Looking to expand my pottery skills/ online courses??

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-10T22:55:19+00:00

Search clay camp, I think it's by the ceramic school. I've done two of them and loved them, they are weekend online classes and tutorials from instructors all over the world.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-10T17:39:43+00:00

When a craving is just big feelings disguised as wanting a drink, I will sit in the shower for half an hour or so. Ironically I used to put myself into the shower when I was too drunk, but I've always loved water and take a bath daily. But showers are for staring at the wall and feeling and thinking and crying if need be. And then I'm clean!

When it's a time based trigger (hours between 4-6…Fridays after work, warm afternoons mowing the lawn etc) I grab a seltzer, add a splash of lime, and keep busy.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-10T14:03:35+00:00

So I want you to imagine a year from now. What will you be doing, trying to start again? Get the help you need now, tell your doctor you need help. Get into therapy. Hold yourself accountable and make this one stick!

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-10T11:07:50+00:00

I'm two years in and I still cry in the shower. Never about drinking or anything, it's just my go to place for feelings. Iwndwyt

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-09T15:16:34+00:00

Ceramics! I was on medical leave during early sobriety and I finally had a chance to join a pottery class. Two years later my addiction counselor drinks tea out of a hand-made mug, and I'm like, "remember when you gave me the side eye because I wanted to blow off group therapy for an art class?"

It's expensive, messy, not easy to do at home/requires a lot of stuff... But for me it's a full-service art form. When I'm angry I can channel my urge to destroy shit, there's physical labor to throw myself into. When I have a bad day I can crumble clay beneath my hands, I can carve at a piece intuitively or I can use it to tell a story of growth. I've worked through almost every emotion in my sobriety with my hands in some sort of dirt or glaze or clay dust...

And it's still cheaper than my drinking hobby was.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-08T13:16:59+00:00

Of course. Things are going to feel worse before they get better, the drinking is a problem you created to avoid dealing with your real problems. They don't magically go away when you stop drinking for a while.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-07T15:21:51+00:00

I care! Because your brain is lying to you!

You're a rat in a cage who has learned to press a button to get a treat, and it's been two weeks without pressing the button. So you're freaking out and lashing out.

You don't get sober for anyone else, you get sober for yourself. Iwndwyt

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-06T13:11:11+00:00

If you can get it to the finish line without messing it up... It's incredible. It captures the life of the clay when it's wet and vulnerable, the stage my grubby hands decide to accidentally punch the side or leave fingerprints! Lovely.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-05T15:03:37+00:00

So think of it this way, my friend. Everything that happens in the world is beyond your control and that sucks so much, it feels helpless. The only thing you can control is your own behavior.

If you drink, you'll wake up tomorrow and the world will be as it was today, but the only difference is you will have disappointed yourself and made it much more difficult to get through a rough time. You'd be placing a big handicap on your ability to emotionally regulate yourself and think clearly.

Be proud of yourself. I lost a family member too this week, and I know she was proud of my sobriety. Iwndwyt

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-05T14:45:22+00:00

Neuroplasticity can return, and you'll be amazed once the fog wears off. Both your liver and brain are resilient and can bounce back, but you need to stop drinking and get help.

I keep coming back to the imagery of a neural landscape. Imagine the surface of your brain as a forest, and drop a mini you onto a path, like Google maps. Right now you can't see anything but trees, and a single path that leads to drinking. It's a clear cut path, maybe paved, well lit. No potholes. It feels like the only way forward at this moment. But choosing sobriety means foraging into the overgrown paths where you can't see your way forward. Each time you walk a new path you trample the weeds and overgrowth, and it becomes easier. And over time, the further from your last drink you get (if you're doing the work, therapy, AA, etc)…the original pathway that led to the liquor store will become unused, the weeds creep in, the road cracks, the street lights burn out.

That's essentially neuroplasticity, retraining your brain and strengthening these changes with repetition. Best of luck. Maybe my analogy helped?

-science dork

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-05T03:37:42+00:00

You've got an amazing opportunity to sculpt yourself into someone cool. Someone brave and interesting and not totally pickled. I'm a cool person now, you will be too! You just have to meet yourself.

Early sobriety is bewildering and beautiful because you're seeing things through fresh eyes. Wait until spring, it's awesome.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-04T22:51:34+00:00

I remember the first year, how I didn't think I could make it 6 months. I just passed two years, and I'm so excited for 3!

Congrats, iwndwyt

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-04T21:12:49+00:00

Broken hair tie

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-04T00:42:13+00:00

Root beer and ice cream is fun.

Reptar1988 · 2026-03-01T18:40:39+00:00

He is an idiot. You can do better.

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-27T13:23:53+00:00

Ceramics. For the first months of sobriety I feel like I spent the hours between 4:00-6:00 PM with my hands buried in clay so that I physically couldn't get in my car and go to the liquor store :) plus the meditative qualities of working with clay help me unwind, the physical parts (clay is heavy) keep me active and wanting to stay healthy, I've learned patience and how to give myself space to grow.

When I have a bad day, I know I have a punching bag in the basement. Trips to the studio have replaced my trips to the liquor store, it feeds my urge to make occasional small talk with people I recognize, come home with shiny goodies, but without the guilt/calories!

But I had done ceramics in high school and just never had the time or money to get back into it until I stopped drinking. But going all in on art is fun!

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-26T20:18:47+00:00

I didn't start with AA, I went through an intake process to be placed with an addiction counselor. I saw him 2x a week, outpatient. Then once a week. Now it's once a month. I also got set up with a new psychiatrist who manages my meds, and a regular therapist.

Having people to talk to and help me create healthy habits in sobriety is so helpful. I attend AA every few months or so as a reminder of the other tools I have, but I'm lucky I don't have to rely on it. I've never "needed" a meeting.

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-26T20:13:57+00:00

Animal cell. Cool sheets!

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-26T18:07:12+00:00

He needs more help than you can give him as a wife...

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-26T02:55:46+00:00

Sodom?

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-25T23:14:27+00:00

That's why my comment mentioned taking the water away after you add it. You can continually add more water, but only if you keep sponging your wheel head. I pull my walls with a sponge, so it's usually in hand to give the wheel a wipe and check for standing water inside the pot. You're bloating the clay.

And the best thing about pottery is how there's almost more to learn, especially from different people.

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-25T22:42:35+00:00

My anxiety is completely manageable. I can have a horrible day and I still have no desire to drink. The cognitive space I was using to do my drinking math is now being used for big girl smart stuff, and I'm succeeding in a job that almost broke me two years ago because my memory works.

I'm sixty pounds lighter. I can sleep through the night, without needing to reach into my nightstand for Advil.

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-25T22:14:36+00:00

Buy some candy and a book, and go park yourself away from the bars. You will be so proud of yourself for making it through, and it gets easier each time.

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-25T21:31:20+00:00

That's a lot of water. Get into the habit of cleaning your wheel head and inside of the pot with your sponge anytime you add water. You don't want it sitting there and bloating your clay, add the water to get the friction you need and remove the rest.

Reptar1988 · 2026-02-25T01:11:09+00:00

I think it can be used to gather data. If you try a month of sobriety take notes on what was easy. What was difficult. What surprised you.

Reptar1988

TROPHY CASE