Cutting Down Alcohol Thread

cathybird

pollyanna24 wrote: »

On the flip side, I managed 19 for November and and up to 150 for the year (which was last year's total, so not bad with a whole month still go!).

Well done pollyanna!!! :T:T:T It's good to beat the previous year's total

CuppaTea

19 for November for me please

PriceySOS

24 for November please, thanks Happy with number of AFD's, now just need to deal with the number of units per non-AFD .....

fatrab

25/26 for November for me please!


Went for meal and drink yesterday, but woke up through the night with sore throat so think the wee one has passed it on to me!


Calling an early 1/1 for the weekend too as will not be drinking again until the 8th Dec.


Have a nice weekend

Honey_Bear

My USA cousin was asked by her doctor last week how much she drinks. 'At least two glasses of champagne a year!' she said.

GlendaSugarbean wrote: »

Xmas is a tricky time for drinking, I've given myself a few days' leeway but am thinking it would be much easier to not drink at all.

Sorry you're having a rough time at work.

I've found it's much easier not to drink at all, but there's there are two snags. Firstly, making the decision to give up completely feels very, very frightening to those of us who have a slightly unhealthy relationship with alcohol ('How will I celebrate birthdays / weddings / Christmas / high days and holidays?'), and secondly, 'How do I stay stopped?'

The first is quite straightforward in that we all know people who don't drink, they just didn't need to get to the point where they felt that had to stop. They manage to celebrate highdays and holidays perfectly happily, so we know we can too because we're not that different to most other people. The second kicks in on the evening of the first day, and then every day after that for a couple of months. After that, it gets slightly easier but the temptation is there to a certain extent but it lessens hugely after two months.

What no-one prepared me for was the 'How did I get myself into the position where I could no longer trust myself to do something that everyone else takes for granted?' and 'There is now something I'm not allowed to do that my own behaviour led to.' I was very ashamed of those two until I realised that the flip side of both of them is, 'I do have control over myself, after all. Wow! And I don't just think that, I have evidence that it's true!'

If you're seriously contemplating it, try Dry January and see how you feel after 31 days. It helps if you use one of the Aps. If you feel you can keep going for a bit think about February with a few other people who want to carry on. 60 days is the key turning point.

You certainly don't need to make a point of saying, 'I'm never, ever going to have a drink again.' I don't agree with much that AA pushes but I do believe they've got 'One day at a time' absolutely right.' I could drink, but I won't today is much healthier.

Season_of_Mist wrote: »

Having drank on just one day in Nov means that, with my three month total break in the summer and just four days in Oct, that I’ve drank on five occasions over the last five months.

December will be a challenge though and I really don’t know what sort of target to set; I can easily say no to any parties but it’s the family get-togethers that will be a challenge.

Five days in five months is amazing! Well done, you should be very proud of that. Family get-togethers, or just friends get-togethers that you can't say no to, weddings in particular, are dangerous, dangerous events for people that are cutting down or giving up. Knowing that means that you can prepare for them, as in, 'Me! I'll happily be the designated driver, thank you,' works every single time, and if it's people nagging you to drink when you don't want to, you can always lie through your teeth and tell them your doctor has prescribed something that means you can't drink. 'Don't worry, it's not contagious' tends to mean they don't ask follow up questions.

If your concern is that you just want a drink with everyone else and join in the fun, remind yourself that most arguments at Christmas are caused by mild disagreements, family undercurrents and waaaaay to much alcohol floating around.

If you want to avoid arguments - stay sober.

Arkers wrote: »

On the flip side I'm away overnight on Saturday with a group of girlfriends. I tend to try and avoid these types of social events like the plague. I have told myself to be sensible and drink accordingly.....so hopefully I'll try, but I know what I can be like. I'm becoming anxious about the whole thing, it's absolutely ridiculous at my age, but there we are.

Not ridiculous at all. For the last year or so of my drinking, I absolutely dreaded going out with friends because I knew I'd get pi**ed and I actually didn't want to. Still kept doing it though. It was such a relief when I read that if you want to stop drinking, it would be much easier to do so if you avoided all the situations in which it was likely that you would drink, at least for a few weeks.

I didn't tell very many people I was stopping, but I did make sure that 'Oh, no, I can't that night, I've already got something else on' became my stock answer to every single invitation, and I went to bed very early and read to stop myself watching TV and swilling red wine all evening, as I had been for years.

A couple of months later, I was back in circulation again, and no-one gave a jot I'd been MIA and was now sober. (I should be upset no-one cared I'd been MIA but I had bigger fish to fry, like growing up, taking control of my life and effectively re-inventing myself; one's ego gets buried doing all of that.)

It's now December, so I want to say this. Five years ago, my Christmas Day was this:

10.00 am get up, take two more ibuprophen to get rid of the last lingering headache from over-indulging on Christmas Eve, having shoved the turkey in the oven at 8.00 am, crunched the first two ibuprophen and gone back to bed.

10.30 am breakfast with Bucks Fizz, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs - in that order.

1.00 pm take the turkey out, load the car with it, the dog, and the presents and let OH drive to where we spent Christmas with friends, after he'd also had Bucks Fizz for breakfast, but less than me because someone (me) had to finish the bottle and he couldn't because he was driving.

1.20/30 pm Champagne and canapes, while someone else cooked all of the vegetables and nattered. It would take her two hours to cook the veg, during which time we'd all go on to wine when the champagne was finished.

3.30 pm-ish. Slow main meal, with copious amounts of more red wine, and including a cheese course at around 5.30/6.00 pm with a sweet white wine with the cheese.

7.00 pm. I'd go into the bathroom, throw up, tear my clothes off, and crawl into bed.

That was Christmas for about ten years. I don't miss it at all.

1/31 please, Shaggy.

cathybird

2018 Targets

= 50 days AF

= 100 days AF

= 150 days AF

= 200 days AF

= 250 days AF
= 300 days AF

= 350 days AF

= target achieved

= target beaten



Alcohol Free Days - end November

Arkers 216/TF
Barny1979 224/285
cathybird 280/260
FabRab 276/300
GreenKaren 105/100
Honey Bear 333/365
maggiem 68/150
Maman 154/TF
Pollyanna24 150/TF
Shaggy 183/249
SukeyBoo 155/150
WBF 80/150


Everyone welcome! It's never too late to join ...

cathybird

Honey Bear, do you know, the Christmas you've described sounds excessive, but in fact so many people do that on Christmas Day - start drinking really early and then keep right on doing it! I've done it myself more than once (think it can partly depend on who you spend the day with??)

Green_Karen

30/29 for Nov
5/5 SDC
2/2 Weekend challenge.

Thanks all and have a great December!

AnnieG

Hello
I'm drawing a line under November, I drank far more than I wanted to. I'm setting my target at 14 for December and chalking today up as a success!

I've managed to get a temp job at M&S for 4 week from next Sunday, it's not what I'd hoped to be doing but hopefully I'll be able to make enough to cover January's mortgage payment.

Haven't been on for a few days so am behind on the conversation, will try and catch up tonight but hope everyone is well.

GlendaSugarbean

Good luck with the job Annie

One day at a time HB . That description of Xmas day sounds very familiar!

2/25 so far for December