The freedom thread ( continued ) Riding the rollercoaster of an alcohol free life!

[ChampooPapi]

Adm1010

Hello all

This is a thread for people who have decided that life is much better without alcohol!🤩 These threads were started by @Drybird, and they have changed the lives of many people.

Some posters on these threads have been sober for a long time, and some are only just starting. We are a very friendly and inclusive bunch and we are always excited when someone new joins the thread. The only thing we ask is that our posters have given up alcohol completely. Talk of moderation can be triggering for some people, so this thread is not the right place for that (there are other moderation threads🙂).

We are a supportive welcoming bunch. No question is ever to “ silly “ and their is generally someone around if you are struggling

So just come here to chat or vent or check in . Whatever you need as you ride the rollercoaster of an alcohol free life smile

Thank you to @Adm1010 for hosting the last thread 💜

And here’s to the next 40 pages grin

hangingover a rare breed indeed.

I had the opposite experience yesterday. I was in deepest darkest lands (Good Friday 6pm at a town centre, stopped off to find something to eat on the way home). It was wild! Lassies falling over in heels, folk unable to speak and a fight outside a pub. There wasn't a whole load of your moderating species to be seen. My sheltered farm kids were slightly bemused by these displays. Restaurants were all booked out anyway, so we went to Tesco for snacks and hot footed it out of there.

Started with Dry January, then i thought "why not carry on?" feeling loads better in my self too.

But the biggie is saving far more in wine than i now have to spend on fuel and electricity :)

alexandra2001 well done. Dry January was what started me off many years ago. You have done so well to do it on the first time. I managed a week the first year! A week! Then slowly I got better til I managed a whole dry January.

Saving money is a great thing. I can't believe how much I have spent over the years on alcohol. I now do much more fun things, like have holidays.

Morning all.
AF gin is in ready for son's visit. He is my fiercest critic. I did share a Terry's egg last night with my husband. Didn't finish it as is my lack of interest in chocolate.
I did witness the gormless lunch time boozers still bumbling around at 4pm (I went into our market town later hoping they had all bogged off).
House viewing this afternoon so I am hoping we can all agree (daughter hates our current location). At least I would be away from the boozy set. We shall see.
Have a good day all.

@Breathmiller ah thankyou!

I thought id go for a 100 days and then celebrate with a few glasses.... mmmm what i actually did was buy a bottle of organic sparkling elder flower lol!

Live dangerously i say!

Sounds a delicious way to celebrate. 😊

@Alexandra2001

Congratulations 🎊

I did a very half hearted DJ..I didn't start until 3rd and I had a blip mid month so I ended up dry for 27 of 31 days.

February I was dry for 25 of 28 days and I then decided to give this alcohol free malarkey a proper go - I've now just inched past 60 days completely AF.

I'm determined to stay a non drinker. It bought nothing to my life.

Sadly with energy / fuel / food and a few other (essential) costs going up I'm not seeing any financial benefits. I couldn't afford my wine habit now.

Nor have Iost any weight but once kids go back to school I'm going on a health kick. 3 months until our summer holiday and I'd love to shift 2 stone (I need to lose as least double that thanks to my stupid arthritis and years off overdrinking and eating junk)

Time to start properly looking after this poor body of mine!!

Thank you.. and well done you too @Crunchymum

@Crunchymum well done!
Your body will thank you 😊

Happy Easter everyone. 🐰

Dh and I were working out how little I had drank in the past 4 and a half years with my last stint and this one. And i realised I went back drinking for a year in between. It had felt like longer. So by summer proper I will have not drank alcohol for 3 and a half years out of the last 4 and a half years. That felt quite a lovely realisation. I thought it might help those that had a fall from grace, so to speak. Blips, even year long blips, don't mean its not possible to get back on the AF train.

Happy Easter everyone. Day 3 here - hoping to sort my drinking out once and for all. Too expensive and not helping with my weight. And when I start I just want more more more. Nightmare.

