Dry January 2020. A new relationship with alcohol. Who’s joining me?

[ParanoidGynodroid]

It’s that time again!
I did my first dry January around 5 years ago, having seen it on here. It was a great thing to do: really helped my get control of my drinking. Since then I’ve done it every year, along with at least one or two other dry months.

DJ may help you:
Lose weight. ...
Get better skin. ...
Make healthier food choices. ...
Save money. ...
Sleep better. ...
Have more energy. ...
Improve your mood. ...
Improve your general health

and make you feel virtuous!

It’s not necessarily easy though, so it’s good to have support; especially if you’re feeling week and like you may give up. We can support each other here.

Join me!

Maple, can I ask how you felt 5 months in? The longest (bar pregnancy) I've been alcohol free since about the age of 15 is 7 weeks. I'm in my 40s

I'm using the TryDry yellow app too.

Sunshine I really loved it. After 2 weeks I started sleeping really well. I was much better at work. i handled stress a great deal better. My anxiety calmed down significantly and I felt very even and calm. I felt really really good. Problem was that after the novelty wore off I started feeling a little boring.

I started again thinking I would keep a lid on it and just drink socially. I have been trying to stop drinking again since I started. I manage a few weeks here and there but go back to it.

I was drinking to deal with stress, boredom and frustration really. All those things got a million times better when I stopped drinking!

Can I join? I haven't had a drink since New Year's Eve, I seriously need to re set my drinking habits. I have over the last year slipped into a terrible habit of daily drinking, up to a bottle of wine a night after work ( not always, sometimes just a glass or two). Had a couple of nights out when I have been black out drunk and lost huge amounts of time, really scary. I split up from my husband 18 months ago and have 2 children age 10 and 8. On the surface I am highly functioning, I have a great job, I am a nurse and manage a specialist unit, but at night I use alcohol as a crutch to get through emotionally. I'm hoping going dry this month will help re balance my relationship with alcohol.

Maple and Milly's everyone's welcome. We're glad to have you aboard.

milkys even!

Thanks. :)

Maple I was like you last year - got to about April, felt like I'd cracked it and the odd glass or two wouldn't hurt and then it went downhill from there.

Not sure what the longer term plan is this year but it's so nice to be in the company of lots of other people aiming for the same goal.

Thanks @IzzyDeNero and @suneetime

A couple of drinks I’ve found good for keeping the cravings at bay are elderflower cordial with soda water and san pellegrino aranciata.

Also, home made ginger tea. You can add a bit of honey to it if it’s too sharp for your tastes. It has the added advantage if soothing your digestive system (alcohol can play havoc with your digestive system). I just buy a lump of ginger, slice it up, pop in the freezer. Then when I have the tea, I use a slice or two steeped in boiling water for a few minutes.

I think this is a mix of social, psychological and physical but having some sugary sweets like jellies or fruit pastilles to hand when you would usually drink, works for me.

Friday night after work - a large glass (or increasingly bottle) of wine signified the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend. It’s good to identify your trigger (finishing work for the week, in my case) and having a plan (and alcohol substitute) ready.

Sorry, meant to add - the reason for the sugary sweets is because if you’ve been drinking a lot and suddenly stop, your body may crave sugar. It’s better to give your body a bit of sugar to ease the cravings than it is to cave in and drink a bottle of wine.

It’s better to give your body a bit of sugar to ease the cravings than it is to cave in and drink a bottle of wine.
I second this advice🍫

It’s better to give your body a bit of sugar to ease the cravings than it is to cave in and drink a bottle of wine

Pah, not much use to those of us who are also on a diet! 😞 😅

I’ve just (re)started 5:2 and am on a “2” day. I’m also doing Uncrunchy January - no crisps! Believe it or not, that may be harder than no alcohol for me at the moment.

It’ll all be worth it I’m sure.

