Old habits DRY hard! It's DRY JANUARY thread #2... newcomers always welcome!

[HPLikecraft]

Here we are, a shiny new thread to help us stay dry.

Thread one has been great and supportive; and thread two will take us through further challenges and milestones. Hop aboard; you're all doing brilliantly!

Day 10 for me today and trouble was looming this weekend as I've been invited out on a girls theatre trip (where much drink will be involved).

Before I thought about it too much I said I was doing DJ and now I've been 'volunteered' to pick people up and drop off....that's one way of ensuring I don't drink 😊

Day 9 done successfully.

I walked DDog1 and met DH at the nicer, cheaper but further away pub. We had a couple of AF drinks and toddled happily on our way. DH had driven down so we jumped in the car and drove home which was lovely as it was raining (again)

This is something we're never able to do normally and one of the reasons we don't venture too far into the real world due to the trouble getting home.

Lovely to read about everyone's days. And well done @Hedjwitch getting back on the wagon!

I had my first test outside of witching hour today - family pub lunch, wasn't too hard as the others only had one glass of wine / beer each so it wasn't like a big night on the lash, but I'm still feeling proud not to have caved. Sleep well all.

Still here, but I just haven't got the time to keep up with the thread in its entirety - work is mental right now, I am once again ill, but having to drag myself in, because this would be my 3rd absence with Covid symptoms this winter (I've had 2 absences totalling 3 days so far since October) and I'd get dragged into absence management meeting, which I could do without.

So therefore I am back on the Red Bull to get through the day, which I am not happy about as I had quit that stuff way before Christmas and was feeling immensely proud, and while it's non-alcoholic, it does feel a bit like cheating because of the obvious sugar high it gives me, too.

Handing in my notice this week was the only real highlight and rather than sitting and pining for a drink I'll probably just fall into bed tonight. And then have the prospect of more work over the weekend...

What is nice, though, is that I am now at the stage of "meh" with alcohol itself. Despite a pretty shitty day yesterday I went home and was very take-it-or-leave-it on looking at my bottle of whiskey, and then I left it in favour of two cups of peppermint tea, because that actually appealed a whole lot more.

Well done at everyone getting this far.

Slept really badly last night , was exhausted so went to bed just after 9pm and read my book ( we’re going to Iceland in the summer , so reading about their history , it’s fascinating! )
But , I’ve been awake since 4-30 , on my second coffee , and looking through cookery books to get out of my rut and find some new recipes I can low carb with

Hopefully no rain today ( or not much rain , we live in West Wales where the fields are flooded ) so nice walk planned

Day 13 , who’d have thought

Happy Friday 13th 👍☕️

Fingers crossed 🤞 for the rain @Veryfishy .it's blowing a hoolie here and trees are down . Sound vicious out there.
Proud to reach day 13. Illness aside, this is the longest I've gone without a drink since DJ 2015 .😳
Ain't that a kick in the head🎶

Good Morning!
I’m still plodding along fairly happily here and enjoying being AF. I’m looking forward to the weekend and hopefully having my friend over tonight, who will probably sink a bottle of wine, but I’m feeling quietly confident that I won’t be tempted.

I’ve decided I’m going to go for 100 days AF now. I have a weekend away in mid Feb (so just before the half way mark) that I might give myself an alcohol ‘allowance’ for (It’s going to be an emotional trip for several reasons) but will think about that properly closer to the date.

Well done to absolutely everyone on here. Can’t believe we are so close to the 2 week mark! Before starting DJ I can’t remember the last time I had even 2 nights off (in fact even 1 night off was a rare occurrence).

Morning everyone. Still going here, I'm wondering if this weekend will be harder than last, as the novelty wears off a bit.
I'm finding my sleep is massively improved, so that's a huge benefit as I've suffered from middle of the night insomnia for years. I've yet to see major physical benefits, but the joy of walking up without a sense of guilt or self disgust if huge, so I'm hanging on to that feeling.

@Veryfishy I am also low carbing. Meatballs in a garlic tomato sauce tonight with roasted broccoli for me and pasta for dh, dd has a mix of pasta and broccoli.

Just come back from seeing to my horses and it's absolutely disgusting out there. Dreading tomorrow, the forecast looks horrible. Poor dd was so excited to be playing football tomorrow but I'd imagine it will be cancelled. Would have been the perfect evening to light the fire and drink a bottle of red, but I'm enjoying not feeling raw round the edges in the morning. Might carry on until valentines day.

I'm finding my sleep is massively improved, so that's a huge benefit as I've suffered from middle of the night insomnia for years. I've yet to see major physical benefits, but the joy of walking up without a sense of guilt or self disgust if huge, so I'm hanging on to that feeling.

I'm the same - I had another great sleep last night which felt amazing. Before DJ I would almost always wake in the night and lie wide awake for hours, then get up feeling hungover and exhausted the next day. Sleeping through the night has been an absolute revelation.

