Giving Up/Cutting Down Alcohol Thread Part 17

marahouti

Good afternoon.
I am 27/25 please cathybird. Thank you.
Still not sure whether I will have a drink tomorrow evening. The neighbour whose NYE party I'm going to has told me that she is providing plenty of AF options. She is aware that I no longer drink (at least not very often) so I think they are mainly for my benefit 🤔. If that's so I don't want to let her down. I could well have my first dry NYE for over 50 years😲! I'll report back next year. X

Coveredinbees!!!!

I'm still on 17, had too much to drink lastnight and feel awful, I suppose that is a good thing as before when I drank too much I didn't feel anything the next day.

Honey_Bear

Hi All, I hope you had a very happy Christmas and that you also have a wonderful new year.

I've popped back here to post about something that I wanted to run by you and see what you guys might think about it.  

On Christmas Eve we have carol singing in the communal garden, which started because we had a resident who is a musician, a really good one, professional, who also happens to be a great guy.  It was my idea, and because it's usually cold on Christmas Eve and he plays the trumpet, so cold hands on a cold brass instrument, I also suggested we had mulled wine - I have a great recipe for Gluwein which my parents made for 50 years and I've made for about 30.  Every yaer I've made a great vat of it, it all goes and everyone has a good time but no matter how much they drink no-one shows any sign of getting tiddley, so I assume most of the alcohol evaporates in the process of heating it, not to boiling point, but for a sustained period.

This year, for the first time, I had a couple of mugs of it, and very nice they were too, but I didn't feel light-headed or in the slighest bit as though I'd had a drink.  In the olden days two glasses of anything, and I have to stress I had two full mugs of gluwein, I'd have been very merry.

In the olden days, when I was drinking, I was also either on Prozac (for a couple of very, very stressful years which is when my drinking started being a problem) or laterly, St John's Wort - for 20 years.  I stopped taking it this summer when I was waiting for an operation after I broke my ankle.

On Christmas Day, late in the afternoon I had one glass of champagne which, again, didn't go to my head and then decided to have a glass of wine with my cheese.  It tasted very strong, very syrupy and didn't add anything to my life so I didn't bother with another one and haven't been particularly interested in drinking anything else since.  I absolutely do not intend to go back to drinking as part of my life, but I would like to be able to have a drink at Christmas, my birthday and Belovéd's birthday if he wants champagne to celebrate.

As usual, it is my intention to post again arournd the end of July when it will be my ninth anniversary of stopping, so at the very least I was going to mention this then, but I got to thinking about it and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on several aspect about this.

1.  Does anyone know if anti-depressants excerbate the effects of alcohol?  I always assumed they did but could never actually find out.  When anti-depressants are prescribed, like Prozac, the patient information leaflet is very clear that you shouldn't drink while taking them, but I'm pretty sure that quite a lot of people who are going through a stressful time who routinely drink probably keep doing so no matter what's prescribed, unless it actually makes you physically sick as I believe some anti-biotics do.  The same goes for St John's Wort - all the literature says not to drink while taking it, but I can't be the only person who ever did.  I started on it as an anti-depressant, and carried on with it as it also worked for me as an anti-anxiety medication.  I no longer feel the need for it but I used to get very merry after two glasses of wine, that I do know, while I was on them.  Has anyone come across anything similar?

2.  Was drinking on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day a really, really stupid thing to do after eight years off the booze, or was it a risk worth taking?  Is it safe to think I can have a couple of drinks occasionally or is a risk that would, or could, promote a cavalier attitude that will probably end in disaster?  I really, really don't want to go back to booze as part of my every day life but it would be nice, very occasionally, to be able to have a drink.

At this juncture I'm feeling very cautious about it and I thought of everyone on here who is full of commonsense and I thought, 'Hmm, why don't I run this by the people who might actually engage sensibly with it?'

RobM99

Hi all, 30/30 - Wahey and YeeHarrr! (Might have overdone that).

Did half a gig at a party last night, went OK except - the mains circuit the stage lighting was on had one of the &%@# sound limiters, they just cut power over a certain dB limit  - hence I lost half the stage lighting during the first song - the other half was on a different circuit along with amplification! Ah well, lesson learnt, it'll stand me in good stead, as they say.

No NYE gig - unless there's a cancellation! 

cathybird

December

7 days =

14 days =

21 days =

28 days =

Target reached =

Target beaten =

Entire month =

December targets

AllNightDiner 12/12

alt80 16/24 Arkers 11/TF cathybird 27/21 Coveredinbees 17/18 CuppaTea 12/TF dustydigger 24/25 happydenial 14/14 lantanna 17/15 leftatthetrafficlights 23/10 maggiem 4/10 maman 11/10 marahouti 27/25 PriceySOS 11/TF RobM99 30/30 satchmo1 21/20 Season of Mist 26/24 sukeyboo 12/10 sunshine raincloud 17/20 WBF 9/16 Newcomers welcome!

cathybird

hi Honey Bear , good to see you! Since you didn't feel any urge to drink afterwards, I'd say surely you're probably fine to drink three or so times a year on special occasions. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this but if you ever found the urge creeping up on you, the sensible thing to do would be cautious and stop drinking again altogether. But really that would be unlikely if you were only drinking three times a year! Re anti-depressants, yes they do interact with alcohol - I was briefly on Prozac about 20 years ago and the effect when I drank was noticeable (I was still drinking fairly unrestrainedly at that time). But perhaps it varies from person to person? ... I'm no expert. Anyway, lovely to hear from you xx

leftatthetrafficlights

23/10 for me today please @cathybird 😁 

maman

Hello @Honey_Bear, lovely to hear from you and Happy New Year to you and yours. 🤗

I'd just think of your brief foray with alcohol as like having sherry trifle or (my favourite 😋) cherry liqueurs and forget about it. I think the fact that you stopped at one wine probably means you don't really want to drink any more. You've been happy being AF so I'd stick with it. 

As for anti depressants - I take amitriptyline occasionally, prescribed as a muscle relaxant for back problems, and I think that's Al's o used as an antidepressant. I think the no alcohol thing is like the 'don't operate machinery' on some medication. It can make you more woozy.

'See' you in July, if not before. 😊

Season_of_Mist

26/24 for today please cathybird. I probably won’t drink anything tomorrow but I’ll leave it for now in case something changes my mind. Also tomorrow I need to count back on this thread to see how many occasions I’ve had alcohol this year, think it’s about 17 days but I’ll check. 

Great to hear from you HB and thanks for checking in on us. Your words of wisdom are much missed and are welcome at any time. I can’t say much about your first point, but I do remember reading somewhere that the reason they print those ‘do not drink’ warnings is more because it inhibits the function of the medication, rather than any particular side effects / exacerbation of the alcohol.

Your second point is more of a poser and has really made me think. I would say, that you are clearly very self-aware about drinking and the ease with which it can proliferate. If it is on your terms and on occasions of your choosing then I’d back you 100% to keep it within the boundaries you have set. 

The only word of caution I’d add is a quiet reminder over just how supremely effective alcohol seems to be at re-wiring the brain. It’s astonishing to witness the ease with which ‘two or three times a year on special occasions’ can become ‘…and on holidays’, ‘at the weekend’, ‘after a tough day’…and before we know where we are, it has become habitual. Again.

lantanna

Happy New Year everyone, I’m finishing Dec on 17/15 and I’m pleased with that. Going to see The Lion King today and will have a few but intend on being in bed before the bells tonight. See you on the other side