The support thread for those trying to lead an alcohol free life - Summer 2026

[Lavrander]

Hello and welcome!
This thread is for anyone who is trying to live an alcohol-free life. It was first set up by @drybird and has grown into a safe, supportive space to share thoughts, ask advice, swap experiences, or simply check in as we give up and keep off the booze.
There’s no judgment here – just encouragement. Whether you post every day, once in a while, or just read along quietly, you’re part of the group. Many of us have found this thread invaluable, whether brand new to abstaining or years into AF life.
Wherever you are on the journey, someone here will have been there too. Don’t be shy about posting – we love celebrating successes of all shapes and sizes, and we’ll support you through the tougher times as well.
The only thing we ask is that your aim is complete abstinence. If your goal is moderation or a break, there are a couple of really good threads on this board that will be a better fit. That doesn't mean that slips don't happen, and we'll support you in picking yourself back up and carrying on.
So climb aboard and join the shipmates (as well as our dog mascot Sid!) and see how good alcohol free life can be.

@DidILeaveTheGasOn welcome.

Quick message to newbies - get some Thiamine (Vit B1) and take high doses for the first 6 weeks or so. It can help to protect your brain whilst you wean yourself off the booze. You won’t overdose as the body excretes what it doesn’t use. I believe that brain damage is rare, but any risk is too high, and Thiamine is cheap and readily available, so there’s no point in tempting fate.

Good morning shipmates,

So very sorry for what's gone on @WendyWagon - you know that we still love you and are really rooting for you. We are all trying our best, but we are only human and sometimes our personal stuff just overwhelms us. It doesn't mean that we are total failures. Sending love. ❤️

Welcome @DidILeaveTheGasOn - I'm glad you have found us. Getting to a day 2 is brilliant - especially after 5 years.

Sorry for my dilatory posting over the past few days. Madness here - work, M, M's now ex-car, work, some volunteering stuff which is encroaching on my time a bit more than I'd like... Cabin Boy / Powder Monkey Sid needs to go to the vet for poorly paw examination tomorrow, which means sedation and a general anaesthetic. ☹️ BUT... it's just started raining here! HURRAH!!! And Sid remains buoyant and ready for active duties; decks are swabbed and cannons are freshly powdered.

Strength and courage. It's going to be alright. xx

Thank you @REP22
I feel such a disgrace. The DH doesn't want to talk to me. I can see the conversation going along the lines of I can't do this again.

I guess he's afraid of it all starting up again, @WendyWagon , but come on, guy's gotta give you a bit of grace for 4.5 years! He doesn't need to come down hard on you, we do that ourselves... 😏 Give it time, he'll be reassured when you don't backslide again, but frankly, your focus should be on yourself now, not him...

Sorry, that's probably a bit blunt, but people don't realise it has to come from inside, and it will.

@DidILeaveTheGasOn Day 2?! That's great! But don't you be thinking in terms of 'work' at this stage! Your body's probably still washing out the alcohol, there will be more and bigger changes... All you need to do now is Not Drink - you're laying down a new habit. You don't tell people who quit smoking or drugs to start working on themselves, do you - you tell them to hang on and let 'er buck for the first week or two! Keep it simple! But bloody well done for taking the decision, it is so worth it...

Day 30 here, and frankly, I am sore - hurt my back flipping a mattress on Friday, then compounded it by paint for four hours on Sunday, so it's my own fool fault... it is really fucking painful, even a deep breath makes me yelp, so going to consciously take more of a break now... But v glad to be at this milestone day, and looking forward to plenty more!

🥰

Day 83 here. I've managed pubs, gigs, holidays, and social events.... Haven't hidden myself away at all. Feel like I'm doing well. But I'm about to head off for a 4 day musical festival without my trusty Old Mout AF cider as a fall back. It's giving me ANXIETY. My strategy was to lean into the music but I don't know many of the bands playing that well. I'm hanging out with a group who are very used to me being the falling over 'fun' (ie dribbling mess) drunk who are about to discover introvert me. Any tips or advice from any alcohol free festival pros here?

