Let'srun dry January support group

Excellent! Keep at it. I stopped drinking 3 years ago and as others have said, it gets easier but there will be moments of weakness/craving/etc. In those times I try to remember how I felt in 2019 vs 2022 and I can typically work through it. You WILL feel better the longer you go without.

You might find strength from listening to AA speakers from this youtube channel. Most of them almost died from alcohol but are now clean for many years. Even if you aren't interested in AA I think it would help. I've never had a drink in my life, but the stories of these people motivated me to become a better person in various ways. Most of them are very entertaining too.

i would advise against non alcoholic beers. too close to the real thing, plus its empty calories.

try tonic or fizzy water.

Fourth of July is one day to get through without a drink.

Do you realize how many major football games happen in January?

The final two weeks of the NFL plus three rounds of playoffs.

College bowl games, too.

You’d go sober through all of those games to just to drink on July 4th?

Day 4. How are you guys hanging in there?

Doing good thanks. Cravings gone.

I gave up drinking 16 months ago. I thought all the talk of “you will feel better” was exaggerated. I was wrong.

I feel better, in fact I feel great all the time now.

I sleep better — falling asleep within 60 seconds and sleeping straight through the night and waking up refreshed every day; something I hadn’t experienced in over ten years.

My mood/attitude has changed entirely as I am pretty much happy all the time now. I also have tons of extra time now to spend on activities I enjoy and advancing in my career (FWIW).

I honestly feel unstoppable now.

I loved drinking, but after experiencing how much better my life is now, I don’t see how I would ever go back.

Everyone is different and YMMV, but for me, it was truly life changing.

the mood changes are under appreciated and you don't really realize the changes until you experience them. When you are over drinking, you think your daily moods are normal but they are not. You know the ones. Impatient, irritable, argumentative. Most times, the people around you can tell your alcoholic moods more than you can.

yeah as our Founding Fathers intended when they created this great nation:

George Washington Ran a $17,253 Tab Before Signing the Constitution (businessinsider.com)

Day 5 - insanely productive yesterday

Going on day 2. I was weak on New Years which opened the door to drink this week.

day 6 - went to a sports bar last night with some friends. only tonic water.

Haven't had a drink since NYE. Prior to this I've actually been doing a pretty good job sticking to 4 days a week dry with a few beers Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for a few months now. So now we are officially into uncharted territory on day 6 haha. I can't say I feel all that great since I haven't slept through the night since my kid was born in July. Hard to know what's normal and what's sleep deprivation any more. But I'll stick to it since I honestly don't even enjoy the effects of alcohol anymore other than that first initial buzz you get like halfway through beer number 1. Getting drunk stopped being fun years ago, yet I would still do it because I'm bored, have no friends, and like the taste. Sad!

Also some of you would probably take away my dry January punch card because I am still using weed. "California sober" I believe they call it. But I don't get too f*cked up because I gotta stay sharp to look after the aforementioned little one. I just like to get a little giggly.

Another day, boys. That makes a full week.

Zero drinks so far this year. Have been very sick all week which helped. Just a social weekend drinker but just learned that apparently a few months back, several of my closest friends got really upset with my behavior while drunk and don’t want to be with me in drinking settings anymore. This was a first time experience and it feels awful so I am temporarily, perhaps permanently, suspending my alcohol use to zero.

day 9 - everyone hold strong over the weekend? i went to numerous parties, hangouts, happy hours, never tempted.

Day 8, productivity through the roof.

It's going OK. Everytime I fancy a beer a drink a glass of milk, so calcium is rocking. Haven't been out socialising yet though, which is the gold standard abstinence.

New friends: liquid death, bubly, waterloo, perrier, topo chico, etc.

Pretty good once you develop a taste for them and not full of a bunch of sugar.

Just saw this thread and figured I'd share my little journey. I didn't do a New Year's resolution, I quit drinking the first week of December. Don't know exactly the day, but perhaps the 4th or 5th.

I'm 48 and didn't drink at all until 40, and no more than once a month until 42, but over the last 6 years I went from once a month to every day drinking about half a bottle of vodka (or the equivalent, like 10 "beers". I never felt addicted, and I told my wife as such, but obviously that much alcohol caused a bunch of issues, both physical and mental. Just got more lazy, fat, swollen. Plus it costs money.

When I quit, I didn't make a big deal about it, in fact I didn't say a word about it. I knew my wife would think I was just talking like I always seemed to do. But I poured that last bit of vodka in the glass, a splash of cranberry, threw the bottle in the recycle and thought "this is it, time for the next phase."

About a week later my wife straight out asked "why aren't you drinking?", because my evenings were that easy to predict. I said "I'm done drinking", and I think she could tell this was different because I hadn't been drinking long enough that she noticed, so it was already a different situation than usual. Normally I would say "yea I need to quit" or "I'm going to quit" but never "I quit."

That's not to say it was no issue, about 3 or 4 days after I quit, my wife and I had a big fight. I didn't put it all together at the time, but I think I must have been going through a bit of a withdrawal as I felt very negative and lashed out at everything. Then after that fight, with in a day or two, like a fog lifted and I didn't feel negative any more.

And now it's been somewhere around 35 days, I have had not a single issue with alcohol since. I don't think about it, I don't crave it. My wife drinks wine every night and I have no desire.

Down 7 pounds, my face looks much better as the "alcohol swell" is gone. Been working in my shop until 8 or 9 pm (normally I'd be in front of computer all day).

My brother is a year younger and he is severe alcolholic and has been for 25 years. He quite figuratively has one foot in the grave and all attempts at help have failed, and we are cut out, not that I would subject myself to his non-sense anyway.

I see what it can do and has done, and I'm glad to be on the other side again.