DRY 5

[allhailqueenmab]

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

Hi all, still here, day 4 done :) had a terrible headache for a few days and been tireder than a very tired thing too. I had a sleep this afternoon and felt like I could have just kept sleeping til morning!
I've spent most of the days looking round nursing homes for my dad. I even managed a carvery lunch at the pub without a drink :)
I noticed today how I thought I was drinking more recently to help me cope with everything, to escape it all but actually, since not drinking I'm coping with it all so much better!! What a con! Hope everyone is well and had a good sober Thursday! X

Well done miserableatwork. Yes its so much easier to cope with things when you're not drinking. Alcohol is a liar. Saw a saying recently and it made sense 'sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised'. Good luck with the nursing homes, that in itself is a nightmare. Different sort of care but I got my eyes opened when dm was looking at them and care packages for granny as she has alzheimers.

Morning all. And well done Miserableatwork. You are doing brilliantly and I remember the tiredness well. For me I think it lasted a couple of weeks, but I suppose it's your body healing in a way and breathing sigh of relief. I have an elderly DF who is nearly at that stage too so have been looking into home care vs. homes etc. As you say - so much easier to handle and actually be a grown up about when sober.

Going back to how pernicious our society is about alcohol and how it tempts/forces us to pick up - there are 2 pubs just down the road from my house that have really irresponsible stuff written on those sandwich blackboards in the street (you know the ones I mean - that sort of prop up on the pavement). Walking past them yesterday one said 'never trust a non-drinker' and the other said 'feeling happy? we'll get you drunk. Feeling bored? We'll get you drunk. Feeling sad? We'll get you drunk. COME IN!'. How bloody irresponsible is that?

Rant over!

miserableatwork well done from me too and yes detox symptoms are common, including headache. Hope you find a home you are happy with :)
Also that make's my bloody blood boil!! Jeez it's almost alcohol pavement harassment brainwashing

Hi everyone,

sorry for my very long absence. I got heartily tired of myself, and tired of being so focused on not-drinking so dropped off the thread. I need to come back now though, as on Wednesday I had a glass, then last night had half a bottle and have realised that no, I am not 'cured', (hah!) and I need the focus again.

If you will have me, and excuse my shameful awol can I come back?

Off to catch up on the thread. Can't wait to hear how you all are. :)

Cornchips! So nice to see you back :) Grab yourself a cuppa it's all good Onwards

Thanks Lucy. :)

How you doin' [cue cheesy Joey Tribbiani accent]

almost to the end of catching up on the thread... I've missed so much ! It's good to be back. :)

Welcome back Corn (that sounds kind of wrong in a foot issue sort of way…!).

Gosh it is good to be back. I felt a bit alone in the wilderness. Of course I could have always come back, just was not ready. :)

now to catch up on Lucy's blog and all the others too.

Alll good here :) Day [checks sobriety app] 433

There are blogs?? Can you link to them please??x

Evening - welcome to a sober journey miserable - love that saying broken x

miserable there are hundreds of sober bloggers! I'm one of them :)
The top one's I read and followed in the early days were:
Mrs D over at livingwithoutalcohol.blogspot.co.uk/
Jean over at unpickled.wordpress.com/
Belle at tiredofthinkingaboutdrinking.wordpress.com/
There's also Allie who's on this thread sometimes lifeafteralcohol.com/ and then there's me ahangoverfreelife.com/

70 I agree that is a great quote
eggshells I may have to get that printed on a t-shirt
behappy.me/t-shirt/sobriety-delivers-everything-alcohol-promised-170832

Haha Lucy :)

Morning all. :)

Feeling much better this morning.TMI alert, but after drinking an unused-to amount of wine I just had the most awful stomach upsets yesterday. Went to bed at 8, caught up on the blogs and feel great this morning. I like that t-shirt lucy.

Thanks for welcoming me back guys [distributes manly shoulder punch]

Hi Corn - I think you were around on here before I got stuck in having lurked since the start rather deludedly thinking that my interest in the thread was purely anthropological - welcome back :)

I've been having something of a wobble these past few days. It all started by seeing a pic of a hot buttered rum cocktail on FB (as you do) and for once, thinking BY GOD THAT LOOKS AMAZING. And it freaked me out that I had that thought, because of course my next glum thought was "oh. I can't have one. Poor me."

I've also been having those "I didn't really have a problem" thoughts, which has been compounded by reading blogs or chatting a bit with a few people on Soberistas who clearly were more addicted, or further into the trap, than I was. People who have massively struggled to stop, who worry about needing medical help to stop due to physical dependency, that sort of thing. This causes those thoughts to spiral - am I a fraud for being aligned to any sort of addiction/sobriety support group, because I didn't find it THAT hard? Was I that bad, because towards the end my drinking wasn't horrific? (A few years ago I had a period of drinking 2 bottles of wine a day but since then I've been more of a binge drinker, and was quite good at minimising how often by never having it in the house and being a single parent so being unable to just nip out in the evening etc etc).

I know the answers, so just want these thoughts to piss off, frankly.

Teapot remind me how many days/months you're at? Sounds like the addict voice to me which means you are one of us. You don't have to have a low bottom to have a problem as you already know :)
Off for a run so might be a while before I'm back

Hi Lucy. I'm precisely 127 days today. I think I'm approaching the 'okay I've proved I can stop, time to start again' danger zone...

Teapot 127 days is amazing!! 4 1/2 months :) Can you still access follow up from Allen Carr day?
This is how insane our world has become - gin, vodka, whisky, beer advent calendars I kid you not www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2846546/Advent-urous-Advent-Calendars-Forget-chocs-Countdown-Christmas-tea-bags-gin-miniatures-jewellery.html And yes the metro piece even says 'But let’s face it, that chocolate never lives up to its name. Instead, this year why not welcome every morning of advent with a shot of gin?' Good grief Charlie Brown

Hi all, struggling a bit at the moment. I've taken my 2 girls age 3 and 5 out to a Christmas fair today and they have driven me to distraction. Usually, my go to would be to crack open a bottle to help me unwind. Its hard forming new habits.
lucy I saw those gin calenders, its crazy how in your face alcohol is. Its only when you give it up you realise just how much the idea to drink is planted as a seed in your head to grow.

Hi miserable - I had a tough day too... coincidentally I was also at our school fair (manning a stall for a while too). Somebody handed me a cup of mulled wine at one point and I had to turn it down. That felt weird, it was one of the dads and he thought he was doing me a favour, buying a cup for all of us manning the stall, so when I said no he didn't know what to do with it. By the end of the fair my nerves were shot to pieces and you're right, it's probably because I didn't have any booze to blur the edges. By 5.30pm about 30% of all the kids at the fair were either crying or screaming and I couldn't wait to get home. Now the DC are in bed and I'm calming down, but it's taken a while.

Hi both.

Snap- at the school fair too today.:) Also a tough one. My DS had a meltdown followed in short order by DH. Apparently DS is the only child in the whole world who has meltdowns (he is 4) and it is down to my indulgent parenting. No other children ever has meltdowns. I reminded him that he works away, never does the school run, never goes to play dates and never sees other children.

I am now in bed drinking tea. I am emotionally switched off.