365 days without booze... join me?

[dirtbiker]

Digga said:

I'm quite a fan of some zero beers, but I think, for me, at present I'm interested in the process of 'disconnecting' the automatic associations - celebrations, weekend and, yes, curries - with booze.

Fair enough, whatever works for you! I'm in the same place, trying to understand the triggers, but I always find the cravings fade and any anxiety with them if I have an AF beer or a non-alcoholic G&T when everyone else is drinking. The biggest thing for me is that I now identify as a non-drinker rather than someone who just isn't drinking that day (due to driving, or whatever) which is really helpful.

[blue_haddock]

My drinking has been sporadic at best over the last few years, i had one small shot on our works night out on 13th dec along with a few guinness 0.0 and havent had a drop since.

No plans to permanently stop drinking but i'll just see how i go. Dry january will be an easy one to accomplish and we're not going on holiday until Easter so that could be the next time i plan on having a drink as sometimes on holiday you just cant beat a cold one.

For those guys who have given up what do you do with your stash of booze? i've got maybe 20+ unopened bottles of spirits plus various slabs of cider and ale.

[bmwmike]

Not sure if i'm imagining it but i'm sure my eyes look whiter. There used to be a very slight yellowy tinge under my eyelids, like if you peeled them right back, and i'd even asked an optician about it a few years ago who said it was normal. I'm sure that's almost completely gone.

I have annual liver function tests for an unrelated reason, and those are always spot on, so i'm sure its nothing sinister like that.

Odd. Maybe its a seasonal thing.

[GT03ROB]

Down the local Friday night & was chatting with a guy I've met down there a fair few times. He was on Guinness Zero. I asked if he was doing dry January.

"no" he said "I can't drink now, not allowed"

He went on to explain how he'd had a blood test in November that flagged a few issues. He had further tests before Christmas & they identified a fatty liver & cirrhosis. Doctor said complete stop to drinking immediately. No exception for Christmas. He's stuck with it so far.

An incentive to stop or reduce for anyone?

[Captain Smerc]

blue_haddock said:

My drinking has been sporadic at best over the last few years, i had one small shot on our works night out on 13th dec along with a few guinness 0.0 and havent had a drop since.

No plans to permanently stop drinking but i'll just see how i go. Dry january will be an easy one to accomplish and we're not going on holiday until Easter so that could be the next time i plan on having a drink as sometimes on holiday you just cant beat a cold one.

For those guys who have given up what do you do with your stash of booze? i've got maybe 20+ unopened bottles of spirits plus various slabs of cider and ale.

Give/sell it to your neighbours. Let them suffer the hangover's of doom!

[Sebo]

mattuk89 said:

For me it’s always been the drink led to other stuff.. but now I feel like I’ve reset my brain and I know I can’t drink without the other, so I just gotta stay sober as I don’t want anything else.. in the future will I be able to have a few pints down the pub and just go home.. who knows but for now I know even after 10 weeks sober and after 2 pints I was in the toilet cubicle at the pub..

55 days cola free, and 18 days sober, don’t miss the first one bit..

Thanks for posting that Matt, that was exactly my experience. As soon as I was half way down the first pint, I was getting itchy fingers about calling it in. By the second pint I was chasing the guy up asking where the F he was with my stuff!

It took me a while to realise that I can't drink safely under any circumstances - my experience of 20 years of drinking and drugging was that as soon as I have that first drink, I am off and running and that on the odd occasion, I could have one (and then be miserable because I couldn't have any more) but that my overall history was that as soon as I have 1 drink, it's anyone's guess where this was ending up. Invariably some random's kitchen or often somewhere darker.

Thankfully it's been a few years since I've had a drink or drug. I know I cannot drink alcohol safely under any circumstances, so I don't.

I wish you all the best with keeping away from it and I hope you experience the same release from giving up the drinking and using as I did

[mooseracer]

blue_haddock said:

My drinking has been sporadic at best over the last few years, i had one small shot on our works night out on 13th dec along with a few guinness 0.0 and havent had a drop since.

No plans to permanently stop drinking but i'll just see how i go. Dry january will be an easy one to accomplish and we're not going on holiday until Easter so that could be the next time i plan on having a drink as sometimes on holiday you just cant beat a cold one.

For those guys who have given up what do you do with your stash of booze? i've got maybe 20+ unopened bottles of spirits plus various slabs of cider and ale.

It would never hang around long enough to become a stash (far from it) so wasn't an issue when I stopped!!

[Digga]

bmwmike said:

Not sure if i'm imagining it but i'm sure my eyes look whiter. There used to be a very slight yellowy tinge under my eyelids, like if you peeled them right back, and i'd even asked an optician about it a few years ago who said it was normal. I'm sure that's almost completely gone.

I have annual liver function tests for an unrelated reason, and those are always spot on, so i'm sure its nothing sinister like that.

Odd. Maybe its a seasonal thing.