Ps. Love following this thread. Thank you all.

@MagicalCrocodile i’m in Europe but literally everywhere I’ve been has had alcohol free beer. You can do it, just say no thanks order an AF beer or a Coke and have a dance for me.

@WendyWagon big hugs you’ve been such a support to me. It’s crap but you’ve been under immense strain, chalk it up and move on x it’s done now x

@Gribouille i hope you feel better soon x

@DidILeaveTheGasOn welcome, I’m getting v close to a year now but was in a similar situation, often 1-2 bottle of wine a night and my trusty nightcap of whatever spirit was left in the kitchen. You can do it, the early days are the toughest. Get yourself some lovely food, treats, AF Options, have a walk/bath whatever you can to do indulge in other ways at habit time. Go to bed early with a book if you have to. One day at a time, I promise you it’s worth it.

@MagicalCrocodile - 83 days! Fantastic ❤️ You're doing so well. I get your anxiety, that's understandable. But I bet your friends will be impressed with the "new" super-charged you - you're still putting yourself out there and you are fresh and the very best version of yourself that there is. Plus - sober you means less trips to festival toilets - always a bonus (especially in the heat), ignore the dread (not easy, I know) and stay true. You'll enjoy (and remember with joy instead of mortification) the festival. Hopefully the newer bands will be good and, if not, at least you're out and about with your mates for a few days. Hope you have a brilliant time. x

So sorry you're in such pain @Gribouille - I hope you will be feeling better soon. Sid offers an in-cabin massage service, but you don't want that. Nobody wants that. (His 'service', as evidenced by his gardening support the other day consists in watching you toil and hurt yourself and then snuffling "I wouldn't have done it like that". Monty Don he ain't.). 💐x

I’ve never been to a festival @MagicalCrocodile although I’ve always wanted to - it’s on my bucket list!

My suggestion would be to stay curious- you have the opportunity to experience a festival in a way you never have before. What happens in the early morning, when everyone else is still sleeping off the night before? Are there areas the “old you” would never have tried?

Well done on your day 1 @DidILeaveTheGasOn - keep going a minute at a time. Do anything other than pick up that first drink

Well I seemed to be functioning ok this afternoon.
I popped to do a second viewing of cottage 2 with DD. It really is very small compared to our current house. However we don't use all of it ATM so there's my dilemma. Pay the same for less?
Better garden, very active village. Good age profile.
Cousin confessed to her husband pinching a bottle of whiskey out of our booze cupboard at a wake. Drinking it and she had to drive home. I never noticed! Flowers received so okay I think.

My friends I felt pigging awful. Everything hurt and I ate a scone and two biscuits. I sweated more than a horse at Kempton!
Not worth it but these things are sent to try us.

I got goosed by a dog at the cottage😂

So glad you're feeling a bit more chipper @WendyWagon - that dog was send you a message - this cottage sounds goo(se)d!

That's pretty grim of your cousin. Hopefully having all confessed it can also be laid to rest.

Hope you continue to mend. xx

Think I'm going to make it to the end of day 2 successfully. I am so tired. Just enjoyed a hot chocolate and about to get into pyjamas, rock and roll!

Hello @MagicalCrocodile! I went to a festival quite recently and I can't tell you how relieved I was after a while not to be drinking. The weather was so warm it was so much better to just carry my water bottle around with me - and there were lots of drinking water stations around. It's just that first half hour or so that just feels odd and then you can David Attenborough it all and enjoy yourself people watching and listening to the music. The only thing I wasn't up for was being anywhere near the stage.

Great stuff @DidILeaveTheGasOn. One day at a time.

Well I'm up with the milk as my dear old dad used to say (dairy farmer's son).
I don't think I can squeeze into the posh cottage. It's got 7ft ceilings and DH is 6'5"!
I did a walk around our current house and played place my furniture. Not a chance!
70% would have to go. I was enthralled by the beautiful garden but getting our things in would be impossible.
I hope the money pit cottage or the barn pop up again. Otherwise it's the flat for us as our prospective tenants are getting jumpy.
We could try again for a sale but the three houses in competition with us are still for sale so it doesn't bode well.

