If nobody has told you lately, I'm proud of you bro and I mean that chit. I sincerely do. Pm me before you pick up a drink. If you still wanna have a drink afterwards then do your thing . That goes for anyone here

I believe that begins with developing the desire for sobriety over intoxication and putting that work in.**** yeah brah!This! And same, my PMs are always open.

Yeah, alcohol and smoking are two bad culprits! Then again, any sort of addictive substance/behavior is likely to effect your health and appearance as well lol.

Hope all y'all brahs are doing well and the week is off to a good start. Today has been a well needed sunny day and I got a good leg workout in at the gym!!

This..also has a pretty rad leg sesh at the gym. Now at work for a twelve hour shift but we in there. Getting it

**** yeah! Get dat money lol. I am sore as **** today, which is a good thing. I've been tearing it up in the gym this week. I want to eventually (hopefully soon) achieve my dream of being lean enough for visible abs that I never could achieve through my addiction. It's nice because it gives me something to strive for although I'll need other goals and ambitions as well!

I’m coming up on 6 months guise. It’s like taking the first step forward.

Congrats! I'd say you have taken much more than a first step forward! I know it might not seem like much time, but I believe it's the most important time of one's recovery.

Think so? I don’t want to blow it out of proportion. It’s hard to explain my mindset. This can’t be an accomplishment, it just IS. Has to happen, so it did. There’s no other way.

Well, the other way is I might as well just blow my brains out right now because if I start drinking again, I’m as good as dead and it won’t be pretty.

But I guess I can still feel proud?

I don't see why it can't both be an accomplishment as well as something that had to happen. And yeah, I'm sure it would be hard to explain your mindset. My mindset for a lot of my addiction was depression and wanting to die; hoping that my substance use would lead to a quick death so I wouldn't inflict the sadness that suicide does (as if death in general is any easier lol). I've been so sick of living in this purgatory and decided I either kill myself or achieve greatness through recovery. I'm glad I have been on the path to the latter.

Guys, sober is the best thing ever. Ive not been drunk since 2012 and ive not had even a zip for few years. Alcohol is pointless!
Keep it clear!

Oh.. and drugs are for losers, listen to andrew huberman podcast instead!

I agree, although sobriety certainly has challenges. But, I believe that challenges, discomfort, and pain is how we truly grow as human beings. Congrats on your long term sobriety! I am looking forward to saying that I have over a decade of sobriety in the future.


How has everyone been doing? My week has been pretty good; I've been crushing it in the gym and making decent gains. However, I have slept like one to maybe two hours of broken, weak ass sleep the past three nights. I've been incredibly restless, which has been preventing me from falling asleep. I believe that this restlessness is partially due to newfound increased DOMS, but it could also be from PAWS. I need to be extra careful and practice vigilance because tiredness can be a huge trigger for relapse. I like to keep HALT in mind (hunger, anger/anxiety, loneliness, and tiredness) in times like this.


Also, I was doing some thinking and I came up with the idea to offer my experience as a recovery coach to the misc for free (although I would not turn down any amount of donation lol)! My role as a recovery coach would not be to tell you what to do or how to live your life, but instead to give an opportunity to have someone actively listening to you, share my own experiences (only when appropriate and relevant, this would be your time, not mine), and offer tools to help yourself to be successful on your journey of recovery. I am essentially your peer, so I stand side by side with you! The recovery part is very encompassing, so it can be recovery from strictly mental illness, substance abuse, trauma, etc or a combo of those things. I would like to offer an opportunity to meet over Zoom for 30-45 minutes on a weekly or less frequent basis. I don't know if anyone would be interested, but if I get several people interested, then I might not be able to coach everyone. If anyone is genuinely interested, then you can let me know via PM or reply to this, although PM would probably be best.

I hope that everyone is set to have a great weekend. The weather should be nice here, so I am gonna try to take advantage and go out bike riding. Also, I am looking forward to hitting the gym and trying to keep lifting heavier. I'm gonna practice self care as best as I can, especially because of the aforementioned significant tiredness.

Ooh baby, another good workout today! Tore up my arm workout today. Stopped by Safeway to buy one of those ready meals (I got salmon and asparagus) since they are yummy and easy. Bumpin this song on the walk:



I hope everyone has had a good weekend!

