No Alcohol 2024 February

[NoAlcohol2024February]

Checking in for February 2024 now Dry January is over. Feeling positive for an AF February and the year ahead AF 🤩

All newbies welcome. 1 year AF is the target. Takes the pressure off countdown to drinking alcohol again after a short break (as 1 year is too far away to countdown). Hopefully, after 1 year AF we will all have reset our unhealthy relationships with alcohol. Will cross that bridge when we have to (or not) in 2025.

I'm 50 days AF today. Can't believe it. Feeling very pleased about that.

Well done @Samsond ! That's a great achievement. I agree with @NoAlcohol2024February and want to aim for a year. Well, it was 100 days at first, but I'm on day 56 now and think I need longer than another 50 days to reset my attitude and bad habits (binge drinker). I'm so scared of going back to the old me. I have flashbacks of how I used to act and how I'd feel the next day and never want to go back to that again. I wish I could moderate!

@Yestodessertplease why did you stop at day 84? Was it an event or did you just think 'oh I can moderate now' or was it something else? Interested to hear from and learn from people who have abstained for a long time (months) and then gone back to it.

I'm in! Thank you for the new thread 😊

@wannabedry - I was feeling a bit flat and bored with it then my husband got invited to a fancy summer garden party last July plus guest and I wanted to drink the free champagne! I had done a lot of work around mindset and the marketing of alcohol being a big lie and how we're drinking poison in a fancy bottle etc etc but I just couldn't say no to free champagne and I enjoyed it!

After that I went back to sober on and off but I haven't got back to anywhere near 84 days since. I think in my heart of hearts my mindset is not fully convinced of sober "forever".

@Samsond well done on 50 days 😄

@wannabedry I've had a few period of long sobriety, the longest being 2 years. I've gone back to drinking a few times with the hope I could moderate. Mostly I can, though not as well as I would like. Whatever the amount I drink, it turns out it still makes life a bit worse anyway. I am now in the mindset that I just don't want to ever drink again.

Thanks for your story @Yestodessertplease I know the feeling! I can't imagine never having it again. I'm a sucker for the marketing. I also have lots of expensive (and nice?) vodka and gin at home and just can't bear to bin it or give it away. Feel intrinsically linked to the stuff!

I will stick to it for at least 100 days and I hope a year and then see where I am December 2024.

As proof I can get addicted to anything this evening I found my self craving my can of Rio Tropical 😂. I’ve only
been drinking it on Fridays for the last 5 weeks!

Can I join please? 🙋🏻‍♀️ No alcohol since Boxing Day! Had a night out at weekend, would never normally dance without drinking but made myself do it - and stayed til the end 😆 Felt great waking up the next day not having horrible anxiety so I’m determined to stick to it

Checking in, well done all for getting to a month! I've found it mostly OK but Fridays are the hardest for me. It feels fine not to drink but just a bit boring. The positives are definitely outweighing the negatives of being AF though.

I'm absolutely up for a long spell being off alcohol again.

I'm aiming for the year as I'm hoping that will give me the chance to 'reboot' and have a different relationship with alcohol. Not sure if I want to say NEVER again as a nice wine with lovely food is special and nothing else quite hits that spot.

What I now know I don't need alcohol for is to simply socialise and, having been out a few times alcohol free with friends who are drinking I think I've enjoyed the evening better - and certainly the morning after.

Hello all! I'm moving over from the dry Jan thread to join you all. Only started on the 8th and plan to go to end of feb - have had one "pass" night and may have another in feb so it's more about reseting and not drinking at home for me.

@Atacamadesert - that craving is good news it means your brain has formed new neural pathways and now suggests Rio Tropical on a Friday night and not alcohol!

I'm the same (well not Rio Tropical 🤣 but AF sparkling). For me that now signals Friday night and relax! My OH broke his streak last night and I wasn't envious of his wine - and interesting to watch him go back for the 2nd & 3rd - that would be me. With AF I stop after 2 and switch to tea.

