Originally Posted by
instant 
The "missing out" thing goes away. I think I am still noticing changes at 16plus months. The sense of freedom is priceless. I am also far more able to handle "stress" (which used to send me back to the bottle).
It gets easier and it gets better.
That's interesting as it was stress that drove me to drink in the first place!
Its weird how the crutch we use to cope could actually be the cause of the underlying problem. I was drinking heavily because I could not cope with stress at work and I had depression. It was my way to escape and become numb for a few hours. My head now feels a lot clearer and my spirit in general has been lifted since I gave up the drink.
My biggest issue at the moment is having to explain why I'm not drinking. The two times it has come up so far I've not really had a negative response. I've managed to brush it off with comments such as 'Im giving it a rest for a while' or 'i'm on a health kick'. There will be times in the future where I will no doubt get the third degree from friends or relatives. I expect there will be some people who will just want to be nosey and pry into my private life. Not looking forward to having to justify myself at all. My reasons for giving up drinking are personal to me and I'm uncomfortable with being labelled by people. I have my over-bearing sister in law coming to visit this Saturday, I've already conjured up my "I'm on anti-biotic's chest infection excuse"!