Two weeks! When will the arrests start? Hebrews 12:1 "Let us run the race that is laid out before us." Start winning, even if it's only yourself! Me, I'm day 23 sober today—I've thrown alcohol in GITMO. Trust in God. And believe in yourself. We struggle together, and WE WILL WIN, TO GET HER!
(media.greatawakening.win)
N C S W I C
First AA meeting was on Friday. 7 days sober here.
Congratulations to you both!
I came to the same conclusion some time ago - we are at the "as below so above" lesson. It is the precipice where we MUST change, individually first, to effect change of the whole.
Like all of you, I'm certain, the enemy has thrown a death bloom of landmines into my life. When I find myself being "blown up" by them, it is time to pray, meditate, clean up and find my center.
Bring it on! The war is real. The most important battle of all is the one within ourselves. Choose each minute, each thought, each action wisely fellow warriors.
🐸
Congrats on taking that big first step, and it is a big step, between the AA meeting and 7 days sober! I haven't had a drink in about 7-8 months by now I think. I had quit for a while like a year before going to AA a couple times a week at least. For a little while I slipped away and had a couple drinks here and there, but even as those times I realized that alcohol just made me sick, I hated the taste, and had had enough time sober to realize I truly could exist without alcohol and living without it is indeed possible. So it didn't take much of any effort to really kick it since then, and I've been very happy with the result. I fell proud of the accomplishment, as you should definitely be too. I believe in you and hope you're able to succeed on your continuing sober path through life.
Thank you!
I gave up over 14 years ago. Every year I find improvements in my health and brain.
I'm with you there. I'm over 10. Never looked back. Seen too many bad things happen because of the stuff with friends and family to ever think of touching it again.
November 17, 2022 will be 20 years. Dittos on health and brain. Hang in OP, it will pay the benefits you are expecting. Stay strong.
Well, that is something to turn your sadness into gladness
...gave it up 5-6 yrs ago, best thing I ever did, all it ever did was waist my money, get me in trouble and look like a fool
Yes it does! That is why it is one of satan’s greatest tools of destruction.
Discussion/support thread: What 'wiles of the devil' are you throwing off or struggling with? My struggle has always been anger and alcohol, ever since 9/11. I'm finally DONE with the bottle! What is the race laid before you?
I'm wondering if thankfulness is a springboard to all other virtues. We have received the greatest benefits from God, and from our parents. Now the honor which we pay to God , our heritage and parents, is from being a thankful person. So I ask, is thankfulness or gratitude a beginning to other virtues? Our culture does not give the words virtue and honor much concideration. Try for a moment, contemplating their meaning. If there were a basic motivational drive to be a virtuous or honoring, I'd ask how thankful am I.
When I am thankful, I find it hard to be, Angry, negative, depressed, condemning, anxious, unreasonable, evil, mean, Apathetic, Arrogant, Callous, Mistrusting, Combative, Pessimistic, Petty, Conceited, Controlling, Rebellious, Covetous, Cruel, Resentful, Deceiving, Dishonest, Selfish, Small minded, Envious, Fearful, Grumpy, Unsympathetic, Untrusting , to name a few.
Be Thankful today and give Thanks.
We truly have the wisest Pedes.
Hands you back the microphone
"Here, you dropped this".
🙏👑
I Thank God for you and all the others on this board , we support one another, it's what the body does. Catsfive you made yourself vulnerable we Thank you for your allowing God to use your testimony, it's a powerful word.
It does. I had the same thoughts, too.
I agree with you, it seems the more grateful one is, the more blessings there are.
Anger. It comes out almost by default. Working on eliminating caffeine now to see if that helps. Any other suggestions welcome!
Sugar. It's absolutely terrible for you. Its a hard one to do but your body will love you for it.
Yes! After giving up sugar and starch (keto) my inflammation is gone and overall health is much better.
My girlfriend does keto so by proxy I am too since we live together and I must say it feels amazing after you detox. The first week kinda sucks but wow do you feel better afterwards.
I've been skinny and fairly fit my whole life, so I figured it didn't matter what my diet was. Boy was I wrong. I didn't know I could feel this good.
That's amazing. I forgot about 'keto flu', but I did have it when I first started.
Yeah I had some headaches but nothing terrible.
Yes. Sugar and carbs and thus my weight. A knee injury has kept me from exercising like I used to but I finally am starting to make headway on that where I can walk again for short distances. I am focusing on eating correctly and healing the knee while also working to gain muscle and lose some of these inches.
