Cleaning house can look like many different things: from removing toxic relationships to rearranging your furniture, we discuss different ways to tidy-up negative lifestyle choices that could lead to relapse.
Cleaning house can look like many different things: from removing toxic relationships to rearranging your furniture, we discuss different ways to tidy-up negative lifestyle choices that could lead to relapse.
Yo, what? Welcome back 12 ounces sobriety podcast. I am pat sharp here with my S stupendous host, Robbie Ann Carson.
Welcome PS. We are recording this on a Thursday. It'll be coming out on a Friday. We're actually recording it Thursday night. We just got done with, , group therapy. I'll call. Is basically what it is, but, , at the rehab center we all met at, so had a good time there.
And, uh, here we are recording, , late night, I guess. And so it's becoming out Friday and, , you can listen to it all week and long. , like I said before, review us and rate us on whatever podcast app you're listening on. We would appreciate. I know we promised everybody this would be our first interview episode. However, there was a scheduling conflict with the person that we were supposed to interview. So hopefully we'll be bringing that to you next week.
To be determined on that. I just wanted to put that out there real quickly. Just in case you were like, Hey, they said the last episode that they're gonna have an interview on this release pulled you. And, and, and unfortunately we do not. So you just have to listen to three of us one more time. It's okay.
We're in really spreading, we got past lies. We have pully more to talk about. Don't you guys worry? you're lucky we cut it off at anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, cuz we could probably go for about three hours. Today we are bringing back a topic and the topic we are bringing up is going to be cleaning house.
And no, I don't mean pulling out the, , the swifter duster or things like that, but cleaning out the bad influences, um, the triggers, things like that. If you look back a lot of people in addiction, They don't have the most savory characters in their lives. So to say, , you need to really take a big hard look at who is in your life, who is supportive, whether, and, and sometimes even family members is something you gotta look at your friends where you hung out at, where you hung out at, uh, different activities that you engaged in different stressors, different things like that.
So we're gonna get into all of. And hopefully, you know, for some of you that are early in sobriety, that haven't necessarily done a, a deep dive into this and really looked at cleaning up your house, , more or less meaning cleaning up your lives a little bit to avoid those triggers and avoid the relapses that may come along with it.
It may be the, , Mandela effect, but I think it's SWER, right? What did I say? Swifter? Oh, SWER. I, I was trying to think of, I thought I heard SWER, but. I think I was trying to say dirt devil in any who, whatever cleaning instrument is your fancy instrument you do, and any who? Yeah. So, uh, getting into that a little bit, I was lucky, , especially since I moved back to the Charlotte area a few years ago, I don't my good friends.
I hang out with around here. Aren't big drinkers. I was like the drunk one of the group. I was the embarrassment. I was the one that didn't get invited out to dinners and stuff like that because they knew I'd be drunk. You're a bad boy. I, I remember that long before I quit. One of my buddies, I was at his house watching.
I think football or basketball or something. Then I went over there, watched some sports and I had mention, I was like, yeah, I need a calm down drink. And he's like, yeah, but kind of wanna say something to you. He's like, you're starting to get here at like noon and you're already slurring your words. I'm like, yeah.
So, you know, that was the only time I had a friend say anything. So. Luckily, I didn't really have any of those people in my lives. I isolated and drank alone, but a lot of people do, you know, and with COVID going on, when I decided to quit, I had just gotten outta the habit of going to bars. So I didn't really have that either.
Did you guys have influences in your life or people yet to cut out due to quiting drinking? Yeah. I was gonna ask you that. , for me personally, I did not have to cut anyone out, but there are a lot of triggers that I did, um, that I did need to at least rearrange or restructure. And funny enough, I mean, I'm even talking about my own house, my car, , I hate to say that, but that was kind of a trigger for me.
It was really easy to, , hide alcohol in the car. And, um, you know, even at work, you know, my office, , being, being, having your own office and you know, now I share it with, with a partner of mine, but still it's really easy to get by and, and drink alcohol. So that was, uh, a common for me, you know, cutting out bars is easy, but if it really hits home, , for you, then that is something that you're gonna need to get a little bit creative with.
