Good morning, fellow sobernauts, IWNDWYT 😁!
We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we’re here together!
Welcome to the 24 hour pledge! I’m pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.
Maybe you’re new to c/stop drinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you’re like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you’ve been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.
It doesn’t matter if you’re still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, let’s not drink alcohol!
It’s just about 2am here. It’s been 3 years and 5 months since I quit! The thought of drinking still runs through my head everyday, but it’s diminished now from a constant urge to just a nagging little itch at the very back of my mind… Thankfully I have no actual desire to drink again or to go back to that lifestyle!
Thats huge! I’m in a similar boat as you. Especially with the way the world has been going, makes me really want a fucking drink. But also I have no desire for all the downsides again.
Finding ways to stay busy has been my lifesaver this whole time! I swear I’ve never had so many hobbies ever in my life lol
I feel you there! I’m a bass player and a big motivator for me to quit drinking was that I wanted to spend more time building a skill instead of mindlessly jamming while slugging back drinks. Still love to jam though, just without the drinks haha. Plus a good nights sleep is just unbeatable
What hobbies have you gotten into?
I’m a guitar player! I’ve noticed that things I thought were way beyond my skill level are way easier now that I’m not three drinks deep by the time I start playing lol! I also got really into cross stitch of all things and model building AND retro gaming! I’ve also been slowly learning how to fix things around my house that I’d let go to shit when I was drinking all the time lol it’s been quite an experience
Isn’t it crazy all the time that opens up when youre not catering to drinking desire? Plus as you said its much easier to grasp things on a technical level with my instrument. There’s still plenty of growing in me left to go, but its a work in progress. Glad to hear you found plenty of things to fill your time with. This is essential for staying sober, at least for me.
I want to be like you when I grow up
That’s wonderful congratulations!
Damn, well done on keeping sober!
I will not drink with you today!
friend of mine from AA told me to buy a black suit. I thought shit, yeah you’re right, I’ll make friends and lose them. so I tried mine on she still fits, and I realised my first use of it could have been for my own funeral, or another driver I could’ve killed. grateful to have a pulse, and that I didnt stop anyone elses.
sorry for the grim share but that’s part of the reality of this illness, iwndwyt. day 5. love yous
Nice job at day 5! You got this.
And I would say its positively grim. Still thinking of death but also acknowledging the harm youre not doing is positive still.
Starting at Day 1 again! A little frustrating for me personally, but it happens. I’m struggling to get sober this year, which is unusual as for the past few years I’ve done four months straight sober at the start of the year, and didn’t really struggle.
I think maybe this year there are some key differences: I’ve gone through a breakup late last year which is still on my mind, I’ve not got a solid end date to the sober streak to work towards (hoping it just goes indefinitely), and I’ve got social events scheduled for Wednesdays which always happen in pubs. I can see from my tracker that I’m always drinking on Wednesdays at the moment, so that’s definitely key.
I’ll get there, just got to redouble my efforts and maybe approach it a little more smartly. As a side note – has anybody else found that friends can be surprisingly malicious or unhelpful when you say you want to quit? I’ve had to argue that I’m worried about my own drinking with two very good friends this week! It’s so weird.
Anyway - happy Thursday all!! Hopefully the ends of your weeks are great whether you’re working or taking some time off! ✌️🫡 IWNDWYT!
Welcome back! The struggle is real and I think a lot of us can relate. I personally had so many tries at moderation and then day 1s when I tried to quit. The things you mentioned sound like hurdles that make the road more challenging, but not impossible.
And yes friends absolutely will argue with you. I was lucky to find a decent amount of support in friends and family but I’ve had others who have brushed it off. Then I had to explain to them that I was drinking straight vodka for breakfast and it was a problem. But it doesn’t have to get to that point for it to be a problem you can address either.
Yeah, I feel like for some people moderation is just not the right approach! I certainly can’t. Getting sober is certainly not impossible though, you’re right.
It’s crazy. That being said, I do remember before I even considered not drinking, years ago, that I would feel weird around people who said they weren’t drinking or were planning to get sober. It felt almost threatening, like it was making me think more critically about my drinking. Strange how it works!
If people ask me about moderating I just shrug and say “I’m basically lazy and moderating was hard work and who wants hard work on a Friday night?”
You know: setting rules about your drinking. Coming up with ways to break those rules. Feeling guilty for breaking the rules. All I have to do is “not drink alcohol”, rather than argue with myself over whether “it’s Tuesday” is a special enough occasion for me to have a glass of wine or not. Spoiler: it always was and now the bottle is open I might as well finish it.
You hit the nail right on the head. By interacting with people who are making changes for themselves, you have to confront the idea that maybe you should too. Then ego and doubt set in and you push that as far away as possible and continue on. I did this for years until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Even would be reading on forums like this one but then go drink anyways, but getting to read others experiences helped to plant the seed.
Yeah I was definitely having the exact same experiences before I started trying to go sober a few years ago! Still, it’s a learning process.
Yes I have a friend that says I just need to stick to one drink. And I need to practice??? He doesn’t understand that I can’t stop at one.
That’s wild. Telling you to practice drinking 😂
Literally can’t count the number of times I’ve been told “well maybe just moderate instead of abstaining!”
happy thursday, welcome back, congrats on just a lapse, not a relapse. for me one drink starts a fire I can’t put out. I told my friends this point blank and they were mostly understanding and supportive, people I drank drugged and grew up with.if they’re not on your team when it comes to substance abuse, they’re not your friends. hurts but you have friends here who want to see you crush day 2 and beyond. lots of love from australia, you’re never alone
Thanks 🫡 yeah I’m the same, as soon as I start drinking it just goes and goes.
You’re right about them not being friends. Just surprising really, I wasn’t expecting it from them! They were supportive last year, and the year before. Weird.
Thank you for the kind words!
IWNDWYT!
