Introduction
There are as many different ways to get clean and sober as there are
alcoholics and addicts. There is no magic formula that works for everyone at all
times. All the different "Programs" contain some useful ideas. No
one approach has a "lock" on recovery. Every method produces some success
stories. Every method produces some relapses.
The LifeRing approach to recovery lays emphasis on self-help and on learning
through experimentation. LifeRing members are not expected to present identical profiles,
and there is no fixed therapeutic pathway through which everyone must pass. The
common goal is a full life with zero consumption of alcohol and addictive mind-altering
drugs; but there are many roads to get there, and all are equally valid. You, as a
recovering person, are a scientist conducting a series of experiments of which you are
also the subject. You will try different ideas and different behaviors and see if
they help keep you sober. If they work for you, you will probably retain them; if
they lead you into relapse, you are encouraged to change them and try something else.
The set of ideas and behaviors that work for you compose your personal recovery
program.
As a participant in LifeRing groups, you will be exposed to ideas that have
worked for others, and you will be encouraged to try those that appeal to you. But
you will not be required to model your program after anyone else's. Ordinarily, no
one will offer to tell you what to do, or give you advice, unless you expressly ask for
it. However, participants will freely share what worked and didn't work for them.
You may see a considerable diversity of approaches. Feel free to pick and
choose whatever appeals to you.
You will get support from other participants for each milestone you
pass. The credit for each day of your sobriety belongs to you. LifeRing
will not
try to take away the credit for your sobriety efforts. And if you fall, LifeRing
will not
try to shame you or make you feel that you were not following The Program (there is none).
On the contrary: a relapse may be a key part of your learning experience.
"A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit." If you have a relapse, feel
free to share the experience with your group promptly, and pick up where you left
off.
The ideas in this section are called "tools" because they
worked to keep some people sober. This section presents only a small sampling of the
universe of possible sobriety tools. People invent new ones all the time, and you
are encouraged to add yours as you develop them. This toolbox is like a potluck,
with everyone bringing their favorites to share. None of these is compulsory.
In fact, some people say they don't use any tools at all; they just don't drink or use,
period.
Much of the material that follows was originally published in
Ch. 4 of Handbook of Secular Recovery by
LifeRing Press (now out of print). A much expanded set of tools is comprised in the
Recovery by Choice workbook from
LifeRing Press. Also check out
the Keepers (available as a paperback from
LifeRing
Press and online here) for additional sobriety ideas
from the "LSRmail" email
list, and browse the readings in the Science
section of this web site, especially the complete
treatment
manuals and the material on stress.
Tool Collections
A Surefire Way to Quit
Drinking/Using, by Bob J. (Santa Rosa CA)
Change your
self-image to a non-drinker/user. While this is much easier said than done,
consider the benefits once it’s achieved.
-
You don’t feel
sorry for yourself because you can’t drink or use because you don’t want
to.
-
You aren’t
jealous of people who do drink or use because that’s not you anymore.
-
You won’t relapse
because, eventually, you won’t even get the urge.
-
You don’t have to
attend endless meetings to stay clean and sober.
-
You don’t have to
worry about never being able to drink or use again because you don’t want
to anymore.
-
You avoid all the
baggage associated with “alcoholic” (whatever that means) because you are
a “non-drinker”.
How to get
there:
The mind is a
powerful thing controlling all our behavior. Consciously, or subconsciously,
we all act on or reflect our self-image. Consider the come-from- behind
victories won by Joe Montana and Michael Jordan. They knew they were going
to win, their teammates knew they were going to win, and, I’ll bet, even
their opponents knew they were going to win. Positive thinking brings
positive results.
Technique:
Tell yourself
you’re a non-drinker/user. When the urge comes DON’T GIVE IN! Say: “I’m a
non-drinker/user”. Then distract yourself with another activity until it
passes and you’ve won that round. Don’t give in the next time. Tell
yourself the same thing. The urges become weaker and less frequent as this
process continues until they disappear and you’ve become a
non-user/drinker. You’re just like the huckster who falls for his own line.
I’m not saying
this is an easy task. It is not. In fact it is difficult and takes time and
effort. However, if you decide to abstain and commit yourself to this
process you will find your urges almost disappear and you will be enjoying a
vastly improved life free from having to decide whether you should drink/use
or not.
