The hardest part about writing this blog after almost 8 months is that not drinking has now become part of my life so I don't really think about it anymore. Don't get me wrong, I've been tempted to have a drink from time to time but I don't think I was ever that serious.
I really like life without drinking. I don't see some of my friends as often as I used to but I still see them only now it's a better quality experience. I know some people in the family don't ask us out anymore to the pub which is a shame because I miss that.
I've got a holiday/wedding to go to in Cyprus in summer so that will be a new 'not drinking' experience. It's my brothers wedding and he's not invited me to the stag do. Since it's costing me £2000 to go, you'd think I'd get an invite to he stag party. Still Im being grown up about this and assuming it's because I'm not drinking so he's not inviting my for my own good, and not because his geeky brother embarrises him
I'm totally sure when this is over I'll be (almost) tea total...almost ;-)
Ps I'm on the iPhone so excuse the spelling
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
I've only been reading your blog for the last month but I thought I'd say well done for getting this far. I'm doing exactly the same as you and started on xmas day and so I reach three months this week. It's quite interesting to read about somebody who has been there already!
Matt, that's excellent. You should start a blog. I use mine as a diary to remind me of the journey. It's great to hear others in the same boat. Keep me posted!!
I do have a blog actually but so far I've only mentioned it once in there ( http://xtaz.co.uk/words/36 ). I'll probably mention something again later this week when I reach 4 months.
My experience so far seems to be different to you though as you appear to really be struggling against your urges. I had urges for the first couple of months but the last couple it's hardly crossed my mind. I'm not really thinking about it now and ordering a coke has just become second nature to me really. Because of that I'm actually tempted to drop it to 6 months rather than 12 as I kind of feel like I've already got what I wanted out of it, but I'm not going to make that decision just yet. And that's what I'm going to be gibbering about in my next blog post about this later this week.
I think its interesting what you say. I think our experience is following a similar path. Looking back at the blog I had no trouble for the first 6 months, and then I as I predicted (although it could be self fulfilling prophecy!) I started to struggle after the half way mark. The same thing happened when I gave up for a month...the first 2 weeks were fine and then I started thinking 'point proved' and wondered if I should do the next 2 weeks.
Like yourself I've started to wonder what I'm now achiveing by contunuing and I think the only reason I still am is that I've come this far and it would be a shame to give in with the finish line ahead...If nothing else it keeps me thinking! ;-)
I'll read your blog...its great to hear about other peoples experiences
Thanks
David
Now you put it like that I guess there are similarities. Interesting! Basically my main issue and reason for doing this is I'm an all or nothing drinker. If I have 1 or 2 then I feel the urge to have another 8 until I can't stand up. And to make it worse I quite often did this by myself at home. After unsuccessfully trying to cut down several times I found that the only thing that works is to go tee-total.
When I've done this in the past though I've usually gone for about 2 months and then started drinking again which is fine for a month or so until I realise I'm just back exactly where I was to begin with.
This time my plan was to go for long enough that I lost this addiction to getting drunk and could hopefully just have a couple of drinks without it spiralling out of control. I've now learnt how to make a pint of coke last over 2 hours and I'm hoping that translates into beer now after so long abstaining from it.
Right now after 4 months I do feel confident that I have lost that addictive behaviour and could probably drink again in much smaller quantities but yes, I am aware that the same thing that's always happened before happens again and I quickly go back to my old ways. So I still intend on carrying on as I want to be 100% sure before I touch alcohol again. I'm still aiming for 12 months but I am contemplating changing it to 6 depending on how I feel about it. Time will tell, but currently I am still in the frame of mind to go for the whole 12 as it's not just about sorting out my drinking now. It's also about the achievement of actually doing that!
And so ends the epic blog comment..... !
Post a Comment