congratulations on 4 years, and welcome!

woohoo, congratulations!

Brilliant, congratulations!

woohoo!

Because I find I deal better with the world as it is without alcohol and hangovers clouding my judgement.

Because I have better things to spend my money on than alcohol.

Because I have the time and headspace to read, sew, to cycle to work instead of taking public transport, to do stuff I enjoy and want to do instead of losing my evenings in a bottle.

Because I can be present for my friends and family.

Because life is calmer, easier, quieter.

Also because it’s hot as hell here (40C with 76% humidity earlier in the week) and I can’t imagine trying to negotiate this heatwave with a hangover, I think I would actually die.

Welcome, we’re glad to have you here.

Alcohol is physically and mentally addictive. It’s habit-forming, you get used to consuming, and your body and brain start expecting, alcohol in certain circumstances.

“It’s Friday, time for a glass of wine.” “It’s a sunny Saturday, wheres my chilled glass of rosè?” etc. It will take time to overlay the old habits, the old neural pathways, with new habits. It sounds like you have some old hobbies you can pick up again? That will definitely help. My one rule I never broke, even when I was drinking a bottle of wine a night, was “no drinking and sewing, that’s dangerous.” And I saved up my booze money and my 1 year sobriety present was a very fancy sewing machine.

this is what happens when I post before having coffee 😁

Also, my dudes, watch out for the FIFA World Cup, you might be tempted but we know you will remain strong

Football’s not my thing but the Women’s T20 cricket World Cup also starts today. When I stopped drinking, I was adamant that I wanted to still do the things I enjoyed, I didn’t want to stop going to the cricket. I used it as an excuse to explore alcohol-free drinks options.

I do occasionally think a glass of wine would be nice, but then I play the tape forward to finishing the bottle because it’s open, the sick feeling when I remember that I argued with a friend or my partner, the hangover and inability to function the next day…

Nah, not worth it.

I hit four years a couple of days ago and I didn’t realise 😁 Happy soberversary to me. 🎉

thank you for your kind words.

welcome, we’re glad to have you here. Check out the resources in the pinned posts, see if anything resonates.

there’ll be another chance tomorrow.

Do you know what your trigger was?

Welcome, we’re glad to have you here 😊

have a read through the pinned posts, there’s a fair bit of advice in those.

You’ve got to start somewhere.

Welcome, we’re glad to have you here. 😊

and that’s why my soberversary is a random day in May 😊

I am still monster in the morning and 100% do not talk to me before my coffee

Same 😁

I will say that I received a diagnosis of ADHD after I’d stopped drinking and the clinician I was dealing with said that it’s really common to self-medicate with alcohol and then realise something else is going on once you stop doing that.

Welcome, we’re glad to have you here 😊

Excellent work!