To Drink wine most nights?

[Monique10]

I always try to have 2 days off per week but the volume is creeping up. I used to only have one or two glasses whilst cooking dinner but now its gone upto 3, maybe a bottle. I am never drunk and I do consume it over a few hours. I have loads of alcohol in the house that I dont feel the need to touch but white wine is so good! I also put loads of ice in it. My mum and dad drank so much and I seen things I shouldnt have seen growing up, I am never drunk though and fully in control but maybe I am on downward path? what do you think?

@Monique10 , so , having posted , and got the concensus that you are drinking way too much, what is your plan going forward from today .
Could you see how a few AF days go , perhaps till the weekend , and then plan further from there? .
If you cannot manage a few AF days you may need a bit more support to stop drinking altogether.

I do have a very addictive personality, I even like the feel of co-codamol when I take them for period pain! I am also very strong willed though so when I know I am in the wrong I will do everything in my power to stop,

I stopped smoking when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter and never looked back

My plan is to see how long I can go without, I will try a week

oh please don't OP. Please don't feel terrible. You can turn things around.

I've drunk copious amounts of wine over the years, particularly when the kids were young as I felt it was a coping mechanism. It's now a habit. My drinking levels were excessive in November/December last year so I decided to give myself January off. I used the Try Dry app which lets you log what you drink, whether it was planned or not.

I never once thought that I'd achieve it, but I did. And I feel so much better for it. It really has helped re-set my thinking about alcohol.

Maybe try for 2 days a week alcohol free, then 3 days, then 4 days. See how you get on. I'm sure you will do better than what you think you will. Good luck.

I already do 2 nights off, but it is starting to get to the point that i am proud of myself when there is a bit left in the bottle!

I don't think you do , otherwise you wouldn't start a thread in here about it .

Rightly so yes

I love red wine and I think it would be easy for me to drink it every night however, I know its just no good for you. I tend to have 1 or 2 bottles over a weekend (shared with DP).

Well done OP for trying to nip this in the bud now. I used to do this, but it was back in my twenties and we did all just drink most nights. Its far, far too many units though. And pretty bloody expensive too.

My H is an alcoholic - and I don't think you are (yet) - but it crept up on us (I say us because it affected us all in the end - he had a big stroke last summer and I'm positive it was the alcoholism that triggered it) It started with drinking red wine every night, but once his body stopped tolerating that he moved to vodka. Then hiding vodka in water bottles. and so on. You get the idea.

I've actually started drinking non-alcoholic gin and tonic in a nice big gin glass with ice some days. I get the 'feels' from it of winding down with a glass in the evening - even if I don't get a wine buzz (which i prefer these days as I don't have time to not be clear headed) I might have a glass of actual wine on a weekend, but a bottle lasts two days or more now.

A large glass (pub) is 250ml, a bottle is 750ml.

OP:
I was drinking a half bottle every night up to mid Jan, and now do dry Mo/Tu/Th/Fr - so I'm still having a drink at the weekends, and mid week

I was doing Mo/Tu/Th first, and moved up to Mo/Tu/Th/Fr

OP I think you are being a bit hard on yourself here, and I say that as a non-drinker. I think absolutely loads of people have a drink every night, or most nights, and it doesn't make them an alcoholic. I'm not against alcohol, I just don't particularly enjoy it that much, and anyway I'm always flying about here and there in the car of an evening so I can't have a drink even if I wanted to. But I think you know it's not great for you and that you'd be healthier cutting down. So if you want to drink less and look after yourself better then absolutely go for it, but don't feel you're a terrible person, far from it! Be positive and go for it!

Just setting rules helps me - I don't drink on work nights so that means there's no decision to make most of the time, then on weekends/holidays I try and be a bit more mindful, but occasionally let the handbrake off. I take complete breaks of 3-4 weeks a few times a year, so am never far from either having a drink or having a break from it.

