The less important parts of sobriety

[alco]

Obviously the most important things for me are my family having peace/ my MH/ general wellbeing/ health etc.

But after my slip last week I am seeing again the nice little things of sobriety.

Vanity I know but I saw a FB memory picture of me today from 5 years ago. I don't look awful but I certainly look nicer now! My eyes are brighter, skin is better, I'm less puffy. I actually look younger now than I did then!

Eating, I wasn't eating properly when I was drinking. Even though I was at my heaviest. When I got sober I could eat again. Enjoying beautiful food, both healthy and unhealthy! I strangely still enjoyed cooking during my worst days but couldn't eat much of it. Probably keeping up a pretence for DH as well.

Shopping, I buy myself things now. At the start of winter I bought myself real Ugg boots. Not to everyone's taste I know but they aren't cheap. When drinking I would have thought I could never afford those.

Anything you'd like to share?

Love this!

Yes totally agree on the money thing. Would never think I could possibly afford to treat myself to a £40 massage (for instance).. but that's less than what I'd spend a week on drinking at home.

Other things:

Love not having to worry about my liver or my health. Love waking in the night and not having to play back what I did in the few hours before bed to make sure I hadn't done or said something silly - now if I wake I can usually drift back off

Love chatting to my teenage children with a cup of tea in hand after work at 5pm instead of setting a terrible example reaching for the wine before I've even taken my coat off 😆

Love having a bath at night and enjoying listening to my podcasts, rather than a hurried shower as I'm so knackered I just want to fall into bed.

Love feeling my true feelings! Knowing that if i'm cross or irritated it's for a valid reason, not just the alcohol. Same for if i'm having a laugh and joke with the kids - love knowing that it's the real me having fun, not just some tipsy woman dancing round the kitchen 😄

Love knowing that I was strong enough and smart enough to recognise I needed to stop the alcohol, and have carried it through.

Love having extra hours in the evening - to do nothing or go get stuff done. And I remember if something like a parents eve was at 6.30pm I'd be so pissed that I couldn't drink until such a 'late' hour 😆

So many things!

Im on Day 5 which is absolutely massive for me , also it being a Friday and im sitting here Sober .
Last night my DS ran down the stairs in a panic telling us he had food Tech today at school and needed some ingredients. 9:30pm i jumped in my car to get the goods ... it felt amazing.

15 years sober for me. I can't use all the calories I wasted on booze in the form of cake!!

That should say CAN!

I just celebrated 29 years of sobriety. I love that my kids never saw me in my drinking days.

What a lovely thread. I love how much sleep I get now. I rarely wake up in the middle of the night anymore

I have a different addiction but just want to say you are all amazing 🖤

My favourite "little things" (that are actually huge!):

No guilt at hurting my body

I have real feelings - sometimes upset, sometimes really happy and in between I'm on an even keel

I don't feel like a bad parent

My libido returned. I had no sex drive for years (I would have sex only when drunk)

No waking up wondering what I had done - this took a really, really long time to fade away

I have stopped letting people down

That's something I will hopefully be able to do.

I went to a disco when I was about 14 it was about 20 miles from home so we all took a bus. The bus left without me. I remember asking a police man what should I do. He said phone someone to collect you, I said they will all have been drinking, he asked everyone in your family. I honestly could not think of any adult in my life who would not have been drinking on a Friday night. I thought that was completely normal.