My head has cleared and I managed a bit of dinner. Luckily I have no events in the diary. We always go away in November since the DC grew up.

I will not drink today 🌸

Day 3! And a Wednesday. My ex and I got divorced in 2020 and I don't have the children on Mondays or Tuesdays. Tuesdays I would normally drink a lot and wake up on Wednesday morning feeling awful, hungover and trying to convince myself I'm not. Try to work through it, then get something greasy and fried for lunch.
Last night I had a hot chocolate and then spent half an hour on a video call with my daughter, doing skincare routines and talking about the computer game she was playing. She's away with her dad and likes to call when she's away. It was so nice to be fully engaged and have that time with her.
I am definitely not out of the woods yet but already I am starting to feel quite angry at what a thief alcohol is, I suppose what a thief I am, I steal from myself when I drink. I wouldn't have been able to call her on a 'normal' Tuesday.

@DidILeaveTheGasOn ive lost 15kg since last September, alcohol and the subsequent bacon sandwiches etc are very calorific.
For these early days I’d indulge in any alcohol free snacks you fancy ice cream chocolate etc they won’t even compete with the calories from wine. I think at slimming world 1 bottle of red wine is the same calories as 3 doughnuts!

Day 3 is great work. Did you download Try Dry App. It really really helped me stay accountable and I looked forward to ticking off the “have you stayed dry today” notification. Now I rarely look at it but those first days/weeks/months it was a godsend. You also get to win badges like sober wedding, sober bbq, sober Xmas etc I think there’s a sober festival on there too!

Congratulations @DidILeaveTheGasOn !! Don’t be hard on yourself- we’ve all fallen for the lies we believed about alcohol. It sounds like lovely quality time with your daughter.

Top stuff @DidILeaveTheGasOn - you're doing really well. I mainlined chocolate milkshake when I was first giving up. Sainsbury's TTD white chocolate and raspberry ripple mostly. Very calorific but definitely the lesser of two evils.

Had fun and games today. Sidney to the vets for a general anaesthetic to remove a grass seed from an infected paw and myself to NHS Treatment Centre with fractured finger. In both cases I was glad to be sober, present and driving where needed. Sorely tested today - but I will not drink.

The decks will go unswabbed and cannons unpowdered tonight. Apologies shipmates - normal service will be resumed tomorrow. In case pirates are sighted in choppy waters, there's a loaded pea-shooter under Sid's hammock.

Strength and courage. All will be well. xx

Holy bastards day 3 is a twat. This is really, really hard.

It really is. It's f~~~ing horrible. I'm sorry. It IS worth it, I absolutely promise. It won't always be this shit. Don't cave - if you do, what awaits will be guilt, frustration - and another day 1, day 2, day 3... You are strong. You are mighty. You CAN conquer this. Sid and I believe in you. Keep going; just a little bit longer. xx

@DidILeaveTheGasOn can you have a bath, put your pyjamas on & have a hot chocolate if that’s your thing? It was mine too & in the early days I’d sometimes do that & be in
can bed by 8pm. Before you know it you’ve done another day 👌

Thank you @REP22, I really appreciate it! I feel really raw and tense, like my whole body is clenching its teeth. That's a disturbing mental image.
Going to eat something and have a bath.

Yes great idea @TwoNicePuppies !

That's a good way of putting it @DidILeaveTheGasOn - your body (and mind) thinks it wants the poison it craves and is raging at you for not supplying it. @TwoNicePuppies makes a good suggestion. I try to do that myself, and then into PJ's with something nice. It's a few extra steps between temptation and popping to the shops to fulfill if your hair is damp and you're in a towel or your PJs as well. The rage and tempest will pass; it really does get better. And I guarantee you that you will thank yourself in the morning. xxx