I also do intermittent fasting on weekdays, meaning I don't have anything aside from water after 8pm. Again it takes the decision out of my hands on those days.

Enjoy my booze more when I get it now.

Yes. Fun to start with but as your liver and kidneys begin to struggle, your stomach bloats, you have diarrhoea or constipation, you lose your appetite and feel tired all of the time you’ll really regret it.
Cut back now. Couple of glasses Saturday/Sunday/special occasions is a decent compromise.

I’ve stopped altogether and feel so much better. Developed a real appreciation for non alcoholic beers and ales 😄 (the wines/spirits, don’t waste your money, yuk!)

Please be careful doing it like this OP, have a read up on getting off alcohol, you shouldn't just immediately fully stop when your body has been so used to it. You need to reduce until you get to zero. So for example if you'd normally have a full bottle a night, have 3/4 for a week, then 1/2 bottle, then quarter and so on. Your need to safely detox from it rather than putting your body in to withdrawal. Have a read up on it (alcohol misuse worker here).

The biggest help for me was always having lots of AF alternatives in fridge. Make yourself a nice “treat drink” in the evening that is alcohol free. My favourites are:

• Flavoured tonic water with ice and a slice in a gin glass
• M&S mocktail cans, poured into a cocktail glass
• Elderflower tonic and soda
• AF martini and soda
• Kombucha
• AF bottle of beer

It really helps to have a treat to look forward to at the end of the day. Having it in a gin or wine glass also helps me feel like it’s more of a treat. On a Friday my husband and I take it in turns to look up a new mocktail recipe and we make it in a shaker with fresh ingredients etc.

The ONLY non-alcoholic wine I have found that comes even close to tasting like wine is the link below. It tastes pretty close to Prosecco, so I drink it at the weekend in a champagne glass for a treat.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07QQ6WDXR?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Also HC professional , and if you can have days off without withdrawal symptoms then I don't think you need to taper. If you are being honest about your intake you are very unlikely to be physically dependent.

Yes I am being 100% honest, and on the days I dont drink I dont feel anything?

It's really good you've recognised this before it's got too out of hand. It easily creeps up on you. You're not a bad mother otherwise you wouldn't care about it. If you don't feel dependent, then just stop. Do a month without. Then keep it to occasions only.

My Dad had it creep up on him, from the occasional beer after work in the pub, to a glass of wine at night then it creeped up and he was on 3 bottles of wine a night. He died at age 56 of liver failure. I never saw him drunk, he never missed work, he was a good man. But the drink took him and by the time he had the wake up call to stop, it was too late.

OP is drinking more than 3 bottles a week. This is a high level of consumption on your body every week, and can have complications if not reduced safely. As I said just something to be aware of. You might totally stop and it doesn't affect you, it's not recommended to do it that way from 5 bottles a week though.

Don't!

We are all human, so don't beat yourself up.
You have spotted a problem, now you're going to fix it :-)

Good luck

You sound a lot like me. I wasn't drinking as much as you, but it was creeping up. And I was drinking almost every single day. And it had gone from maybe one glass, to half a bottle or more.

I've made a real point of cutting back. A couple of nights completely alcohol free a week and when I am drinking, I make an effort to be conscious of the amount. Eg I did have a glass last night - but it was literally one glass - less than 1/3 of a bottle. I won't drink tonight and probably won't drink anything tomorrow night either.

I think that from an overall health perspective it's definitely better.

That screenshot is referring to people who drink 3 bottles a day, not per week.

This is Mumsnet, no one does anything that is frowned upon

Love the Username! haha

Well done OP.

Once you start not drinking most nights it becomes easier and easier.

It is so normalised to drink regularly/see alcohol as a reward. I had to really think about why I want a drink and mostly that's because I'm stressed/low/bored/lonely. I think about how I'll feel after drinking and the answer is "better" if I drink lots but then awful after, or not much better if I just have one so what's the point? Wasted calories, bad for health etc.