True story, when I was a kid, one of my uncles had a load of tests because he looked a bit jaundiced. Had been working in gulf also, so they scanned for everything. Nothing found.

Long story short, they realised he was suffering excess iron, due to his Guinness consumption.

As for booze stash, just keep it to serve to guests perhaps?

[DT1975]

GT03ROB said:

Down the local Friday night & was chatting with a guy I've met down there a fair few times. He was on Guinness Zero. I asked if he was doing dry January.

"no" he said "I can't drink now, not allowed"

He went on to explain how he'd had a blood test in November that flagged a few issues. He had further tests before Christmas & they identified a fatty liver & cirrhosis. Doctor said complete stop to drinking immediately. No exception for Christmas. He's stuck with it so far.

An incentive to stop or reduce for anyone?

After 45 years of drinking I'd started thinking a wake up call would be the only thing that would stop me however the bloods came back excellent. The issue none of us know is how many other alcohol induced nasties (cancers etc) are waiting further down the line.

That aside I basically stopped last October, getting quite ill with covid halted the nightly habit, NA beer has propped me up since.

[bmwmike]

Digga said:

True story, when I was a kid, one of my uncles had a load of tests because he looked a bit jaundiced. Had been working in gulf also, so they scanned for everything. Nothing found.

Long story short, they realised he was suffering excess iron, due to his Guinness consumption.

As for booze stash, just keep it to serve to guests perhaps?

Ha, well maybe that's the case here then as i drink nothing but guiness largely, apart from the odd bottle of red.

Thanks, put my mind at ease and a LOL anyway

[Mr Magooagain]

I’ve kept all the drink in the house for visitors. Wife has a vodka/gin and tonic on a Friday night, and I don’t mind making it for her.
Always beer and wine here for pals that come and stay.

Stopping for me was because I was feeling rough generally, so thought I would stop drinking to see if it made a difference and two months later diagnosed for diabetes.

[mattuk89]

Sebo said:

It took me a while to realise that I can't drink safely under any circumstances - my experience of 20 years of drinking and drugging was that as soon as I have that first drink, I am off and running and that on the odd occasion, I could have one (and then be miserable because I couldn't have any more) but that my overall history was that as soon as I have 1 drink, it's anyone's guess where this was ending up. Invariably some random's kitchen or often somewhere darker.

Exactly that I remember times I’ve had to have just the couple where I promised the Mrs I would be home and have sat there angry with her and the kids because I couldn’t be back out, ridiculous really, picking spending time in a pub or someone’s house over precious time with my family..

Or getting angry with my mrs when she’s saying “ you’re going out again? I thought you weren’t doing that stuff anymore” and I felt she was giving me a hard time and being unfair, looking back I was an idiot with quite a lot of my decisions revolving drink and drugs, and looking back now at them, makes me not ever want to go back to that life..

We had a chat about it the other night funnily enough, she used to not really care what I did, but after almost 10 years of being together it has definitely grated on her and got to the point in September , then I went sober for 10 weeks until my works Xmas party and relapsed , and it’s taken a lot to get her back on side again, but yea she asked the other night would I ever do it again, I said I don’t want too, hence why I’m not drinking etc all comes hand in hand for me.. but if I was on a lads holiday to vegas etc would I be able to stay off everything( if I wanted too) I don’t know.. she didn’t seem to happy, but I’m just taking each day as it comes.. looking back I got some fond memories of nights out but the recent ones aren’t chasing the earlier nights they are never the same, lucky I got nothing planned this year, last years friends stag do to Marbella was messy as fk, and I knew it was going to happen so didn’t really have any intention to stay sober despite doing April-end of may ( stag do was June) when I got back from it though I was back on the sesh every week until sept..

[Mobile Chicane]

How's it going?

Dry January holding strong here.

[Magikarp]

I decided I'd do dry January, because in between xmas and new year I met up with my best mate for our annual xmas drinking session, and got so drunk that my wife was really worried (she's medical and has seen me drunk plenty of times before), I woke up battered and bloodied, had been sick in my sleep, didnt' remember (and still don't) anything about what hapened or where we'd been. It took me days to recover. So, alcohol poisoning it was, I didn't drink very often anyway so January would be easy.

The next bit is I managed half a glass of Pinot Noir with lunch when friends came round, and was promptly so ill I had to go to bed, and ended up having time off work. It was horrific

I'd planned on having the odd glass now and again, but after that I will not be, I don't know what happened but I do not want it to happen again.

My drinking days are over.

[othername]

Magikarp said:

I decided I'd do dry January, because in between xmas and new year I met up with my best mate for our annual xmas drinking session, and got so drunk that my wife was really worried (she's medical and has seen me drunk plenty of times before), I woke up battered and bloodied, had been sick in my sleep, didnt' remember (and still don't) anything about what hapened or where we'd been. It took me days to recover. So, alcohol poisoning it was, I didn't drink very often anyway so January would be easy.