, but for me personally, no, I didn't really have to cut anybody. Yeah, I, , there wasn't necessarily anybody that I needed to cut out, but I did have to spend time around people in recovery. , I had to be surrounded by it. , I mean, I would say that there, there are people in my past to, you know, , drink a lot and used, , by the time that I was in full fledge alcoholism.
Hm. I was spending very little time with them and I was also isolating, kinda like eat pet. Yeah. And I look at, and I say around here, and one of the reasons is a lot of my friends now, , they're married, they have kids, they have a family, so it's not like they can go out and drink to where I don't have those things.
I'm divorced without kids. So I don't really have any prior. At least that in my head, when I was drinking at the time, I didn't. So I would just continue to drink. Now. I had mentioned in the last episode, going up to New Hampshire, I have a lot of friends that still live that, that lifestyle, I would not be able to live there and maintain sobriety.
And if I did, I wouldn't be able to hang out with them on a regular basis. I would have to pace that out a little bit, but. Being here. I don't really hang out with anybody that, that drinks and Robbie, you had just mentioned about, you know, hanging out with people in recovery. I think it's natural, especially with what we've been through, going to a rehab, you know, going to 12 step meetings.
You just automatically are drawn to those people because they're going through the same thing. And then all of a sudden you find yourself hanging out with them and it wasn't anything. That you sought out to do, or, and maybe you were, and, and there are people out there that's like, well, I gotta make sober friends.
And, but for me it just came natural because we are spending time so much time around sober folks, and we're all talking about our lives and going through early sobriety together. And it's just kind of been a natural fit, which is awesome to kind of get that new support system there. Yeah. I would honestly say, I mean, this certainly pertains to addiction and to drinking and whatnot, but this really goes, uh, for any, you know, just in general, , you, we are a product of the people that we hang out with and the books that we read, you know, the knowledge that we take in on a daily basis.
So really surrounding yourself with people just in general. That have the right mindset, the, that have the, you know, similar aspirations that you might have and really want to go in the same kind of route that you do that want to better themselves. Um, so it kind of pertains to, you know, just things in general, but yes, I mean, surrounding yourself by the, the right people, whether they drink or not, whether they're sober or not, as long as they are on your side, that they.
You know, have that commonality that it's, you know, we want to lead a life with sustenance and are not, you know, held back and tethered by those old ways that we've all experienced. , you know, from, for quite a lot, for quite a long time. Well, I know for me, one of the things I had to do, I had to move out.
I had a townhouse and, , I'd been there for two or three years and I'd just gotten, it was such a place of, it became such a place of depress. And isolation that getting sober, I could not stay there anymore. It just was, it was too much of a trigger. I had bad memories there because that's when my drinking got really, really bad to the point where I couldn't control it anymore.
Not saying before that I could, I could control it slightly. I could at least make it to the end of the day before drinking. Um, I wasn't waking up with the shakes and stuff, but over the last year or. You know, that's where it was. And that's when I really fell into that deep depression and the anxiety got really bad and, and the, just the thought of that place just made me uneasy.
So I, I moved out of there and I was lucky my parents were close by. So I, I just moved in with them to, to just kind of get my feet back underneath me a little bit and have that stability at home because living by myself and isolating, it just was super easy for me to do. And. Where now I don't have, I don't have that choice to isolate because I'm living, you know, like I said, at my parents now, and, and once I am a hundred percent certain I'm okay.
Then I will, you know, move back out and, and get my own place again. But I just wanna make sure that I am mentally stable first. Yeah. Let me kick a scenario here. I'm gonna ask you a hard question or maybe it's not hard, but let's, , let's go back to that time and let's imagine that you did not have your parents.
Um, you didn't have another place to go. What do you think you would've done slash what do you have any insight for people listening that could be in a similar situation they're living at home. But they don't have that lifeline. I would, one of the things I probably would've done, I, I still probably would've moved if I could found at least a different setting, you know, or we were actually talking about this the other night in one of our groups about rearranging furniture.
