Hope
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 5
Hope
Hope, if you are looking at the thread that is what you want. Well let me try to help you out with that.
A year ago today I decided to take a break from drinking for one year, and here I am today a year later sober, happy, and content.
Let me give you some background, I’m 33yrs old and was a weekend warrior when it came to drinking. For the better part of a decade I would go out and drink myself into a stupor every weekend. I grew up thinking that was normal, there was no have a few to relax it was all or none. From some of the articles I have read that is worse kind of drinking. Bingeing.
So I finally had enough, I was sick and tired of being sick, tired, depressed, anxious, angry, and restless.
So here is the hope. Things get better, at first they seem not to; so much anxiety and thinking what to do now. I think for me that was the hardest part, it wasn’t not drinking it was what to do with all this free time, because you all know that drinking takes a lot of your time.
What I did was run, I ran a lot. I needed to fill that free time, so in the past year I completed two marathons and it helped with all the anxiety I was feeling. But that was only part of it. I did a lot of soul searching and a lot of reading and a lot of accepting that this is my personality. I’m not the out going, social butterfly I always envied. So, without numbing my weekends in alcohol I start to discover that I’m more comfort hanging out with close friends and running.
Now here is some advice for anyone looking for some. You need to give yourself a year to really heal, no matter how much you drank or didn’t. A year is needed to get a good grip on life. But be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster, lots of ups and even more downs, but that starts to get better. I noticed my mood would swing monthly (male PMS, at least that’s the joke my mom said) maybe that is just part of who I am. One lesson I did figure out was alcohol never made an event fun, alcohol might have made the event tolerable, but truly the people you surround yourself with is what makes life fun or not, alcohol is just there. And in my case towards the end, alcohol just made everything miserable.
But I sit here now thinking back about how would I ever be able to enjoy life without being able to drink with my friends and all I can do is laugh. A year later life is just as fun and more fun then before. No more waking up with regrets, no more fake friends, no more wondering why I never have money, no more anger, no more worrying.
Now is my live perfect and everything ideal? Lol, not at all, but its better then what it was. So stick in there life gets better. But remember that this is a year of self discovery and work. I spent a lot of time reading and trying to figure out about me. Quitting allowed to figure how my personality and to accept I am who I am. It pulled off the safety blanket and allowed me to experience life and all that comes with it.
I hope this helps some people who are struggling. If you here looking your recognized you may have a problem and that’s fine. Now lets try to fix what’s broken. I think we all are strongest of people out there, we recognized we’re not content with your life and want to change. That is awesome, we realized that doing the same thing wasn’t for us and we wanted to grow. Many people never do that; they get in their rut of life and just stay there too scared to change it.
Well this was pretty long winded so, thank you for taking time to read it all. I don’t know if I will ever drink again, but I’m excited for year two and don’t have an urge to drink anymore. I just remind how far I came and what I have today, and it is way better then what I had before.
A year ago today I decided to take a break from drinking for one year, and here I am today a year later sober, happy, and content.
Let me give you some background, I’m 33yrs old and was a weekend warrior when it came to drinking. For the better part of a decade I would go out and drink myself into a stupor every weekend. I grew up thinking that was normal, there was no have a few to relax it was all or none. From some of the articles I have read that is worse kind of drinking. Bingeing.
So I finally had enough, I was sick and tired of being sick, tired, depressed, anxious, angry, and restless.
So here is the hope. Things get better, at first they seem not to; so much anxiety and thinking what to do now. I think for me that was the hardest part, it wasn’t not drinking it was what to do with all this free time, because you all know that drinking takes a lot of your time.
What I did was run, I ran a lot. I needed to fill that free time, so in the past year I completed two marathons and it helped with all the anxiety I was feeling. But that was only part of it. I did a lot of soul searching and a lot of reading and a lot of accepting that this is my personality. I’m not the out going, social butterfly I always envied. So, without numbing my weekends in alcohol I start to discover that I’m more comfort hanging out with close friends and running.
Now here is some advice for anyone looking for some. You need to give yourself a year to really heal, no matter how much you drank or didn’t. A year is needed to get a good grip on life. But be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster, lots of ups and even more downs, but that starts to get better. I noticed my mood would swing monthly (male PMS, at least that’s the joke my mom said) maybe that is just part of who I am. One lesson I did figure out was alcohol never made an event fun, alcohol might have made the event tolerable, but truly the people you surround yourself with is what makes life fun or not, alcohol is just there. And in my case towards the end, alcohol just made everything miserable.
But I sit here now thinking back about how would I ever be able to enjoy life without being able to drink with my friends and all I can do is laugh. A year later life is just as fun and more fun then before. No more waking up with regrets, no more fake friends, no more wondering why I never have money, no more anger, no more worrying.
Now is my live perfect and everything ideal? Lol, not at all, but its better then what it was. So stick in there life gets better. But remember that this is a year of self discovery and work. I spent a lot of time reading and trying to figure out about me. Quitting allowed to figure how my personality and to accept I am who I am. It pulled off the safety blanket and allowed me to experience life and all that comes with it.
I hope this helps some people who are struggling. If you here looking your recognized you may have a problem and that’s fine. Now lets try to fix what’s broken. I think we all are strongest of people out there, we recognized we’re not content with your life and want to change. That is awesome, we realized that doing the same thing wasn’t for us and we wanted to grow. Many people never do that; they get in their rut of life and just stay there too scared to change it.
Well this was pretty long winded so, thank you for taking time to read it all. I don’t know if I will ever drink again, but I’m excited for year two and don’t have an urge to drink anymore. I just remind how far I came and what I have today, and it is way better then what I had before.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Wales UK
Posts: 859
I think accepting that it was part of your personality has really helped move things on.
Congratulations. Good luck with year two and hoping you never need to chance drink again.
Thanks for your post.
John.
Congratulations. Good luck with year two and hoping you never need to chance drink again.
Thanks for your post.
John.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Posts: 94
Excellent post!
The part that really spoke to me was about giving ourselves a year to truly heal. It took some pressure I put on myself thinking that just because I have recently become sober, everything should always be perfect and right now. Time to shift gears, slow down and let the healing continue even if it feels most uncomfortable at times.
Thank you for sharing your experience and congratulations!
The part that really spoke to me was about giving ourselves a year to truly heal. It took some pressure I put on myself thinking that just because I have recently become sober, everything should always be perfect and right now. Time to shift gears, slow down and let the healing continue even if it feels most uncomfortable at times.
Thank you for sharing your experience and congratulations!
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