JanieJ

Flakey inspired me to write a list of all the lovely things about being sober so far. My tipple was red wine.I realise it's early days for me (9 days sober) but these are the things that I am focussing on to keep me sober.

No black teeth, black tongue, black lips, black poo-instead, everything is a normal colour.
Clean bed, clean sheets, bedroom that smells of a bedroom and not wine.
Recycling bin full of jars, not bottles.
Feeling of cleanness in my house, my body, my mind.
Reading books at bedtime, and drinking hot chocolate.
Peace and calmness in my mind.
Not staggering to the toilet at three am trying not to make a noise that others will here, or falling over.
Anticipation of weight loss.
No stomach pains.
So many more hours to do things in- I didn't realise what a waste of time drinking is.
The ability and energy to redecorate my house in the evenings.
Falling asleep naturally, cosily, comfortably.
Pride in myself and my house, which is cleaner than it's been for 15 years.
Pride when my daughter says, wow the house is really clean.
Pleasure in being able to say, I don't drink, and not having to lie about how much I drink.
Gratitude for this forum and all the wonderful people here.
A realisation of exactly how poisonous alcohol is.
No more self- deception.
Feeling like a normal person, not a raging addict.
Having a memory coming back.
Not basing my life around making sure I have enough wine-instead, basing it on normal things like having enough food in.
Looking forward to (hopefully) living longer and more fruitfully.
I'd like to say again, pride in myself. That's such a big thing for me.


Think that's about it -can anyone add anything ?

sickofthiscrap

I was a red wine drinker too, and I don't miss the black poo either (it was sometimes green)!

Conquest

More room in the fridge!

WritingFromLife

@sickofthiscrap - the (I assume) unintentional pun of your name and your post made me laugh out loud!

I have such a long list, and ALL of yours are included with mine, Janie. Alcohol steals our peace and replaces it with a ridiculous anxiety that is so insidious we never even realize it's happening until we feel panic.

As far as the hours wasted drinking....YES! When sober, I begin to wonder how in the heck I ever got anything done while alcohol was involved--there is so much to do, learn, read, experience......for me, alcohol kept those things superficial. Now, they have DEPTH.

LadyinBC

Being in the moment with my grandkids instead of wanting to rush off to get drunk is huge for me. I am so lucky and thankful that I get to see them everyday and that I am sober when I see them.

That is my mush for the day .

MavisTheFairy13

Putting my son to bed and kissing him without wine breath

Briar

A couple things I don't miss:

Reading bedtime stories to my daughter trying not to slur.

Eating exclusively greasy hangover food and being gassy all the time.

Getting my whole body into the rank recycling bin to arrange things to cover up the vodka bottles.

And so much more!

Soberwolf

Well done Janie and welll done Flakey for inspiring somebody else

wonderful thing sobriety is wow

thank you all

Fiona630

While I am still dealing with bouts of anger, anxiety, lack of concentration, etc..I am not yelling at my son because I am hung over and he wants to tell me a long drawn out story of something that happened at school the other day. Now I listen and don't tell him tell me later. My laughs are not fake, or drunk induced, they are real. And Im really liking laughing when sober so many things.

Pushkin

Sleep! Proper uninterrupted actual restful sleep!
No more red wine vomit, ick
Radically reduced grocery bills - wine and junk food are expensive

margherita

This post is really, really inspirational!!! :thou

Definitely can relate to many things on this list:
- No constant stomach pain, that constant burning I had on my stomach since my drink of choice was white wine - had loots of it. Acidity was really bad for my stomach.
- Being able to go out to dinner and actually enjoy the food. It may sound crazy but I was really worried about what friends/family would think of my drinking, so I would not even each much in the presence of others so I could get drunk with less alcohol.
- Not having to worry about how much wine I have at home, is it going to be enough to get me through the night? If so, try to figure out a liquor store I haven't been in a while (due to shame of liquor store people seeing me there regularly), try to figure out when to go, having to dress up nicely to go to the liquor store so I look normal etc. etc. so much anxiety)
- Having the energy to cook and clean
- Enjoying lots of ice cream and hot chocolate
- Enjoying my favorite TV shows and actually remembering what I have watched. Many times while drinking I would watch a TV show and not even remember it in the morning, so I would watch it over and over again
- Having to throw out bottle after bottle of wine into the garbage hoping my neighbors won't see or hear me
- Not messaging/calling people and saying things I don't mean when I'm drunk
- Not being embarrassed to look at my phone in the morning
- Not worrying about what I said/did the night before
- Being productive!!!

I actually realized the constant obsession with alcohol was causing me so much anxiety - always trying to plan when/where I would drink next, having to buy constant supplies of alcohol, hiding how much I drank from people, hiding bottles in my bags, etc. etc.