Giving Up Alcohol: The Early Stages

If you are considering giving up drinking alcohol for any amount of time, chances are you already have a motivating reason.

Depending on your own circumstances, of course, these reasons can range from -

• dropping a bit of weight before embarking on a beach holiday
• Trying to rescue a relationship
• Become more productive
• Be more present for your family

My motivation came from a place of feeling just completely unhealthy.

I couldn't sleep properly, so I didn't have the energy to exercise, and I was on a downward spiral mentally and physically, such was the strength of the feeling of bad health within me.

Easy Going Early On

The first day of my drinkfree life was Thursday, 23rd February 2023.

I'd got to the end of my tether and just needed to stop.

We were on holiday in Cornwall. So I'd bought some Cornish cider cos when in Rome etc.

I had a couple when we arrived, but I felt unwell, and it later transpired I had a bacterial infection that required antibiotics to shift.

This was the last day I had an alcoholic drink, 23rd February 2023

The illness may have been a blessing in disguise, because the course of antibiotics required me not to drink.

As a stubborn man and a bit of an idiot, I rarely go to the doctors, so the drugs did work.

They worked an absolute charm, and I vividly remember feeling well for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.

It was in itself an addictive feeling.

I Stopped Treating Alcohol as a Reward

Life is hectic, work and kids' activities keep me busy enough that I didn't even think about having a drink Monday to Thursday

Friday was traditionally my drinking day; I'd have a few drinks as a reward for getting through another working week, and thus Friday would be the first major hurdle to get past.

The writer Will Durant once presented an Aristotle quote, thus:
"We are what we repeatedly do… therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit."

If you are a habitual drinker, you will get that feeling at a certain point, depending on how difficult things are for you.

Sure enough, I would get the feeling on a Friday and Saturday night.

The safest course of action to think of was:

• To stay out of the pub (in the early days, I'd have buckled).
• Go to bed early.

If I'm asleep, I'm not drinking alcohol.

It was tough repeating this in the early weeks, and for at least 6-8 weeks, that feeling was there. The devil on my shoulder would whisper in my ear on a Friday and Saturday evening, but I just had to stick to the plan.

Eventually, the feeling died down, and the whispers fell silent.

Drinking was a habit of mine, and I had to prove to myself that I had changed.

It Gets Easier With Time

I find that maintaining my sobriety gets easier with time. I can easily go into a pub environment with mates now and enjoy a Diet Coke, or maybe a Guinness Zero, without wanting to 'have a proper drink' even when the people around me are saying those actual words to me.

It'll be the person behind the bar saying that, I've never had that from my good friends, thankfully.

Take Advantage of Your Clear Head

My thing to do on a Saturday morning was to head to parkrun. Read any of my other blog posts, and you will already know that.

Getting outside early and seeing the sun introduce itself to a new day never fails to help me feel good.

Sometimes I need to remind myself of that; I do still sometimes fall down a YouTube rabbit hole on a Saturday morning when I could be out in the sunshine.

I'm not perfect, and we don't have to be.