Guts and bravery

Sometimes I worry that I’m repeating myself with all the writing that I do on addiction and recovery. I’ve been writing regularly about sobriety since the day I quit – over 7 and a half years ago! And over the years I’ve found myself repeating the same beliefs and lessons I’ve learned, using so many of the same phrases over and over.

Beliefs like this: Getting sober is hard at first. You have to learn how to deal with shit raw. But it’s so worth it. If you push through the rough early stages you eventually get to a much happier and more peaceful place.

And this: Sober life isn’t a bed of roses all the time, but it’s overall a much calmer and more grounded way to live.

And this: It takes time to experience the uplift that sobriety brings, it happens slowly and incrementally. Sobriety isn’t a constant flow of dramatic revelations and exciting breakthroughs, it’s a slow unfolding. The lovely accumulation of little precious moments and subtle revelations that when they build up start forming a new authentic experience of life.

I say these things in varying ways over and over, and sometimes I worry: am I being trite? Are people sick of hearing this? Is this boring? Am I preaching to the converted? Am I full of shit?

But then I hear other people saying these exact same things for the first time in their own words and I realise, this stuff can never be old, trite, or boring. This stuff is real, it’s so important and so precious and none of us can ever hear it enough.

Every time I pop into the Members Feed here and see what newly sober people are sharing – those brave individuals who are battling through the tough early days and weeks of sobriety – I’m reminded how powerful these revelations are when they first hit. Time and again I read a new member echoing what I’m always saying – but it’s in their own words, related to their own experience. These things are real and they are revealed  time and time again to people going through their own recovery journey.

And every time I see it, I’m reminded that anybody who is working hard to remove alcohol from their lives is a goddam brave and amazing hero.

It takes such guts to trust that good things are coming, even though it feels tough as hell right now. It takes a huge amount of bravery to persevere through the roller-coaster of early sobriety, hoping that those who have gone before are correct, and yes.. things really will get better.

Be brave. Read my words above. Listen to other long-timers in the Members Feed. Have faith. Trust. It will get easier, you will reap the benefits, it’s all so worth it. Yes it’s hard bloody work at first, transitioning from living boozily to living sober, and you are a hero for doing it.  You are capable and you are brave. Believe it.

It’s so worth the effort

Love, Mrs D xxx