Results:
I guarantee
that this technique works. It’s essential that you make the decision to
quit and a commitment to that effort. Thinking about it, discussing it or
reading about it won’t suffice. Decide to DO IT. One of our members with 2
months sobriety used this technique. He enjoyed drinking fine wines with
friends. The first time the group went out after his decision it was
difficult for him to abstain. Later it became easier. Last night he said
that abstaining didn’t bother him at all because he is a non-drinker.
This has worked
for some. I hope it works for you.
Abstinence Assists
Contributed by a member of the Santa Rosa CA
LifeRing meeting.
Suggested Guidelines for Sobriety
This classic short statement comes from SOS founder Jim
Christopher's first book, How To Stay Sober: Recovery Without Religion (1988).
Larry B.'s
Sobriety Toolkit
Forty-seven tools of sobriety, from "No Matter What" to
"Action" collected by Los Angeles SOS convenor Larry B. These are quick,
concentrated nuggets of sobriety skills. From the SOS National Sobriety Workshop series
(1992).
Craig
M.'s Monday Night Tool Collection
-
Craig M., a Berkeley/Oakland convenor, collected these
twenty tested tips for staying sober at the Monday night Berkeley (then) SOS meeting and posted
them on the LSR Email List (1997).
Heath's Eight Ideas To Get Through Early Recovery
- Heath M., in recovery in Atlanta, posted this personal
list of things he did to ease his way through early sobriety, on the LSR Email List
(1998).
Rex's Short List of Recovery Necessities
"What do you need to do to achieve sobriety? I don't know! But YOU
know. You know, even if you don't think that you know. Here is my short list of some of
the things that have been necessary to recovery for some of us." (Posted on
LSR Email
List 6/98)
Todd's
Personal List After 2 Years:
Here is how I got and am staying sober (your mileage may
vary):
1) Know your enemy, go on the web and research the
effects of alcohol on the body and mind. Learn about alcoholism.
2) Eat well. Especially early on your body needs help
repairing the damage done. Avoid/cut back on caffeine (I switched to tea, many
varieties to try and about ½ the caffeine of coffee). Watch out for foods
with processed sugar. The last two items will stabilize your blood sugar
level, which for me is vital to felling well.
3) Exercise. It does several things, such as giving a
good endorphin rush, gives you something to focus and learn about and it makes
you healthy. I personally like biking, running working out at a gym, Frisbee
golf, ...
4) Replay in your mind the bad experiences you have had
as a result of drinking (I either focus on a few really bad things or just
start listing off as many as I can).
5) I looked myself strait in the eye (a mirror helps
greatly!) and said "I am Todd W, I am an alcoholic. I will not drink
today, because if I do something bad will happen such as <fill in the blank
with something different every day>."
6) Don't worry about drinking tomorrow, all I gotta do
is not put the shit in my mouth at this moment.
7) I counted days, then weeks then months, now
years.
8) Realize that drinking is no longer an option so don't
sweat it (I read a book titled "Plato not Prozac" that really help
to come to terms with the fact that I can't drink like most people)
9) When the urge strikes, strike back! Don't put it out
of mind, take it head on and use some of the above tools.
10) When at a party, study the really drunk people and
realize that it isn't cool to get tanked.
11) Enjoy the mornings!!
For those of you starting out or having a tuff time,
just keep at it. It is worth the struggle.
Todd W., LSRMail list, 7/11/01
"Daily Dos"
Jim Christopher's
"Triumph" Workshop
The founder of SOS, a Certified Addiction Specialist, worked out a
method for staying sober based on retraining the visceral urges to drink that emanate from
the "lizard brain" inside us. Jim's method relies on a daily "calling
up" exercise to be done in front of a mirror.
SOS Journal of
Recovery (Out of Print)
We retain more of what we see in print than what we hear, and we commit
more firmly to what we put in writing than to what we promise silently or orally. The SOS
Journal of Recovery contains a year's worth of daily fill-in-the blanks exercises --
another form of the "Daily Do" -- by which we acknowledge what we are and renew
our commitment not to drink or use today, no matter what. (Click on the title for more
details.)
Shares From the SOS Email List on the
"Daily Do" Topic
- Laura L: One thing
that helped me a lot when I got sober was to actually write down how drinking made me
feel, and all the guilt, shame etc., the behaviors I exhibited, etc. etc. Just having that
small, folded piece of paper in my wallet helped a lot... I rarely even looked at
it, because I knew what was written there. This was just a little "daily do"
that helped me.
- Marianne: My contribution: take a multi-vitamin with
minerals each day, washed down with various flavored waters, soft drinks new to the market
since you gave them up for booze, or interesting juices and juice mixes.