Mm-hmm um, that's something you could do, like rearrange the entire, your entire place, especially if you don't have the money to move and stuff like. At least rearrange everything, make it look different, make it feel different to you that way it's like you're walking into a new place. We've also talked about this on previous episodes, you know, wake up, make you in bed, keep your place clean, do those types of things that way.
If you do have to stay in the same place or, you know, and you feel that. A loneliness where you're living by yourself, at least start doing some things. Like I said, like rearranging that makes it feel more comfortable and feel like a new place a little bit. And it gets you out of that mindset. You were always in when you were active user.
Yeah. Small things go a long way. , couple quick examples. I. We had someone in our classroom. She, she had come from Chicago and, uh, she lived in an apartment and, and she actually just headed back that way. But, , she let us know that she had some great friends up there and they went and cleaned and rearranged her apartment for her previous to her coming back, which I thought was just an incredible gesture by them, an incredible support so that she wouldn't come back in that same environment.
She would feel welcome. It would be different enough to, you know, kind. Offset that, that immediate trigger in the brain, cuz the brain works in very strange ways and it, and it goes a long way. , and then another guy, , that same night, I don't know if you guys remember, but he actually went into his kitchen and he switched all of his cabinets.
So he took his plates, his cups, et cetera. He just moved them and, and just reversed the whole kitchen so that when he would go in, he had his liquor, you know, at a specific spot. Well now there are plates there. And so just small things like that can go a long way. If you don't, you know, have the, you know, resources or the availability to be able to make a change, if you're kind of, if you feel stuck, just do small things like that.
And it it'll, it'll go a long way. I like the idea of, , the metaphorical house, which is like essentially the way that I'm viewing myself at the time. And like, when I look back at. Really when I was at bottle merged deep into addiction, I'd get to a place of like pity and SHA, just tons of shame. And it all had to do with me holding onto, you know, my behaviors in the past and turning that into like my identity and feeling like, oh man, like I'm so I'm just such a mess.
You know, like life is not. everything that everything in my life has compounded to a place where I'm at in this moment, which is like, when you're at bottom is like, I'm a piece of shit. At least that's what it was like for that's what it was like for me. And, , I think that changing your environment to a certain extent does, uh, It can kind of change your perception of like how you see yourself.
Um, cuz if I'm in the same exact place that I was, when I was going through all this shame and pity. I, I would, I would, you know, associate that and kind of stay in that setting. Yeah, . Yeah. I was going to say, I, I do agree with that a lot and you know, I never process certain emotions. , I didn't know how to deal with 'em.
I would just drink over things. And that's another thing of getting sober and, and, you know, I've worked with a therapist through our, our rehab program that we went to, and I was lucky enough to do that and getting over some of those issues I've had in the past, that where I didn't know that they were there necessarily, or I did, I just had 'em buried deep and I didn't think they were an issue.
And let go of some of that stuff too has really helped me out also because, you know, getting rid of those traumas. Once you start doing that, then there's nothing that you're drinking to forget necessarily. Yeah. Uh, if you guys don't mind, let's, let's take a quick step back to the relational side of things, cuz we, we touched on it, but I'd like to just get a little bit more granular with that.
Um, because you know, relationships are. The biggest parts of our lives, you know, it's, it's our family, it's our friends, it's our significant others. It's our coworkers, it's our peers, whatever. So let's say that, you know, let let's envision ourselves and we maybe have a friend or a family member who is not supportive because the three of us have been pretty damn lucky, um, with the support that we've seen.
And we're, we're very grateful and we don't take that lightly, but. From what I've heard from many people that is not the case. I've heard some really bad stories. It's husbands and wives. It's, it's really close people that you think are gonna be by your side and they haven't been. So I just kind of wanted to talk through that with you guys and, and for the folks listening, you know, cuz I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that might have that, that go-to friend or something like that.
How do you do it? How do you gracefully do this? Cuz there's gonna be a right way. Uh, you know, we're not advocating that you. Block their number and, and cut 'em out. I mean, maybe if it comes to that then sure. But that should be a last resort play. And there, there, there has to be a better way. So I just kind of wanted to, to address that I have a, um, experience with this.
