Hey David! Congratulations on 36 days! That’s awesome! What I can say about cravings in my experience is that they will pass and sometimes the thoughts of using will be there, but you don’t need to act on it. Number 1# thing is Do Not use no matter what! Remember that you’re allergic to alcohol and the reaction you have if you consume it and reactivate that part of your Brian again, it will progressively become worse and your life will become unmanageable in one way or another, even if you were ever a functional addict, okay the tap through and remember how it was for you in your active addiction. I’m sure today you are much better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. If the urge feels too strong and you think you might relapse the best thing you can do is reach out to someone else in recovery and talk about it or go to a meeting and share about it. Doing outpatient groups was also helpful for me in early recovery if you feel that you may need extra treatment. Stay strong!

Thank you that makes a lot of sense. I’ve been doing the 90 in 90. So 90 meetings in 90 days and that’s been helping too. I like the allergy metaphor that helps.

Exercise! 💯 It releases endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin and norepinephrine—all the shortcuts booze provides before it then tanks your system and psychology from literal brain dehydration and the CNS depressive symptoms outweigh the feel-goods—burns negative energy, rebuilds your body, stimulates hormone regulation and sleep regulation, burns time otherwise spent spiralling and thinking about what you mistakenly see as "things you're missing out on" just because they once filled your space and time and now do not, and most importantly it makes your mind stronger through trial by fire. It increases your ability to keep going, and may even give you something new to look forward to if you get real into a particular activity. If you're hitting a gym or running a trail or track or biking a trail, etc, it's also going to surround you with other people with similar interests, and the activity itself implies that these people also have a control on their usage of the substance, if they even use it at all, because one cannot be both a sloppy drunk and fit concurrently. 💕 There is so much research to support this, even just reading about it can help (folks like me, anyway 😜). For me—picturing the physical ramifications of consuming the stuff is extremely helpful. Brain shrinkage and muscle dehydration and cell apoptosis and liver degradation, and your kidneys hateeeee you... It is just so toxic, plainly put.

Hey! I’m definitely not new to being sober. I’ve been to treatment 8 times. I recently had almost 10 months sober and relapsed once. Went back to treatment and I’m back to almost 2 months l. The Only thing that’s ever worked for me is actively working a 12 step program

I’ll be 2 years in June. I was taking Naltrexone for a long time, it curbs your cravings. I still drank on it so it really didn’t work for me. My family left me then I finally quit drinking. I attended AA meetings every day for a year. That helped because your not the only one and there are so many people there for you to help you. I still took the naltrexone, but once I got over the hump and the will to quit so I can get my kids back. I don’t even crave it anymore. But give the naltrexone a try it could help you.