Today is day 40.
Yesterday was full of successes depending upon how you look at it. Ran a number of errands with my son through mid afternoon and by the time all was done I just needed to unwind a little. In the old days that meant I'd start drinking and isolate myself. Now I've progressed to the point where the instinct to grab a drink isn't there but I do still need the quiet/alone time -introvert thing. Last evening we also had an extended family get together with an impromptu follow up at our house - it went far later than expected but wound up being a nice evening.
The other part of success also relates to the introvert thing. This week with not only the crazy schedule but also all of the forced social interactions I hit my breaking point several times. Simply put, I shut down and get Ancy and short tempered when I've had enough - accept the bar is higher when I'm in a work setting and I instinctively shove down more of those personal tendencies ... But that stress of the social interactions is even more bottled up then. And add to it that with the chaos and physical fatigue of the schedule, I didn't get to workout as I normally would, and that provides me a natural stress relief. The victory comes in having made it through the week and not turning to alcohol to unwind or cope. I still need to continue to work on and improve how I ultimately improve how I cope with those stressors, but that was an underlying thing before alcohol entered the picture.
Whew - long winded today :-). Today has some craziness to it as well ... Too much in the calendar - I typically book too many things because it works on paper - I need to work on recognizing in advance where I'm going to be overwhelmed and do a little preventative planning. But I never said I was perfect ... Always a work in progress
And today I will not drink.