Dry 6

[sydneysideup]

This is the thread for the alcohol free. Happy and hopeful, continuing from Dry 5 here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/a2137624-DRY-5?msgid=50943574
Whether it's been an hour, a day, a week or a year, join us here.

coo-ee! couldn't leave you on your own

Hello! Thanks or new thread sydney!

I just tried this for my post-dinner hot drink treat

www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk/our-drinks/type/presse-75cl/mulled-winter-punch/

It is LOVELY. Perfect for this season,and I am tired of hot chocolate. It's very sweet, but is really lovely, warming, very treat-y.

Hope everyone had better days today? Well done on the running Biggles!

Phew hi Biggles and Corn thanks for coming over!

Have an elderflower with me! I've been thinking, after many of us having such similar tricky times at Christmas fairs and parties over the weekend, I wonder if that's linked to our early experiences with alcohol. I'm sure many teenagers feel on the edge or pushed out of social groups and perhaps lots of us used alcohol to blur those spiky edges at our first parties. Or even just that awful alien feeling you have if you can't quite see what's so great about the group of boys your best friends have chosen to hang out with but find them a bit less boring after a drink.

So maybe now, as so-called adults, when we run into cliquey or awkward social situations, especially rite of passage type ones linked to schools, I bet it pushes old psychological buttons that we still haven't learnt to cope with without booze. But then how many Western adults ever do cope with social situations completely booze free???

Ok sorry that got a bit deep I've just been thinking a lot ....

Hope everyone's well.

Found yous

I have to keep an eye out for that one Corn. I'm on the bottle green spiced plum with hot water and it's lovely if not a little sweet too. Christmasy for this time of year.

I'm very much an introvert at heart Sydney so yes I used alcohol a lot to take the edge off how excruciating I can find big social situations. My teenage years I drank because people didn't expect it of me. I had this very good girl, quiet, study hard persona and my peers thought I was a bit posh. I liked the shock value of drinking and smoking, being a bit of a rebel really. I felt included and it gave me the bravado to come out of my shell. The latter has stayed with me I suppose.

Yes that's just it Broken. And look how you said 'I felt included'. We all have a human need to be welcomed by the group I think.

So I often swing between pride at breaking free from the illusion that wine helped or gave true pleasure to any part of my life whatsoever and sadness that I'm not completely part of the group when everyone else is drinking it.

Well I'll tell you one group I'm blinkin pleased to be hanging out with and it's you guys. Sleep well everyone.

Thanks for new thread, here?

Hi all, I've found you! How are we all today? On day 8 today, still exhausted but in a nice way. Its interesting to hear you all talking about being in a social situation without the comfort of alcohol to make you feel less awkward. I have been invited out with the alpha mums over Christmas, I would usually have sunk one or two before I went out and several whilst in the pub so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Half of me is tempted not to go, I don't want to end up drinking and its early days.

Day two of my running in the morning lark. G (14 year old ds) announced last night he was coming with me. How I laughed as I said 'yeah, yeah see you at six am'. At six o one am, he was in the bathroom ready to go as I was thinking 'maybe not every morning... Of course I had to leap up and pretend to be super keen. Did 2.3 k which is ok. Then cycled to work in the pouring bloody rain.

I love the sound of the Belvoir drink. I drink the cold stuff anyway so will look out for that.

At work. Looking forward to meeting Lucy and Haggis for coffee later !!

Hello shiny new thread :)

Well well well - I seem to have won one of the top prizes in the school fair raffle. Aren't school fairs BRILLIANT? It's a £150 voucher for Hawksmoor restaurant, which I love... but I couldn't help being a bit grrrr about the fact that because I don't drink, I won't be able to make full use of such a freebie. There goes that addict brain...

miserable well done for day 8.. :)

Biggles enjoy your coffee with Lucy and Haggis later! Well done on the run too... I so need to find my exercise mojo..

Congrats Teapot!!!!! Just think- you can have pudding AND cheese and biscuits at the very least! (I know what you mean though...... the other day DH was talking about a sunday pub lunch and I just thought 'what's the point, I can't have anything'. It is ingrained somehow.

I am also an introvert and used alcohol to give me confidence and make me able to cope with the situation. People think I am bubbly (I am so so so not bubbly on the inside). But it is false bravado.

everything relatively okay here. DH has gone abroad again just for a few days and I am relieved to have the house to myself and some peace.

Hi all. Haven't caught up yet, but wanted to reserve my spot on the new thread. Hope everyone doing well. Off to GYM now in search of a natural high…….

How lovely Teapot, but without the alcohol you will be able to appreciate and enjoy the meal. I often found drink got rid of my appetite and I'm sure it kills off taste buds so you don't taste your food as well.

Well done miserable.

