Who here has gone sober before?

best to not dwell on it, keep busy, hang out w/ nondrinking friends if possible.

sorry such obvious stuff.

you can do it.

This time I have the date for clambering clumsily off the wagon set, and it's only three weeks away!

drying out? i did it. shut myself off from the world and drug buddies and girlfriend and rented a room in a town where nobody knew me. amazing. was not the walking dead anymore.

highly recommended.

occassionally i fall off - a drink here, p.o.t. there, but i'm enjoying the control, where once there was complete lack, now there is utter control.

Six months later my boss flew me to California for a trade show. I hated working the shows, but I loved to travel, so I went. I was extremely nervous about this trip because my boss liked to party and we were flying in a guy our age from Hawaii to work the show with us. At this point I had managed to hold together thirty-one days without a drink, and I was terrified that I would give in to the temptation of being on an all-expenses-paid-trip in a fun city with two party animals. It had been very difficult for me to stay dry for thirty-one days; the obsession spoke to me every day.

I arrived late on a Friday and managed not to drink that night. The next morning at the show, I was offered the gift that changed my life. Our Hawaiian sales rep seemed frustrated; I thought he was disappointed that he hadn't managed to write an order for a couple he had just finished working with. I went over to console him. He said, no, his mood had nothing to do with the couple; instead, he explained that just this week he had lost his girlfriend, dropped out of school, lost his apartment, and also lost his full-time job. He added, "I'm an alcoholic. I've been sober for a year and a half, except I just drank again this past week. I'm a mess about it."

At that very instant, I heard one word in my head. The word was "now." I knew it meant, "Say something now!

To my amazement I spoke the words, "Mike, I think I'm one too." Mike's mood instantly changed. I recognize now it was hope. We started talking. Among other things, I told him I hadn't had a drink for about a month but didn't go to A.A. When he asked why I had avoided A.A., I told him it was because I didn't think I had hit bottom. Somehow he didn't laugh but said, "You hit bottom when you stop digging."
--Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th edition.

Tom, I don't know you or your relationship to drinking, so it would be presumptuous of me to tell you what your situation is or what you should do about it. I don't know if the passage I quoted speaks to you or not. But if it does, you're trying to do something very difficult, and you're trying to do it all alone. Steven Tyler once said, "Telling an addict to just say no is like telling a manic-depressive to cheer up." In effect, you're telling yourself to just say no. You might be able to do it, but you're allowed to ask for help, to go get treatment or join a support group. You don't have to be certain you're an alcoholic to get help in A.A. I've never heard of anyone being kicked out of a meeting for not being fucked-up enough. And if you don't like 12 Step programs, they're not the only game in town. I'm in a 12 Step program (not A.A.). The literature can be doctrinaire, but a lot of the people aren't. (I'm an atheist and I think the Serenity Prayer and its implied stoicism is bullshit, and I sometimes say so, and no one is allowed to shut me up.) The thing is, you don't have to do this thing all by yourself.

Thing is, at the two week point I'm having some trouble figuring out when and where these amazing health benefits are going to start kicking in. As far as I can tell I've traded in my enjoyment of several things I remember loving (music, reading, rock shows) for the golden opportunity to speak more quietly after 7pm. I have not gained any sort of 'early riser' superpowers and I am not necessarily a great deal more rational or energetic.

These are all nice little bonuses I expected to recieve that would help me along. I'm not binging on caffeine or any other stand-ins, either. I just feel like shit. Is this some subtle, evil withdrawal?

ARRGH. Fuck you, beer, with the stupid mind tricks.

Now this is starting to feel like concentrating on an injury. Enough of this self-pitying bullshit. Absurdism will save me.

I've been off the stuff since Halloween. It's been more than 10 years since I remember going more than a few days without imbibing, so I'm really just doing it to prove to myself that I can. And I'm definitely not going to miss the lost days sleeping in with a sledgehammer in my head, the vomiting, the embarrassing social moments.