- Tom Shelley: "...I have been fortunate to have gotten
involved with a totally secular AA group from my second month of sobriety and since 1987
have been actively a part of SOS. The focus of the secular AA group (the infamous "104 Group", in
St. Pete FL) was strongly on behavior modification. Though, over the years, I have
added a lot of tools to my toolbox, changing my behavior made sense then and makes sense
now. The first change was, obviously, from drinking/drugging behavior to sober behavior.
Then, my changes in behavior had to be oriented to maintaining this sober state. My old
friend, Lucybelle, says "Watch the behavior.", as it is the best predictor of
future outcomes.
"So, as many writing here have done, I make
a number of daily "affirmations" of my commitment to sobriety. I note that this
is a personal "choice", though the concept of "choice" is, for me, a
whole 'nother issue. That aside, the other thing that I consider when discussing my
sobriety, both publicly and in those many "internal dialogs" that I am prone to
have is the question of whether or not I am perpetuating an "illness", or
indulging in "negative thinking". Some people feel that the "need" to
make a daily nod to sobriety is not only unnecessary, but counterproductive. Somehow, and
I am not sure how, keeps opening some sort of "wound" and will not allow the
practitioner to get on with a normal life.
"I have a lot of ways that I have found to talk about this. Among
them, the fact that I consider the use of my sobriety tools, daily, akin to exercise or
eating. I have to do these things to maintain my health and strength. But, today, while
looking through correspondence on the Usenet "alt.recovery" groups, I ran across
a quote attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the "Lord of The Rings", etc. I
am going to keep this one, as it says it all, for me. Says Tolkien, "It does not pay
to leave a dragon out of your calculations if you live near him." While I am loathe
to personify my addiction, I'll buy the metaphor.
"As to what I do, I do the following. Like some others, I use this
list as my starting point for the day. I begin each working day by checking my e-mail.
Almost always, there is correspondence here which deals directly with issues which affect
my life. I also keep my e-mail and refer to it often. It is the most available source of
sobriety information that I have. I have been a so-called "convenor" for SOS for
almost nine years. This activity keeps me actively involved in all the aspects of my
"homegroup" meeting. This is not a great big deal, but it provides me with some
obligations that "force" me to focus my attention on my reason for being in SOS
in the first place. Using both e-mail and the telephone, I try to make a daily contact
with another sober person. This is a holdover from my AA experience and not hard to do, as
I have made many friends in SOS.
"I attend my regular "homegroup" meeting of SOS on Friday
nights. After the meeting I go out for food, coffee, and talk with other group members. I
spend some time during my week looking for additional information on sobriety and recovery
issues. Whether this is on the Internet, in libraries and bookstores, in newspapers, and
by personal contact.
"Finally, and this is not all just what jumps to mind immediately,
I talk to my family about staying sober. I have been fortunate (not a high bottom, just a
big one) to have been married to the same woman for twenty-four years. Her love and help
have been of inestimable value in my getting and staying sober. So, it is a natural and
comfortable part of my life to share my sobriety thoughts and talk with her. And, with my
daughter, Allison, who is here only by reason of the fact that I got sober and stayed
sober. My sobriety is a part of all of our lives.
Aram A.: "I give myself a short pep talk when I wake up
every morning."
Kerrie M.: "One thing that helps me stay sober is a saying I
found at a 12-step store. It's pasted on my bathroom mirror, so I see it every morning.
The original got waterlogged, but it goes something like this, 'I'd rather
spend the rest of my life sober, believing I'm an alcoholic, than live it drunk or just a
little bit drunk, trying to convince myself I'm not.'"
Rick G.: "Kerrie ... I loved your 'Daily Do.' Reminds me of
one I saw on a small desk top daily flip chart I once owned. Got it in a book store and I
still see them around, if anyone likes the idea check out your local book store recovery
section. I used to look forward to the morning 'flip' with my coffee.... What I'm calling
a "daily flip chart" was actually a small cardboard triangular shaped item about
4" by 3" joined at the top by a wire binding. Each card had a delightful
positive affirmation on it as a sort of 'thought for the day.' I had it for about the
first year clean and sober until I got bored with it. Looking back now, I think it may
have been written by an AAer because the messages were mostly simple 'peace and serenity'
thoughts, but without anything specifically related to AA. I think it helped, a little bit
anyway, level out the irrational b.s. going on in my head in the first few months clean
and sober. I still see items like the one I described above, in my favorite book store.
