stay sober

I feel I have no great words of wisdom to say on this right now. It’s Friday night, and I haven’t got drunk on a Friday night for seven years now, which is a major achievement in my life. I celebrated with a cake at my AA meeting tonight. I’m about to head off to bed because I’m feeling a bit tired – got woken at 2am last night by an earthquake.

Almost forgot it was today, because I’ve not been feeling too great and had the day off work today. I remembered in time to tell people at my AA home group tonight, but I didn’t get a cake which is what we normally do, so I’ll get one for next week.

Being unwell aside, my life is heaps better than this time six years ago. I still rate this as worth doing.

Today I mark five years of sobriety. At times it’s gone fast, at other times it’s seemed like a lot of hard work. It’s been worth it though. In these five years, I’ve started on a new career path, moved countries, gone on some great holidays in foreign countries, dealt with a few crises, had some medical problems, all without a drink. There have been times when I’ve desperately wanted one, but just not wanted to go back to where I was. What I know now is that I can do many things in life, provided I don’t take that first drink.

I’ll be doing the actual celebration of my “AA birthday” on Friday, at my regular AA meeting. Today is a time to reflect on the past and to look forward to the future.

Someone shared tonight how they picked up a joint a couple of weeks back. This is someone who has been sober for about 8 years or so and I thought pretty much had their act together. In one way this is a bit depressing, in another way it is a timely reminder. I am nearly 5 years sober, which seems like quite a significant milestone, but just the number of days or years isn’t going to protect me against deciding to drink again. This person spoke about the daily work they have done since their lapse to get back to a sober life. It was a message worth hearing.

Another member of my AA group told us last week about Bill Linskey, who was 53 years sober when he died last year. He was the longest-sober member of AA in Europe.

You can read more about his life here or here.

Tonight I learnt of the suicide of someone I knew. He died last week after 12 years of having periods of sobriety, and then going out drinking and using again. He was a lovely guy whose life got dragged lower and lower by alcohol and drugs, until it ended tragically too soon.

Today I celebrated four years of sobriety, which I am really grateful to have. My life today is so much better than it was four years ago, and I am able to deal with deal with everyday ups and downs without using alcohol as a crutch. Two people today remarked on how happy I seemed lately, so I guess something is changing inside me too. I’m looking forward to the future now.

and I can hear some very drunk people in my neighbourhood. I’m glad I’m not one of them.

It’s been over 3 years now, and my life is so much better in all aspects – health, financial, social, emotional and I feel positive and optimistic about the future.