Today I walked past a liquor store getting a delivery. There were cases and boxes of expensive wine and whisky on the sidewalk. I thought damn, this is a huge industry that makes some people happy and makes other people sad.

The distribution of drinking is really weird

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/10/how_much_alcohol_do_americans_drink_consumption_predicts_alcoholism_and.html

I don't think of myself as "sober" but I rarely drink twice in a month. Trying to think back, I had wine with dinner at a restaurant about a week ago, and then before that I can't remember the last drink I had. According to Slate I am around the median of U.S. drinkers.

For a couple years I was up to a fifth of vodka daily. Never a hangover (my aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 activity must be through the roof). I was so relieved to discover my liver AST and ALT numbers were in the normal range after a few years of near sobriety.

I need to sober up again soon, if not today. My wife told me when she came home from work last night that I smelled like booze. Like, coming out of my pores, I guess. All I really want to do is to be able to wind down with a beer after work, but just one beer isn't enough and after that it can really start to cascade.

exactly.

Thinking about going sober for the first time in my adult life. Not sure how I will do it. Social and personal pressures make it difficult. But I have a feeling I might be slightly allergic to alcohol - I often wake up on Sundays sneezing with a swollen face and I am trying to get to the bottom of it.

I've cut back pretty hard on drinking since about July. Prior to that I'd never gone more than 4 weeks without a drink since I was 15 (23 years) and that 4 weeks was only because I got arrested for public urination about 8 years ago and my wife made me do it.

I did 8 weeks no alcohol at first, then I had a couple of drinks a few times a few weeks apart, then another month off, since then I've had about 3 nights when I've drunk quite a lot but I didn't go over the line (have yet to establish exactly where the line is, but that's always been my problem). I'm still trying to keep it down so I abstained at the gig last night. Strangely feel slightly hungover today but that might just be sleep-related.

Anyway, it was pretty hard at first, especially the first couple of weeks, but I have been gradually slowing down on drinking for a few years now, so I didn't have too much in the way of withdrawal to deal with. Unfortunately once I start drinking even after all this time off I still want to carry on and drink more, but I've been more successful at keeping to a reasonable pace so I don't overdo it when I do that.

Of course I haven't actually technically been sober for any of this cos I smoke weed every day, but well, you can't have everything.

Thinking about going sober for the first time in my adult life. Not sure how I will do it. Social and personal pressures make it difficult. But I have a feeling I might be slightly allergic to alcohol - I often wake up on Sundays sneezing with a swollen face and I am trying to get to the bottom of it.

― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Thursday, November 20, 2014 7:27 AM (12 minutes ago)

i get this too. i like moderate drinking, but i can't deal with the stuffed nose and inflamed eyes that come with having more than 2 drinks.

i get this too. i like moderate drinking, but i can't deal with the stuffed nose and inflamed eyes that come with having more than 2 drinks.

― flatizza (harbl), Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:42 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you get this too? i mean, for years i thought it was a seasonal allergy but then i noticed it was mostly happening on Sundays, getting worse throughout the day and dropping by the evening. still not convinced it's alcohol (it could be something to do with doing laundry / cleaning products) as it sometimes happens after I haven't drunk anything, but I haven't spoken to anyone else who gets these symptoms too, so possibly?

yep. it's real. i googled it. recently went to a work conference where everyone gets drunk and of course i did and i wasn't even really hungover but my whole face was congested and eyes bright red when i woke up. it's been happening for a long time but took me a while to make the connection. i thought it was just IPA but the reason that is worse for me is the higher alcohol content rather than the hops, i've concluded.

wow. okay, i need to take a serious look at this. you're right, it's not even a hangover. sometimes it's so bad it feels like my brain is going to shut down.

Gunna try to dry out again

i decided not to drink for the month of april. it's been really great.

some good, more recent discussion here: This is a thread for ILXors ON THE WAGON (and for the Wagon Curious)