-> Hello Elaine!
->
-> You'll see from my last post I had a spot of trouble a couple days
-> ago. I wish this had gotten out quicker, I needed some help. I did
-> get through it, and got some help. I couldn't just stop it, it took
-> a couple days, and I stayed clean and dry. I'm looking over what I
-> missed now. I'm doing another 4th. That scared me to death.
->
-> My question now is this. I've been in the rooms of NA and AA for 7
-> years. I've never met someone who had trouble with say over 5 years.
-> Sure I've heard of it but nobody has EVER told me they were having a
-> problem staying clean and sober over 5 years. NONE. I remember when
One has now. At 8 years clean/sober, I live with chronic, fairly major
physical pain, and in a building that's sometimes full of dope smoke.
You better believe I occasionally think about chemical relief. I go do
what it takes not to drink or drug, some of it program stuff and some
not, and if the craving went on for a long stretch, sure I'd be
concerned... but geeze, if you've been told getting past five years
means a guarantee you'll never hit a "craving pocket" again, somebody
has lied to you bigtime. We are never, ever cured, which means there's
no guarantee we won't have an occasional recurrence of our main symptom.
I know people who have relapsed at 10, 15, and 20 years, partly
*because* they felt they weren't supposed to need help or say "It's hard
not to drink today."
-> All my tools failed.
No they didn't. You went to meetings. You came here. You didn't drink.
Not so shabby for an alcoholic.
Take a deep breath, my friend.  You're still a miracle any day you don't
pick up a bottle, and no thought, feeling, or behavioral glitch you may
go through in the process of being human and having our disease negates
that.  And a few days of craving don't negate all those years without
it. You just hit a pocket.
Hang in there.
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.11 
---------------