Uh, so my former roommate, , we are very close and, , You know, or both addicts, both alcoholics. And, , I had relapsed actually, when I first moved into the apartment with him. So I still had some guilt at some point, but he was, he wasn't like me in the sense of like, I drink and I get bad really fast. And then I stop usually for a period and then I would go back, but it wasn't consistently drinking.
He was at a point where he was drinking every day, but he also didn't really get as crazy as I did. The problem was that he was bringing alcohol into the apartment. And, , you know, initially I set boundaries with that and he kind of followed him and then, you know, it ended up finding alcohol in the house again.
So. I did stuff wrong and I did stuff right in dealing with it. , initially I was very indirect cuz I was, I, you know, I didn't want to, , offend him or like, you know, just make him defensive, avoiding confrontation. I didn't want the confrontation. Most people don't. Yeah. And, , I also didn't want him to be like, to feel bad about it, you know?
, but the, the thing was me being very indirect. it, it prolonged me letting him go and ultimately that's what I needed for me. So it made it a little bit harder on me. Well, and one thing too, like you were saying, you didn't wanna make him feel bad and that's something, you know, I understand a little bit just from going to meeting stuff, you can't force somebody to get help if they need it, they truly need to be in the right mindset.
So if you know your roommate wasn't ready yet to face his demons or face his issues or whether he had one or not. you trying to get him to change is not going to help him. Yeah. And, and I mean, that's, that's why I had to set this firm boundaries and I had to set 'em for me. , I think I was a little loose at first, but then I ended up making expectations, you know, I was like, you know, a month before he ended up, I ended up, you know, asking him to leave.
I sort of set up the boundary of like, Hey, like, You need to be, I need to see you at least trying to get sober. And, and I really can't have you coming in just hammered and stuff like that, because, you know, for me that was like, you know, a bit of a trigger. , but, , it sort of continued. I mean, he was trying to get sober, but then he would like kind of fall off and, , , you know, I was just like, Hey, you know, you, you gotta go eventually.
And, and that was something I consulted my, my sponsor about it before I did it. and he was just like prey on it in the right time will come. Yeah. And literally I talked to him preyed on it. And then, then my roommate opened up the door and he is like, Hey, do you need to talk about something? And I just told him and he was like, all right.
He took it. Well, you know, and that's the thing. He took it better when I was direct and when I was being indirect. Yeah. Well, no, I, all I was gonna say was, I'm glad you brought up boundaries because I, I kind of cringed to that word at this point. We've talked about boundaries so often, but it's for a reason and you have to set boundaries for your, for yourself.
And I'm proud of you for doing that. Um, cause I know it's not easy, but we, at the end of the day, you know, we all, we, we care about people very much and. Uh, but in something like this, you have to look out for yourself politely, um, you know, generously, you know, just still treat people with the respect.
Respectfully is the word I was looking for. But you have to look out for yourself and take care of yourself, because if you let people walk all over you, and sometimes they're not trying to, sometimes it's in inherent selfish. You know, I'm sure your roommate wasn't waking up and drinking thinking, oh, I'm gonna really mess with Robbie here, but he wanted to get drunk and that was not helping you.
And so being able to do that is not gonna be hard or excuse me, it's not gonna be easy, is gonna be hard, but it is necessary for you to get clean slash stay clean. Yeah. And I've said this before your sobriety has to come first, it has to be your number one priority over friends, over family, over anything.
And that's something that sometimes is hard for people to grasp, but especially in a family setting and I get it. It's your family, but if somebody is not supportive or if they're bad for your recovery, It's gonna suck, but you're gonna have to cut those, that person off. You're gonna have to try to you set those boundaries first and say, Hey, listen, here's kinda what's going on, but if they don't respect those boundaries, you're going to have to cut them off because your sobriety still has to come.
Number one. And I remember in rehab. Having people talk about, well, you know, I, I missed all this time with my kids, so I gotta make up that time. And it's like, well, if you're by making up that time causes you to relapse, then it's not worth it. You still have to put your sobriety number one, because if you relapse, because you didn't put your sobriety.
