One of the suggestions that I was given in the beginning of sobriety was to think small and try to keep my head within each 24 hour period. I realize this suggestion probably doesn't help right now if you are the kind of alcoholic or addict that I am. Because in early recovery, the idea of not using ever again can seem so foreign and terrifying that it's hard to comprehend. But if you are also as desperate as I was then you'll be willing to try anything. Plus, if you think 24 hours is too steep, you can try to manage in hourly increments (like I did.)

The first time I tried it, I woke up in the morning, drank about a gallon of coffee and smoked a pack of cigarettes (I don't do that anymore, but in the beginning that's what it took.) Then, when I got agitated - probably from all the coffee - I followed up with other suggestions that were given to me by people already in recovery. I talked to another alcoholic on the phone, read part of a recovery book and then went to a recovery meeting. At certain times, I found myself adopting the mantra, "I can do this, just for today," and it seemed to give me that extra little push I needed. If there is a certain time of the day when you usually drank or used, it's a good idea to try going to a recovery meeting around the same time instead. This is a great way to break up the day and get your mind off what you'd normally be doing.

This isn't easy, anything worth doing rarely is - but when you get to the end of the day without drinking or doing drugs you'll have a feeling of accomplishment that you most likely haven't had in a very long time. For me, it was such a relief when the day was over with and I'd made it that I got down on my knees and said thank you to God or whatever it was that had helped me through the day. I was pretty sure him/it/her had given up on me but I did it anyway. Granted, those early days in recovery weren't the best days I'd ever had, but it was by far an improvement on what my usual schedule had become. At the end of my drinking career, when I had lost everything, had no job to go to or family to 'function' for, every day was about drinking alcohol - either I was trying not to drink or I was drinking. I'd wake up, manage to hang on for an hour or two but inevitably reach for a bottle of booze and spend the rest of the day in a self-induced catatonic state.

But I don't have to do that anymore and neither do you. It might be hard to imagine, but every day there are people adopting the 24 hour plan in every city, in every country around the world. These people are in early recovery just like you are and they are getting their lives back together, one day at a time and sometimes, one hour at a time. In some cases, they are actually 'getting a life' for the first time! I know - because I'm one of them. One of 'those people', the kind that individuals who don't have a substance abuse problem might have once deemed a lost cause. It's true that I was lost, but now I've found a way to live a somewhat, normal, decent life and I manage to do that by living in the here and now. I try not to waste valuable energy thinking about tomorrow and I do what's right in front of me to the best of my ability. That's all I can do - it's all any of us can do, whether we have a substance abuse problem or not.