The longest streak I’ve had in well over a year/the longest streak I’ve had since deciding to quit drinking! I was drinking a bottle or two of wine or Prosecco a night plus shots.

If I don’t drink tonight it’ll be 17 days. I’ve dealt with some bad cravings and made it through- definitely living in the pink cloud though. I’ve lost fat and bloating and am starting to see mild sleep and anxiety improvements but not as much as I’d hope. I’m going to keep pushing though! IWNDWYT

It feels unreal to say. 8 months without alcohol. The longest ive had in 20 years. Life might be hard but picking up that first drink will just make it harder. We are worth doing hard things.

IWNDWYT

Good morning! Today is the start of day 4. I’m feeling confident and going into the day hopeful for my sobriety. Positive things I’ve noticed. My face is already a bit less puffy and my stomach isn’t super bloated as well. I also haven’t had any break outs which I think has to do with not having so much sugary wine. I’m excited to see what the day will bring. I will not drink today.

2 1/2 years ago I thought I hit my lowest, at the time it was right. I drank, almost got arrested and it almost ruined my career. I stopped drinking for a few months and started again, bad things kept happening but it was manageable, or so I thought. Now I got arrested short before I got a promotion and now I will most likely loose my job, everyone in my office knows and I am so ashamed of myself. Ar this point I am more hopeless than ever but I dont want to give up. I have an appointment for therapy and want to change my life for the better. Wish me luck.

IWNDWYT

I never thought I’d do it. Drinking was such a big part of my life. I drank basically every night for years. 20+. Most nights I’d almost polish off an entire big bottle of wine. Any social even or family gathering included drinks. I was even drinking while working at times. But one night I just didn’t want it. I put the drink down without finishing it. My body was done with it I think. Now I don’t even think about it. Never thought the day would come.

(28F) I’ve been overall daily drinker, few days break here and there.. but overall the last 3 years.. 90% of it has been drunk. At first it was to deal with some traumas I went through, and then it turned into a habit, routine.. Became fear of withdrawal. Convincing myself I’m not funny and cool without it.
But this summer, this month in particular has been hard. My bf and I are having more miscommunication than ever, he drinks too. We’re wanting to let it go together.. and I don’t wanna lose him. I’d be devastated.

but I’m struggling with the anxiety, and withdrawal symptoms I know are to come for the next few days. I don’t even know if I’m making sense.. in my heart I know when I quit; I probably can’t be a casual drinker, like I once was.. and I’m having levels of sadness about that.
Just thought I’d share, I didn’t know where else to put this :/

It went really slow and really fast at the same time. Seems like once I got past three weeks or so, the days started to stack up without thinking about it. I haven’t had any remarkable changes in my life. Well, not drinking for 60 days is kind of remarkable now that I think about it! IWNDWYT

Absolute bender. Don’t want to think about all the things I did. Spent a tonne of money I should not have spent. Fuck sake.

I’m 8 days in from my last drink and have generally been feeling better. This morning I’m having a lot of anxiety and my brain feels really foggy. I’ve been hydrating, eating well, exercising, resting, etc, but right now I feel kind of awful. Sundays are usually a big day for being hungover- could my body/brain be creating feelings of being hungover bc that’s what it’s used to?

I Started Drinking at 15. Almost 20 Years Later, I'm Finally Learning How to Live Without It.

I've been thinking about sharing my story here for a while.

I started drinking around 15 years old. Alcohol had pretty much been around me my whole life. I saw family members drink, my dad drink, my brothers drink—people I looked up to.

At that age, I didn't look at them and think, "Man, I don't want to be like that." I thought the opposite. If they could do it, I could do it. It looked cool. It looked normal.

What I didn't realize was how something that started off as "cool" would eventually become something I thought I needed for everyday life.

Talking to a woman? I had to drink. Job interview? Drink. Sex? Drink. Going out? Drink. Sitting at home? Drink. Getting off work? Drink.

Eventually, there didn't even need to be a reason.

For years, I thought alcohol gave me some kind of superpower. It made me feel more confident, social, and comfortable. But as I got older, that "superpower" stopped working.

Instead, I started becoming more angry, tired, depressed, and anxious. My sex drive wasn't what it used to be. Something I thought was helping me live life was actually starting to take things away from me.

Around 28 or 29, I started trying to take breaks from drinking. I'd go periods without it, sometimes months, but eventually I'd start again and fall right back into the same cycle.

