DRY 5

[allhailqueenmab]

Starting this before the old one gets filled up!
this is the thread for the alcohol free.
Join us!

Hi all

I haven't posted for months but saw this in active convos and thought I'd come and say hello

I haven't had an alcoholic beverage since mid-March now, and was drinking at a very high level before. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who posts on here and I hope you are all doing well.

Not sure if anyone will remember me from way back then but here I am and still DRY and really it's made such a difference so thank you

Lucy - loved the interview with Veronica. It was really helpful. One of the few topics we didn't get onto yesterday was the whole alcoholic label. You may have talked about it with the others. I am still "hmmmmm" about the whole thing. Whether I am. Whether even if I am, is it a useful label. If I am and I am denying it, is that just alcoholic denial. Blah blah blah.
I like the phrase "alcohol-free" as you suggest. Not least because "free" is a lovely word and actually describes how I feel, and how positive cutting alcohol out of my life has been.

Re: sober meet ups - we had an amazing time. So I would encourage anyone who wants to meet up with someone who lives nearby to do so. It's not half as odd as I thought it would be and I found it incredibly reinforcing of the choice I've made. It also helped me silence the ever present voice in my head that tells me I've created rather a fuss over this whole drinking thing and cutting it out is rather an over reaction etc etc.

Hi nice tabard - I wasn't here in March but wanted to say hello & massive well done for all you've achieved!

Thanks haggis and agree with everything you wrote :) It was lovely to meet you and am sorry I don't live closer. Would love to join you for that Sunday evening recovery meeting that was being talked about as attending as a group. Maybe one Sunday I'll make the drive down anyway!
nicetabard hello from me too. Also wasn't here in March as hadn't found this lovely thread then and congrats! :)

I'm up for meeting up. Am so twitchy about getting to my year now I want it to be NOW!!

Biggles Maybe we need to ask Haggis to lunch in our neck of the woods around your 1 year sober birthday?

I like that idea!

Oooh - I would love to! Have railcard will travel ...

LUCY........I'm sure that it's your 1 year sobriety today
Many, many congratulations, be loud and proud.what a great life chsnge you made a year ago. Enjoy chick

Thank you stayingdry it is indeed TODAY!! One whole bloody year without booze. Who'd have thunk it! ;) Haggis I'll chat to Biggles on messaging and we'll sort it out! How you feeling today after yesterday? xx

Wooooo hooooooo! happy year! I hope you have had a lovely lovely day xx

Thanks Biggles Your turn next!!

I know - I'm champing at the bit! 11 months next Sunday

It'll be here before you know it! :)

Haggis Congrats on 100 days lovely!! Hope you've a treat lined up?

Haggis,100 days....thats huge, well done.
I remember my 100 days, and I was gob smacked, seemed such a huge amount of time and it still does.
Its 2400 hours, massive particularly if like me12 hours was a mountain to climbð???

Biggles - 11 months is so amazingly! Staying Dry .... Wow so many hours when you break it down. Like you say 12 hours was so hard. I've found this 100 days easier than many a random Thursday. The absolute nature of it all in some ways is so much less of a head-wreck. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes!
Waiting for my bracelet from Belle. That's my main treat. Signing up now for Team 180 with her.
Just remembered I dreamt I sipped a glass of wine last night by accident.
All these soberversaries are amazing. Lucy loved your blog post about doing a full year of daily blog posts!
Hope everyone is doing well.

Congrats Lucy! Congrats Haggis! Congrats Biggles!

Such lovely news to read this morning. :)

Some great milestones. I remember 2 weeks!! Every day is fabulous though - wherever you are

Some great sobriety happy thoughts, really enjoying the happy positivity of all.
Just heard that a person I know from AA meetings has sadly lost the fight against alcohol. Really shocked me to my bones, they have had relapses recently and had one that unfortunately was too much.
A real wake up call to remind me what a nasty disease we are fighting. and a sad reminder that one day of sobriety is such a gift to an alcoholic if we can do it the next day, and the next. .........
Sorry for putting a downer on you but needed to share. what a terrible waste of a good life for just that one drink,

Urghh I hate it when another life is lost to booze ..... Grrr drinks industry

Just reading your blog Lucy and I saw you put 'long term recovery' is over a year. Is that true? Am I really nearly a 'long termer' ??

Biggles I think the recovery advocacy movement use the term long recovery for all who have started on the journey and I heard a 19 year old who had quit for 5 months say this at the walk - so you already are!

Hi everyone,

Day 265 here :) Unfortunately for the last few months I have been battling mental health issues which have become worse and worse since I stopped drinking. After several CBT sessions I have been encouraged to go on anti-ds for the first time in my 13 years with anxiety. So am dealing with the side effects of prozac and the realisation that the year off booze that I was planning will be substantially longer (no alcohol with this drug). I actually don't even care . However people are expecting me to drink on NYE and I don't really want to reveal my mental health condition to all and sundry. So god knows what I will say!

Hello all, well done on all the sober milestones and anniversaries, it is fabulously inspiring, well done.

I am still sober and it really is getting better and better. Congrats all xx