This was a really good weekend for my family. My daughter ran in an out of state cross country meet and shaved a minute of her time from last year. My son competed in his first swim meet and won one of his races! My husband earned his purple belt in jiu jitsu and I earned a promotion in the reserves. (only hiccup this weekend was I lost my ID- have to get that replaced tomorrow if I can!)
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. I am a reservist and am facing a potential deployment to the Middle East. I have known this was going to come but now that I have been promoted the odds are even greater. I have also been looking for a job closer to home. I really like my current job but being so far away is really weighing on my mental health. I feel like I don’t have much of a life anymore with working, working some more and then working out. It is effective to keep time passing quickly but I can see the potential for extreme stress pretty soon.
I am worried about the effects a potential deployment could have on my sobriety and mental well being. Just going in for one weekend a month I hear a fill of drinking stories. When my husband was overseas he told me how easily accessible alcohol was. I am strong in my sobriety now. I have a lot of confidence in myself. But of course with change comes challenges. 2011 promises to be a year of great change for me. Most importantly I am looking forward to spending my first year (since God only know when) sober.
Having to face a big life change can be difficult in recovery; it is all part of the package though. Being sent to the ME does sound like a bit of a challenge. I worked for a while in Saudi and there was a lot of drinking going on; I would imagine that reservists would have even more of a drinking culture. The amazing thing is we can get through these times and they are often a lot easier than we would have expected. Unwanted changes can come into our life, but dealing with these things makes us stronger and ultimately more at peace - in my experience anyway. I hope that I don’t sound preachy here; sometimes words fail me and I can come off sounding different from how I intended :-)
ReplyDeletePaul, I appreciate all of your comments. When I was in the thick of I didn't think we had a drinking culture- now I am painfully aware. I agree though, I am much stronger in transitions now that I am sober. Funny it seemed like I was drinking to make things easier- and it was just making it harder.
ReplyDeleteI always thought it was the non-drunks who were the strange ones :-) Most of the things I believed in those days was based on what I heard in bars; all of that information is practically useless to me now.
ReplyDeleteYou are a different person today - you may not have a problem with wanting to drink. You are not a drinker anymore! I also believe we attract those like us. I'm thinking there are also sober members over there, I know I have talked to many in online recovery communities.
ReplyDeleteI've learned my sobriety does not count on circumstances. My life has been one major circumstance after another the last two years. A drink has never been the answer because I have instilled other answers into my thought process. I also nurture the ability to make right choices by practicing my daily recovery activities.