DRY 17

[Loubilou09]

[This message is actually from Sober Sarah! She wanted this thread to start with links everyone will find useful. MNHQ]

If you're quitting alcohol for a brighter sober future come and join us here. A very welcoming bunch supporting ebach other every step of the way. smile
We have put together some helpful info and links, to help you do this Smile tiredofthinkingaboutdrinking.com

Tired of thinking about drinking, Belle's website filled with free stuff as well as subscription courses and an account of her four years sober.

joinclubsoda.co.uk/ Club Soda - to help you make the change you want.
www.sobersassylife.com Sober Sassy Life - A Selection of Articles, Blogs and Freebies to get you unstuck, and on the way to your Sober Sassy Life! Also has paid for courses.
thesoberschool.com/ - an online hub with the mission of inspiring and supporting women who are tired of feeling hungover

www.blogtalkradio.com/bubblehour - podcasts on a huge range of issues relating to addiction and recovery

www.smartrecovery.org.uk/ - an alternative to AA. Meetings nationwide and online.

Useful meditation or relaxation apps
www.headspace.com Headspace for calming the brain chatter
www.withandrewjohnson.com Andrew Johnson stop drinking app
Helpful blogs from people who are sober
sothisissober.com/ our own vxa's blog
www.alcoholfree2016.com our own Lily's blog
www.alcoholfree2016.com our own Lucy's blog
www.sobergrowing/blogspot.co.uk our own Sober Sarah's blog

All of these blogs contain links to loads of other brilliant blogs.

Sobriety counters
meetnomo.com/index.html
www.pilanites.com/streaks/

Hope this helps you ! Love Sober Sarah and Vxa

I managed a dinner in a restaurant last night and was very pleased to see AF beer on the menu, so we both had that.

I was annoyed that he kept making jokes that I think are about me drinkng, like when I said my headache had gone later, he said 'it's probably cos of the 0.05% booze in the beer!'

Morning,

Busy here today too - busy is good...

Off to rugby at Murrayfield, and then a 3x50th birthday party... designated driver by choice, and a perfect 'excuse" to be on the fizzy water or elderflower presse!! Plenty of the attendees know me as the girl who can't hold her drink, so will be nice to be the sober one...

Hopefully the need to sleep all the time has passed and I'll make it to 1am... I'm not the best at staying up past my bedtime!!

Onwards...

Oh my everyone else is so busy, I in contrast am still lazing in bed

Ended up meeting friends last night. Seeing the states on the train was enough to put those thoughts of drinking away. Obviously not just drink with a lot of them.

Post more later, time for caffeine and maybe a tour round the shops. Have a good day all.

Morning ladies! I'm feeling better than I was yesterday. I completely understand kiki how you felt as I had a similar comment yesterday.

I tried some AF red wine last night and had 2 glasses. It was quite nice. DP asked whether it made it worse not having a 'real' drink as red wine was my poison of choice. Funnily it didn't, I didn't miss the alcohol at all. I also finally slept really well!

I think I'm ok with one day at a time, but part of me acknowledges that this needs to be a long term choice. I just don't want to face up to the enormity of that in case it sends me running for the bottle in panic.

Trying to keep DD and DSS quiet while DP has a sleep (night shift) and failing!!

Have a great Saturday everyone. Onwards!

Just checking in. Busy few days, in work so don't have time to read back sorry but hope everyone's doing well.
We've had a nightmare of a shift in work. Normally we would have been planning our staff drink for hours now. Day 10 and this is the first time I've really felt deprived. Telling myself how much easier tomorrow's shift will be.

Hi there everyone. Please may I join you?

I'm 41 days sober having just finished Hip Sobriety School. I've wanted to be AF for a very long time (decades) and half way through HSS / reading the Naked Mind something finally clicked.

It's a bit of a lonely journey though - DH drinks and pretty much all of my friends are drinkers unsurprisingly

There's an HSS online group for graduates which is fab but most of the members are US based. I'd love some UK sober 'friends'!

Hi New well done on 41 days sober that is an amazing achievement. I'm on Day 9 today and have to say I'm feeling so much better.

