Coming to the end of dry January
 

So im very pleased to tell you im on day 28 today and coming to the end of my dry January. Of course, i also realise that over the next few days I need to give serious thought to my future.
My AV says im cured and proved I havent got a problem, but I know otherwise. I always remember when i gave up for nearly six months a couple of years ago someone in the pub i knew well, and who is a huge drinker said to me -" see youve done it and proved there is no way you have a drink problem- " Of course the landlord of the pub who had lost about 3 to 4 thousand pounds in income from me agreed that there is no way I have any knd of problem. I said to them both " well maybe its because I have a drink problem that I have had to stop for all these months to which they both looked completely perplexed?
The thought of drinking 1 or 2 nights a week appeals to me however i have no doubt in my mind that history will repeat itself falling down that slippery slope and anyway ive started doing yoga agin 3 times a week which I love and my blood pressure is back to normal. Ive cut back on my anti-depressants for the first time in many years. Yes im suffering a little in other ways but Life is certainly better in many ways. ,Maybe a continuation of my current sobriety is called for.

There are so many benefits to staying sober, and waking up feeling good is just one of them. :)

continuation of sobriety is a good thing. then you NEVER have to worry about all the BAD alcohol stuff happening.....you just won't risk all the GOOD things you have today. staying sober is way easier than "trying" to drink again.

it's just one thing you no longer do....drink.

you can sky dive, study latin, take up needlepoint, sleep, discover you are actually really good at making pickles........superbowls will happen whether you drink or not......holidays..............fridays............ ......your child's birthday. you get to choose how present you are for your life..........

Thirty days is a great base to continue to build your sobriety on. How about continuing into February?

Remember that the AV always lies.
Kick on with what you've started jtmlk :)

D

The benefits of sobriety keep adding up. It is amazing. I am at 20 months and it still surprises me that things keep getting better. Like my eyes are still getting whiter. lol. And i have lost 53 pounds. I definitely encourage you to keep going and see what all benefits you get.

Sounds like you know the "answer" to your "question." Do you want to do it?

Thanks for your replys so far. The bizarre thing is I know you are all right with what you say, and of course if i could drink normally I wouldnt be where i am in life at the moment. Think my wife and kids would be disappointed if I didn't continue sobriety so thinnk i will take one day at a time and spend time thinking about the real effects of alcohol on me and not romanticising it

when you first get sober you feel better physically...it takes time for your brain to catch up with your body and get better too. It took me 8 or 9 months to finally decide I didn't want to go back to the way I was living before. I had to come to terms with it. My brain was sick and needed time to rewire. :)

The AV force is strong within him.
Seems your awareness is good and you know the drill well by now. If you could not control your drinking and stop after one before then you most certainly will not be able to now. Things will spiral as before but a little bit heavier and little bit more destructive. Since you have come this far and you are likely to be back anyway later why not just stay off it and build on th progress you have made?

Were You upset on the 12th of Jan that you didn’t drink on the 11th?

Your AV will always tell You how upset you are on the 10th because you won’t drink on the 11th, yeah?

I did a couple of those month events - sober October, dry January. Thought exactly what your AV is telling you. Each time i went back to drinking and ended up drinking harder and faster than i had before it. Third time I tried to do it i couldn't manage it. That scared me. That would have been Jan 2014. Again was back to drinking harder and more recklessly, then a couple of things happened which made for spectacular lows, even for me, and I decided I really couldn't carry on living like this. One option was death, and the other was living sober, so I thought I'd at least give it a shot. I chose Lent 2014 as my sobriety date, but actually stopped the day before because I was so so sick of myself. The Lent period gave me a space of time when people left me to it, and didn't keep badgering me to come out to play and drink with them again. At the end of lent their patience was out and there were some 'friendly' saboteurs on my tail. I needed to learn to avoid those 'friends '. Thankfully AA was there for me - I started going after a month sober when I started to feel very strange with it all.

I do hope you won't go back to test this theory out. Not everyone makes it back.

BB

For me a dry January would lead to a "F'it February." What's your game plan? Just to think about not drinking anymore?

Morning , I hope you continue dry beyond January .

I read this CHRISTA D?SOUZA is still on the wagon | Daily Mail Online

Hi
I am also on day 29 of January.
I had 111 days under my belt before Christmas and i felt healthy. I made the mistake of going back to the poison for the week of Christmas. It would be moderate controlled!
Who was I kidding!
I luckily managed to back out off this mistake sharpish. And guess what?
When I thought about that skirmish with alcohol I realized that it was absolutely not required it made me a lesser person less aware, less able, less of everything (it's just an exceptionally deceptively bad habit no an addiction, I am an addict) I had been drinking for so many years without truly opening my eyes and seeing it for what it really had become.
January 2018 I started again.
This was hard, I was experiencing withdrawals and quickly also the PAWS symptoms which left me incapable of pretty much anything devoid of positive thoughts or energy.
I am 48 and I am an alcoholic. Moderation failed.
Sobriety is a path that I have not walked for a very very long time.
I chose this path not just for the fad January experiment. ( I choose life)

My wish is that I do not trip or slip and that I keep heading towards the healthier happier future without poison.

I hope that you chose to join me and the others on this forum making better futures for us and our loved ones!
Best wishes Dusty😎

Almost funny because he's so biased. I like how you added this in for color. Not everyone we know has our best interests in mind.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)

Jtmlk: I wish you a sober February!

Be careful, my son did dry January last year "proved" to himself and all of us he could do it, and has been on the worst year long binge I have ever seen in my life

Funny how, as soon as you decide to quit for good, everyone suddenly wants to buy you a drink.