"I remember in the first few months a sober employee who has been
with me for many years, would come into my office, see me sitting there gritting my teeth
and say 'lighten up a bit Rick! Jeeeezzz! We liked you better drunk all the time.' That
helped level me out for a few days."
Mark P.: "I am a big fan of making one's living space a
constant reminder for sobriety. I have several 'reminders' posted about my apartment. In
the kitchen I have a small 'I will not be destroyed by my alcoholism,' others posted about
are 'The Sobriety Priority,' 'I don't drink no matter what.' I leave some kind of recovery
literature in view at all times. Jim's book is always lying about somewhere. I collect
articles on recovery and there is usually one on the night stand. My bookshelf has many
volumes on recovery which are visible. I have videos on recovery sitting by my VCR. It
would be impossible to be in my house for more than 20 seconds without knowing that I am
an alcoholic in recovery. That's the way I want it. Whatever room I am in there is
something to remind my brain (lizard and otherwise) that I am in recovery.... I also check
this e-mail forum first thing every morning before I go to work. It is a nice way to start
a sober day."
Marty N: "I try
to do something every day to remind myself that I am an alcoholic and cannot drink or use,
no matter what. Jim C. makes a big point of this in all his writings, and his Triumph
workshop constitutes the nuclear-strength version of such an everyday denial-buster. (We
also have the Journal of Sobriety for those who like to work with pens and pencils.) At
first it was drinking decaf in the morning, instead of caf, that reminded me. Then I
started taking B-complex vitamins to restore my depleted body chemistry, and swallowing
those horse-sized pills every morning definitely jogged my brain. Moreover, the vitamins
turned my urine neon-yellow, so that the reminder repeated itself throughout the day. Then
I mentally associated tooth brushing with affirming my alcoholism, and that worked for a
time. Lately I've been using my participation in this email list as my Daily Do. A few
months ago my wife took a weight reduction class, and the instructor there, in a very
similar vein, gave them a long list of healthy eating practices and told them they had to
do Something Of Something ("SOS") every day. So, having an everyday ritual of
affirmation, a daily denial of denial, is a very "SOS" thing to do."
Larry D.: "Most AA slogans made me want to puke, more so the
more often I heard them. But two were really useful to me:
"The first was 'Easy does it!' I put a bumper sticker up high in
the rear window of my jeep, the only time I was tempted to use my car as a temperance
billboard, and I got some great reactions to it. I was surprised to learn how generic the
slogan was; I got recognition from alcoholics, drug abusers, overeaters, gamblers,
wife-abusers, and once from somebody in an organization for pedophiles in recovery. My
sticker was transparent and faced outward, so when I looked in the rearview mirror the
message read normally, left-to-right. Especially in my earliest days of sobriety (or was
it because I was younger then?), I needed that message often, and I think the sticker
helped me a lot. For sure, it saved me a few speeding tickets.
"The other slogan is more germane to recent discussions: 'There is
no problem I've got that is so bad that taking a drink won't make it worse.' An
elaboration on the theme of the SOS slogan: 'I don't drink no matter what,' it made me
stop and think at a couple very critical times. I didn't dust it off very often, but in a
crisis situation, it was a lifesaver."
Michael O.: "One of the best Xmas gifts I have received is
tuning into SOS and it arrives at my computer threshold every day! Thanks to you all for
being there, wherever you are."
Sherry F.: "My mantra borrowed from my stop-smoking days
'Drinking (smoking) never makes anything better' -- the only response that seems to apply
to most situations. Although the aforementioned is not a daily affirmation, it is an
affirmation nonetheless, pulled out on an as needed basis."
Dudley A: "I have no specific Daily Dos to remind me that
drinking is not the best path for me. On the other hand, as I pack up my tennis gear for
the trip to the courts every morning, I can't help but be reminded that were I still
drinking (and smoking), I wouldn't be heading to the tennis courts at all. Not a bad
trade-off, and my memory is such that I have no desire whatsoever to return to my less
than blissful reality of yesteryear."
Ben B.: "...I can offhand think of three things I do on a
daily basis ... that keep me sober: 1. I don't drink. 2. I don't drink. 3. Lastly, but
certainly not least, I don't drink. These have been the only three things that I have
consistently done every day over the last eight years. Okay, so they are all one thing. I
think you get the idea... I haven't had an urge to drink in a while, so I really don't
feel the need to do any ritual around it."