It’s only 3pm and I’m not looking forward to tonight. Not sure why - anticipation is worse than reality but for some reason it’s preoccupying me. It’s not a craving or anything just a bit of a strop about not being able to have something I know I am going to want. Feels a bit rubbish. And probably it’s very petulant and silly. Trying to keep ridiculously busy both physically (had a long walk) and mentally (thinking of the next chore/task I will do whilst doing the one before). Glorious headache too. A right thumper. I had these before doing DJ and I know it’s a detox head but it’s still irritating. Doesn’t help that DH snored all bloody night long so it doesn’t matter how much ‘amazing sleep’ I am supposed to have, that bugger will wake me up. Maybe him being away all next week isn’t a bad thing at all.

I’ll keep mentioning the liver thing for those who appreciated the medical briefing.....

Fattyliver
Fattyliver
Fattyliver

@nomorewineever

Maybe a nice hot bath, a hot chocolate and some ear plugs (you have my sympathy)?

DP snores, farts and is really restless all night. I don’t know what I see in him really

Did someone say Fatty liver?

@BettyJean thank you yes - having ‘plans’ last night helped so I’ve made a spinach lasagna, I’m going to give the utility room a blitz, I’ve got some fabric to make a project with, Ive got some fairly crap looking af wine and some j20 spritz left from the Xmas stash, and at 5.30 when I put the oven on I’ll ‘allow’ myself a 0% beer and have a bath after. Intend to watch a couple of episodes of the Christine keeler thing too after DC go to bed.

I just know that this will reset me back into only drinking at weekends - it did for months last year - and I intend to do October too to reset for the run up to Xmas next year. But for that reset to work I have to do this - give my liver a complete rest for a month - and it’s all very well eating my body weight in crisps to distract myself but as of Monday that stops too. It’s impossible to do 1200
Calories a day with wine as you just wouldn’t eat anything. So that’s going in the mix too.

Just want this sodding twitch to go. I don’t want to wish minutes away; I want to enjoy the weekend and last couple of days of holiday before work.

I've not drunk since NYE and I'd really like to carry on until the end of the month now. I need to reset my relationship with drinking. I don't drink everyday, my problem is more when I go out, I go ALL out. It's my release, but my tolerance seems to be getting lower all the time. I get drunker quicker and have bad hangovers. So with young children, I really need to buck my ideas up. Do people who are usually social drinkers, avoid social situations during DJ? I'm supposed to be going to a party next week, but I'm thinking of not going to save myself from temptation.

@IHaveAnOutie I think it depends on your relationship with alcohol. If you can go out and enjoy yourself without a drink then that's great. Personally if I'm in trigger situations I know I'll drink. I purposely didn't commit to dry January because I knew I had things on this week (a meal out with dp and a works social) where I knew I'd drink. There was just no question. If I really wanted to commit to DJ or cutting down in general then I would totally opt out of such events to remove the likelihood of drinking. Which is now what I plan to do for the rest of the month and hopefully beyond!
Like you I have horrendous hangovers and tend to get silly with my intake when I'm out. It's really not worth the anxiety, the wasted day and the feeling of making a tit of yourself.
I want a healthier body and mind.

@disillusioneddaisy the fear that you've probably made a tit out of yourself makes the hangover so much worse doesn't it? I think I'll just avoid socialising for this month. I need to save money anyway. I'm going to buy the Annie Grace book and hope that I can retrain my social game too.

@IHaveAnOutie it's definitely the way forward for me. However good my intentions are, there are just some social situations that aren't the same without a drink. Maybe that makes me a bit of a bore, I don't know. But by avoiding your triggers you're much more likely to succeed and like you say it's a good way to save money and spend your time doing healthier things too.

Popped into the supermarket and got change from £20. Plus I was able to skip the queues by going to the "no-alcohol" check out.

Day 4 here both drinking and smoking. Feels like forever....

Once dry Jan is out the way I’m only going to drink when I go out (which is never - but will start to maybe once a month as I need some me time). It was the drinking at home which was the problem 😬

Just wanted to say, there is a film on Netflix called Wild. It’s a true story about a woman who overcomes her drink and drug problems by hiking the Pacific coast trail. It’s a very good film and worth watching for the views alone.

@BettyJean - I love that film. The book is good too.

Had an AF beer again this evening. It really does work when you fancy a drink.