DRY 5

[allhailqueenmab]

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

I'm running a 10k race tomorrow morning. I'm terrified. Help!!!

Biggles You'll be fab!! Good luck and let us know how you got on :)

Hi All I am also a newbie and am approaching the end of my 18th day without alcohol! I have gone without drinking for 9 months both times I was pregnant so I know I 'can' do it can this is the first time I have wanted to without being forced by circumstance.

After each pregnancy I have said to myself I won't let my drinking escalate to the level it was before but slowly and surely it does and has. Wine is the drink of choice. I'm a binge drinker I go all week (sometimes) dry then fri and sat night and Sunday if I can convince DH to join I'll drink 2 bottles of wine a night 1 is not enough anymore. DH barely drinks so my drinking is very noticeable. I won't drink round the kids so I wait until they are in bed and within 2-3hrs all the wine is drunk. I won't go on and on (I hope!) but there's been a few incidences where I don't remember going to bed and ive been making a fool of myself socially.

The catalyst has been being diagnosed with late postnatal depression and DH saying he's worried sick about my behaviour. I need to get better for my kids and alcohol hugely effects my mood. I am medicating anxiety with wine I have noticed and this needs to stop.
Am the daughter of alcoholic parents so hope I am catching myself early! I am very lucky DH supports me 100%

No cravings yet, but scared of falling off the wagon got some parties coming up. I keep getting thoughts like 'your blowing this out of proportion you just need to cut down' 'no more drinking in the house only when you go out etc' deep down I know I can't
Spent the last 2 days reading your threads. Everyone is so supportive and ive learnt loads already from you all.
Sorry that was so long! Feels good to put it out there. I am an alcoholic I think... I don't think I should drink ever again.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!
Hi All hope your having a good Saturday night!

Ps Lucy I'm loving your blog! I have 3 documentaries to watch now and have 2 books ordered on Amazon! With all this hangover free time the possibilities seem endless

Hi broken I'm also a newbie, there's been lots and lots of incidences that have recently made me realise that no, I'm not the life and soul of the party, I'm not 'The funny one', I'm the one whose drinking is totally out of control. But tonight I did my first social function without alcohol and I feel bloody awesome right now!!!!

BouncingB! That's great! You deserve to feel awesome! Did you get much in the way of peer pressure?! My first party is a 40th and we are staying in a hotel so there will be lots of your not drinking?! If I can do it there I'll be doing well as its my DHs mates, mine will be really understanding as they've seen me in action

want to cry the thought of running in front of smarmy proper runners is terrifying!

You can do this biggles!!

Belle - such a big well done on doing the wedding sober. You are very right to be proud

Broken - welcome! 18 days is awesome - and it gets so much better, promise. Personally, I am a fan of opting out of social events if you are in any way concerned about whether it's doable, especially in early sobriety. Short of our own actual weddings there are very few events at which we are indispensable!

That said, being at a party where you have a hotel room is also a gift. Have some lovely sober treats up there, a good book or movie abs just quietly slip away up there to regroup if it gets tough. It's great your husband is on board, lots of us have DH who think we are not that bad.

Bottom line - we KNOW we can't moderate - if we could we'd be bloody doing it. That's what most of us have been trying for years. That will not change, and if we continue to drink, the evidence shows that it will only get worse. Like you, I'm the child of an alcoholic - and I do think in some cases it can help us get out of the lift earlier than we might have. Just because it COULD be worse doesn't mean to say we have to let it get worse. Such a big step to post on here

Biggles- you will be awesome! Run like the wind, or a moderately strong breeze ...

one hour eleven minutes! I wasn't last either. Immensely proud

Good job Biggles Time to be proud of too
Thanks Broken All that drinking time will be spend on your recovery - a great gift to yourself! Also the child of an alcoholic here.
Belle awesome news on the wedding! Each time we do stuff sober we boost our sober self-confidence :)

Wow Biggles great time, congratulations!
Bella well done on getting through the wedding, just think of the embarrassing things you didn't do because of you were sober (or is it just me that used to find the all day drinking of a wedding pretty much guaranteed shameful behaviour?)
I had a dream that I bought three bottles of wine because they were on offer, and just woke up.. with a headache! Didn't even drink the wine in the dream so most unfair!

How's everyone ? 99 - that's so good about the wedding. And yes to the embarrassing person at the wedding. I went to a wedding of my DHs cousin. Was so so hungover the next day that I was literally unable to move. Worst I have ever had. Was supposed to go and visit his cousins new house and couldn't. And everyone knew it was because I was that bad. And then Whitney Houston died. It was a bad day!

Hi Haggis (thanks for the PM btw...). The last wedding I went to, I got so drunk that I too couldn't move the next day. I felt like such a loser, I'd gone on my own to it because I had two young babies and it was abroad - the day after the wedding everybody went down to a local beach and spent the day hanging out. I spent it in my room at the villa being sick and feeling like death. Actually looking forward to sober weddings by comparison!

Hi all.

I'm finally exhausted Been living on adrenaline (and showing off my medal!) for the past three days now it's finally caught up.

Oh God, embarrassing weddings/christenings/any event really . I remember falling asleep at parties, slapping boyfriends, screaming . It's so good to know that doesn't need to happen anymore.

I know that there were many events I simply wasn't invited to as people were so sick of my predictable behaviour.

So difficult to let it go through. It's important to do that forgiving yourself thing, but not easy. Eek, I'm recalling various things now and cringing!

Biggles Good for you! First day at uni tomorrow so will sort something out once I've got my bearings :)
Haggis & Teapot My catalogue of embarrassments is long and I try not to look too closely at it as I get flashbacks and then shame

Yes I really struggled in the first couple of weeks with going over and over the bad moments. It was as though everything embarrassing that I'd ever done whilst drunk started flooding back into my memory banks. I still can't bear to think about some of it.

lt is good to remember the humiliating debacles though, will help you not to pick up again.

Evening all... another dry one for me . Noticed I don't really think about alcohol while in the house (e.g. watching TV in the evening, which was always wine time) so know we don't have any, but do get cravings when the opportunity arises (in shops, the wine aisle calls!)
Lucy how did uni go?

Hello!!! so what's happening? little to report here. Went for my first run since the 10k expecting to be super charged and off on a 20 mile sprint and felt bloody awful! managed 5 I. a Finnish time and came home muttering about stupid bloody running being a stupid bloody waste of stupid time.

However, I have been reflecting a lot on the past year without alcohol and just can't believe how far I have come. I'm planning a bit of a mega post for my anniversary (28th October if you all fancy being offline that day ) I just want people to know that it can be done, that the changes are real, that if you have had a problem with drinking, it doesn't have to define you.

Oops. I'm off already

Can we have a check in??? hope everyone is well x

99 thanks for asking about uni - it was anxiety inducing, exciting, exhausting and overwhelming all rolled into one.
Biggles Your big day is 2 days after my birthday and my blogs one year birthday too :) Will definitely be online and feel a cup of tea & cake would have been a great idea that week except it's bloody half-term!! Scheming - do we try and squeeze it in before half-term or after - what say you and Haggis?
Hope you all have a great sober week-end

I'm pretty easy! Just let me know when and where!

Wow Biggles a year is fab! Does being sober now feel like your natural state, or are there times when you're still consciously not drinking?
Lucy glad it was exciting as well as all the other things! What course is it?
OK day here, nothing to report except a bit of Christmas shopping

Oh and I tried my first ever bubble tea today - it was good except when I accidentally swallowed a bubble whole (can still feel it now!)