You are enough

This guest post comes from one of our beloved community members, @hammer123, who often shares thoughts from his “big comfy chair”. He posted this update in the Members Feed the other day and it was so well received I’m featuring it here.

========

@hammer123: Today’s thought from my big comfy chair: You are enough.

You are enough just the way you are! You deserve to be sober and have a full and happy life.

You don’t need any special super power to stop drinking.

You may need medical help, you may need counselling, you may need AA, you may need Rational Recovery, you may need a spouse or a loved one, you may need a podcast or self help books or like me you might need this Living Sober community.

When I started I listened to the Recovery Elevator podcast every day for about a month and a guest was from NZ and mentioned this site. Once I joined here the support was amazing, it changed how I looked at what I was trying to do. That fear of missing out FOMO left me and was replaced with the feeling of hope. The hope that I would be mentally and physically stronger. I wasn’t giving anything up, I was getting my life back.

I went from white knuckling to to embracing my sobriety. I found that I was enough! I am worth the effort, I am worth the hard times, my life is worth it. My family is worth it, my wife believes in me/us.

There is no one way to do this, some people don’t like to keep track of consecutive alcohol free days but for me that was important. When I found Living Sober there were many members that would post the number of consecutive alcohol free days and it showed me that it was possible. I also think that it could be helpful to count alcohol free days in a month or year. I mean 300 alcohol free days in one year is amazing progress if you have been drinking every day.

I see the value in people being here and tapering off their drinking, putting a plan together, finding the right tools to begin a run at consecutive alcohol free days. One of the things that worked for me after I had stretch of sobriety was not wanting to repeat those early days. Those were some hard miles and the thought of repeating those stopped me from picking up.

When I found this place I could finally breathe, people understood, I was not alone. I was not a failure. People told me I was worth it, people showed me that I was worth it. Complete strangers from the other side of the world cared about me. Some don’t post any more but I often think about them and how they helped me along our sober path.

I have two pieces of advice that I have given before but in my mind they are worth repeating.

First, find a day buddy, someone that started this journey about the same time as you. I found @jocord here and she changed my life, she made me feel like I was enough, she encouraged me and sometimes dragged me along the sober path when I wanted to give up. I looked forward to logging on every day because I had a friend with me. What a great gift she has been.

Second, there is nothing in your life that drinking won’t make worse or ruin. “I don’t drink no matter what”!

Love and peace to all! You are enough! ????????????

@hammer123