What to do at the weekends

[JessCat75]

Hi all, I stopped drinking yesterday and I need to stay off it, I think I will be fine during the week, have a couple of sobriety books winging their way from Amazon but I'm concerned about the weekend, especially Friday nights, you know, after a long stressful week at work the go to would be the wine in the fridge, has anyone got any tips for what I can do to avoid the habit at the weekends, I really don't want to drink again. Thanks

Just try and think how fresh you will feel on the Saturday if you don’t drink. Maybe plan something for the Saturday morning which you won’t want to spoil if you are feeling hungover. Good luck. I’ve been sober 15 years now, it’s difficult at times and sometimes boring but I’m glad I don’t have that dreadful feeling the next day anymore.

You could sign up for parkrun, which is 9am Saturday mornings. If you're not a runner you could walk it or volunteer. There's also junior parkrun on Sunday mornings, and you could sign up to volunteer for that. Both reasons to get up and out on a weekend morning that mean you need a clear head.

@Monkeytapper

Just try and think how fresh you will feel on the Saturday if you don’t drink. Maybe plan something for the Saturday morning which you won’t want to spoil if you are feeling hungover. Good luck. I’ve been sober 15 years now, it’s difficult at times and sometimes boring but I’m glad I don’t have that dreadful feeling the next day anymore.

That's exactly what I want, to get my weekends back where I'm fresh on a Saturday morning and go and do something else apart from feeling crap and wasting my days, I might plan a cinema trip on Friday evenings from now on so I'm not just sitting in and be tempted to drink, congratulations on 15 years, that's amazing!

Planning for how to confront your triggers is great, so well done on recognising the importance of that.

I would say the key thing is to make sure your hands are busy during the dangerous time straight after work on a Friday. When I first stopped drinking I used to play Animal Crossing on the DS - nice and relaxing but kept my hands occupied. Later on I started knitting again after a long gap and have never really stopped!

You could plan to do something with a friend who knows your situation, either in person or like a watch party, so that you're occupied. Make sure you have something nice (non-alcoholic) in to drink so that you can still have that sensation of 'feet up, weekend's here'. I wouldn't advise any of the alcohol-free booze equivalents, I've never had any of them as I feel they would be too similar to the real thing and set off cravings again.

Keep an eye on the time, you may find the trigger passes quite quickly when you don't respond in the normal time frame.

I mean, in the short term I would swap it out for sugar. Instead of the Wine have a tub of ice cream or a share bag of chocolate, or both! Alcohol is packed full of sugar, so sugar can be a good half way point between the booze and full healthy choices. It feel a bit naughty, but doesn't give you a stinking hangover. So that could be your back up for when your too tired for an evening out, stressed just want to blow off steam. Or maybe a Takeaway?

Thanks for all the suggestions, it's really helpful, I'm keeping a note of everything, re the Parkrun, that's a good idea but I'll definitely be walking it if I sign up! Another reason to stop drinking is to get my fitness level back up, feeling so sluggish and out of energy at the moment. I won't be doing the non alcoholic drinks, I've stocked up with some fruit teas, especially camomile tea for night times to help me get a better sleep which is also rubbish right now.

Take it hour by hour if you have to. If I got to 9pm danger time had passed. So I would normally start getting antsy at 5pm, so used to ‘book’ 30 minute slots to do stuff. Set a timer. Have something to look forward to at 9pm, sweet treats of some sort.
A bath, book, then blow dry my hair for the weekend ahead could easily take 90 mins. Then cooking dinner. Something mundane like putting a podcast on and cleaning out the fridge/random cupboard.

If I get to 9pm danger time will definitely have passed by then, usually around 7pm I can imagine getting a bit twitchy, all great advice taken on board, thank you.