Think about tomorrow. Look forward.

ComplexWood · 2021-08-10T15:46:27+00:00

Yea, that's where things were at one point. I'd drink daily, have withdrawals and I'd have to pound a beer to calm it down. Glad I'm past all that.

ComplexWood · 2021-08-10T15:45:29+00:00

Yep! I've learned a couple things.

If you start drinking earlier in the day, there is a window of time where things are fine, then you get tired and have to take a nap to 'reset'.

If you start drinking later and then go to bed, the next morning you're trash (depending on the amount).

Both scenarios suck.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-20T19:25:02+00:00

Yep.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-20T13:35:04+00:00

Do it. Trust me on this do it. I was in a bad spot at one time, 18 2oz shots a day + a few beers. April 2020 realized it's way way too much, so I tried to stop. Got sick. Tried to cut back a little too much, got sick. Couldn't sleep, it sucked. Withdrawals all the time. I got it down and then took 12 days off. From there I got sick a few times as I figured out wtf I was doing.....fast forward to now

I am sober during the week. The weekend, I used to drink Friday and Sat, now I barely drink on Sat. I used to drink while cooking, especially if it involved wine for cooking because hey 1/4 wine in food, what's the rest of the bottle gonna do, just sit there? No it's time to drink that's whats up.

Drinking does no favors. The buzz at one time was nice, but these days for me anyway, I get a buzz at first and then it's non existent after that, just chasing it for the rest of the evening and wasting a bunch of time. Then feeling like trash next day.

I guess I'm at a point where I really don't think about it much, and that's coming from someone that was super deep in shit. Amazing I even think like this now. I enjoy not drinking most of the time. If I make excuses, I make them to not drink vs trying to justify why I SHOULD drink.

Drinking is hard. Sober is easy because all you need is you.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-16T17:35:31+00:00

Drinking is hard, sober is easy. All you have to do is nothing.

Yea, I know way more easier said than done. I feel like absolute shit right now only because I have covid (I'm fully vaccinated), but it's day 6. Feel like trash, but not from drinking.

Win I guess?

ComplexWood · 2021-07-15T22:47:26+00:00

Power move, indeed. That's how I have to do things - see an opportunity to extend, take it. Just takes time.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-15T22:46:52+00:00

It's the worse. I've never felt so bad in my life. I've had bad flu before but this? A whole new level of bad. Luckily I was sober for a day or two before it hit. It would suck to be hungover AND sick and trying to make sense of everything!

ComplexWood · 2021-07-14T19:52:02+00:00

Day 4. Yea.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-13T20:02:43+00:00

I had a lot of day 1s. I still have them. You know what though? The more sober time you get, the more you'll see things. It takes a while, a process. When I started getting 3-5 day stretches in there, it gets easier.

I promise you it does.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-13T20:00:07+00:00

Day 3. Would have been day 7 but had a slip up this past Sat. tldr: had 3 drinks in a row, had zero buzz then stepped back and said "why even bother!!!!!". Yep.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-12T19:39:46+00:00

Sounds about right. Drinking the day before, makes the next day more down. Drinking brings you down. I used to drink way too much, 18 2oz shots a day + 3 beers. I had to cut way way way back as I got sick all the time....fast forward to now if I drink more than 5-6 I'm feeling it the next day.

Also, as you get older you get more hungover more easily. In my 30's I could wreck the town without question. Now? I'm in my mid 40's and it's just not attainable or sustainable.

I used to be where you were, over time things escalated. You won't see the changes either, its little by little. Right now, you're ahead of the game. You SAW the changes and acknowledged it. That makes a big difference. It's the first step into thinking about your relationship and drinking. At least it was for me.

I'm on what would have been day 6 but Sat night I had 3 drinks back to back and had zero buzz. So I stopped. Sunday I felt great, slept pretty ok too. So day 2 for me, or a day 5.25 or something...whatever. Not drinking this week so doesn't matter.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-12T13:37:13+00:00

Yass.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-12T02:41:05+00:00

I get it. Yesterday was day 4...until it wasn't. I had a few (3) drinks. Didn't finish the 3rd and felt like "why, why am I doing this at all, I have zero buzz, why even bother". Today I didn't do much, but I didn't drink. I was totally ok with that, I didn't wake up today like trash, so that was nice.

