Quitting drinking

I had a bizarre thing happen to me... This week I hit 21 years sober.

On the morning after my anniversary of sobriety... I woke up and went outside to feed some outdoor cats that help me keep the mice out of my house.

Laying in my yard completely passed out was a Cheyenne guy (I live in Cheyenne country) that I used to have work for me and had tried to help through the years. I had had to cut him off because he was coming over drunk and was starting to beg.

Anyway, he couldn't be aroused... So I had to call the cops. And they ended up calling an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

It was sad to see... and painful to continue to see how far down this guy has gone. But it was a reminder that had I continued to drink... I might be laying in someone's yard by now.

The timing of the incident was kind of well... sobering.

Decades ago I was walking home from the bus stop about 7pm on a summer week day. I passed a guy in a business suit passed out on the lawn of a house a couple of blocks from my parents’ place in a very upscale neighbourhood. His briefcase was a few feet away. I knocked on the front door, thinking they might want to call the cops or something. Instead the very distressed woman thanked me profusely, hurried me on my way, and got down on her hands and knees calling the guy by name and trying to rouse him.

I thought this was hysterically funny. It wasn’t many years later that I realized I had a drinking problem and things got way, way worse for me before they got better. Alcoholism can strike anyone from any walk of life and those of us who are genuinely afflicted need to stay vigilant and be thankful for every sober day. I am conscious I don’t give back enough and I should do something about that.

Alcoholism can hit at any age and unexpectedly

Theres a lot I know with generational issues but others it just hits them unexpectedly with trauma and bereavement

Not saying anything new there

I'm not really a stereotypical alcoholic, my drinking was limited to a six pack of double IPAs on Saturday. Which destroyed pretty much my whole weekend - drunk on Saturday afternoon/evening, hungover on Sunday, with at least 2 horrible nights of sleep in there.

Gave it up 6 weeks ago started running again. Strung together 6 weeks of running. Weekly mileages were 7-20-23-23-25-30 with an 10 and 11 mile long run in there. Also started going to Muay Thai twice a week for some HIIT cross training.

Finally feel like I'm back in the groove of running again after many years. And I "only" drank 6 beers a week!

Ok I posted on this thread this past weekend. I was close on remembering the name from a year ago.

I’m over one month sober now.

Registering my username with a password for this thread.

Nice job! That first weekend is always tough. (Most of this have tried to quit drinking multiple times.)

I am well over a year thanks to this thread. I had a rough night the other day (injuries suck) and found myself oddly tempted by the bottle of wine my wife had open. For some reason I felt compelled to visit this thread ... and saw all the awesome new posts.

The temptation went away.

Well done, and thank you!

I knelt yesterday and drank 2 beers

Good work, man. I just had my 30-year anniversary on July 23. I had to go to rehab when I was 23. Life got much better.

Booze really interrupted my college running career in a tough way and caused me many problems in regular life. It isn't always easy but keep working at it. it is worth it.

Thanks. Ran in college myself and am in the thick of it post collegiately.

The concerning was I always seemed to run better when I was drinking? Perhaps a coincidence. This will be the first July sober since junior year high school.

Here we go again, 4 days without...

Here we go again also, been injured the last few months and been hitting the beers heavy. Going to stay AF for the month of August and hope it helps with recovery.

6 weeks

Going to try too. Day 1.

Keep it up you all. i promise it is soooo much better without alcohol.
in my last 5.5 years of sobriety ive dealt with death to family including young children, death of pets, loss of job, lots of "legit" reasons to drink. drinking will NOT make it better or more bearable - it makes it worse.
i am so grateful for my sobriety and each day i GET to do meaningful things fun & not so fun

2 months.

So what do you single t-total guys do on a weekend in the evenings? Having a partner can sure make it easier and not being tempted to drink but when you’re single most will want to go out and socialise/mix with people. Going into a bar and not drinking is not something I enjoy and doubt many do either!?

You guys are dumb as f. Drink something else? Tea? soda water whatever. U know drinking isn't good for u but u still do it? And to excess? How weak can you be? Pull your head out, quit whining and stop drinking. Holy crap, a billion muslims don't drink and u can't put the bottle down? I don't want to hear your weak azz excuses either. If u want quit just quit otherwise we don't want to hear about your lack of discipline.

It's a disease, dude. I'm glad you're able to stop so easily.

Good question. If your social life has previously revolved around drinking then it can be tricky, especially in the early stages. One of the (few) downsides of quitting is realising how annoying and vacuous most drunk people are if you're sober.

My approach was to learn new skills - choosing something work-adjacent so that it might be useful for my career, but not a disaster if it wasn't and can be enjoyed in it's own right.