DRY HARD 2: DRY HARDER! Dry January 2024, Thread#2 🧃🧋

[HPLikecraft]

Thread#2...

Let's keep going!

Good luck with the scan @wellitywellness ... Hope all is well.

I'm pondering booking one myself - are you having it done at a private hospital?

Yes, private. Lucky to be in a position to do this, I realise. I know I absolutely need to do this for me own piece of mind, but really shitting a brick at the potential results.

We’ll be thinking of you tomorrow. Wellity.

Good luck, will be thinking of you and I’d be feeling the same. I think you’re very brave to go and hope you get the results you want. I know it’s different but I was bricking it when I had all my tests last week. Still haven’t had bloods back but I think they’d have told me if there was a problem, but even to see my bp in normal enough range was a huge relief. I’m quite certain it was very high back towards the end of 2023. Just shows how worth it our efforts are. No matter what you find we are all in a better place now than we were!

The fibroscan, I’d be quite willing to pay for one. They seem to vary in price a bit in London but I assume the results are equally reliable. £165 seems the least expensive that I can find. My bloods are all ok but they are til they aren’t, then it’s too late anyway! Fibroscan much the best thing.

Good luck with the scan@wellitywellness Very brave of you!

Hope all goes well with the scan Wellitywellness.

How was everyone's damp/dry weekend?

All OK here. Interesting to read about the theories on addiction and reflect on my own circumstances. I am a reactive drinker in that if I feel challenged to the extent of being out of my depth or not in control, my initial thought is to have a drink. The benefit of some AF time behind me is this is now, very much, a fleeting thought that I know will swiftly disappear. In the recent past it would have set up planning in my mind about having a drink - after 6 pm of course, as I am a civilised, sophisticated enjoyer of wine. Regrettably the first glass would lead to a second and then any attempt at sophistication is probably out the window.

@pollyannaperspective , that made me smile 😊.

You're right that having achieved a period of abstinence it is much easier to moderate, and / or reward or relax oneself in other ways. I was feeling a bit tense yesterday (a lot going on) so went for a lovely walk at sunset and then had a Goodrays, which really calmed me down. Had an AF Beer later while watching Trigger Point (which is so ridiculously unrelaxing that I don't know why I put myself through it!).

Might stay AF tonight again and try a glass of the Pinot Noir when it comes tomorrow.

My weekend was dry polly as we didn’t go out for food.

Having a stock of the fevertree tonics is working well for me as there’s always an alternative readily available.

DP is still trying to get me back into a Saturday = wine routine. I’m now genuinely not bothered about it on Saturdays. Not feeling bleurgh on Sundays is great.

I’m still vulnerable to the food smells twitch though.

Well, the results are in....

https://wellitywellness.com/2024/02/19/dry-day-50-fibroscan/

That's excellent news @wellitywellness
Weight off your mind and incentive to keep going on your AF journey.

Well done @wellitywellness ! Enjoy that Nosecco... and maybe the real thing before too long! 😄🍾🏆

Thanks all!

@Neptunium93 - I'd have worried much less had I read The Good News books sooner, but perhaps I needed a good scare first to whip me into shape (post on both of these books pending...).

Absolutely thrilled for you @wellitywellness , the joy that is radiating from your post is absolutely wonderful. Well done, now don’t throw it all away!!

We are going to need a new thread soon, @wellitywellness do you want to start one when we get there or is @HPLikecraft still around? What should our theme or goal be

how about something like…

“Reduction or Resistance: You Decide! …Low / No Alcohol - Support and Chat Thread (ex Dry Harder)”

I will defer to @HPLikecraft as the thread owner!

This is my post today, mentally revolting against all things quit lit...

https://wellitywellness.com/2024/02/20/dry-day-51-quit-lit-overdose/

I'm driving myself mad trying to think of possible new thread titles! Keeping the movie theme going... Dry Another Day? Live & Let Dry?... (Yes I'm a bit of a Bond fan!). Or sticking with the current franchise: Dry Hard 3 - Dry Hard With a Vengeance... although that sounds quite punitive!

I had planned to drink red wine last night but didn't in the end. A crescendo of events this week has meant I've been (even) more anxious than usual, so I've gone back to my pre-Covid habit of avoiding alcohol when I'm feeling bad, as I know it doesn't help at all. I'm calmer today after a good sleep, so will uncork the bottle later and see if it tempts me.