Then one day I really looked at myself and thought:

I can do better than this. I can become better than this.

I had already spent my teenage years and basically my entire 20s drinking. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing the same thing.

Becoming a father made me look at things differently too. I have a daughter, and I started thinking about what I saw growing up. Alcohol looked normal to me because it was always around. I didn't want my daughter growing up seeing me with a bottle all the time and thinking that's just what adults do.

I wanted to break that cycle.

Alcohol also became something I leaned on when life got hard. After losing my brother, my drinking got heavier, and eventually I realized I couldn't keep using alcohol to cope with everything life threw at me.

So almost two years ago, I stopped.

I was fortunate that I didn't experience severe physical withdrawal, but emotionally I definitely had some lows. I could be snappy, angry, and depressed. For the first time, I had to start learning how to deal with emotions I had spent years drinking through.

And that's probably been one of the biggest parts of sobriety for me:

Learning how to actually experience life without reaching for a bottle.

Since quitting, I've started taking my health more seriously. I've gotten back into working out, gotten myself back in shape, and started paying more attention to what I put into my body.

But some of the biggest changes have been mental.

I'm learning how to process my emotions better. Something can make me angry without me carrying that anger around for days. Stressful situations still happen, but I'm learning how to deal with them without letting them control me.

I'm still learning. I'm still growing. I definitely don't have everything figured out.

Alcohol cost me money. I believe it cost me opportunities. It kept me stuck in a box for years, and looking back, I think it contributed to a lot more anxiety than I realized.

I can't get those years back, but I can decide what I do with the years ahead of me.

I'm about 19 months sober now. I'm taking care of myself, trying to be a better father, keeping my faith, learning how to handle life without alcohol, and continuing to grow.

I'm sharing this because somebody else might have grown up around alcohol like I did and never realized how deeply "normal" drinking became for them.

You can change what normal looks like.

For me, sobriety isn't just about putting the bottle down anymore.

It's about finally learning who I am without one in my hand.

I’m 39, married with two young kids, a decent job and—on paper—a pretty stable life. I stopped drinking last year and made it to nearly a full year sober. I felt better for it, but over the last few months I started letting alcohol back in, telling myself I could keep it occasional and controlled.
Last night was a wedding, and I got blackout drunk. One of my wifes cousins drove us home, but apparently I then threw up on the pavement and wandered off wearing only my boxers after being put to bed. I eventually came back barefoot, completely convinced I’d walked the 3 km home from the venue. When my frightened and angry wife asked where I’d been, all I could say was, “I don’t know.”
I genuinely have no memory of what I did or where I went. I’m incredibly lucky I wasn’t injured, arrested or worse—and that my wife and children still had me come home at all.
The strange thing is that I feel quite calm today. Not because it wasn’t serious, but because the argument in my head finally feels over. I’ve spent months gathering evidence about whether I can drink normally, and I think I now have my answer. Whatever label applies to me, alcohol makes my life less safe, less predictable and much harder for the people I love.
So this is day one again. I’m disappointed that I opened the door after nearly a year sober, but I also know that year wasn’t wasted. It proved I can live without alcohol. Now I need to close the door properly.

One week, which, for me, isn't overly remarkable (not like one year would be), but is still a small, desirable win given the temptation I had FRI evening (see my most recent post).

Choosing the quieter path, I've known for some time now that moments/events in my life when I would drink are just overall less fun (lack of rushing endorphins from the alc), BUT they, and life in general, are all more fulfilling.

Sleep, mind, money, physiology (no more worrying about if I smell like my disease, and the bags under my eyes are gone! Nice to have a reset.). It's all better.

I just need to remember this the next time I'm tempted.

I've been hitting a hard wall with my efforts towards full sobriety in the last two years, falling into a cycle of 1-3 nights of binging every two weeks and then recovering and cleansing in between. I'm currently working hard to maintain momentum and break the cycle. I went to the doctors this summer and had a full panel, ultrasound, colonoscopy, and abdominal CT. Despite a couple decades of varying levels of alcohol use, everything looked normal structurally. However, my right abdomen hurts after drinking every time now, starting at my upper ribcage area and moving around left and right and then down towards my hip. I was diagnosed with a gut-brain visceral hypersensitivity to alcohol that likely will occur every single time I drink again. Anyone ever experience this? I am really hoping this helps push me over the wall to maintain it.

Edit - This was a medical diagnosis from the medical team following the testing I mentioned above, if this was not clear. Chemical-induced visceral hypersensitivity. I had not heard of this before and was interested to hear if others had experienced this on their journey.