Alright, last post for the day. Sorry for spamming the thread, just been in a sharing mood lately. I just made a video that might be helpful for others in terms of relapse prevention:

[QUOTE=Joeyw88 post_id=1681815003]Alright, last post for the day. Sorry for spamming the thread, just been in a sharing mood lately. I just made a video that might be helpful for others in terms of relapse prevention:

[youtube]2X9Hhmmuaiyoutube][/QUOTE]I'm up way past my bedtime but I will try to catch some of this tomorrow. I have a short attention span so I can't promise I'll watch all 30 minutes, but I watched the first few minutes and you seem super likable and well spoken. Great job man.

Joey, I did watch most of that video last night even though I didn't plan on it. I'll try to finish it today. I thought it was pretty good.

I liked what you talked about with breathing and mindfulness. Something to keep in mind is that the past only exists in our memory. Life truly is about the present.

I saw this quote recently and I thought there was a lot of truth behind it, at least personally for me.


"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."

- Kahlil Gibran

I saw this quote in a fiction book in one of my favorite fiction series, the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz, but he likes to throw in interesting quotes and philosophical things in all his novels.

I appreciate the view and I also appreciate the kind words and feedback! Mindfulness is definitely a powerful, yet underutilized tool for a lot of people. It's amazing how helpful drawing one's self to the current moment can be. It has been something that I have been working on practicing multiple times a day. Lot's of good ways to invoke it like meditation and breathing. I like that quote a lot! So true! I have really been learning the value of embracing the pain and discomfort instead of running away from it with substance use. The pain and discomfort is a great opportunity to learn and grow as a human being!

What's up my sober brothers? How has everyone been doing? Hopefully y'all have been having a good week so far and staying cool. I've been doing pretty well, just trying to lay low with all this heat going on.

Good bro how are you?

What else is new with you

I've been really good. Had some GI illness/symptoms going on last week, which kept me out of the gym. I've been back at it this week and just trying to stay busy. Still doing the recovery coaching which I ****ing love!

Any big updates with you? I hope your recovery and health has still been going well!

Hello recovery broskis! As always, I hope that everyone has been doing well! Does anyone have any victories or challenges to share?

I've been doing super well! Lots of victories! I just got put on less restrictive probation/possibly not on probation anymore. On Friday, my PO was like "well you're doing well and are super low risk so we won't be meeting monthly anymore". That's ****ing super awesome, even if I am still on some sort of bench probation where I don't need to check in. Also, I will be graduating my outpatient SUD group in the next week or two, which has been long overdue. I haven't been in a rush to finish it, but it will be nice considering it's been so ****ing long. I started IOP in December 2021 up until early March when I went to jail for failing mental health court and re-entered IOP late March 2022, which went til like July-ish and then I have been doing weekly OP groups ever since lol. My fitness and health is continuing to improve and my mental health has been pretty solid, mostly due to the good physical health. I was able to switch gym locations finally and now I am able to workout and go to the recovery cafe within a reasonable time frame each day. I am looking forward to volunteering a few days a week at the cafe again since it is such a supportive environment for my recovery! I'm still doing recovery coaching, which is still going well. I'm trying to get back to making more Youtube videos and I might possibly be doing a collab video with someone who also experienced nerve damage from nitrous oxide abuse. He had asked to talk over the phone weeks back after watching one of my videos and wanted to ask me questions about my experience with symptoms and subsequent recovery process.

I am incredibly grateful for the life I live currently and I owe it to my recovery. I am glad that my recovery is not the sole definition of myself and therefore I am not one of the obnoxious types to only talk recovery/sobriety lol (no hate to them tho). However, recovery is definitely a huge piece and I feel a sense of purpose in life trying to support others in their journey of recovery. It's crazy how little I have compared to 3-4 years ago and yet I am waaaaaayyyyy happier now than I could have ever imagined. Sorry for the long post, it just feels nice writing out thoughts and feelings time to time. Journaling is such a good coping skill/mindfulness technique and I'm glad I can share it with you all!

thanks for sharing, very interesting to hear about you

You always give great advice and insight bro. Didn’t know you were dealing with legal stuff and probation/incarceration or whatever it is exactly you’ve been going through. I’m actually interested to hear more about your story, come to think of it I know nothing about you and what you’ve gone through.

Glad your mental and physical health is better, it’s worth more than anything.

I also at one point a few years ago had and was making way more money, still not a lot but more than I have now but I honestly don’t view it as my main priority anymore. Money is obviously important and we all have to make a living but priorities shift when chit hits the fan. Or at least, priorities had BETTER shift or else there’s a problem.

