bottle again, and take a look around you and ask yourself "Who Really Suffers the most"?

Living With An Alcoholic

So many marriages, families, and friends are ruined or even destroyed when there is an Alcohol Addicted person involved.  I can relate, do to the fact, that I was one that basically contributed to almost ruining everything I had, including my life.

It took me some time until I finally realized that something is going to blow up real soon.  Whether it would be myself or my family or friends.  I saw it coming over the years but, I didn't pay much attention to it.

Spouses, families, and friends tend be afraid of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to the addict.  They have to basically walk on egg shells while around the addict due to the fact they are worried that the addict might just blow up or even get violent in some cases.  This is certainly not a way to live for the innocent ones involved.

Also, lets say that your spouse wanted to take a nice ride out in the country or down the shore for example, but, we the addict  have already started our day on the drinking binge.  So, we are about worthless to them and we now have spoiled their day and evening.  Not very fair is it?

Either one way or another it is hard Living With An Alcoholic.  My wife can testify to that, as I'm sure many spouses and families of an Alcoholic can say the same.

The alcoholic does not realize what they are doing, not only to themselves, but all of their loved ones that want them to get help.   I know, because when I was into the drinking thing, I thought nothing about it and basically did not care about anyone elses thoughts either.  But, I must say deep down inside of me, I really did care, but the alcohol demons in me decided to think for me, and control my thoughts, while being under their influence.

When I decided to become Sober, one of the first things that convinced me was, "do I want those rotten Demons inside me to control and love me, or, do I want my loving wife, family and friends to love and care for me?"  Well, we all know what the best choice is.  Those so called demons I call them only care about one thing, and that is to destroy you and everything around you.

If you really want to change your life for the better, then start by looking at what you are doing to the people that you care and love so much, and just take a good look at where your life is headed if you keep up with your addiction. These couple of things might help you to make that decision to find Sobriety in your life.  It certainly did for me.

Always remember that without family and freinds on our side, we will be very lonely drunks in our future.  As time goes by the people that loved us will start to stray further and further away.  And we will only have one thing left, which is our Addiction.

Start by always thinking Positive in everything you do, and with family and friends on your side you will have a head start to your new Sober life.. Go for it, you will never be sorry you did!

FROM START TO FINISH

This is me in the garage having a cold one. It makes me sick to even look at myself holding that beer because as you know if you read the other posts I wrote, you would know why. The start for me was a long time ago, somewhere around 19 years old or so when I was served a summons for a paternity suit.  It was thrown out of court and that was great for me.  I won that battle but, I loss the battle with the alcohol addiction I acquire from the years of lawyers and court dates.  So now I was addicted to alcohol and enjoyed it.  I quit once for 3 years and then again for 2 years. For some reason or another I did not have the will power to continue to be sober.  As years went by and I got older and wiser I thought to myself, this is really out of hand now, and I'm hooked on this big time, worse than the past years. So I said ,what I'm going to do now about this addiction? After a lot of thought and preparing myself for a war with my demons I decided, I would have to go cold turkey with this problem.  So I did about 75 days ago and believe it or not I have not thought about a drink since, and never will again!  I never really relaxed when I drank because as everyone knows that the drink gives you energy. at least it did for me. So I was always on the go doing one thing or another, until I was done drinking for the night and than I crashed.  Today, being sober all the time I feel great, and I relax every night like I never relaxed before. I'm up till one or two in the morning and not passing out at ten or eleven at night.

So, that was the start and now I am on the finish line of the Sober Lane  I wake up every morning feeling great and proud of myself for what I am doing, not only for me, but my family and my friends.  I only wish I would of done this the first time I went sober, but that is in the past and now.  I am only concerned now for the future. So far, everything is on the up for me and I see great things in the future. I learned that I  am the only one that can control my mind and that if you put your mind to something, like getting sober, you can indeed conquer it as long as you have the will power and a clear mind to think straight. Also, stay strong always to yourself and you can beat the demons within.

Mark

Free at Last

www.gosober.webs.com/

Well, I think I am free at last from the demons within.  I last spoke of the Fresh Start in my last post and now I"ll try to explain to you how I prepared for this journey.  First of all, I began by saying to myself what in the world am I doing to myself and my family?  I wanted to get off the addition I had so bad that I decided to go cold turkey.  Now, some people can be social drinkers and not have a problem. I, on the other hand could not handle drinking on occasion and leave it be until the next party or function. Some people say oh no you shouldn't just go cold turkey, you need to start with having say 6 drinks and the next night have 5 and so on untill your at no drinks at all.  That only sounded like a tease to me, so I than decided to do the cold turkey.  I was surprised how well it went with no DT's at all, which I was worried about. You have to start with a open mind and say to yourself I am going to conquer this addiction once and for all. Be true to youself and respect yourself, because we are all only here on earth for a limited time, so why make that time shorter than it should be do to an addiction. I keep myself busy all the time between work and projects around the house and writing these post which I also think helps me with my problem. Till next time stay happy and sober.