Scared to Drink Alcohol Again After Hangover
You probably didn't expect an article near how to finish drinking alcohol when you signed up for articles about simplicity but stay with me.
Simplicity and sobriety have more in common than you think (and I'm non hither to convince you to cease drinking). Even if sobriety is not for you or you don't intend to stop drinking or you don't drinkable at all, I think you'll detect value here.
My relationship with booze
I've questioned my drinking, I've managed my drinking. I've enjoyed my drinking and I've hated my drinking. Clearly, booze took up a lot of space in my mind and my life — says the adult female who enjoys freeing upwards space in her mind and her life.
Long story short …
I started drinking when I was a teenager and didn't terminate until earlier this year. I (mostly) managed alcohol well except for a few times a year, often when traveling or getting together with friends or family unit when I didn't. I enjoyed drinking and occasionally I abused alcohol but I wasn't addicted to it. I could easily quit drinking for a month or more than at a time. The older I got the harder drinking became. Merely a little flake affected my sleeping and made me feel crappy the next day. I noticed it affected my moods more than too.
Here are vii other things I noticed when I stopped drinking.
The longer version …
Thinking almost quitting was difficult for me. Quitting wasn't. That isn't to diminish how hard it might be for anyone else. If you want to stop drinking but quitting seems difficult or even impossible, recollect that drinking probably feels difficult sometimes too. Nosotros tin do hard things (more recommendations on how below).
When I decided to take a intermission from drinking on January 20, 2019, I didn't know that weekend I'd had my last glass of vino, my last hangover and that I would cease a decades long journey of managing alcohol.
I wrote nearly my concerns about alcohol in 2011 and came to the conclusion that I wasn't addicted/didn't take a problem/wasn't an alcoholic. If I could go dorsum and send a bulletin to the me who wrote those words and idea those thoughts, I would have asked her, "Is that a good enough reason to keep drinking?" and "Is alcohol contributing to the full, salubrious, intentional life you say y'all want?"
For someone as concerned with health and wellbeing every bit I am, I'g surprised I didn't stop when I read this article virtually a study that shows there are no safe levels of alcohol. Information technology's literally a poison. Anyone who's experienced a hangover understands this. You experience poisoned because you are. I wanted to hold on to those stories near how one glass of wine a twenty-four hour period is good for you (and other stories I told myself near booze), but honestly, how oft did I ever have only one glass?
Quitting was easy but thinking virtually it was non
In my experience, the fear of stopping was much harder than actually stopping. The times I considered quitting, I close it downwards considering I couldn't imagine my future without booze. What would vacations wait like, or dinner with friends and family? What about holidays or other special occasions that I had e'er enthusiastically celebrated with champagne?
I was even worried that if I quit drinking it would alter the dynamic of my marriage. When we went out to dinner, we enjoyed wine. When we got together with friends and family we liked to drink. When we traveled to meet friends or went to the beach, we looked forrad to the booze infused celebrating and enjoying. When I quit, I didn't expect my husband to quit or ask him to quit. He didn't quit, but he inappreciably drinks at all anymore. I've asked him why and he says it'southward not fun to drink lone and he feels better not drinking. The truth is fifty-fifty though we usually had fun drinking together, we are much more continued now that nosotros aren't drinking.
I didn't really care what people would think
This is a benefit of making changes later in life. Most of the time when I recollect people are thinking securely well-nigh me they aren't so I've stopped letting what others may or may non think affect personal decisions I make about my life. Chances are, your relationship with booze is very personal. Mine was.
In that location are some things that are only your business organisation. Why you choose not to drink falls into this category. However, it's normal for people to think that when you aren't drinking alcohol, you lot have to tell everyone why. When you decline a drink, they may wonder, and often ask out loud one or more of the following questions …
- Are you lot pregnant?
- Don't you desire to have fun?
- Do yous have a problem with booze?
- Are you dieting?
- What's wrong with you?
People may button too (I like Melissa's recommendation shown nether #iv in this article). My sis told me when she stopped drinking, friends often asked, "Can't you but have one? Simply a sip? Just for the cheer or the toast?" Don't permit that discourage you lot. People want you to potable with them and then they feel better about their own drinking. Shouldn't we support each other in making healthy habit changes fifty-fifty when they challenge our own habits?
Why is it that when someone says they've quit smoking, or eating saccharide, or just about anything else, we gloat them, but when they tell usa they quit drinking, we question them?
How to answer when someone tells you they've stopped drinking:
- Well done!
- That's amazing!
- Tell me how I can support you!
How to stop drinking alcohol (or at least this is how I did information technology)
Equally I mentioned, I didn't seek out a recovery program. When I took a pause from drinking, I didn't call up I was washed for good. On January xx, 2022 I decided to stop drinking for a while. I didn't take a time frame in listen — but for a while. At the end of March, I went to Amsterdam and Paris. Information technology had never crossed my heed that I would go to Europe and not savor a drinking glass (or many glasses) of wine or champagne. But I didn't. Not because I couldn't, simply because I didn't want to.
