Quitting drinking

Well, I was a different username but now I'm using this one. You can guess what my former username was.

So how is everyone holding up in the new year? I have stayed sober. The first few days were rough and I had some urges to drink here and there. But the urge to drink faded off after a week or so I hope after two or three weeks sober it will be even less. I don't expect to never crave booze again, but not craving it every day would be nice.

Staying sober also caused some things that I thought were problems to resolve themselves and not be problems anymore. Amazing how that works.

Day 10. Sleeping better and feeling better. No difference running yet but know it will be long term.

Howdy folks, checking back in from a posting I made in this thread back in August.

I’m currently about a month and a half sober. After my August posting, I took a few days off, but fell back into the loop. Numerous binge drinking sessions, hangovers, depression/anxiety, etc., were still a constant battle in my life despite an otherwise charmed existence.

The catalyst for quitting card during Thanksgiving. I had been drinking and my father/brother instigated an argument with me over a long running conflict between us. I EXPLODED. Yelled at both for 15 minutes at the top of my lungs. It was like I was completely possessed.

I woke up the next morning and something was different. In all of my prior attempts to stop drinking or cut back, the addicted part of me, the part that still saw some benefit in alcohol, was gone. I had fully internalized the truth that I needed to stop drinking or it would destroy my life, and more importantly, I WANTED to stop for good.

I started educating myself on alcohol addiction. I highly recommend Craig Beck with stopdrinkingexpert.com and Kevin O’Hara with Alcohol Mastery; they’ve helped provide the framework for my new philosophy and views towards this drug.

I’m so grateful to be a teetotaler now. No more shame, guilt, regret, hangovers, anxiety/depression, and chaos. My health has never been better, my sleep is sublime, my career is firing on all cylinders, my finances are better since I’m not spending $100 plus a week on alcohol/alcohol fueled purchases, my diet is better, and my relationships have completely turned around for the better.

Not to be cliche, but it really is a moment by moment, day by day existence. All of my past failed attempts to quit have been instrumental in this new found life as a teetotaler as I’ve learned something from each attempt that is benefiting me now.

Good luck everyone! Life really is better on the other side of alcohol addiction,

Keep it up! It gets easier and easier - the rewards are staggering! Soon you'll wonder why you ever poured the poison into your body.

Good Luck!

Anyone still dry? Not me! But not drinking as much.

Great thread. Just finished reading every post...all framed by runners, so credible/ relatetable.

Day 42 for me started 1st of the year, this after about 35 years of beer, something I have always enjoyed. But enjoying the missing the negative parts now too. Last few years have been on a good running plan as well as lifting, good enough to realize how alcohol has had a negative impact....especially on the diet and attempt to lose weight. Second seems to be in the metal toughness department, hard to measure that one...the long runs this year as well as tough intervals, quitting half way though has not come up. Running's hard enough with out making it harder with a self inflicted day after fuzziness. Stopping cold turkey seems to be working. The years before, timing the beers helps, you know no more than one per hour (maybe 45 minutes)...that's a pretty good afternoon, but still came with side effects. This year, seems like the best "new" training plan I have had, ever. Good luck and good running to all!

Quitting again for the n^th time... now last time wrote:I started educating myself on alcohol addiction. I highly recommend Craig Beck with stopdrinkingexpert.com and Kevin O’Hara with Alcohol Mastery; they’ve helped provide the framework for my new philosophy and views towards this drug.

Gave up booze for lent this year. It reminded me of how great sleep is without alcohol. Deep, uninterrupted sleep. Work, running, and life in general are all much easier now. I'm noticeably less agitated about things. Much less anxious as well.

I thought this would be good to share, to remind anyone who quit or is thinking of quitting of just a few of the benefits. Hope everyone is doing well.

Hi guys!

I have posted here a few times already. This year I had 2x3 days without alcohol and that's it (and 1 day here and there, but not often). In the last 3 years the longest was 56 days.

I want to try again but I want to go for a long time without alcohol, not just 3 days, and who knows, maybe not drink again - but not putting that sort of pressure on myself now. A few years ago (I've been drinking excessively for 16 years) I decided to go 1 year without and I made it. I want to have that sort of a challenge - 1 year - and then maybe realize that I am better off without alcohol in my life and keep it that way.

I know I will drink today.

But I don't have to drink tomorrow. And I want to stay sober tomorrow.

I work from home so I spend most of the day on my own.

What suggestions can you give me for tomorrow, to make sure I don't succumb to the 4 p.m. onwards' cravings?