First and you end up going back out and you end up killing yourself or you're dying or, or whatever the case may be. Then you screwed your kids all together. So, you know, things like that. Or with any family member, you have to keep your sobriety has to be your number one priority. At all times. I need to add one thing, uh, in regards to all that, I love that roommate very much.
actually during my last relapse, you know, the last time that I drink, he was actually a person that I had called and he was very supportive. You know, he was probably still in active addiction, you know, but. I needed any sort of hope and he came and provided some of that. Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Yeah. And, and we're not saying to just, if somebody drinks in your life that get rid of 'em, that that's not what we're saying whatsoever. Just learn your boundaries and what they are. Mm-hmm and you know, if you can be around that person and they're supportive of your decision and they're not. It, they're not doing something that's causing you to, you know, have cravings or, or borderline relapse or anything like that, or are causing triggers.
That's fine. You gotta know yourself a little bit too in this situation and don't go at it. You know, like Robbie saying, be direct, but be direct with the boundaries. You don't need to just yell at everybody or cut everybody off that, that drinks, especially if they don't have a problem. Yeah, communication is what it boils down to communication is key.
Um, setting that precedent, letting people know where you're at and what you need from. And then you take it from there. So you're gonna have people in your life that are gonna be a hundred percent full blown supportive, whether that's not drinking around you, whether that is completely just understanding and being that, whatever that looks like for you, you're gonna have people that you might have to kind of halfway cut out and then you're gonna have full blown people who just don't get it, who are not supportive.
And you, you, it's probably in your best interest to just cut off communication and it doesn't have to be Perman. It could be for a period of time. It could be for a season of your life until they come to, to come to terms with their own personal issues or with respect to you, how they can come back into your life and treat you with the respect that you deserve.
And. Be able to acknowledge the journey that you are on and be able to develop a relationship that way. So it's just all about that. Yeah. And you have to, you, again, we cannot stress enough. You have to look out for your sobriety number one, and it could be something as simple as you're brand new to sobriety.
And you're trying to learn who you are and what your boundaries are. So you take a step back, take a month and then it can change. So, you know, just that's what I mean. Knowing yourself first and knowing where you're at and how comfortable you are, and then kind of addressing those situations. another thing that somebody had brought up, I know we had mentioned, you know, we get a lot of our thoughts. I don't necess. Thoughts, but our talking points a little bit from being in groups and hearing other people talk and, you know, you hear these people's ideas and you're like, yeah, it's a pretty good idea.
A, another trigger that I've heard, a lot of people talk about is that liquor store that they would always go to. And now, you know, to avoid that they take a different route home. Um, you know, they, they look at alternate routes so they don't drive past it anymore. Or I, I, somebody had mentioned. , they can't go on an alternate route that they have to pass it every day, leaving work.
And so what they do is they, they call somebody on the phone and so that way they're on their phone. When they drive past, they're talking to somebody that kind of helps not bring that up a little bit. And. You know, so it could be something as simple as that, if you're having, you know, if there's a certain place that, that makes you nervous or, you know, brings on the anxiety and thoughts of drinking, because it used to be your old water in hole, or it used to be the liquor store you bought at, or your drug dealer's house or the alley you used in anything like that, you know, try to avoid it by taking an alternate route, you know, or do something every time when you drive past, I guess, find somebody to call, call your sponsor, call another addict or alcoholic.
things like that can't help you. Big time.
I think of like triggering places. , back in new Orleans, there was a like corner store gas station. It was actually is a gas station. And over new Orleans you can buy liquor 24 7 and the gas stations. You know, they have, they have liquor in it. Um, and a lot of it, and there was a place that I would go to regularly and, , you know, part of moving ahead of the city transplant from new Orleans to Charlotte, , that is a trigger that, that I can avoid.
You know, and I had trouble. I had trouble when I was in new Orleans passing that place. Yeah. For, for me, it obviously was the grocery store. Um, I, I frequent the grocery store. I mean, I probably go once a day. I'm one of those guys who just picks up what I, yeah. I pick up what I need the same way. Cause I hate wasting food and inevitably every time I go and get food for like five days, I mean, I'll eat like 80% of it and then I have to throw stuff out.