Bob P.: I have noticed that when I first started with SOS, I was reading Jim
Christopher’s "How to Stay Sober: Recovery w/o Religion." I was also doing
the daily journaling in the back of the book. This seemed to be a significant part of my
commitment to my sobriety. Once I finished the book, I shelved it and quit the journaling.
Though I missed it, I didn't think it significant. At this point, 5 days sober, I think it
needs to be revisited, for me. Sure I log on probably 5 - 10 times a day for email, but I
rarely make the conscious commitment in my mind to prioritize my sobriety daily. I am now
starting to email myself my commitment daily. This way it comes back to remind me a second
time.
Dealing
with Cravings and Feelings
Set Up the
Projector
If I wondered why I didn't drink yesterday, I'd never get this morning's
breakfast or probably lunch made. I have discovered that my superhuman, superheterodyne,
Hoover Dam-powered intellect doesn't do me much good when I have to fight off the desire
for drink or cigarettes.
I use the part of the brain that tells me that I am not a drinker and not a smoker.
When some part of the brain pops up and says: "Why not?" I ask it if it would
like to see some old film clips of what happens when I drink. If it wants to see them, I
set up the projector and play as much as any of us can take from my archives.
Then I go and make breakfast.
-- MOG
Make a Big Painting
I submit not a unique idea but one that helped me much: when the
irrational idea of wanting a drink came powerfully at me, I would say yes to it in my head
and then follow it through, watching the ensuing consequences. Buy a big bottle of wine,
no two or three, since I didn't want to get caught having to drive out for more. Feel much
better half hour later. Feel a little dizzy an hour later and want to call a lot of people
and tell them lots about myself these days. But also want to make a big painting that
shows exactly how I feel about everything. Screaming at the world after three hours.
Asleep on couch. Wake in morning with stomach pain and head made of burnt matches and
dreadful curdled sense of self. I then figure that I really don't want to go and buy a
bottle of wine and don't.
-- MOG
Sitting With My Feelings
The time of recovery began when I was willing to sit there and feel whatever pain
my mind and body would create and still not take the drink. I got to the point of that
"sitting with" when I couldn't find anything else that worked ... moderation,
only one, every-other, day ... support groups ... and reading ... .After the "sitting
with" the support group, education, and involvement with other alcoholics was of
great help. BUT, the "sitting with" was only one millimeter this side of a
feeling of total destruction.
After the "sitting with" I could use daily schedules, commitments,
self-examination into why alcohol worked so well for me in the beginning and the beginning
of a lifelong study of being an alcoholic.
Seventeen years after the "sitting with" it still remains the most
traumatic memory of my recovery. There is wisdom among those of us who practice recovery
in the secular way...wisdom that needs to be shared with those who approach us and say
help, I don't know how to do this thing. With so many "Ways" and the great need
for each individual to find their own way ... the more we share the process, the more we
offer suggestions, techniques, and philosophical rantings that have resulted in our
individual sobriety, the more human beings will make it.
Being sober ain't an easy thing. If it were we would all know how it is done. For
me it began with "THE SITTING WITH." I didn't think I would survive, but life is
now things I couldn't even imagine back at that time. Life is worth stopping.
--Ron C., posted on the
SOS Email List,
4/19/97
The Acceptance Valve
Gary Emery uses the metaphor of an "acceptance valve," the
portal through which our experience flows. Free flowing experience = emotional and
psychological equilibrium. A partially closed acceptance valve reduces the flow of
experience causing something like emotional constipation. In other words, resistance to
experience (expressed physically as tension and "bracing") narrows the
acceptance valve, creating "friction" and causing emotional pain, just as the
wires in a toaster resist the flow of electricity causing heat.
The system is self-reinforcing. Resisting negative emotions/experiences magnifies them,
making them more painful than they have to be. Resistance delays efficient processing of
experience causing painful experiences to last longer. Chronically clogged acceptance
valves can create a logjam of undigested, unprocessed, unresolved experiences which --
consciously or unconsciously -- persist over time, as they are regularly
"replayed" like discordant notes on a piano when triggered by thoughts and
external events. Acceptance valves that remain clogged over many years represent so-called
"neurotic" personalities as well as other physical and mental health problems. I
believe that this process has complicity in some addictions: an inability to efficiently
process experience, thus the need to medicate ourselves.
