DRY JANUARY 2023! Been overindulging? Drinking crept up? Want to begin a healthy new you? This way please. All welcome!

[HPLikecraft]

It’s that time of year again... the late Christmas present to our livers!
You may be thinking of doing Dry January to:

*detox a little after seasonal overindulgence, or
*help you cut down a bit generally, or
*help you start to get out of a harmful alcohol habit, or
*just be a bit healthier for a month...

It’s good for all of those things!

I find the MN DJ threads excellent for support, encouragement, sharing info, ‘we’re in this together’ camaraderie, suggestions for grown up drinks, aversion techniques and just fun.

This is my sixth year of DJ and I swear it may have saved my life; it was so hard first time, but having succeeded I did dry June and October after that, and do so most years. It has broken my habit, banished much of the craving and reset my relationship with booze. I imagine it's added years to my life.

I won’t be finding DJ too difficult this year, but some will. Hopefully this thread will help.

Throw your hat in the ring, pull up a chair and let's do this together. Everyone welcome 🙂☕️🧃

The DJ2022 Wagon creaks to a start in just 4 days, but always stops for latecomers 🙂

I watched Drinkers Like Me with Adrian Chiles, and the Panorama episode he presented on a similar theme last night. It is quite unbelievable how far the alcohol industry has gotten away with any kind of regulation, while smoking has been so demonised / has all the warnings / pictures / taxes, etc.

Smoking is bad for you no doubt, but it's not as socially and societally 'destructive' as alcohol can be - no one loses their job / home / driving licence etc. for smoking, or starts a fight outside a pub for smoking. Not sure how it ended up the villain of the piece.

The scary bit of the documentary was that you can have normal liver results off blood tests, but when Adrian Chiles had a Fibroscan there was a fair bit of liver scarring / early stage cirrhosis. I had no idea that standard blood tests were so unhelpful! Booking myself in for a Fibroscan too see what's really what.

I did 297 days @Cherrymix and want to aim for 328 minimum this year (90%) so let's please carry on after DJ! My best streak was start of year (140 days then a holiday broke it). I would like to aim for a few dry days on holiday this year as didn't manage it on either of the two holidays we took last year.

Feeling good here too. Just as well because DS2 is back to school today which means a 6.15am start. Definitely easier getting up at that time without having had a bottle of wine last night!

Reading the posts about gym and workouts makes me realise that I need to get back to doing proper exercise, I am quite active generally but have a pathological hatred of anything gym and exercise class related. Need to get back to regular swimming as that’s the one thing I enjoy! But I haven’t been for so long. Maybe that can be the next thing on the list…

Have a good Monday everyone.

God @Stickywhitelovepiss that blood test / fibroscan thing just made me sit up.

I think honestly think this thread might be saving my life.

Another one feeling reasonably bright eyed this morning and off to work. Not having to have 2 paracetamol for breakfast is nice!

Great night's sleep here and up for the toilet only once. However, this morning the headache and general weird woozy feeling is back. I thought when it wasn't there yesterday, it was gone for good, but no. Back to the paracetamol for me.

thenightsky DH has been like this as well. He drunk around 2/3 of a (surprisingly good) bottle of AF red wine yesterday and is very fuzzy this morning. It doesn't really seem fair does it?!

I was up late again thanks to my sleeping pills but am full of the joys. I'm on day 6 and am not really struggling at all, I've found decent AF alternatives which I'm happy to shell out for initially. As a PP said upthread, I do feel that I've rather fallen out of love with alcohol - and it's been a long and loving relationship thus far ☹️

Exactly.

I had a Well Woman check and thought I may just have 'gotten away with it', based on normal blood tests for liver. Very possibly not so - though hopefully nothing irreversible.

Hoping to get Fibroscan done by end of month.

@Champagneforeveryone don't you think it's about time for a name change? 😉

Well done everyone. I had my blip at the weekend but I am not going to beat myself up over it. DC1s disability make our home life incredibly difficult a lot of the time and the lack of support from either of our families is hurtful but it is what it is. My aim was to cut down long term on my alcohol consumption and I am going to do that.

However I have noticed already a change in my attitude so I am pleased.

DH has far too much on sat night and it ruined our date night (we have one at home once a week when we put the kids to bed early). He passed out drunk on the sofa and was grouchy the next day. I feel alcohol really did ruin our night.

MIL visited for the first time in ages at the weekend and I left DH to deal with her. Normally I wouldnt but I have just had enough as she basically ignores our kids the whole time she is here while telling us all about other family members "problems" and how much better her favourite grandchild is than any other grandkids. DH has actually commented on her behaviour a lot recently and is fed up with it too so it's not just me and he prefers the kids don't spend much time with his side of the family including MIL.