After 100 days without alcohol, I started to consider what it would look like to never drink once again. That idea e'er scared me before but not this time. In fact, later hundreds of days of not drinking, I haven't craved or considered having a drink since I stopped. Not i time. I know it'due south not like that for everyone.
Hither are some of the things that have contributed to my simple sobriety
Minimalism. I've been simplifying my life since 2006. The changes I fabricated have dramatically changed how I alive, how I feel virtually myself, what I think virtually everything (even what I call back virtually my thoughts) and how I deal with the fright of change and uncertainty. I started my simplicity journey to alive well with multiple sclerosis just it's go then much more than that. For me, minimalism is removing the things that remove you lot from your life. Booze removed me from my life. So I removed information technology.
Transcendental Meditation. I've been meditating on and off for more than a decade. I've done guided meditation, mindfulness practices and other types of meditating. TM is dissimilar any other form of meditation I've ever washed. I meditate for 20 minutes twice a day and look forward to it. I started practicing in March and I believe information technology made it easier for me to end drinking booze.
Whole thirty. I've done several rounds of Whole 30 in the by giving up saccharide, grains, dairy, legumes and booze for 30 days at a time and it was sugar, not alcohol that I missed the virtually. That gave me some conviction when information technology was time to let become of drinking for expert. Maybe all of those times I craved a drink, I was really craving sugar.
Books. I've read lots of books in the addiction/sobriety genre merely the i that fabricated the biggest difference for me was This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Alter Your Life
Apps. Similar anything, the best apps to end drinking alcohol are the ones that piece of work best for you. I apply Nomo to keep track of how many days it's been since I stopped.
Social media. My Instagram feed is full of sober women who take inspired my sober curiosity. People like …
- @holly
- @thetemper
- @thesoberglow
- @laura_mckowen
- @thisnakedmind
Abiding inspiration. I'k open to inspiration about existence sober and staying sober. Fifty-fifty though it feels easy at present, I know that might change. Lately I've been inspired past this podcast episode by Kate Northrup and this commodity by Brené Chocolate-brown. I'k really looking forward to reading Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drinkable in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol by Holly Whitaker. Bex's article, Am I Drinking Likewise Much? got me thinking too.
Whenever I make a big change, I surround myself with like-hearted people (in real life and online) and this alter was no different.
My sister. My sister quit drinking almost a twelvemonth before I did and her journeying inspired me. She used to be one of my favorite people to beverage with and at present she is one of my favorite people to not drink with.
My thoughts on stopping (if you desire them)
You might be thinking, "I simply want to create a capsule wardrobe" and so I understand if this isn't your thing today.
I'1000 such a fan of the Sober Curious move because it's an invitation for whatever of united states who are interested in questioning our human relationship with booze without the secrecy, fear and guilt that has always been associated with such questioning. It'south permission to consider living differently without labeling ourselves.
Author and Sobriety Evangelist, Holly Whitaker says, "The label Alcoholic and the "disease" alcoholism confuses and muddies. It keeps us focused on a label and a construct and distracts usa from the Real problem at hand, which is our private relationship with booze. Nosotrosshould just be able to ask ourselves this simple question and honestly so:Does booze negatively bear on our lives? And if so should we take steps to address it? Without the fearfulness of having to have a new identity. Without the fear of having to accept that we might be dissimilar. Without the fear that we might take an incurable disease."
Hither's how I feel about the words alcoholic and alcoholism. If it serves you to use them, do. Information technology information technology doesn't, don't.
When it comes to sobriety, practice what is best for you
If you don't drink or you lot do drink and feel good nearly the role alcohol plays in your life, I love you, acquit on.
If you drink and are questioning the value drinking adds to your life, I honey y'all and recommend reading This Naked Heed
If you drink and know information technology's time to stop only retrieve it will be too difficult, I love you and encourage yous to seek help. What recovery looks similar for yous is upwards to you. Information technology looks dissimilar for everyone. A traditional approach like Alcoholics Anonymous might exist for you, or the Tempest Sobriety School may be a better fit. Hither'due south a dandy list of options to help with sobriety. There isn't i right style to do information technology. Detect your own style and don't ever feel like yous accept to explicate or defend information technology.
Quitting alcohol has simplified my life in many means and all the stories I told myself virtually how essential alcohol was in my life were lies.
You may not have expected an article virtually sobriety on a blog about simplicity but the connection between the 2 is undeniable. Life is simpler without alcohol.
Become your costless copy of The Simplicity Quick Start Guide: 25 Ways to Simplify Your Life in 10 Minutes or Less.
Source: https://bemorewithless.com/how-to-stop-drinking-alcohol/
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