I already have a long run planned for tomorrow and I will leave it until the evening. But what else? Something to look forward to, not something I can manipulate (I tried all sorts of things in the past, like buying a ticket to the movies, only to not go).

And anything you suggest I do today to get more motivated for tomorrow?

It's not that I am inexperienced at this but I would like to know if anyone has any new ideas I haven't though of.

Thanks in advance.

bumping it back to page 1

I think of two old men sitting in a nursing home talking about what they did with their lives. One man goes on an on about the adventures and successes he had. The other man has nothing to talk about except excuses and regrets.

this goes through my mind wrote:

I think of two old men sitting in a nursing home talking about what they did with their lives. One man goes on an on about the adventures and successes he had. The other man has nothing to talk about except excuses and regrets.

I was at an AA meeting last night and someone mentioned how sometimes tough love is necessary.

Thank you for your post.

I really appreciate it.

Suggestions for last day and Day 1 wrote:

this goes through my mind wrote:

I think of two old men sitting in a nursing home talking about what they did with their lives. One man goes on an on about the adventures and successes he had. The other man has nothing to talk about except excuses and regrets.

I was at an AA meeting last night and someone mentioned how sometimes tough love is necessary.

Thank you for your post.

I really appreciate it.

It might not be worth much but I'm rooting for you!

tgtmm wrote:

Suggestions for last day and Day 1 wrote:

I was at an AA meeting last night and someone mentioned how sometimes tough love is necessary.

Thank you for your post.

I really appreciate it.

It might not be worth much but I'm rooting for you!

Thank you so much.

b.u.m.p.

What helped me get off the sauce this year was taking it day-by-day for the first week or so while the effects of alcohol leave your body and you just feel better. Remember how much better it feels to be off the sauce for a few days. If you drink again after a week or two off, you will feel how much the alcohol affects your body. It is a reminder of how better it is for your body and mind to not drink alcohol. Remind yourself of the bad effects every time you feel the urge to drink.

When you are in the process of weening yourself off the alcohol, fill the time you would spend drinking with something else. Instead of drinking, get out of the house and go for a walk. Take up a new hobby. Drink tea instead of alcohol.

That's what did it for me. My urge to drink has gone way down because I was able to change my habits. I don't know if that will work for you.

I never was able to string together many sober stretches when single. My need to escape the house and boredom always led me to meeting people out at night. Usually to drink. It was very difficult to make it even 4 or 5 days without the drink.

I’m 42 now with a family. I go in streaks. I have too much fun drinking to ever want to stop for good. I wish I could just be a few night a week drinker and not have the cravings the nights I don’t drink. That doesn’t work for me though.

Now I tend to drink regularly (5 or 6 nights a week) for a few months and then take a month or so off. First 7 to 10 days is tough sledding but I actually enjoy being sober after that for the most part. It gets boring though.....

Hey guys, just wanted to check back in. I posted about 6 months ago when I hit a breaking point and decided to quit drinking. I attended one AA meeting and never went back thinking that I had enough self-control to do it myself. I relapsed after about 35 days, then managed to string about 5 months together before relapsing again. Both relapses occurred when I thought I'd just have one, which ultimately turned into 10 drinks without even thinking about it. It's pretty damn clear to me now that I cannot have one. It is easier to have zero than to have one. It's incredibly scary to think that I have absolutely no control over this. So I've committed to AA again, and am currently on day 2 of being sober.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Pablo wrote:

Hey guys, just wanted to check back in. I posted about 6 months ago when I hit a breaking point and decided to quit drinking. I attended one AA meeting and never went back thinking that I had enough self-control to do it myself. I relapsed after about 35 days, then managed to string about 5 months together before relapsing again. Both relapses occurred when I thought I'd just have one, which ultimately turned into 10 drinks without even thinking about it. It's pretty damn clear to me now that I cannot have one. It is easier to have zero than to have one. It's incredibly scary to think that I have absolutely no control over this. So I've committed to AA again, and am currently on day 2 of being sober.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Congrats buddy! It works if you work it, so just keep showing up.

A few years ago I nailed 6 months of sobriety, going to AA consistently (7 days a week). Then I had a beer or two on a few occasions, which gave me a false sense of security that things were alright and I was back to my normal, pre-alcohol-abuse days.

About a year or so later, after many 1-2 beer nights and an ever growing false sense of security, I was back to the abuse cycle.

Complete gave up on alcohol in December '18 and have been strong since.

Don't let any hubris or false sense of security take hold. That's why the first step is no profound. It's not just about admitting that you have no control, it's really letting that settle in your mind and be a practice over your life.

Get a sponsor. Work the steps. And keep showing up!