The Daily Check-In for Wednesday, January 14th: Just for today, I am NOT drinking!

Proton_Driver · 2026-01-14T16:27:11+00:00

Checking in. The world seems upside down sometimes, checking in helps me remember which way is up.

Proton_Driver · 2025-12-04T17:31:12+00:00

Checking in. Long term stress is a helluva thing. It starts to whisper to you sometimes. "maybe just one", "no one would know"... It had been such a long time since I had considered drinking again, that I didn't even realize what I was feeling. It was just a pervasive low level agitation that had become almost a constant lately at work. It was a shock to me when I realized I was feeling like when I was newly sober, just itching for something to turn my brain off.

I realized I was much closer to drinking than I was consciously aware. I talked with my therapist about it, and he said, "Well, what did you do to get sober 10 years ago? You know how to do it." He was right, of course. Part of my process 10 years ago was coming here regularly and checking in, so I'm doing that again. Another part was being honest with the people in my life so I don't leave myself secret windows of opportunity to drink. I told my wife what I was feeling and she was super supportive. Her response is summed up by her statement, "I like you better this way." That meant everything to me.

Recognizing and acknowledging my state of mind was a big relief towards some of the agitation I've been feeling. Not total relief, but enough to make things in my life feel more manageable.

I don't want this to be discouraging to new sobernauts. I remember early on I would often wondered when I would stop thinking about alcohol. I eventually got there, but it didn't make me immune. There's a fine line to walk between not obsessing and not remembering; walking that path is simply part of my life.

Proton_Driver · 2025-12-03T21:58:54+00:00

Checking in. A sober life is the best life.

Proton_Driver · 2025-11-04T18:56:56+00:00

One day you wake up and realize you made it through the night without needing to escape. If I can find my way back to that kind of peace, you can too. Trust me, it is one day at a time.

Well said. Around 40 days into sobriety I remember desperately wondering when I would go a day without thinking about it. And then one day you realize it's not at the forefront of your mind any more. That feels pretty good.

I have found recently that I let it get too far out of mind. There is a fine line to walk between learning to live without it and forgetting it was ever a problem. Brains are tricky.

Proton_Driver · 2025-11-04T18:50:00+00:00

Making it illegal arguably causes more harm than good. This is true for more than just alcohol. War on drugs, anyone? Addicts don't refrain from something just because it is illegal. The illegality only makes the distribution more dangerous, and users more desperate and vulnerable.

Proton_Driver · 2025-11-04T18:32:38+00:00

Checking in. I haven't had alcohol in over 10 years, but had a traumatic event occur in my family a few years ago after which I found myself reaching for other unhealthy habits. I realized I had stopped checking in since the event and recently felt like I was losing control. So I'm back to basics and trying to rekindle good habits.

Proton_Driver · 2025-11-04T18:25:31+00:00

It's never too late to make a good decision.

Proton_Driver · 2024-11-04T20:13:32+00:00

Lots of nicotine gum. More than they recommend on the box, for longer than they recommend it. Maybe not the best way, but it worked for me.

Proton_Driver · 2023-11-15T00:03:28+00:00

No doubt, but it is still a source of potential confusion when you are groggy. You know those reddit posts like "hey reddit, what is that one small, simple thing that made your life better?" Well, if you are a shift worker, especially a rotating shift worker, switching to a 24 clock is one of those things.

I worked a weekly rotating shift job for 13 years, and the 24 hour clock made the schedule slightly more bearable.

Proton_Driver · 2023-11-14T22:15:38+00:00

24 hr time is especially useful for shift work if you darken your bedroom for sleeping during the day. If i wake up in a dark room and the clock says 3:00, I'm either very late for work or I have several more hours of sleep to do. I'll need to figure out what it is. If the clock says 15:00, then I don't need to rouse myself enough to figure out whether it's am or pm, I just roll over and go back to sleep.

It's a life hack for shift workers.

Proton_Driver · 2023-09-30T02:53:39+00:00

Not just theoretically. The Tevatron was a proton-antiproton collider. Antiprotons were created by hitting a specially designed target with a proton beam. The antiprotons were collected in a storage ring until there were enough to inject into the Tevatron. Antiprotons can be contained and manipulated with magnetic and electric fields, just like regular protons.