My mum and step dad though they won't and cant babysit they are fantastic when they spend time with the kids and play, Interact and have fun with them and the kids love them coming. Anyway I have made a choice to keep my distance. If MIL wants to drag family "dramas" to a door it won't be ours.

Well done everyone 🙂

Today is my cut down to a quarter bottle a day (started this on the 2nd). Stuck to my half bottle a day last week without too many problems, bit hard at times but doable. And I genuinely do feel better for it. I've managed now to replace the 5pm glass(es) with lemon and ginger tea. This week I'm aiming for eating dinner without wine. I sort of "cheated" that last week in that I ate later when I could drink my allotted amount and it's another habit I need to break. So tonight I'll go back to eating dinner at my usual time and again have a tea with it. For me I find AF substitutes just make me wish I was drinking. I haven't found one I particularly like and that added to getting no "buzz" from it, doesn't help me.

Something I have done is put my grand total of £15 saved into a separate saving pot! I like the idea of buying myself something at the end of Jan to inspire me to continue.

I'd really like to go on into February with everyone as that is when I am aiming not to drink (well from the last week of Jan) so it would be good to carry on with other people.

@Stickywhitelovepiss how do you book a Fibroscan out of interest?

Checking in - day one complete here. I slept TERRIBLY last night but that was to be expected for the first day back to work after a fortnight off. I had AF red wine last night and as someone who usually drinks white-not-AF I thought it was pretty good!

I'd imagine a fibroscan is hugely expensive
Going sober for 6 months would be better if you are that worried

It's not on NHS, but I googled fibroscan + nearest big cities and there are loads of places you could get it down privately. Looks like ball park cost £350 - £400, which in my mind is worth it for piece of mind - or if not piece of mind, incentive!

I think I'd rather not know 🫣

Was rather lovely going to the supermarket today and spending a lot less and not carrying heavy bottles and cans home

What will you do if it finds some cirrhosis? Your liver will most likely be fine if you give it three or four days off a week

Fuwari, have you tried elongating the drink with soda and ice? When I want to cut down I have a small glass of white wine (120ml) topped with the same amount of soda and lots of ice. It helps the drink last longer. Or single gin with tonic to the brim of a highball glass.

DS2 (20) said he;d try Dry Jan with us and announced he;s just realised it's the taste of tonic he loves, not gin, and he's just as happy now with flavoured tonic waters.

I've been drinking San Pellegrinos - blood orange or pomegranate. Way less sugary than they used to be. DH has just bought some lemon and mint ones.

If you feel you don't want / need one @Janieread, then don't have one. I feel differently.

That's fine - just think about how you'll handle the news - as long as the liver is compensated then cirrhosis can reverse itself with some time off the booze which you could do anyway
You could use a clear scan as am excuse to carry on drinking at an unhealthy level
A decompensated liver will not repair itself but your liver enzymes would be high then so you'd know if this was the case

I find AF substitutes just make me wish I was drinking - same here @Fuwari I want to break the habit of even drinking anything out of a wine glass or beer bottle during the week, I think for me it'd be all too easy to think if I'm drinking from a wine glass I might as well have just a small glass of actual wine and it would be a slippery slope.

Day 9 here. I've saved £28 and survived a pub dinner yesterday afternoon with soft drinks while DH had 3 pints. The pub has it's own micro-brewery, I LOVE their lager and would usually probably have had 2 halves before dinner and then a glass of red with dinner. I stuck to cola.

There has been a significant and sustained improvement in my general anxiety levels. My skin looks clear, my eyes look brighter. My sleep is still shocking. I was still awake at 2am this morning and up for work at 7am. Weirdly I don't feel particularly tired today though.

DS is going back to uni tomorrow. He doesn't drink, never has, and having him here has made it a lot easier for me to not have a drink. He has a huge group of friends at uni that also don't drink, there's plenty that do but I don't think it's as much of a "thing" amongst kids these days.

I found a nice new soft drink - it’s from ALDI at 75p and it’s the ‘fake’ San Pellegrino Lemon and mint (comes in a bottle).

Tasted lovely, not overly sweet and a little bit Mojito esque. 10 cals a serving as well.

Today has been a good day so far - physically I feel so bright and fresh and my anxiety and low mood has reduced.

My brain is still craving a drink but the cravings are definitely less strong than they were.

I'm still feeling daunted at the thought of another 22.5 days to go though.

I'm so glad this thread is here. I've just been feeling tempted but made myself tea and came back on here. Reading how well everyone is doing is making me want to get there too.

First day back at work has been ok. I was able to fit in a quick round the block walk at lunchtime and will treat myself to a happy valley catch up and a can of trip in an hour or so - it's probably all placebo but it does make me feel relaxed and unwindy!

Hope everyone's had a great start to the week and a good evening ahead.