Started taking folate supplements yesterday, per what I've read in the latest Tony Edwards book and online, which hopefully means that I'll be getting the benefits of drinking with less risk.

BTW if anyone needs cheering up, the baby guinea pig thread is adorable... now under Classics 😊.

Have been reading the very good news about wine and I’m unsettled. I can’t wrap my head around how David Nutt and Tony Edwards wrote such different books based on scientific evidence. I know David Nutt got a few things wrong or only described half a story in parts (and bearing in mind I know very little to start with!) and I don’t see much in the Tony Edwards books about the effect booze has on your sleep and your anxiety levels - maybe I’ll get to it? Anyway - it feels like there is little in the way of a truly objective book out there. And @wellitywellness I’m in total agreement with your last blog - there are two individuals from the sober crew who give me the absolute rage - of course they would say my reaction to them is proof I have a problem - and that fucked up logic is exactly why they annoy me.

@asleepattheshop , yes I had a similar reaction to the different messages. But with alcohol I think the science is quite nuanced, which leaves it open to interpretation (and manipulation), especially around consumption levels. It's not at all like tobacco or heroin (or whatever) where it's very clear that any amount of is bad. I do think there is a bit of an agenda in some quarters to over-simplify the message that alcohol can be harmful, because they don't trust people to be able to moderate consumption, or, in the case of the Quit Litters, they can't trust themselves to moderate, so that means no one else can either.

Over the years I've read a lot about the 'Blue Zones' where local populations tend to live longer and healthier lives than the rest of us, and the truth is that some of them drink regularly (mostly red wine) and some of them don't drink at all. But none of them seem to drink excessively as their lifestyles and culture are very different from ours. So, for me it all comes down to dosage.

I like Dry Hard with a Vengeance! Or The Alcohol Resistance Army Marches On.

Glad the quit lit post resonated. I am just done with the whole smug evangelism of many of that lot - it's almost like dealing with the ultra-religious. I much prefer people who are a little more morally complex anyhow!

Timely @Neptunium93 and @asleepattheshop you are talking Tony Edwards. Here's my summary:

https://wellitywellness.com/2024/02/21/dry-day-52-the-good-news/

I am not about to hang my hat on this book - it's one amongst many, and very much a minority view. But I am going to use this as a 'check and balance' to all the finger-wagging rhetoric out there, and as a reassurance that - as the residents of Meditteranean Blue Zones will universally tell you - 'a little of what you fancy does you good'.

Great summary @wellitywellness .

@wellitywellness it's a fitting end to the literature review. And yes I did feel the evangelical religious culture creep through - I'm particularly sensitive to it, I do feel a little bit ick at the manipulation - even when on a good day you could say it's done for the best of reasons, profiteering from people's misery, being a solution in search of a problem by trying to convince people who do not have a problem that they are addicts, this does affect people's lives. The alcohol culture needs to change to allow people to drink or not drink without judgment and that needs to happen on both sides!
For me the benefits of moderation are immediate and daily - I'm sleeping again! As an aside this not only improves lots of health parameters but more importantly it means I don't spend at least 2, often more hours feeling utterly tortured by sleeplessness - not to mention being a zombie the next day.
The chances of getting cancer I don't give much thought to - rather, I want to live my life enjoying it as much as possible, with balance and moderation, and on occasion, I'll enjoy a bit of excess too!

Hi all, I'm still around, slightly damp, and trying to read the thread here and there...
I won't OP the next thread because I can't devote as much time as the thread would deserve. I have some challenging things going on right now (including change in meds for my violent autistic teen) so may not check in so often, and may not be quite as dry as would be ideal for the OP of such a thread! But I'll certainly check in and take strength and inspiration from the new thread.

It's fun choosing the thread name. I had to laugh at @Neptunium93 's titles because I too had gone through all the Bond "Die" films for a title and used "Dry Another Day" as a follow on thread a couple of years ago! For this thread I recycled a title I'd used before that people seemed to like.

I'm very impressed with everyone who is still on the path they want to be on. You're amazing.
I'm not, though I'm not doing too badly.

Stay strong and on the right path, everyone 👍

@HPLikecraft sorry to hear things are tough. I massively admire your strength in doing DJ etc at all with all that you have on...

I'm touched and honoured to accept the mantle of starting a new thread shortly - but no intentions of usurping you for 2025!