It just drives me nuts. Plus. I don't really know what I want until the day of, so I always figured the grocery store in, in the past, you know, there was always, you know, scoop up, scoop a couple balls. You know, case of beer or something like that. And so, you know, my wife and I were talking, you know, as I, when I began this and she's like, are you sure you're gonna be good at the grocery store?
You know, there's right. When you walk in, there's two aisles and it's just straight alcohol. And one thing that I've done and I, you know, this could help you, this might not. But when I go in and I'm focused on healthy foods and healthy eating, for some reason, It completely changes my approach to it because if I go in it, it's kind of one of those things, well, I've already done this.
You know, I haven't worked out today, might as well eat like crap or something like that when I go in and if I were to get a frozen pizza or fried chicken, whatever that is, I'm more inclined to be like, we'll screw it. You know? I'm already putting this, this shitty food into my body might as well pick up and, you know, just have a little night cap.
But for me, when I'm going in and I'm, you know, I'm getting fish and chicken and vegetables, for some reason that kind of changes my mindset. And I don't have that urge to walk over and scoop up some wine. That's just what I do personally. It, it might help for you. It might not, but again, it just goes back to it all.
It's just about changing your mindset. It's about rearranging, whatever works for you. Um, it, it, it's amazing. What the brain does and, and can do and how it, and how your outlook and, and quite frankly, your addictions operate. So that's just, yeah, that's just a little tidbit for me. Yeah. That, that makes sense.
A hundred percent, you know, My thing. I always bought beer at, uh, gas stations and convenience stores. And so, you know, I still go in 'em all the time. Uh, but I go in there to buy diet Pepsi, you know, or get gas or grab, you know, something. To snack on, you know, with a purpose and almost as like, you know, I we've talked about my diet Pepsi obsession on this, , podcast numerous times and sorry to bring it up again.
However, the thought of I'm going there for that. Cuz I enjoy that. And then sometimes. You know, I'll grab myself a candy bar or a cookie or something like that. Like a, a little treat for myself. And that helps me keep my mind off of the beer section or anything like that. And I've gotten the point.
Doesn't bother me to go into a gas station anymore, but everybody's different. So judge yourself, like we were saying know yourself. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing is spend a little extra money. If you. Because a lot of people like this, I'm kind of like this. If you feel like you walk in a gas station and normally walk out with alcohol, just buy something else.
Like if you feel like you need to have something in your hand, when you're walking out to have an accomplished trip, which that is a thing. I mean, it really is like pat just said, go buy, go buy a Coke, go buy a candy bar. Is it great for you? No. Is it better than, you know, slipping back through the cracks?
Absolutely. And yet disclaimer, here I offer to. Pat of coffee and he said, coffee is stupid and he got a diet Pepsi. So I didn't say stupid. I just said, you know, I don't drink coffee. But yeah, twist, no twisting his words. Change, change your intentions to something else. It J just helped.
Especially in the earlier days, you know, as you progress through this, you know, I'm, I'm 90 something days in, and I was slamming coffee all day, every day because I had to have a drink in my hand. Now I have I'm back to normal, like two cups a day, opposed to eight. So do something to wean yourself off of.
We talked about this in the past, but whatever that is bubbly, and that is a thing there's a brand of sparkling water, that's bubbly, um, or, you know, diet, Coke, whatever, whatever it is that you like. well, a certain level of like, what is my motivation going into this place? , it's when I go to the store, like, you know, those people who wake up at like 6:00 AM and like run, jog, like psychopaths, psychopaths.
I imagine myself as like one of those people, I'm like, I'm productive, you know, I'm doing stuff that's good for myself and ultimately will be good for other people set the tone, you know? Self-care yeah. Yeah. I work out in the morning now instead of the afternoon, because it helps, it helps that first thing is out of the day.
I'm already on a good schedule. I'm I've done something productive. I'm gonna wanna put good things in my body after I'll work out opposed to counteracting, you know, everything that I did at the gym. And so that helps me get through my day. Yeah. And, and Robbie, like you had said with the self care, you know, if you feel good, you look good, all those things.
