“After seven weeks of sobriety I still feel rotten. I can’t sleep, I’m depressed half the time and I can’t think straight. When is it going to get better?” This was a patient’s first words to me today and I replied: “You didn’t get this way overnight so it’s going to take time to start feeling better.” Often people want a magic pill believing it will make them feel instantly better. They have been rewarding themselves by self-medicating with alcohol for years, sometimes decades and yet they want an instant fix to take away their feelings of fear, anger, resentment and self-pity. Their mind is giving them a hard time in early sobriety and they are finding it difficult to stay afloat without the use of alcohol. Some of them nearly drowned in their own sea of alcohol before coming to see me. Alcoholics tend to be impatient people anyway so progress in their sobriety seems agonisingly slow. However, by keeping a diary, alcoholics can keep tabs on how they are feeling on a day to day basis instead of generalising it in a moment of despair. They should start to feel better after 7 to 10 days, depending on their detox program. Eventually, by keeping a daily diary, they will see that they are starting to feel better, one day at a time.  However, anyone can stop drinking; it’s staying stopped that is the problem. There is a lot of work to be done once the alcoholic stops drinking. They need to get professional help in conjunction with attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. The 12 Steps of AA are an integral part of quality sobriety and there are thousands of AA groups around the world to prove that the 12 Steps do work. However, not everyone can get sober and stay sober on the 12 Steps – they need more resources. Alcoholics need to change their thinking to change their feelings (emotions) to ultimately change their compulsive behavior.  It’s not easy to question and challenge your thinking, every minute of the day.  My patients use active meditation tapes to help them change “stinking thinking” to positive thinking.  Again, this is not an overnight success; it does take time and commitment. Think about your favorite sporting personality – did they obtain world status overnight?  They had to do a lot of hard work before their efforts paid off. However, that’s not what you want to hear. You want recovery now. Instant gratification is what most alcoholics want. Waiting to feel better is not part of their philosophy. But patience is a skill that can be learned, just like learning how to change your attitude. It’s like working out in the gym. Initially you feel sore all over and when you look in the mirror your stomach is as flabby as ever. But keep working at it and eventually you will look a million dollars – it has paid off!  Train yourself to be patient by postponing gratification. Say, for example, you feel a compulsion to take a drink because you think this entire sobriety is just a load of “rubbish” and you have had enough! (Ever felt like that?) Put off giving into that compulsion for a few hours. When the compulsion returns, a few hours later, do the same thing again. Put off that drink for another couple of hours and distract yourself with something else.  Change your thinking to change your feelings (emotions) to change your behavior. Impatience has consequences. Let me tell you the story of the Emperor Moth A young boy found a cocoon of the beautiful Emperor Moth in a State forest and took it home so he could watch the moth emerge from the cocoon. On the day a small opening appeared, he sat, enthralled, and watched for several hours as the moth struggled to force its body through that little hole. After a while, it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could go and it could go no further. It just seemed to be stuck. So the little boy, in his kindness, decided to help the moth.... he took a pair of scissors from his mother’s sewing basket and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. To his relief, the moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings. The boy continued to watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to support the body, which would contract in time, and the moth would fly away. But it never happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly. What the little boy, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening was the way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight could only come after the struggle. By depriving the moth of its struggle, he deprived the moth of health and freedom. If we were to go through our lives without any obstacles or struggles, we too would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Give every struggle (opportunity) a chance; learn to grow beyond it and fly free of your cocoon. Leave no room for regrets.  We need to struggle to become the person we always wanted to be. If you want to start nurturing your sobriety you can start by balancing your brain chemistry with Tyrosine Mood Food. Tyrosine is necessary for the manufacturer of dopamine and noradrenaline, which are required for concentration, alertness, memory and a happy, stable mood. Tyrosine can also relieve emotional pain as we are often very sensitive people. Magnesium Ultra Potent can be taken before bed to assist with a deep and restful sleep. Magnesium helps to reduce stress and is great in preventing muscle cramps. I used to get spasmodic muscle cramps at night until I started taking Magnesium Ultra Potent; I haven’t had any problems since. LivaTone Plus to help your liver recover from alcohol toxins. L-Glutamine to help reduce alcohol cravings.   The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.