I went out yesterday for lunch with a friend who I haven't seen for 9 months and when we get together we always have loads of wine, yesterday I drank fizzy water whilst she drank a bottle of wine. I enjoyed it, didn't feel deprived and was happy that I could drive home. I amazed myself

Well hello, big milestone for me on Friday. St patrick's day sober - used to be a real go mad for booze day!

Happy so many are staying sober. Koko

Big welcome to you new. I've read Naked Mind too, it's a good book.

Well done Ruby that's an achievement and a half.

Hope today's better for you jenny

Me too user - Irish, I was dreading it to be honest. I did feel a little deprived for a while but smug when looking at fb yesterday, majority of people appeared to be dying with a hangover.

Met friends on Friday night and not one person realised the beer I was drinking was AF Did feel a pang on Saturday walking past the bars. Was out shopping by myself, the bar/gin palace we would frequent on nights out was only round the corner and I was so tempted. No-one will ever know thoughts playing through my head. Played the tape to the end and glad I didn't later as I had to pick up dc even though it was meant to be my night free. Bloody ex.

Today's plan is housework and maybe a take-away later for a change. Another weekend I can breathe a sigh of relief that it's in the bag.

Hi all, Day 7 for me AF, tough day yesterday as anniversary of my Mums death but only a few tears and no alcohol x Relaxing day planned cooking nice Sunday Roast and plan to watch films later. Hope everyone is ok and has a relatively stress free day xx

Morning,

AF free rugby and party, and happily so.... hearing stories from the group I was out with of a curry night a couple of weeks ago that sounded like carnage... I kinda felt sorry for them, as I can see the pattern they are spiralled into... felt a little sanctimonious which I didn't like, but I guess it's part of the process... nothing outwardly, just the inner monologue!!

Four weeks till my ultra marathon, so off shortly for 2hrs+ training session, hangover free, guilt free...

We're all so much stronger than we'll ever know....

Hi new and welcome. 41 days is brilliant! I'm on day 13 and have found this thread a massive help to me.
Relaxing day here too. We had a bake off with DD and DSS last night (chocolate shortbread vs ginger snaps). I was sipping on a becks blue (found new ones with lemon in - yummy). Was great fun. I'm feeling so much more part of my own life. Not living it through a fog anymore.

Roast pork for tea here and kids are going to the park after they've finished watching a DVD. We went swimming this morning. No hangover and more energy.

Happy Sunday all

Hi all.

I embarked on a massive tidy and sort out, which culminated in me deciding that the curtains in our ensuite and family bathrooms were rubbish and so I took myself off to buy new ones which I had installed before DH got back from his weekend away. Result!

But have been feeling really anxious about my health and how much damage I may have done to myself. I am still having aches and niggling pains in my liver area. Does anyone know how to go about a liver function test privately? My GP is pretty rubbish to be honest and I would prefer to avoid her until she retires- which is at the end of the year.

Otherwise all is okay here. :)

Who won the bakeoff Rarity ?

Welcome new. I love the Hip Sobriety website. :)

It sounds like everyone has had a great day!

Very impressed with the declutter Alice! I know what you mean about health issues. It's quite likely most of us will have a degree of fatty liver. However it should improve quite quickly. The liver is resilient fortunately. A lft shouldn't be that expensive and any local private clinic or hospital will do them. You will pay far more for the doctors time though .

I think chocolate shortbread was the winner. Ginger snaps had cloves in which made them taste very christmassy. I liked them! Kids didn't lol.

Have both of them in the bath and fingers crossed for an early night!

Happy sober Sunday everyone

Good job on the home decorating front Alice. Funny enough I had looked at private testing a few days ago, I'd rather my doctor didn't know. Seems to be easy enough to go about here and not too expensive either - getting up the nerve to actually do it a completely different matter. It's one thing I'm super paranoid about and have anxiety over since spending time in the liver ward visiting. I have read a fair few stories on support forums that show how remarkable the liver is at recovery however.