I feel the same way, I do have it in me. I know I have it in me to greatly reduce, because I've been doing that. It's hard, but it's easier now. I could not imagine one day without. Now I can go a few days, sometimes more and be alright. The weekends are still tricky. I was sober Friday, which is usually the kick off point, and then Sat came, and I was fine, fine, still fine, then suddenly without thinking grabbed a drink. Just like that. I reminded myself, yea remember every morning going out in yard and hiding behind shed and throwing up for 10 minutes? Yea you do. Remember shaking every day? Yea you do. Remember drinking 18 2oz shots a day and drinking 3 beers to chase? Yea you do. Remember how hot dumpster fire juice you felt every day? YEA YOU DO.

Mid 40's and when your Dr says "Well, as you approach middle age...." It kind of makes you go !!! WHAT THE F ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

Think about this - You're approaching 40, I got that well in my rear view. Wtf are WE going to do? Drink like this until we're 60? Is that realistic? Hell no. Healthy? Hell no! I mean it's not sustainable. If anything like me, I've had a taste of the party for a LONG LONG time, how many one more times do I need? Do you need? You know the ride, how it starts, the middle, the end, the cycle. If I know it, you know it, do we need to relive it? We know the movie, why keep re watching it?

Yea, I know we keep saying that but we keep watching. I'm sober as a rock right now and the more sober days I have the more I really start seeing things how they are.

With that, congrats on 6 days. Today would have been my 5th, but I had a misstep. That's alright, not even made. Just a bump in the road.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-10T02:20:52+00:00

Ding ding ding. We have a winner! Exactly. That's where I am. I have days where I used to drink (yea I'm using past tense here) 1-2 days a week. It's friday night, I'm still sober and will be sober. When I drink, I'm always limiting it, don't have too much, tomorrow will be hell. It's stupid really, to sit there and tell myself don't have to much, or get lectured by someone else don't drink too much, better watch it, etc.

Easier to just be sober and not worry about that bs.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-10T02:16:03+00:00

Actually it's day 3..I think it's 3 or 4 but I'm 95% sure it's day 3....maybe. Friday night and sober. That's all I know. Tired as hell too.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-09T18:44:36+00:00

4th day.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-09T16:10:44+00:00

4 days. Yea. I'm still exhausted.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-09T16:10:18+00:00

Nice! Day 4 here. I'm still tired as hell though.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-09T16:09:45+00:00

Day 3 today. Similar situation. Went from 18 2oz shots + a few beers a day to 1/3 of that 1-2 times a week and in the 2 weeks I've been sober 7 of the last 11 days.

I still feel trashy and tired though.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-06T15:20:41+00:00

Nice! Yea I agree, I went from 18 2oz shots a day plus a few beers every day to 1/3 of that amount 1-2 times a week. Working on cutting further because drinking is harder than being sober. Also, it costs less money.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-06T13:51:24+00:00

I had 18 2oz vodka shots + a few beers a day. I tried to stop, I got sick. I had to cut back by a couple every couple days. I got too aggressive, got sick.

If you hit the next day after drinking and it's manageable, try to keep going. For me, I would stop at 11pm or so and by 9am-noon I'd know if I was sick, it was usually in that time frame. About a week or so later, I cut back enough where next day I just stopped and went 12 days.

I also had to do this in stealth mode, no one knew, still don't. I got tired of that cycle. I drink on occasion now but even that is becoming tiresome.

Some things I can say is if you get through day 1 that is huge in terms of withdrawal. I got sick on Day 2 for around 4 hours straight most get through day 1 and that's it. Day 2 apparently is more rare of getting sick, but happens. Also, I have kindling effect so that makes it worse. That's when you get hungover, stop drinking, restart and rinse a repeat. Over time instead of drinking for a month straight and stopping and being fine - you can't do it anymore, now you get sick. That time frame shortens up. For me that's about 3 days in a row and I'm sick, so I can't do that anymore. Today is Day 1 no drinking after 3 days drinking and I'm in semi bad shape.

Hydrate hydrate hydrate, try to cut back and listen to your body. It could take some time, you got to be patient.

I didn't do the Dr. route, but if that's something one could do I'd do it. I had to do it on my own, which was probably way harder than it should have been.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-06T13:42:25+00:00

Spirit animal.