I'm feeling really positive this AM and have got my sights set on Sunday morning, when we'll have completed two whole weeks - a huge milestone. Then at midday on Monday we'll officially be halfway through!

I've just come off a call with the GP about blood test results. All fine but she asked me about alcohol consumption and if I stayed under 14 units a week😳. I was honest enough to say no, and she said in a very matter of fact way that alcohol is a poison. It did stop me in my tracks a bit so has given me extra motivation. The basic reminder of the reality of how bad it is for us physically has been really helpful.

@cashmerecardigans that's good yours were fine.

I had known I was drinking way too much through stress but it was my sky high liver enzyme blood test results that shocked me into taking action. I was really scared at the start but now I am seeing it as a blessing. I only had the blood tests as I thought I needed HRT but that was my main discovery.

Now I am thinking that my anxiety, fuzzy brain and low mood was down to alcohol and nothing to do with HRT!

Glad yours came back fine

@lemonsaretheonlyfruit thanks. It's an odd one though, as hearing they are fine could lull me into a very false sense of security. I know people were talking about scans, as it seems that tests don't always pick everything up.
Im sorry yours were not so good, but it's brilliant that you've taken immediate action, I'm sure it'll make a massive difference when they are redone

Morning everyone.

Good to read about some better sleep having gone on. Sorry to hear about your work situation @Haruka well done for staying strong.

Liver. Well a doctor friend of mine who was a liver specialist was once describing to me how the liver can carry on functioning apparently normally even when badly damaged, so often there's a false sense of security; but then that tiny further bit of damage will be the straw that broke the camel's back and then liver function falls off a cliff. This terrified me as a (then) heavy drinker... especially as we were talking about an alcoholic mutual friend who subsequently died.

Our livers will thanking us for DJ.

BTW, we are, right now, 39.95% of the way through. Let's round that up to

40%

Shall we? 😃 Well done everyone!

So book group navigated ok ! 2 of the others were drinking but had it from a wine box that I couldn't see and I wasn't tempted at all. Had some bad news today so feeling a bit low but drinking is not the answer!

In the Drinkers Like Me documentary, it was said that people tend to present with liver failure (or something coming up to it) between 45 - 55 and that you can present as fine on 10% liver operation until - as HP mentions - suddenly they don't.

I am not going to be that person. Just in process of booking my Fibroscan - have a referral and just working on the scheduling.

I'm way behind as only started on 8 Jan, but five days complete. I am drinking AF wine which I know is not great, so I need to transition out of that. My sleep is still horrible and I feel completely wrecked - that's partly to do with the first week back at work after a fortnight off, I know.

Sadly this happened to my sibling. Needed a liver transplant. Liver totally died. She had some elevated enzymes but they said she'd be fine if she gave up alcohol which she did (with nhs rehab help). Sadly she got iller and iller and that was when she found out her liver was decompensated.

Her surgeon recommends DJ plus having three consecutive days off a week.

I hasten to add that she was an alcoholic - first high functioning so we didn't realise but pretty desperate over the last two years.

Morning all.
I’m still sticking with the programme, as they say. I thought I would find it hard breaking the dinner and drink habit but I’ve just been making (another) cup of ginger tea and it’s been fine. I’m down to one (small) glass before bed now which is huge for me. I haven’t managed that in about 7 or 8 years. Next week the plan is to have some AF days. Which I think I’m ready for now.

Whatever I decide to do in future, I do not want to be knocking back a whole bottle in an evening. I kidded myself it wasn’t affecting me, but I’ve now seen the multiple ways in which it was. None of them good. I enjoy drinking, I can’t deny that, but I enjoy actually having a good nights sleep and feeling well a whole lot more!

That's brill @Fuwari 👏👏

Morning All, Checking in with an update and accountability! The witching hour nearly broke my Dry Streak last night, the cravings were so strong to pour a glass of wine (luckily we didn't have any in) but there was cider, bourbon and whisky. Ladies and gents you would have been so proud of me, I didn't cave and I think a bit part of that was this group and you all supporting me and cheering me on to keep going.

Some previous posts really got me through those cravings:

• waiting it out just even 10 mins - and they will go
• if I have cravings this bad, then I really need to be doing DJ
• having to abstain permanently - and not being able to enjoy those odd glasses of wine

So thank you all - feel really proud of myself today, and will have to remember this feeling, for the next time I want to cave.

On another note - I have so far saved £105 - which is helpful because our energy bill for last month is £478!!

*big part

@KatieKline I'm proud of you!

@Selfesteem22 I used to be in a book club. It consisted of a group of female friends and lots of wine and nice food. After about 1.5 hours, someone would pipe up: "Did anyone read the book?" Mostly it was just a boozy get-together. I always bought the book though!
If your book club is anything like mine was, well done for surviving it dry!