Good Morning:

I'm on day 12 abstinent from alcohol. I'm using SMART Recovery for the skills to stay clean and sober. They use Rational Emotive Therapy as their main tool in recovery. I drank to manage symptoms of bipolar d/o (not successfully). The first few days were great. Now I'm back to the ups and downs of rapid cycling. It's certainly difficult to stay sober without proper psychiatric care. I was sober 8 years at one point but was on Lithium and Neurontin at high dosages. After having some heart problems, they won't prescribe them for me anymore. My current med cocktail doesn't do the job. So I guess I have to be determined not to drink despite any unpleasant psychiatric symptoms. I check in daily at SMART and plan to occasionally check in here.

Hey Roadie. Good to see you here. I've been away for a couple months but back now.