The next bit is I managed half a glass of Pinot Noir with lunch when friends came round, and was promptly so ill I had to go to bed, and ended up having time off work. It was horrific

I'd planned on having the odd glass now and again, but after that I will not be, I don't know what happened but I do not want it to happen again.

My drinking days are over.

I half hope something like this happens to me. Another 2 binges already in January, there's a switch that seems to flick once I start that says 'it'll be fine, you'll have a bad day when you're done then smash the exercise and it'll be fine'. Of course it's not like that, it always ends up as days of being sick, unable to sleep (think 4-5hours broken sleep in 3 days), no energy, and terrible hangxiety with shakes and constantly feeling on edge as my poor brain rebounds from the stupidity I'd inflicted on it. I stopped on Saturday night and still feel crap but at least managed to finally sleep last night - for 11hours. I know if I don't get a handle on this I'm not making another 10, maybe 5 years. My body instantly rejecting it would be good, but I'd prefer my mind to do that through control by resetting my thoughts about alcohol. I've tried a few things with varying success which obviously hasn't been long term. Clearly, right now I have no interest in having a drink but I know that'll likely change so the challenge is facing that and having a word with myself before I even allow that 'permission to have one' to progress.

Having tried a few things I'd quite like to give hypnotism and/or CBT a try - has anyone had success with either of these avenues?

[edels]

24 days for me so far! My goal is to make it at least three months, but I know it won’t be easy. Now we’re heading on a trip with virginexperiencedays, and I have a feeling it’s going to be even more challenging to stay sober while traveling. New places, celebrations, and social events always make it harder, but I’m determined to stick to my goal. Hoping to find other ways to enjoy the trip without feeling the need to drink.

Edited by edels on Sunday 23 February 10:51

[Blib]

othername said:

I half hope something like this happens to me. Another 2 binges already in January, there's a switch that seems to flick once I start that says 'it'll be fine, you'll have a bad day when you're done then smash the exercise and it'll be fine'. Of course it's not like that, it always ends up as days of being sick, unable to sleep (think 4-5hours broken sleep in 3 days), no energy, and terrible hangxiety with shakes and constantly feeling on edge as my poor brain rebounds from the stupidity I'd inflicted on it. I stopped on Saturday night and still feel crap but at least managed to finally sleep last night - for 11hours. I know if I don't get a handle on this I'm not making another 10, maybe 5 years. My body instantly rejecting it would be good, but I'd prefer my mind to do that through control by resetting my thoughts about alcohol. I've tried a few things with varying success which obviously hasn't been long term. Clearly, right now I have no interest in having a drink but I know that'll likely change so the challenge is facing that and having a word with myself before I even allow that 'permission to have one' to progress.

Having tried a few things I'd quite like to give hypnotism and/or CBT a try - has anyone had success with either of these avenues?

Admitting that you've had enough is an important part of the process of recovery.

To answer you question. CBT has been proven effective in treating substance use disorders, including alcohol addiction, in particular it helps reduce relapse rates. While, an intense course of hypnotism has been shown to be helpful, when used in combination with other treatments.

We used CBT extensively in the general ward of the psychiatric hospital, where I worked on the Addiction Treatment Programme.

We did not use CBT when working with addiction on the ATP. The consultant psychiatrists preferred a mainly 12 Step approach. This has the advantage of a mature support network of groups for the client once they leave the rehab, wherever they may live.

However, 12 Step is not for all. I suggest that you contact your doctor's surgery to find out what support services are offered local to you. Google Alcoholics Anonymous, if that road is of interest.

Good luck and enjoy the ride.

Edited by Blib on Thursday 6th February 11:19

[Digga]

Mobile Chicane said:

How's it going?

Dry January holding strong here.

So. Was not too tricky.

Last week a good friend brought a bottle of very nice craft ale. So on the 1st Feb (Saturday) I shared it with my dad and that was the first and only drink I had. I'm in the groove with this and wanting to see how it pans out over a longer period.

My regular Mtb crew (a drinking group with a mountain biking problem) are partly in admiration, partly aghast and partly "well more fool you, that's more beer for us then". It is the sort of 'support' I need. I am not looking for any kudos whatsoever. It's all just for me. This is the only place I talk about it.

So far, I have not done a past-ride pub visit with them. I feel slightly antisocial and also fraudulent - if I can pack in 'properly', then I should prove that in the toughest environment...

[Drew106]

I did 81 days AF leading up to December last year. Longest ever. Decided to take the month off in December and unsurprisingly felt like crap.

Stopped again 1-Jan. Not missing it really. Told myself I do dry Jan and reassess. 6-Feb and still happy enough.

Been a very heavy drinker since a teenager and had sporadic months off here and there. Might be done this time, but who knows.

[Tobias Funke]

Almost two months for me, I do have the occasional craving, but I think about how the negatives of alcohol massively outweigh the benefits and the thought passes.