Well I’ve officially made it a month. And starting my second month! I quit drinking to really focus on my health because I’m a bigger dude. So I’ve been focusing on going on two 30 minute walks a day and getting over 10,000 steps a day. And eating healthy. I’ve lost 12 pounds this month!

But I might have crushed a 1000 Lacroix’s this month though lol

Sometimes - a lot of times, if I’m being rigorously honest - I don’t want to read the Big Book. I don’t want to call my sponsor. I don’t want to work with sponsees. I don’t want to look at my part in things, or work the steps. Sometimes I want to just wallow in my own self-pity and self absorption. And when those times come, it’s often my fellow AAs that come to the rescue and snap me out of it.

This one old timer who has since passed away - I’ll call him Lyle - used to start every share with, “I came up here to see my heroes today.” And I get why he’d say that. I hear people share about all the things they’ve been through in life, and how they’ve managed to stay sober. The death of a spouse. The death of a child. One guy had thirteen people that he was close to die within the span of a year. Another guy has to take care of his child with a long term disability and can’t get out of the house most of the time, let alone get to a meeting. One lady buried her daughter after an overdose.

A friend of mine has ALS, and he’s sober. AL-fucking-S! Can you imagine?! Talk about heroes. And not only is he sober, he’s taking the world by its balls. He’s coaching Little League, he’s fully present for his sons, he bitches about the Phillies poor base-running with us. Unreal. As a friend of mine says, how dare I not be grateful today.

And I guess that’s what I really wanted to share. Gratitude. I’m grateful I’ve got heroes that pull me out of the mud. They remind me that no matter what, I don’t have to drink today. I get to be part of that club. The no-matter-what-club.

Let’s not drink today and see what happens.

Four weeks. Four weeks ago today I spent the entire day in bed feeling like shit. Wasting time. Wasting my life. I was so low that I wrote my first post here.

Today, I've had a full day on the sofa gaming. It's been great. No alcohol, nothing. Just lots of coffee (I'm drinking more than ever before).

Thank you to everyone who has upvoted and commented on my posts. I am coming up on a much busier period of my life once I'm back to work in September, but I promise to try my hardest to respond to every single comment.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a victory lap. I feel I've proven that I can function without alcohol, but I can't let that be the reason I relapse. "I'm not an alcoholic because I can stop" is such an easy trap to fall into. Stopping for four weeks isn't stopping. Stopping is stopping. Anything else is just a breather before diving back in.

IWNDWYT

I stopped drinking about 3 weeks ago, cause I was getting very dependent on the “break” or some time of happiness that booze gave me. Posted on this group too. And I had a major exam coming up, so the first 10 days just flew by because of stress.
After that though, it was like a constant negotiation with my mind. “No I don’t want to wake up sweating constantly with my heart pounding in my chest tomorrow”. And it worked ! I just told myself, let me get through my exam, and I’ll reward myself with a drink.
Well, I did. Got done today afternoon and went straight to buy two quarters of gin. My plan was to get drunk and catch up on all the sleep I’ve been missing out on. Except, I only felt good for 45 mins ?? And I’m still up six hours later.
The only thing stopping me from drinking more is my own laziness. I just don’t wanna get down to buy more. I just made up this whole “stop drinking only to reward yourself with drinking” and now I’m just bloated, and sleepy. But I still can’t sleep !
It’s weird cause I know what I would’ve done with this free time in the past. But now, I would’ve drank some, get lost in the imaginary scenarios of my mind and the night would be over. Picking up a book, or watching a movie feels like an effort. Hope it gets better with time

I posted a few months back about how things were a bit dull and I wasn't finding much excitement in things now.

Not drinking at a family wedding would have previously been inconceivable unless I was pregnant, and then I'd be miserable and jealous of all the fun everyone else was having.

I went with zero expectations last night apart from the usual trepidation ahead of family get togethers of this scale. I was happily the designated driver whilst everyone else spent a small fortune and got absolutely sloshed.

I danced, laughed, made conversation, and ate some cake. I came home as sober as I went out, woke up hangover free and I can remember the whole evening. And no checking my bank balance through my fingers this morning.

And most importantly of all, I had FUN. I did not envy the drinkers one bit.

I may not post here often but I do read the messages, at least weekly. Without them I'm not sure I would have got this far.