Sorry about your knee but I'm glad to hear you're making progress. Sugar causes a lot of inflammation so I'm sure your joints are feeling the difference.
I definitely struggle with anger, especially in light of everything going on around us in the world. I also struggle to remember to lean on God for strength and to sincerely pray for things w/ a believing heart that there is NOTHING in this world that is too big for Him to over come. My husband is a functioning alcoholic and oblivious to a majority of things going on around us, making it very difficult to truly prepare and have a game plan for what’s to come. It’s made me be very aware of my relationship w/ the Lord and my need to lean on Him and trust that He’s in control of my life and will guide me, come what may. “Man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps”. Congrats on being sober! I’ll be praying for you in the days to come.
I am one year sober and off drugs today. Best decision I've ever made. All by the grace of God
Big milestone, congratulations.
Sober 3.5 years. Only achieved this by the Grace of God. I begged Him to take away my alcoholism, which He did as soon as I asked. Met some amazing people through AA. And, my walk in faith continues day by day.
Praying for my son who is an alcoholic as well .He just does not think so. Just like most alcoholics.
The government openly controls the sale of alcohol via state liquor stores/agencies. They profit from the licenses in restaurants and stores. When has the government cared about your health and safety? They traffic drugs, legalize marijuana in many states, traffic guns, children and adults and take a big cut. They “legalize” prostitution in some states. They mandate Covid shots, push hospitals to mandate flu shots among their employees and push flu, shingles, pneumonia among the elderly. I would say it is a good guess that the ultimate goal is “anesthetized” citizens and those dependent on government for food, health care, housing, phones, etc. will be more compliant to continue to be taken care of by the government.
Marijuana shouldn't be as stigmatized even as much as alcohol I feel. Alcohol is terribly destructive, as many in this thread would testify to. Marijuana can have some negative effects if the person is trying to numb feelings or escape life, but at that point, it's not the marijuana that's the problem but the things going on in the person's life.
In my case, marijuana helps my chronic pain, it helps some social anxiety, and even when not high, the longer non-intoxicating effects often helps my mood. There's at the very least medicinal uses for it, and it certainly shouldn't be classified by the DEA as having no medicinal uses whatsoever. But if adults can use alcohol, they can use marijuana. The government shouldn't be controlling our bodies or what we do or don't put in them. It doesn't lead to moral degradation or losing touch with life or any other of those reefer madness fears. Why should a damn plant be illegal?
Gave it up 6 years ago!
Wow! Congratulations! Kicking ass and shipping it GITMO!
Congratulations! God bless you!..’ You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you...’ We run the race looking forward to the prize- eternal life! Amen
This really is a very inspiring and exciting post! GODSPEED
Good work. They don't tell you when you're young how dangerous and addictive alcohol really is. You spared yourself a lot of potential misery down the road.
Congrats! That is so awesome. My main vice is nicotine. I’ve tried to quit so many times over the years. I am a creature of habit, and just cannot quit. Don’t know what to do with my hands. Don’t know what to do after a meal. Think about it constantly until it drives me nuts. I switched from cigarettes to vape about 5 years ago, so at least I don’t deal with the smell of smoke or the yellowing affects of tar anymore. I still would like to stop my dependence on nicotine though. They say it helps protect you from covid, so I haven’t felt compelled to try to quit the past couple years
Me too, I stopped the cigarettes almost 8 years ago but am still vaping. My first grand baby was on the way and my daughter did not want the smell around the baby. I do not have the desire to quit altogether, but pray some day I will.
Same. Like I want to want to quit if that makes sense lol. Maybe one of these days
I want to but then again I enjoy it. I pretty much am in the same boat you are. When its forced upon me like it is now, I rebel and will smoke out of spite.
Me too. The more people tell me to stop, the more my brain is like nooooo do it more lol. I can recognize it’s self sabotaging, I just can’t get over it
That is why I'm thankful God is so forgiving. I know I'm going to quit one day, but it will be according to His plan for my life and I just need to recognize that and stop trying to manipulate the situation. I am only human, afterall.
I know… I definitely am unbelievably weak when it comes to some things. It makes me feel bad for real, but yes God knows this and loves us anyway
God is loving and patient and I've learned open to compromise. I've been taking my problems to Him through prayer and instead of asking for my problems to be fixed, I have been asking for the opportunity and strength to fix them myself. It has been quite the wild ride, but my life is much more enjoyable now because of the journey.