No problem and thank you!! I like to think I have decent insight lol. I worked as a behavioral health RN for a few years and my last job was a detox nurse for a little over a year (lol go figure). The legal stuff is from two incidents. Christmas Day 2019 I got tazed and dog piled by police, received 3 charges: reckless driving, resisting arrest, and malicious mischief 3. June 2020 I got a DUI.

So the mental health court/jail time was for the Xmas arrest and probation has been for the DUI.

I love hearing about everyone’s story of addiction and recovery because we all go through unique paths even if our drug or choice is the same!

Gotcha. Well you’ll get all of that stuff out of the way and probably can take something positive from the experience srs that might sound gay but everything new has the potential to be good in some way. Most things new, I guess.

Day 3 no weed after 5+ years straight of smoking 10 times per day. I am quitting with hopes of alleviating depression and severe fatigue.

Withdrawal has me feeling like nothing could possibly be fun anymore. Activities I used to enjoy are just pissing me off. Everything is irritating. Wake up every hour at night.

Has anyone actually gone from depressed to not depressed bc they stopped smoking? Idk if I want to do this if there's no significant chance at making a difference.

I basically have narcolepsy and sleep 12 hours per night normally and still have 0 energy all day the next day. I'm hoping quitting weed will help with that too. Think it will give energy?

I look nothing like my avatar bc I've been lazy for the last 10 years. I wonder if after quitting weed I could get the motivation to actually lift and diet again.

Hey, welcome to the thread! I appreciate you posting your challenge with abstaining from marijuana! I don’t think there’s a right or wrong opinion, but I believe that marijuana also can lead to physical dependence and subsequently withdrawal symptoms when consumption is stopped. Sounds like you were a heavy smoker and are most likely going through some tough withdrawal, like the lack of pleasure (anhendonia), irritability, fatigue, and probably also reduced appetite, vivid dreams/nightmares, sweating.

It’s extremely difficult to answer your question and I think it’s a question that is best answered by yourself through trial and error. I can’t promise that you will experience more benefits after quitting marijuana compared to not quitting. I believe it’s helpful to ask yourself why you want to quit your drug of choice/pursue sobriety. Like really break it down and write it out with a cost benefit analysis sheet. Sometimes, sobriety/abstinence is not worth it for some.

For me personally, I need complete sobriety and an active lifestyle of recovery to prevent myself from falling back into my old lifestyle which was completely destructive to myself and others. Another thing to keep in mind is that it is going to take some time to get through physical withdrawal and even more time to get through the post acute withdrawal.

There’s a lot in your post that I’d like to respond to and offer perspectives/suggestions, but I just got to the gym and then have my outpatient group right after. I guess the last bit I would like to elaborate on is to seek medical treatment. If you have an official diagnosis of narcolepsy that is a very serious disorder and there are medications that can help with that (ironically they sometimes prescribe meth and/or GHB lol). Also, it wouldn’t hurt to look into inpatient or outpatient treatment for your substance use disorder. Having loving and supportive friends/family has been a key component to my recovery.

This is unrelated to recovery (well I guess the cuteness is good for my recovery) but gosh darn this cat is too cute lol




I am in the process of making dinner and then gonna shower. I am pretty spent for the day, which is nice. I appreciate the the difference between tiredness with or without drugs and feeling spent. I had a good productive day and I am looking forward to dinner, dessert, a nice shower, and bed. Gonna wake up early tomorrow to crush a workout and then go volunteer at the recovery cafe. I'm tempted to make a Youtube video tonight just v-journaling my thoughts and feelings, but I dunno. I hope you guys are well!

^^^^^^ You rock boyo! Myron!! And yes the good feeling of tiredness is a contented and comfortable satisfied feeling of no pain or anxiety.

Thanks mang, you too! It seems like you have been in much better spirits recently compared to a few months ago. I'm glad your recovery is going well and you are reaping the benefits!


I am so ****ing tired this morning, but I am still getting ready for the gym. I know these two AI deep fakes are silly, but kinda motivating lol.

lol I gotta check those out

How do you work on forgiving yourself or moving past bad times? Like mentally and emotionally

For me, it has been a matter of time and also making some sort of amends. I try to make amends with people, but sometimes you can’t and therefore I practice more of a living amends type life. I aim to live the best and most helpful life I can with successful recovery and knowing that helps me come to acceptance with the many many ****ty things I’ve done in the past.