Hope you got your early night Rarity and the training went well BG

In bed already myself. Actually a really pleasant, calm, settled day despite doing housework. My mood has been woeful the last few weeks, nice to feel a bit more content and happier today. Was going to watch a movie in bed but took ages to get youngest to sleep as she apparently watched something with her dad that scared her. Now snuggled beside me so book it shall be instead. Bless her, she asked for meditation music to get to sleep - 2 minutes of it and she was zonked

Sleep well all.

Evening all.

Been reading up about AF beer, because strangely I still find it relaxing in. The evenings, and am not bothered about no alcohol content and it's been linked to better sleep and helping anxiety!
I slept for 11 hours last night and this seems to have shifted the utter exhaustion I was suffering from. 14 days AF

You could just ask for an overall health MOT? I am thinking about asking for a cholesterol check, it is worth asking?

Good afternoon all. I'm day 14 too kiki. Feels like an achievement! You have prompted me to look up AF drink benefits. Wine also retains its health benefits. Found an AF specialist shop in Manchester. They do a starter pack of 24 beers and 12 bottles of wine. But it is £117!! Interesting though and nice to see that AF is becoming more easily available even my local corner shop stocks it.

Hope everyone is having a fab day

Hi everyone.

Thanks all re the liver thing. I found myself thinking last night that having a glass of wine would take the edge off my anxieties about my liver worries.... ... I won't even try to unpick that insanity!

I was supposed to do a health MOT a few years back, but never booked in because I had problems getting an appointment. I have to go to the surgery next week for an asthma check so will gently ask the nurse practitioner then.

I might buy some Becks blue with lemon today. That sounds nice. :)

Have loads of work to do today and a stressful week ahead so am procrastinating nicely. :)

Have a great day everyone.:)

I didn't know that about the af beer kiki. I would need to get my own cholestorol checked, mine is usually fairly high. Genetic I think, dm's was horrendous pre-statins despite a good diet. Strokes/heart problems etc run through our family a lot. I'm avoiding the docs for the moment though, been down so much about my back I'm sick of the place and don't want them to think I'm sort of hypochondriac. I am but they don't need to know that

Suppose when you think of how much a bottle of wine usually costs it sounds about right Rarity. Would be awful if you didn't like them though.

I have had exactly the same thought Alice Total madness. Then I realised how horrific my anxiety would be the next day, like x10, and caught myself on.

I only started reading up because I was worried if I drank it, it would still be bad for my health!
It's got calories in it which you cannot ignore, and to be honest it's gassy so I cannot drink a lot of it anyway. I don't want to replace one thing with another I need to learn other coping methods. But that it had some benefits without the toxins reassured me a bit.

I honestly have noticed a reduction in my anxiety since going AF, and overall stress levels are down. Not drinkng itself is a certain stress, because I have taken away the thing I thought I needed, but the clear head makes it worthwhile.

My skin also seems better? Brighter? Less dry?

Also I started to tell people I am not drinkng anymore. My friend who I had not been a good friend to because she doesn't drink and basically no longer was a drinking buddy is always supportive anyway. Other people have just been a bit meh about it. No one has asked me why so I haven't had to say 'because I have a bad relationship with it!' Which is a relief

Work guy came in today, I tried to keep it all professional and gloss over the previous (drunken) flirting between us, I feel quite terrible about it although he does not at all.

Excellent at telling people kiki, amazing how we worry about telling people and think it will such a bigger deal than it actually is. I actually did have one of the school mums ask me why a few weeks ago, we had been talking about the weekend and going out but I glossed over it with an excuse. Somehow missed your 14 days so well done You too Rarity

That's good to know about the af beer, I only drink it a couple of times a week myself. Six pack easily lasts two weeks - never had that happen before I had three to fit in with the drinkers at the weekend and my stomach was seriously growling the rest of the night with wind

Time to read my book before bed, boysadear she's a stormy one out there tonight here. Good night all.

I drink the gf AF beer ambar. Its not gassy and very tasty

Hi there everyone. :)

I am going to try and find AF beer ambar today, Thanks for the recommendation. I realised this morning I have not had a sober treat for aaaaaaggges. Must. Rectify. Immediately.

Feeling bouncy this morning!

Good on you for telling people Kiki.

Onwards Sober Warriors!

I have to have gf stuff cos I'm caeliac