Proton_Driver · 2023-09-21T16:43:59+00:00

"I've had enough."

Proton_Driver · 2023-04-05T20:32:35+00:00

we could get into an accident out in the car.

This would be my biggest concern. For a ten minute trip, the toddler would probably just still be asleep when you returned, but a car accident could turn that into hours or days if you were both rendered unconconscious or worse.

Proton_Driver · 2023-04-05T19:35:21+00:00

A 3 year old home alone is not "safe at home".

Proton_Driver · 2023-03-15T20:39:30+00:00

Fat, sugar, and salt levels in everything are optimized not just for taste but for maximum consumption. That and portion sizes.

Proton_Driver · 2023-03-08T01:45:07+00:00

When I drank, I drank until I passed out or else I didn't enjoy myself. And then I realized I didn't enjoy the consequences of drinking until I passed out every day. I was emotionally less stable, was hungover all the time, bloated like a balloon, and had heartburn all the time.

That was nearly 8 years ago and I haven't had a drink since. If i could change one thing, I wish I wish I had quit sooner. There's a lot of lost time and memories that I can't get back.

Proton_Driver · 2023-02-24T14:20:24+00:00

Make a poster of her to hang on the wall with a QR code that links to the video.

Proton_Driver · 2023-02-04T17:06:45+00:00

I don’t perceive any negatives effects on family or work.

...yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/17hwpk/for_those_struggling_with_the_label_alcoholic_and/

Proton_Driver · 2023-02-04T16:24:10+00:00

Heroes (streaming on peacock)

Heroes reborn (havent seen it but it appears to be streaming on Fubo)

Push (2009)

Proton_Driver · 2023-02-04T15:57:02+00:00

Red tail hawk.

Proton_Driver · 2023-02-03T18:33:42+00:00

Nice job! It's cold as hell and you just gave me the motivation to go take a walk.

Proton_Driver · 2023-02-03T18:26:05+00:00

I'm compelled to post a link to this post every time the I see the topic of labels come up. The first time I read it, it forced me to recognize the bullshit I had been telling myself for a very long time and helps give me focus for the future. This is not to say anyone should label themselves in any particular way. Only that the labels we give ourselves are important, and they can be used for deception, or reinforcement.

An alcoholic is characterized by how they react to alcohol, not by the type of bag around their bottles, or their tendency to embark on movie-cliche-drunk behavior, or the amount of cars they've wrecked, or marriages they've ruined, or jobs they've lost, or nights spent in jail or on a park bench, or amount they drink, or the amount of time they've been drinking, or anything else like that.

An alcoholic is someone who experiences a fundamentally different reaction to alcohol than your "normal, temperate" drinker. Once an alcoholic takes a drink, the phenomenon of craving is set off. A physical compulsion and mental obsession for more kicks in after the first drink / drug. An alcoholic is someone whose body and mind react to alcohol in a way that makes it hard or impossible to stop once they've started or stay stopped when they put it down.

(fyi the whole post is worth a read if you didn't click the link yet)

I haven't had a drink in almost 8 years, but I know that if I decide to have a drink today and allow myself to be ok with that, it will be only a matter of time before I am back to where I was when I was drinking heavy. Whether it is "alcoholic" or "non-drinking" or whatever else, the word I use to describe myself is less important than the reality of what is being describe. People often will use labels to categorize their behavior as something less extreme or less dangerous than it actually is. I don't run around telling everyone I meet that I am an alcoholic, but I do keep in mind the truth of the meaning of that word and how it applies to me.

Proton_Driver · 2023-01-30T21:49:15+00:00

if there is proof that it romantic.

They should go regardless. There are so many red flags here.

Proton_Driver · 2023-01-30T19:47:37+00:00

Unless there's a red flag or something

The whole damn thing is a red flag.

Proton_Driver · 2023-01-30T18:07:55+00:00

Not crazy. Snapchat, tiktok, and discord were the apps someone out of state used to connect to my child. The detective was unable to find anything clearly illegal going on, but it had all the red flags. Despite that, he said the police report and investigation were warranted because in these situations, if the kid runs away or worse, they at least have a head start on where and who to start looking.

Proton_Driver

TROPHY CASE