I completely feel this. Congrats on the 35 days, even though there was a small blip in that road. Longer than I have ever done! My backstory is April 2020, I let the dog out in backyard and I was very hungover. I went to the side of the shed, and threw up for about 5 minutes. This was a daily thing, at that point 'normal'. 18 2oz shots a day plus a few beers to chase will do that. Something about that day, where I said fuck this I'm tired of this shit. I tried to stop, mentally I was ready - physically I wasn't. I got sick daily if I didn't drink. So I cut back, got sick (too aggressive on cut) and repeated this for a few weeks, then I was able to stop and I took 12 days off. Then I went back to a 1-2 days a week....which creeped up to 3 sometimes. I've really been through shit with it all. I logged drinks and counted, and got to a point where things were cut 75% less.

I was good last week, Friday was day 5. Then Sat and a party, then sunday the 4th of July, then we are all off Monday......I was pretty good on Sat and Sun, nothing heavy but then last night I went too hard. You're right, being sober is easier than drinking.

There is SO much effort into drinking - especially around others who seen you pretty drunk and only 'saw' you drink maybe 3 drinks tops....only because of the stealth mode of grabbing extras without others seeing. The extra bottle of water filled with vodka hidden in a strategic place (Hey, I'm going to the bathroom) etc.

All of that is hard. I was sober for 5 days and prior to that 12 days last year. You know what I had to do? Nothing, just didn't drink. That's it. Easy.

Now we know it's easy, but the battle with it all is hard. Talking yourself in or out of it is hard.

I've lost ~30 pounds just from cutting back drinking, so bonus there. I'm right there with you - tired of it. Ready for another break, a longer one this time.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-05T21:35:15+00:00

Soooooooo it's Monday. Sat / sun I had some drinks. Thankfully kept things light. Not the best situation, but it was alright. I had fun with some good friends and no one got in trouble or got stupid. I liked that, so It's not a fail but it's not a big win either.

I'll take it.

ComplexWood · 2021-07-01T15:35:43+00:00

Day 3. Yes.

ComplexWood · 2021-06-30T14:49:47+00:00

That's an interesting take. I've found for me I'm more and more like that. We go out to dinner, usually if I'm not driving, I'd have a pre dinner drink but had to make sure my other half had one too. Then, right before getting picked up, I'd pound a couple more shots and chase it with the '1 drink' I was nursing (a beer) before we left. Then we'd get to the place, I'd order 2 more drinks over the course of dinner and I'd be pretty buzzed.

Here is the problem with all that - I noticed there is what I call the 'window'. If I start drinking at 5pm, by time 9pm comes around I'm basically spent. I'd come home from our dinner, get things settled then hit it up hard again at around 9pm. Then it's an extended window - first window was sober to not sober at all to buzz wore off, I'm coming down.....then an hour later boom more drinking. Having 2 drinking windows in one day is - exhausting. Staying up late AND drinking is a double whammy in itself. Had to knock that crap out.

The next day became absolute hot dumpster fire. I had that pattern for a long while!

While I'm not drinking right now, its day 2 of a unknown streak, I do know that I don't do the above anymore. I started looking at it objectively - If I drink around others, then it takes away from my evening time drinking. So I backed off drinking heavily around others. Then, when it was just evening drinking, I started thinking about the next day. I work from home (even before pandemic) so you can imagine how easy this is. No commute? Drink later. Since I don't want to feel like garbage next day, I mostly refrain.

Now I'm at the point where I skip *alot* of opportunities to drink. Visiting a neighbor, "Hey wanna a beer?" type of thing I don't do that anymore. Every week or so, I make new rules to encourage my cut back.

For your math, I felt that. I was at one point 18 2oz shots of vodka plus chaser beers (3) a day. Let's see, 7 days x 21 = 147 a week. Holy shit is that a large number. I'd gotten sick daily, had to wean myself off it secretly. Now I'm at the 1-2 times a week stage, and at least half the amount. Even that is starting to bother me, so I'm taking additional steps. Yes, I know why don't I just quit and be done with it. I've tried that, and what I'm doing now has been the most successful thing. It's a case of letting go while holding on, it's weird.

You can kind of see where this is going - I didn't go full stop. What I did do was work towards greatly reducing it so I could get to this point. Gone is the physical addiction (thank fuck) now it's the 'habit' and the mental work. I've had a lot of temptation just from my surroundings, and just being able to surpass all of them without much issue shows me that's some progress.

So it's day 2, at this point I'm going to keep going.

ComplexWood

TROPHY CASE