Welcome aboard seastate you're absolutely right it costs so much and more than just money.

You won't regret it.

I had family friends round yesterday and had a great time. Shes not a big drinker anyway so it didn't enter our heads to drink. Playes games with the teenagers and had such a laugh. No booze needed. And of course no hangover so off to an impromptu swim before picking DD and DGS up for lunch.
Just back from a trip away so trying to be frugal, the swom cost £11 for all 3 of us and I thought sod it, i wouldn't have thought twice about spending that on a bottle of wine on Easter day. The swim will do us all much more good.

Well done to everyone! Completed my first week! 🙌

Thank you @Breathmiller. Your day sounds superb! Yes, It is amazing how much you do in a day when not drinking. And the money saved is phenomenal

@SmellyWellyWoo well done on completing your first week - awesome 👏. One of my main triggers is arriving home from work. If the house is empty I find it really difficult to resist the booze. I also drink more on school nights as I find my job pretty dull. I am a keen hiker and did a ridiculously strenuous walk yesterday- I was very glad not to be hungover. We went to the pub afterwards and all but one of us had soft drinks, so I didn’t find it too difficult to have a soft drink myself. I would not have felt better for having an alcoholic drink - was perfectly happy with my soda water. And if I’d had that one drink I would’ve carried on drinking all night when I got home, till I passed out. And I would’ve been so annoyed with myself today - almost undoing all the good work I did yesterday. Need to stick with this! My general experience is that I Enjoy socials stuff sober as much as I do when drinking alcohol - if I can just resist that first one I find things are ok. Alcohol is an illusion.

Well done @Crunchymum - 60 days is awesome. Your dry spells have been much better than fine over the last couple of years. I failed at dry January last year and this year and couldn’t stick to any of my abstinence goals.

Off for another family gathering today - my third in three days (damn my crazy large family ) and there will be booze floating about.... in fact I have a bottle of Prosecco here as a gift for the host.

Then I can go back to being a recluse, I find it so much easier not to drink when I don't socialise.

Thanks for all the kind wishes. 60 days is a good milestone for me, but I'm not stopping there.

Welcome @SeaStatePhenomenal making an active decision to stop drinking is pretty empowering. Hope your first weekend isn't too painful.

Well done smellywellywoo on your first week. That's amazing! If you can do the first week you can do this, i found that first weeks much harder than the rest.

seastate yes, that first drink is the one that's important. I read somewhere that you can drink as many drinks as you like, just not the first one. That really helped me.

crunchymum congratulations on your 60 days! Brilliant!

Tried the nozecco today bloody lovely. Defo my go to AF drink from now on. Happy Easter!

Hey everyone. Lovely to see some new folks sticking around and the existing crew who welcomed me still here.

Day 70 here, had a brief wobble that I fancied a glass on way home from a big family thing today but actually also realised I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t cross, we went to get takeaway on the way back which was a further 25 minute drive after a 90 minute one. And I suggested it! Normally I would have been eager to get home and crack open a bottle.

Eldest also has his GF with us today and I’m fine with dropping her home at 9pm which previously would have been a grind.

Yip I like Nosecco too. And whoever said up thread (savbunny maybe?) I find I drink AF versions of drinks I wasn't that bothered about. When I have an AF drink these days I have Nosecco, G&T and cider. I could take or leave the alcoholic version of these before to be honest.

Still dry here - day 5. Pretty long, exhausting days for me and my husband and toddler visiting my parents - but good day today. And, importantly, it’s all so much more bearable when you’re not hungover. More patience, more even temper, significant drop in “hangsiety”.

I have a goal to lose half a stone before my 41st birthday (also my pal’s wedding day, at which I’m playing violin for her walking down the aisle).

Somehow feel like I have much more purpose.

piglet well done on day 5! That's great. So good to hear the benefits for you in mood and temperament. Wonderful that you can play violin so well.

Hello, anyone remember me? I've been awol for a few months.

Hi Touty Good to see you, I remember you. How are you doing?