I remember symbolically throwing 1/2 a pack of lovely Superkings lights into a river and watching them float away in 1999
http://www.cigarettespedia.com/index.php/Superkings_(Lights)L-10-H-_England
Finally gave up around 7 years later.
Smoking is really addictive, and there's probably an aspect of self medicating for anxiety for some people. Maybe for me.
I still think about it occasionally. A cigarette break used to help me concentrate.
I have had anxiety for as long as I can remember, and yes nicotine and the physical act of the hand to mouth motion is like my safety blanket
I’ve never even made it a few weeks! The longest I’ve gone was one week like ten years ago lol
Drinking when I was younger is what started me off smoking in the first place. Drinking and hanging around others who smoke. And then being drunk and just being like hey I wanna smoke too. Then I just never stopped. I could kick myself for that
Some addicts say giving up cigs is more difficult than giving up heroin. I was able to quit smoking by first using nicotine gum for about 2 days, then I replaced cigs with joints when I really needed to smoke something. You'll be a stoner for a while but it helps your need to hold a 'cigarette' and do something with your hands. Also coffee (with caffeine) would help take the edge off nicotine cravings. Keep telling yourself "I don't smoke". Think of the $ you will save. And don't worry about weight gain, that's temporary. You can do it!
I forgive you for your weakness and love you anyways. I believe in you.
They make these nicotine free mint pouches. My buddy used them for a year and hasn't had any tobacco since. Quit those too. Got a little fat though, so exercise is definitely a must when quitting lol.
I vape right now, and I could easily just lower the nicotine in the juice I buy. You can get zero nicotine vape juice. I’ve done it before, but it always seems that something stressful pops up and then I head back to the store to get a higher nicotine juice. Addictions really are hell. I’m so responsible and controlled in every other area of life, except this
I hear ya I smoked a pack a day for 15 years and chewed a can every other day. Very hard to quit. And if you have a beer or 2 it's even harder.
Just keep reminding yourself that you're a badass and you got this, and your kids and grandkids (either future or present, as i dont know you) deserve to have you around for as long as you can be.
Thanks, BQ.
Drinking for 22 years, and gave up 15 years ago - don't even think about it anymore.
Me too! Even my beloved trump wine. I was having a drink every night while I cooked dinner and I realized this was a bad habit that could get worse so I gave away my booze and am very happy I did. I wouldn’t say it was affecting my life but I knew it one day likely would. The first few nights I didn’t notice anything but by night 5 I started to want a glass of wine and that feeling of wanting immediately turned to relief that I stopped before it was more than a feeling. Now after 2 weeks it’s easy to shrug off the craving. I watch Seinfeld while I cook and the jokes help pass the time. Once I’m done cooking the feeling goes away completely.
I've found kombucha in the Kroger grocery store before. Nothing like an ID was needed. I didn't really know kombucha possibly had alcohol, though it's a fermented drink, so would make sense if some did have alcohol. It's very possible to make at home as well is my understanding. Just have to prepare it right for fermentation and wait and all that.
Remember, you may slip up here and there but dint beat yourself up over it. Progress isn't perfect, and steps made towards the goal are leagues above stagnation.
We've got this, fren.
CONGRATULATIONS to all those who are free from Al'Khul's demonic embrace.
If you haven't looked into who/what Al'Khul is and where the word alcohol comes from, now's the time to research on this Palm Sunday.
It isn't work if it's God's Work, frens.
Glory to he who thwarts Lucifer and his minions.
It's been months for me since I've had even a drop of alcohol. Need to work on giving up smokes now.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1512845282676981760.html
Congrats, 30 just around the corner, keep it up!
And remember this, it's much easier to stay sober than having to get sober again!
Congratulations ! That's so admirable. Keep it up!!
Congratulations! That is awesome! I wish you continued success.
I also pray that someone I know could make this same decision.
Just a heads up on making proclimations of this type: Be careful. In my experience pride cometh before the fall. God giveth, He taketh away. Don't count your chips before they're on your keychain. Etc.
Congrats to anyone who's bettering themselves. May you have all the support you need. Including this comment. 😉
Keep yourself busy and keep yourself from boredom. Idle hands are the devils workshop.
Amen-Praise God! I am so so happy for you!! God be with you.✝️🙏😁 My dad was unable to break free until he was forced to by a stroke that left him paralyzed one side and cancer diagnosis. I lost him in 2008 but many wonderful miracles happened to him first that I witnessed.