I felt this slight boredom last night too, although DH was out, so I guess unsurprising. Mind you I was falling asleep by 9.20 so it was short-lived Maybe I just need to get used to it.

@DJer24 @BraveMaeve i feel the same about the slight boredom! But it really isn’t a very strong feeling and for me it passes quite quickly really. A couple of hours of feeling a bit bored vs feeling a bit shit all day. It should be a no brainer!

@Yestodessertplease I think it’s the sugar. Those Rio cans are so sweet! My brain just wants to get high in whatever way it can

Had to give my head a wobble yesterday. On Fridays I work 7am to 1pm. At 11am I started to think about wine and how I deserved to treat myself to a nice bottle from M & S. ( used to drink supermarket wine ) I went on M & S web page to see their wine selection and told myself If I buy one nice bottle It will now probably last me 2 nights, as surely my tolerance would have changed after a month AF.
In the end I couldn’t be bothered to stop at M & S and went straight home telling myself if I still have this craving I could always nip to my local Tesco Expresss .
Happy to report the wine craving went away and I enjoyed Toinic water and Squash. Looking forward to a busy AF weekend.
I wonder how long it will take for me not to cravings foe Wine 🤔.
Have a great weekend guys x

@DJer24 @Atacamadesert glad it's not just me! Funnily enough I've been rereading the Sober Diaries and she has a whole chapter about this at about the 1 month mark so think it's a common point to feel like this.

I feel so great not having hangovers at the weekend, that is really keeping me going. Then I think the association between wine and Friday treat will fade with time.

I'm listening to an AF podcast and the guest is William Porter and he said exactly the same thing as what I read online from Annie Grace in the week. It's something I think we could all have written on our 'stone of truth':

The goal isn't to be sober but to not want a drink in the first place.

That's it. I think that's going to be my mantra. I'm going to educate myself as much as I can on alcohol and its effects and try to unlearn all the bullshit marketing I've been fed for 40 years.

I want to get to a point where I don't feel deprived at all, I simply don't want it anymore.

@wannabedry that's a great way to look at it! Since Jan 1st I've had no desire to drink at all, but for me it was like a lightbulb moment after what happened over Christmas. Prior to that and from the age of about 14 drinking was my number one thing to do for fun/ being 'cool' when I was young, to relaxation/ a treat as I got older.

@whereaw I definitely understand about 'being cool'. I still feel like it now (early 40's). Drinking to be in the cool gang. Eurghhh.

How is your partner getting on? Hope he is having the same success as you. I had an ex who drank too much and in the end it became the death of us. He used to be very horrible (never violent though) to me when he had a skinful and then would claim to not remember anything of the night before the following day. It was a horrible place to be in and in the end I dreaded the weekend. He wouldn't drink in the week but would drink loads on Friday and Saturday. I think that's where my own drinking started to go wrong. Matching him drink for drink in the early years and all day hangovers on Sunday were just the norm for us. What a waste of all those days.

Hopefully yours isn't as bad as that, but if it is - I have been there and it's a lonely place x

This is good. They dub themselves as 'a podcast for Middle Aged men', but as a Middle Aged (is 40 Middle Aged? I suppose it is!) I found it useful. open.spotify.com/episode/0rCbBXVRjhzJFDQ0UB0OE0?si=-bK1yS-gQDmXh57qZNwhhQ

@wannabedry thank you for asking! He is like a different person, so far so good... not so anxious, he used to be sick most mornings (said it was anxiety), less stressed (not completely - life with little kids, own business, work etc) but much calmer and sleeping better, better in the morning, better with the kids... possibly has a new addiction though..... he's been eating a giant bar of galaxy every single night

@wannabedry it was like you described for a long time! X

Joining this thread. Last drink was 11.50pm on NYE.

I have a hen weekend in 2 weeks and this will be my biggest challenge. At this point, I don't want to drink but not sure I'll manage it. We will see.

Enjoying feeling fresh, new found love of exercise and better quality sleep. No temptation over the last month which is satisfying!