The Clear Horizon

From oblivion of alcoholism into the light of sobriety

sober

  • Community; like minded people, same disorder, different core – exchange as best form of Therapy

    This may sound like a no-brainer, but in my opinion and my experience, it is not so easy finding THE right community. I have tried different approaches, but none has been so successful like my most recent attempt, which, actually, I was getting into couple of weeks ago, but only now I actually realized the… Read more

  • After half a year of cutting back and sobriety – Am I bulletproof yet?

    The longer I work on my sobriety, the more loose ends come up of which I sometimes have the feeling that it all is either too much to work on, or that it is too much I think I need to do to have a successful recovery. But is all that really necessary? A two… Read more

  • Why sobriety engagement is meaningful

    My first thought was: Great, I have enough time to redirect my energy I used with drinking into something useful: Let’s find an engagement to fill the gap. Well, yes. Partly true, but only partly. In the time of the Pink Cloud, that felt pretty straightforward and it had the shine of something to dive… Read more

  • I never tried only “cutting back”, but why?

    In the beginning, when starting with the Reframe App, it sounded so good, drinking controlled with a habit tracker to tell you when you overstepped. I tried it out, but a couple of things stopped me from proceeding, and this is a general problem I see in temporary breaks from drinking as well: That was… Read more

  • Why writing a Blog is good, but not enough

    This is a pretty personal insight, and it may not correspond with other people’s views about how to deal with sobriety or recovery, but my goes as follows: Starting with the Reframe App was a pretty good start, but after two weeks of reducing alcohol intake, I felt it was not enough. I had the… Read more

  • Job Identity and Drinking

    When you are so used to drinking after hours it can be hard getting into the workflow after vacation without booze. Let me explain. Daniel Schreiber, a German journalist and author, wrote that we pursue rather a “work – and – drinking” – balance instead of a “work – life” – balance. I don’t think… Read more

  • When it can be helpful not giving a F*ck.

    This is a general issue, in this post I want to make a short notice on the way it affects your sobriety. Imagine an evening with a social situation, say, a family gathering or a party. You have been dry for a couple of weeks or months and try to maintain sobriety, but you are… Read more

  • Normalising sobriety

    I am in good hope to having reached a new state of sobriety and in this state studying my feeling of getting resistent to alcohol temptations: By New Year’s Eve, I realised that something severely interesting had happened to the way I was watching alcohol. When I attended the Holiday Party of my company or… Read more

  • Midlife Crisis or Catharsis?

    Do I sound melodramatic? Maybe. But that is how most of the time you’ll feel when in a remorseful state you can’t escape if you want to quit drinking but can’t muster the strength to escape the loop of triggers, cravings, giving in to cravings and then swearing to never drink again just to find… Read more

  • Practicing: Hen or Egg?

    The urge to stop drinking had been implanted before. But as it is with bad habits or addictions, you promise yourself to stop drinking tomorrow, or dink less, or drink only on odd days, or whatever comes to your mind. What came across my mind recently was the question what caused what in the end.… Read more