Feeling a bit sorry for myself today but it's tiredness. Ds has been up and down like a yoyo with a cold the past couple of nights, dd was throwing up most of last night. Had a thought about how lovely it would be to curl up in front of the fire with wine and doze off as dc off to their dads for the afternoon. I won't but had a pang. Going to try and get my head down today for an hour instead and go for a run later.

Enjoy your coffee ladies!

Teapot, like has been said, you will be able to actually taste the food and remember it, not be totting up the bill to make sure that there's enough left for copious amounts of alcohol either....enjoy, have a great big pudding for me
Miserable..day 8, fantastic..l remember all my milestones, thats over a week, didn't think it was achievable on hour 1, but wow couldn't believe it so proud
Still need to catch up with thread properly just busy, never seem to have an hour to spare.
keep up sobriety Ladies, booze all over t.v. have given myself a bit of leave way to help keep my pecker up, if I want a bag of crisps, box of chocolate fingers, so be it, gotta be better than a couple of bottles of wine. so I put a couple of LBs on, better than a 3 day bender losing my family, Christmas and God knows what...playing the tape to the end.......

What a splendid hour (nearly!) with haggis and Lucy today so nice to be able to talk to people who actually 'get it'. thank you both xx

Wow teapot, £150 will certainly buy you some food :) I second the cheese board and pudding idea :)
I'm pleased with day 8, I've been managing to get lots of jobs done around the house that I have been trying to do for some time but could never be bothered to do.
Stayingdry on the subject of chocolate, I went to the shops last night when I was tired and hungry, big mistake. I came out with a massive bar of chocolate, 2 packs of chocolate bars, some chocolate milkshake and 2 chocolate muffins

miserable......botter chocolate than booze chickxx

Ssh with the chocolate talk. I have zero in the house and clearly did not think through giving up smoking with nothing sweet available to eat. Even contemplated making buns but my eggs were out of date. Oh woe. Tomorrow I'm getting stocked up.

Sorry to interrupt but just thought I'd give you the heads up on a post in Site Stuff that may interest you.

Board for alcoholics

Thought you may like to have some input for MNHQ to decide if it is needed.

Hi Tarquin thanks for that I've posted on it.

How's everyone today? I'm taking a day off work as I've got a bad cold and to be honest, after 3 nights up with ill 3 and 5 year old I'm exhausted. But so grateful that with no wine in the mix I've been able to stay patient and it hasn't been the horrendous experience it used to be. DS had an ear infection Sunday night and ended up in with me, then poor DD woke up at 5 with a massive nosebleed. Her room looked like something from CSI.

All dealt with soooooooooooo much more easily than if I'd been drinking.

Oh I've thought of a new Christmas bonus - no need for stupidly expensive and hard to find taxis after work do.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

While on the subject of Christmas, can I just ask all the newly sober are planning on tackling it. It was on xmas day that I decided to have "just a few" which then led to drinking full on until about a week ago, hmm.
I need to change my mental outlook on Christmas, its not just an excuse to drink more than I usually would (which is already way too much!).

Marking my place on our shiny new thread! Lovely to see Biggles & Lucy yesterday!

Miserableatwork - there's a section in Lucy Rocca's book Sober Revolution about Christmas that I remember when I read it thinking it would help when the time came. I will look it out and post it here if I can.
Having a plan is a good idea as well as a place you can escape to if it all gets too much.

I hear ya miserableatwork. I was sober on the run up to Christmas last year and then myself down during it. I'm going to find it hard this year as youngest it away to dads later so I don't have to be 'on call' so to speak.

So far I'm going to buy myself a nice proper coffee for the morning, probably put it in my stocking as ds is insisting I have to have one too so Santa leaves me presents . That should hopefully stave off when the parents arrive with their morning sherry. Going to try and get out for a run too. Nice juices in for the day itself. The rest of day just try and remember how last year I was that pissed I slept through dd crying beside me and my parents had to get up with her as I heard nothing . How grim and anxious I felt the next day, really wanting a drink to take the edge off but not wanting to let on in front of everyone.

I have the best reason ever to stay sober Xmas day - driving my bloody mother home in the evening . she won't be happy but this year we don't have a spare bed as dd's bottom bunk has been turned into a flat play surface. Dreading the fall out when I tell her but too bloody bad

Just think biggles if you drink you will be stuck with her! A hangover and DM on the sofa!!

I remember one Christmas Day serving up dinner and being so drunk I could hardly see. It will be really odd not drinking at all on Christmas Day but I just don't need it.

Didn't even think about drinking today - it really does get easier past the 21 day mark. The ex from hell texted me today (cos it is his birthday!!) and that still didn't make me turn to drink. I would have used it as an excuse before, but it didn't cross my mind. Real progress being made.