Long-term sober member shares: "The effects of long-term sobriety"

I have no idea if any scientists would think that five years of sobriety and progressive victory over lust was "long-lasting" enough to be statistically significant. So I'm not claiming my experience, strength and hope means anything for science. But it certainly does matter to me.

It mattered to me when my wife told me last night that she's seen a change for the better in me regarding resentment! Wow. I didn't know anyone could even see my resentments. I thought they were mostly just going on inside me, and how would she know about that. But she does somehow.

It mattered to me when she told me that she no longer has to pray that I will experience joy. I never had joy before, and she used to pray that I would experience joy. Now she says that she can see the joy in me. How does she see that? I thought joy was just something inside me that I had finally started to experience, but not something anyone else could see or know was there.

Five years of SA sobriety, including the continual surrendering of lust, has had a significant affect on me. I thought it was true, because I experience it internally. But my wife sees it's true, because she sees some kind of outward change in me. And if somehow science thinks that those changes are bad for me, well then I guess I'll just smile and keep on having sobriety damage me further!