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How it Works Also, be nice to yourself. One technique for anxiety is just to pretend that whatever it is worrying you is definitely true, and how will you deal with it? Oh, she definitely killed herself and it's definitely my fault? Well, I'll probably find a therapist and talk about it and eventually believe it's not my fault or at least I won't kill myself too or whatever and someone will still love me one day. Oh, I definitely have AIDS/herpes/whatever? Well, people get AIDS. So I have AIDS now. So I take AIDS medicine and talk to other AIDS people about how AIDS sucks and one day I die from it but everyone dies from something eventually so whatever it's just AIDS. Anxiety is brutal. If you live somewhere with affordable/accessible psychiatrists, speak to one. That said, it's basically impossible to diagnose someone in active addiction, and alcohol/drugs do not play nice with psych meds. There's links in an E/N sticky about crisis helplines. Maybe bookmark them while you don't feel like using them. Anxiety can be more dangerous than depression. Depression suffocates you; anxiety attacks you. --- Online AA meetings if you live somewhere that IRL AA is inconvenient. But if you just call your area's Intergroup usually someone is able to pick you up and drive you to a meeting.
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Feb 6, 2017 03:45
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No one can call you an alcoholic except yourself. Some phrases we use to self-identify include "restless, irritable, and discontent", "childish, grandiose, and emotionally sensitive", or, more colloquially, "the piece of poo poo at the center of the universe". If you're an alcoholic, you have a progressive illness. It doesn't get better; it only gets worse. AA is supposed to work on the principle of attraction rather than promotion, so I'll talk about myself. Since coming to the fellowship 547 days ago, I have been sober for 547 days. My mental illness is properly diagnosed, medicated, and managed. I no longer spend the entire day with my fists clenched in anger, mind numbed by rage. I'm able to answer my phone, call people, and send and respond to text messages and emails. I was gainfully employed for nine months and when I needed to make a decision to leave that job I had the life experience of many well-adjusted people to draw from and assist my decision. I have fallen in love and endured a broken heart without drinking. I have the "best possible relationship" with my family, which definitely isn't roses and butterflies but it's civil interaction with more clearly defined and firmly defended boundaries. I have acquired a god of my own understanding who is a personal god, whose only job is to take care of me. I'm developing a strong sense of self-esteem as well as a strong sense of humility, which I describe as "an accurate self-assessment" ie humility is not the same thing as self-hate. I am, as the literature promises, "happy, joyous, and free" more than half of the time. I have feelings again and can identify most of them. I am able to be sad whereas before I couldn't face any amount of adversity without drinking. At four months of sobriety, my sponsor helped me face down some demons that had been haunting me for a decade. I have brushed my teeth every day but one for 547 days. If anything at all about the program makes you hesitant (God, etc), the third tradition states that "the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking."
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Feb 20, 2017 23:49
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I just finished reading to the end of the thread. Are you still there, Penny? How are you feeling?
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Jun 1, 2017 04:50
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Hey Penny how is stuff now? I saw you posted in a thread I was reading about HoneyBooBoo's ranch dressing themed wedding so I thought I would ask. I have had a crazy but majority good however-many-months of still being sober. I might post a mega-schizo-text-wall summary paragraph of it but right now I really need to go buy bananas and coffee grounds.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:15
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