You're gonna have a good mindset going through the day and a positive mindset and a good mindset's gonna be your best, you know, your best ally in recovery. You know, if you're, if you're feeling down about yourself, if you're feeling like shit, things like that, that's where you get in that slippery slope.
And we've talked about that before on this podcast. So, you know, wake up each day, try to put your best foot forward. We talked about, you know, just making your bed to start the day out, things like that, you know, that will help you in the long run. And the more you can positively influence your own day, the better off you're going to be.
Yeah. Just make changes just to re the quick little synopsis, you know, rearrange your house, tidy it up, switch things up, keep your, keep your brain guessing and, and, you know, communicate with your, your friends and your family. Let them know, set your boundaries. If it's the car. Well, you, most people just can't get in a new car if you can go for it.
That's awesome. But you know, clean your car, uh, you know, get some seat covers. I, whatever you want, just make it feel like it's something new and it's something fresh. Turn the page and start a new chapter with whatever your trigger is with whatever your past looks like. Good habits, breed, good habits, breed, good habits.
Amen. And you know, it's, uh, The thing is at least for me, like one of the big things was, , knowing that socializing was what I needed to do. And that would be good for me, but being very comfortable in my own shit isolating. I had to do stuff literally that in order to socialize, I had to go and socialize even though I didn't want to at all over time, it came easier.
Now it's something. I prefer doing yeah. At the beginning, you know, get comfortable with being uncomfortable, as they say, that's something that, you know, to truly get sobriety and continue working on yourself. You're gonna have to make yourself uncomfortable at times and be comfortable doing that as long as you're doing it.
You know, as long as you're doing it for the right reasons and you know, you're helping yourself and your sobriety, or, you know, your sponsor's telling you that, or a fellow addict, something like that, that's a positive change and, you know, make yourself feel a little uncomfortable at times. Nothing good comes from staying within your comfort zone.
Seeking discomfort is a major, major. Benefit to your life. Yeah. Cause my comfort zone is, well, it was sitting alone in my house drinking and it's crazy to say that because I would cause me to be depressed. It would cause my anxiety through the roof. But for some reason there was comfort there it's cuz alcoholism's a.
Drug addiction's a disease. All those are diseases and we've gotten accustomed to it. That that's what makes it our, our comfort zone. For some reason, you know, that, that self sabotage, so to say, I like stuff to be predictable, you know? And, and when I'm comfortable in my own shit, I have that sense of control. Okay. Like I know what to expect tonight. I, this is what I'm used to doing. This is my identity. I'm gonna stay in this soon. Yeah. I mean, uh, you know, they think about it like the gym, I keep referencing this, but in all seriousness, you have to keep your body guessing you have to work different muscle groups. You have to switch it up, cuz you're gonna plateau in the same applies for. Your life. Yeah. So, you know, think about some of the things we've said today. If you are struggling a little bit, or even if you're not, if you're in that pink cloud. Phase, you know, take some of what we said today kind of moving forward because that pink cloud won't last forever. And you know, you do come back to reality a little bit.
So, um, with that though, I, I think we're gonna wrap things up again as always, you can find us on social media, Twitter, and Instagram, 12 ounces of sobriety. You can email us at 12 ounces, sobriety, pod, gmail.com. , if you have any questions or comments or anything like that, always feel free to reach. Next week.
We're not sure what we're doing. Maybe an interview, maybe not, maybe just us talking again, maybe a book review who knows. Stay tuned to figure out the world. The world is our oyster, but in the meantime, get out your metaphorical SWER and get to work. Absolutely. Thanks again. Swifter swifter, SWER, or your dirt devil.
Or your rag? Yeah, I was trying to think of other vacuum cleaner names back there. Oh, Dyson, Dyson. What's it called? What? ORIC? The scrub scrub. Daddy. I don't know what that is. It was on shark tank, scrubbing, bubbles, edge, whatever you used to clean stuff. KA. Boom. All right. Did you guys have a good day? Sham?
Wow. Yeah, sham. Wow. Yeah.
Okay. This one off the rail. Bye.