This may sound vague and almost mystical; and it certainly fits in nicely with Martin's
discussion of "effortless" and the Tao. However, it is not nearly as intangible
as it may sound. It is simply a choice (or lack of one) about how we react to the FACT of
experience. We all have experiences; good, bad, neutral. We cannot prevent experience, nor
should we try to. But we do have very considerable choice about how we think about and
react to those experiences, and that makes all the difference.
This is NOT an exercise in surrender, pacifism, or masochism. It is healing, and is in
fact empowering in a great number of ways.
I am becoming overlong, but it would be unfair to sign off here without at least
offering a tidbit of a technique for practicing acceptance. I find that a secularized
version of the "Serenity Prayer" can be helpful: Replace "Gawd, grant
me...." with "I am developing the capacity (serenity)..."
Also, direct from Emery: When a painful experience happens, you say to yourself (as in
an "I-thou dialog") "I accept that I am really pissed off that the dog peed
on the carpet again ... and I am moving toward my vision of a clean house and well-behaved
mutt." It is important to note that the act of acceptance is toward (and of) your
EXPERIENCE; it is not about the act of the dog or the damage to the carpet; because some
behaviors and circumstances can of course be quite unacceptable and intolerable.
Try it with something that is bugging you, and see if it gets you through the
experience more quickly and comfortably, and leaves you calmer, able to do more effective
problem solving.
-- Rex A.,
SOS
Email List, 8/98
Re-Engage the
Senses
Here's another toolbox item: I can be going along in
sobriety just fine and then WHAM! a craving hits. My awareness and
consciousness fly away and I forget to inhabit my body. The trick is to
re-engage my five senses: squeeze my legs and arms, touch my face and hair,
hop or skip, eat a breath mint, smell a flower, etc.
My most dangerous "war zone" is behind the
wheel of a car. The car goes on automatic pilot within this little plastic
tube (amazingly similar to the hamster habitat, but designed for alcoholics)
to the nearest drugstore or supermarket where wine is sold. So at all times I
carry my Sobriety Survival Kit. It contains, among other things, a jar of
bubbles, a harmonica, a kaleidoscope, Tic Tacs, raisins, perfumed skin lotion,
a feather duster, a foot roller/massager, castanets, a copy of "Keepers",
(a book of the best messages from the early days of this list), a journal and
pen, a clown nose, a Koosh ball, and a pair of white gloves. If I have to go
into the grocery store for regular shopping, I put on those gloves because
it's impossible to reach for the liquor shelf without noticing them as a
reminder of my commitment to sobriety.
Of course, all of this is just stage props if I choose
to override my intention. But it has saved my ass more than a time or two.
Kindly, Sally
7/9/01
Four Tools That Help Me
By Mark C.
People. I have found that if I
am alone or with people who are still using then it's usually just a matter of
time before I start to find excuses to use. Being around people who are not
using, and specifically people in recovery I find excuses not to use.
Establish Phone Buddies: Because it
can be awkward to ask for help when I really need it I have found it useful to
call one or two phone buddies on a regular basis (every day for me) just to
say hi and check in.
When I really need them for support I have already established a relationship
and it comes natural to mention any current dilemma and get the support I
need. I can also be there to support them, which helps me feel useful.
Minimize Drama: Too much drama takes
me out every time. For myself I find my personal drama has three etiologies:
1) I divert my attention from what is happening in my life.
2) I feed my narcissistic desire to be the center of attention.
3) I have poor decision making capabilities when it comes to how much I should
become involved in other people's drama.
The key for me is to find out where my drama is coming from and choose to
address it in a healthier way.
Debriefing at the end of the day: I
get together with a friend on the phone or in person and we talk about how our
day went. I try to answer the following questions:
1) How did my feelings change throughout the day?
2) What I did for my sobriety?
3) In what ways did I jeopardize it?
4) What do I need to do tomorrow?
5) Tell something good about myself.
I usually feel better about how the day went when I do this.
12/5/01
Sobriety Time and
Money Savings Calculator
By Jim Moore
This little Windows program calculates to
the second how long you've been clean and sober. And, if you tell it
what you used to put in your body, how often, and how much it cost, the
program will tell you how much money abstinence has saved you to
date.
Especially neat is that you can set the
program up to put a little calculator icon in your system tray (lower right
corner of Windows screen) so that you can see your up-to-the-second sobriety
time and savings whenever you move your mouse over the icon.
Click
to download (79K ZIP file, installs using WINZIP or any
equivalent.) (Link repaired.)
(More to come)
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