Keep going, my friend. The best is yet to come! 😊
CONGRATS!
3 years sober myself. One of the finest decisions I have ever made in my life. Never look back!
I will also add that God tapped me on the shoulder one year to the day before xovid started. I checked myself into a detox that morning. Spent a week in the nut house. If I was still boozing during the pandemic I would be dead rn, no question.
I'm glad you got sober in time to not self-destruct during the pandemic. Sometimes we improve just in time for some reason within God's plan.
I can feel it!! Thankyou!!
Nice post for Palm Sunday! Stay strong!!!!! Thank you! NCSWIC
I'm 11 days sober from being a functional weedaholic. I'm 46 now, I started smoking at age 40 to deal with a divorce. I had no idea the negative impact it had on me until I quit. I was at the point where it's the only thing I wanted to do in my free time.
Good luck and congrats to everyone else here that's fighting their own demons and winning
I'm glad you're able to step away from a negative habit you recognized in yourself. Sometimes being sober can be a very good thing, to not be beholden to a substance, and to view life through an accurate lens. I still smoke honestly, and I think your down vote is from some people who want to defend weed. But the bottom line is that if a substance is negatively affecting your life, you should fix that somehow. Weed can definitely be psychologically addictive and it can become a crutch if you're not careful. I'm glad you're working on improving you and how you function in life though.
Thanks for the kind words. I don't judge anyone for what they do. I had a need for it back then because alcoholism runs in my family and I'm against prescription drugs for the most part. I realized it's not so much alcoholism though, it's addiction in general that I have issues with. I still say it's better for treating depression and anxiety for most, just not people like me that used it as a total escape from reality and a crutch. Keep on smoking, just have the ability to step back and self analyze occasionally.
"Keep the faith". Catsfive, you got this! I am coming up on 1 year alcohol free on Mother's Day! The Great Awakening, for me, has been a process of renewing my mind, turning back to God, to truth. Alcohol is a lie, for me, a false sense of reality. I pray for America and the human race that they can be as fortunate as you and I and so many others, that God at some point will reveal to them that they are in charge of their own minds, that they/we don't have to give way to the "things" that trip us up.
For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], * but to rate his ability with* sober judgement,* each according to the* [degree of faith] apportioned by God to him. ~Romans 12:3
God knows the exact amount of faith we need, renewing the mind on truth ( the word) helps me to "keep the faith". Some who may really be struggling with an addiction, I encourage you to cast it upon the Lord and then exercise your faith, it may be minute by minute at first, then continue to renew your mind on the truth, hour by hour will turn to day by day to month by month til soon you will be coming up on 1 year FREE You got this!
6 + yrs here. Go to meetings, get a sponsor, work the steps. I know that sounds corny bit it works, there are several 12 step programs that work. most dont realize it but "the steps" are rooted in the bible. Basic life activities that I was never taught. Chapter 5 in Mathew. Sermon on the Mount. and my fav. Romans 12:2. Read it, understand it, live it.
Quite a few people know that AA is rooted in Christianity. We would consistently read Bible verses at the meetings I went to. But even in the larger public, it's known. In fact, one of the biggest complaints about AA is the big religious undertones. People who are atheist or agnostic and don't want to deal with the ideas of religion while trying to get sober can really be turned off from going to AA meetings, and it's a genuine hurdle at times. I know it was for me. I'm spiritual, but I was worried about dealing with random religious discussions while working on getting sober. I came to appreciate AA for what it's for, it helped me, and it's helped tons of people before me. But even as a spiritual person, I wish there were more secular programs for alcoholics and addicts. I think it would help get more people sober in the end. You can't preach to someone if they die of alcoholism first.
Blessed be, the strength that faith gives to people who are changing their lives so incredibly, by discarding the chains of alcohol. If one day at a time, is sometimes too hard, then one hour at a time. I once had to work through this at what seemed fifteen minutes at a time. You do what means you can maintain your power over something that wanted to possess and destroy you. God is your partner. Lean on him. Love and prayers to you.
Nice 😎
CONGRATS OP!
You don’t need to go to a program and cry with strangers. All you need to do is genuinely ask God for help. You will get help. I know this first hand. Almost a year for me. Crazy how so many people all started doing this around relatively the same time.
It only gets easier…and with Gods help you can do anything.
I am genuinely happy for you.