I make it my number one priority

I may not have been obsessed about drinking before, that wasn’t my pattern. But when I first gave up alcohol I quickly discovered that I could be obsessed by it.    And after a few near misses, I realised that the only way to lose that was to be obsessed about my sobriety.  It had to be foremost in my mind, a singular focus.  If I let it go then my mind would take-over and drag me back into the drinking thinking.  And I was easily distracted from it.  With everything else I could bring my focus back but when I was trying to get sober, I would forget that I was aiming not to drink.  Identifying the triggers (people, places, things) that could knock me off my path and how to avoid them.  Can I drive a different way home?  Can I not see or speak to that person for a while?  I learnt to ask myself if each situation that I was about to face was going to be a challenge for my sobriety.  What did I need to do to ensure that it didn’t have an impact?  And if opting out was the only guaranteed solution, then opting out was what I did. 

When the going gets rough, it helps to know that my sobriety is the only thing I have to achieve each day.