Four years!!
Normally I hang around in the "Alcoholism" section but I wanted to share this with the newcomers more than anyone else. Today is my official 4th birthday of sobriety. I want to let all of you out there contemplating the plunge or suffering through the early days know that not only is it possible, it is totally worth it.
At the end of my drinking "career" I was in a pretty weird place. Of course most of my friends were heavy drinkers but most of them were decent people. Some of the people in my life were not that decent, though. They were using me in one way or another some of them knew it some didn't. My marriage was limping around in circles. I had a hangover every morning and I was drunk by six every night. I did have a couple of friends who had quit and it seemed to suit them very well. I wanted what they had. Alcohol was making me weak and confused. I wanted to "channel my inner badass".
At this point I am comfortable in my own skin for the first time I can remember because I started drinking when I was 16 and quit when I was 46. Even if I could remember what my skin felt like when I was 15 I'm pretty sure it wasn't comfortable!
The first three months were the heaviest and involved lots of white knuckling, tea and coffee, meetings, and navel gazing but since then it has been an interesting mission of self discovery. As I think most of us have suspected, alcohol isn't actually that good for dealing with life's issues. In fact, it sucks! I've had to come to terms with myself and my crazy alcohol induced life as a sober man. It isn't easy but it gets better with practice.
For the last one or two years, since I quit smoking pot I guess, I've been growing and evolving as a sober thoughtful person. I am coming to terms with the new me, not just un packing the old me. It isn't always easy but nothing worthwhile is. Besides, spending life always drunk or hungover is really hard.
So if you are thinking of quitting, or white knuckling your way through those first few torturous weeks I say "Bravo" to you and raise my coffee cup in a toast! Keep at it, it gets easier! Hopefully the people around you will notice and appreciate it but the important thing is that you will!