My guts are dyed purple from the time I accidentally ordered 20 cans instead of 4 but goddamn its better for me than drinking.
Also coming up on 6 months at the start of May!
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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Oooph. Gonna just stream-of-consciousness type my thoughts here and not edit anything.
I did NOT want to stop originally. Didn't think I had a problem cause i wasn't starting any shit, wasnt hurting anyone, just got hammered and played video games mostly. I could easily admit to myself that doing that every night wasn't good for my body, and I was spending TONS of money on booze, but that was the only problem I saw initially.
My ex and my parents had a mini intervention, and since my ex and I had already split and they planned on moving in a few months, it was either "you're going to rehab or we're taking the corgi, what's it gonna be?"
I still tried to weasel my way out of quitting drinking for a while, but eventually...i don't remember if I caved, or what happened in my brain, but I shortly wound up in a state run rehab facility. I was there for a week, and it fucking SUCKED. That said, I warmed up pretty quick to group therapy and started taking sobriety seriously.
One of the most helpful things I did in there was fill a notebook with thoughts about how drinking impacted my life. Cannot recommend something like that enough, but you have to be honest with yourself. Still have that notebook, but fortunately i haven't felt the need to open it since leaving.
I also fully recognize that I'm lucky as fuck in that I didn't have any physical WD symptoms and didn't need to detox at all.
So yeah, I dunno. All i can tell you is that it (not drinking) isn't as bad as your mind makes it out to be. It sucks to give up something that makes you feel good, but i don't miss the hangovers, and once I start working again, maybe I'll actually be able to build up savings for the first time in my life.
Kind of a shotgun blast of thought here, but hope you find something helpful in this post! If you ever wanna chat more or want an accountability buddy, happy to keep talking!
(just relating my experience of gentle quitting, not saying there's one right way... That said, drinking does do damage to your body, and the directions you can go with quitting are varied, so exposing people to more examples...)
My day-to-day drinking massively reduced with Naltrexone, but now I find myself intensely bored a lot of the time, with occasional bouts of extreme stress when "something happens" (tm).
I have some signs of liver damage and gout! Sometimes I go on a bender if I can't poop and don't have anything else going on.
Given how severe I was, I'm surprised I didn't have any physical withdrawal symptoms but I reduced drinking pretty slowly. No rehab center. Group felt weird af to me.
My alcohol tolerance has also severely gone down.
I still drink, sometimes a beer or two at lunch, sometimes a bender because I feel backed up or stressed (obvs still a problem), but I'm nowhere near the 15 litres of goon a week (goon being cheap wine, the cheapest form of alcohol in Australia, it comes in a bag).
I am reminded of "Devil's triangle?" "Drinking game."
I remember tying a goon bag to a Hills hoist and spinning it around
ozs do be gooning
Hell yeah, keep up the good work! Thanks for sharing!