Good afternoon, shipmates and Sid. He does look very cross upthread 😂.
Despite my good intentions, nothing much is happening here. It snowed overnight, which put paid to my ideas of going out, so I've spent the day in idleness. I'm knitting a jumper for my DIL, and will probably do another for my daughter, in case of jealousy. I have unearthed a massive bag of lovely wool, so have enough to do one for each of them, and I can always keep one for myself should the need arise. The pattern has short sleeves, as it's meant to be more of a pullover to wear over a T Shirt, but short sleeved jumpers always seem a bit pointless to me. If it's cool enough for a jumper, don't we need long sleeves? I can easily add sleeves, but am not sure - any thoughts, chums?
I had also planned to add to the charity shop bags which go out tomorrow, but can't do that and knit at the same time, however well I multi-task as a rule. I've booked another collection for December, so will work towards that, instead.
Welcome, @GreyhoundLurcher. My standard advice is to know your triggers and be as kind as you can to yourself in the early days. I drank in the evenings, and was certain that I wouldn't sleep if I didn't. To get over this, I switched to AF wine and invested in bath oils and room scents to make the bedroom pleasant, and so that I associated the smell with falling asleep (I used Aromatherapy Associates, but other brands are available). I also used hypnosis to help me sleep, and to break the link with drinking. Craig Beck's Alcohol ones are very good, but again, there are lots out there and you need to find what works for you. I listened through sleep headphones (eye masks with speakers inside) that are easily available on Amazon and elsewhere. So I would have the ritual of pouring a drink (or several) in the evening, then going for a soak when I felt tired, and falling asleep listening to the hypnosis. I had a fallback of easy watching series on TV in case I couldn't sleep. These removed the fear of lying there awake, which I had built up into something terrible. Amongst other things, I watched all of Downton Abbey and every series of Stella😀. Both are engaging enough to make me want to follow them, but easy enough to keep up with if I fell asleep and missed something.
Some swear by quit lit, but I didn't want to see references to alcohol all the time, so avoided it. As with everything, however, you need to work out what suits you and your situation.
Oh, and whatever you do, take some high dose Thiamine (Vit B1) as it helps to prevent 'wet brain' that can happen if you stop drinking suddenly. You can use a multi-vitamin or B Complex, but it's B1 you need, and to get a high enough dose it's better to take it separately. You can't overdose on it. Your wee will be an alarming shade of luminous yellow/orange, but that's because you excrete what your body can't use.