I like this thread! When I think back on the past year, it's filled with countless binges and failed attempts at moderation, and several stints of sobriety (I even made it to 50 consecutive days this summer.) I've spent 222 of the past 365 days sober! That's more than any other year since I was like 15, so despite my recent stumbles, I count this year as some form of success. Training for the long haul, maybe. And I've been experimenting a lot with learning to function, and to have fun, sober.
So when I look back, the fun times I've enjoyed this past year were the sober ones:
- Reading books by the fire with my cats. Or just reading books in general.
- Trail running and getting REALLY FIT. No high has ever felt better to me than endorphins!
- Going to see live music and dancing, sober, with good friends
- Going camping, hiking, backpacking, riding bikes, swimming, skiing...... Playing outside!!!
- Eating really good food, and trying new foods and restaurants
- People watching!
- Exploring new places! Even in this area I call home, there are parks and restaurants and little towns and old libraries and other places I've never been...
- Seeing people I love. Good conversations and laughing. I'm an introvert too, and I started drinking out of social anxiety, but drinking only made it worse... Conversations are more fun and more entertaining now because the quality is higher, and because I remember them. And because I laugh more now, and I laugh louder.
- Anything that helps other people
- I'm thinking about taking an art class starting in January at my local community college. I used to take painting and ceramics classes in college, and I'm thinking that would be really fun and a great outlet.
- Playing Chess, Scrabble, etc....
And again, looking back, the times that were uniformly miserable were the ones where I was drinking!
- Blacking out at social events (yeah, not so fun if you have no idea what's going on...)
- ...Or if not blacked out, then forgetting things, slurring my speech (cause of anxiety) and of course feeling guilty the next day
- Drunkenly fighting with my alcoholic, emotionally abusive ex. Oh the drama, the rage...
- Drinking alone while listening to stupid music on repeat, going on facebook, and generally doing pointless things that do nothing to further my life.
- Drunken crying / beer tears
- Being hung over (and trying so hard to cover it up at work with blazers and make-up.... and eating bad food to alleviate it.... vomiting to alleviate it.... taking headache pills to alleviate it.... the hair of the dog to alleviate it...etc.)
- And even times when I was just having a couple drinks with friends....what's so great about adding alcohol to that mix? To me, it sometimes sounds good, but it really just takes all the fun away.