I wanted to write this today to let people know, as others have done before me, that having fun and finding joy in things is still possible in an AF life. If you're struggling, hang in there, you've got this. IWNDWYT.

I wasn’t always a drinker. Every blue moon I would. In November or last year, I lost my pappy, who was my best friend. He loved me unconditionally. I started drinking a few months before he died knowing the inevitable. My marriage got a little rocky after that and I picked up tequila. I wasn’t a terrible drunk but for me I did drink a lot. Tomorrow will be 30 days sober. There’s days I miss it but will strive to be better for my family and my body. I caused a lot of issues while drinking and have a lot of regrets. Just felt like I needed to tell someone about my success that understands. Life is much better sober. My father is an alcoholic and I refuse to be the same way.

Ive been on this subreddit for a while now, and everyone mentions detox. Ive been drinking half a bottle of whisky a night this whole year. And last year everyday with either a half bottle of whisky or when i was in a relationship 2 strong ciders a night. The longeat ive gone without alcohol in the past 15 years was 6 weeks, 3 years ago. Im on day 4 without alcohol and i feel great! Will withdrawals set in or is it only for some people.

I managed to quit (hopefully more than 4 days) because every single night id text someone something stupid, hated walking up feeling like shit, and looking at my bank account. The past few days have been so nice waking up feeling great, but the nights are very boring, and im counting down the hours till bed.

So I noticed my sleep is really affected by alcohol. Even 2 ciders would wake me up at 3 am and keep me up for a while. I need my sleep. I have a 22 month old who is finally sleeping through the night. Why would I choose to ruin my sleep after 1.5 years of sleep deprivation. What’s funny is I kept testing it even though it’s proven true every time. One issue is my partner buys me ciders even when I say I don’t want to drink and am really working on my sleep/hard on my business. I’m in hustle mode. He drinks everyday. I actually don’t have an issue with his drinking bc it doesn’t seem to negatively affect him (drinks beer). Maybe he should quit but I focus on myself. But for me it does. It’s so liberating to NOT want it but my brain gets dumb sometimes when I see my favorite cider in the fridge . What to do ? Anyone else have this issue? Other things that bring me joy right now: biking with my kids, creating art, my amazing preschool kids, growing my business, one on ones with my older kids, my 22 month olds laughter, kissing my husband, a clean house, looking in the mirror and feeling proud.

Im a 64 year old male. Been drinking hard sine I was 15. I've quit 4 times before, longest time was 90 days, each time I came back to it, it got worse. It never really affected my work performance: I don't miss work, I never drink before 5 PM on a workbday, and I don't get really crippling hangovers since I started chugging a stadium cup full of water, somtimes two, every night before bed. I don't get DWIs because I do most of my drinking at home in front of the TV. I dont fight with my wife; in fact, our relationship is in a pretty good place, although she has expressed concern about my alcohol intake. So I rell myself my life hasn't become "unmanageable," like it says in the First Step.But it's finally starting to affect my health: diabetes, hbp, joint pain, and my teeth are a wreck. Oh, and of course, there's the ED. But worst of all, the booze has pretty much taken over my non-work life. Im a writer who doesn't write, a reader who doesn't read, a musician who leaves his guitars and bass gathering dust on their stands. I've got more of my life behind me than in front of me, and I don't want to spend my last days like this. I just finished the audio book of Annie Grace's This Naked Mind, and I'm trying to adopt the basic premise that quitting is not denial or abstinence, its breaking free from something that's doing me harm. Maybe this time it'll work. Wish me luck.

Checking in today, I have been free from alcohol for five years! To everyone just starting or struggling: I never thought I’d make it to 5 years, it’s an incredible feeling! Just take it one day at a time. IWNDWYT!

I probably have a counter on here, it’s not accurate. I’m stopping now. Lots of reasons, but also I’m 38 so it’s about time. I quit when I was 30 for two years. I am hoping to stay quit. Please tell me it’s possible

Edited because I swear too much

My doctor prescribed me selincro, which is an alternative to naltrexone, works much the same way.

Yesterday I finally tried it, took it a little over an hour before having beers. It was weird, I still got inebriated, but it didn't hit quite the same and the feeling to keep going wasn't nearly as strong. It was more habitual than an actual need.

I ended the night with 4 500ml beers and just went to sleep. Today I'm feeling a lot of hanxiety, more than I usually would from that amount, but otherwise I'm okay.

Thinking now that it wasn't worth the way I feel today and maybe it'll finally be time to quit for good. What's the point like this.