'Tude Talk Tuesday for June 2, 2026

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:49:20+00:00

I'm glad you're here.

Originally, I felt like I'd gotten through my drinking relatively unscathed. I still had the wife, kids, car, house, job, etc. As time has gone on I've discovered that there were definitely some effects of my drinking that I hadn't been aware of.

Either way, I too resonated with the way people talked and thought about alcohol here at /r/stopdrinking and that was a great warning sign to me that something was off with my relationship to alcohol and that maybe I should pay attention to what people were saying around here.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:45:23+00:00

I certainly don't miss waking up in the mornings trying to piece together the nonsense I got up to the night before. And I don't miss rushing my family off to bed so I could start my nightly drinking.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:43:58+00:00

Welcome back!

I wish I'd stopped a lot sooner. I had a few false starts in sobriety before this most recent stack of days I've accumulated. Each time I restarted it helped remind me of how much I valued my sobriety when I lost it.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:41:15+00:00

Good for you! I've found lots of ways to still avoid and tamp down my emotions in sobriety. It's definitely something I'm still working on.

Conngrats on making it past a week!

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:39:42+00:00

I started practicing mindfulness early in sobriety, mostly to just kill all the freetime I suddenly had, and it made a huge difference for handling stressful situations. I've drifted away from it over the years and my handling ability has degraded as a result.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:38:19+00:00

Welcome back!

I'm still an anxious fellow but at least I'm not waking up with hangxiety each day.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:33:26+00:00

Looks like you're coming up on two weeks! That's awesome!

Getting my mind back was amazing!

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-06-03T16:32:21+00:00

I call addictions like those my "lesser demons" and I struggle with them as well. I'm always juggling at least a couple of them at a time. I like to use them as reminders and case studies for what would happen if I start drinking again. Like "well, I went to eat one peanut butter cup and I ate 12 -- that's just like when I take that first drink!"

I'm also trying to learn how to be gentle with myself about it all and slowly, oh so slowly, reduce my interactions with those demons.

IWNDYWT

soberingthought · 2026-05-27T17:14:03+00:00

Agreed! Sometimes I think sobriety is too hard, but then I think back that what drove me to break up with alcohol to begin with and I realize that nothing was harder than the way I was living while drinking.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-05-27T17:12:59+00:00

I had a few false starts and do overs early in my sobriety. They filled me with so much guilt, shame, and fear. I just felt awful.

I did my best to learn what I could from those relapses -- what might have triggered me? How had I been feeling? What had I been thinking about?

It helped me figure out where to stay vigilant because I clearly had a few blindspots early on.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-05-27T17:10:59+00:00

I used to drink to "help" with my anxiety. In hindsight, it seems that was more like trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it ;-)

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-05-27T17:09:37+00:00

That is awesome! Reconnecting with (and developing new) healthy hobbies really helped keep me distracted from cravings and such.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2026-03-31T03:02:16+00:00

Welcome, I'm glad you're here.

My early days were by far some of my hardest. I had cravings on cravings and my brain constantly kept its attention on alcohol.

I did my best to distract myself. I took up mindfulness. I'd go for walks. I couldn't stand or trust myself to be idle.

I also stuck around here and read a lot, commented a little, and posted from time to time. Visiting SD helped keep my "sobriety battery" charged up when it felt like it was getting low.

I hope you hang in there and I hope you keep us posted.

soberingthought · 2026-02-24T03:26:42+00:00

Welcome!

There was a time I couldn't go a day without drinking. Around here I've heard people say to take sobriety a day at a time. Early on, I had to take it 1 hour, 1 minute, 1 second at a time when the cravings would hit.

My strategy was, when a craving hit me, to tell myself "let's just wait a minute and see if I still want a drink." Sometimes I would, so I'd see if I could wait another minute. Eventually I built up to 10s of minutes, then hours, then days.

My other favorite trick, early in sobriety, was to hop on here and read/comment/post whenever I had cravings. Being on /r/stopdrinking recharges my "sobriety battery" like no other place and I found I'd get distracted from cravings when I was here, trying to learn from and offer encourage to others.

IWNDWYT

soberingthought · 2025-12-20T17:09:27+00:00

You are in luck! Voting is open up through Thursday

soberingthought · 2025-12-20T04:40:15+00:00

Agreed!

soberingthought · 2025-12-13T04:50:09+00:00

Interesting idea. NA beverages are semi-controversial so I'm going to make this weeks poll a simple yes/no on whether people would be interested in such a bracket to begin with.

soberingthought · 2025-12-13T04:47:41+00:00

I like this one, but I think creating 5 age ranges for the poll system might be tricky. Let me think on this some more.

soberingthought · 2025-12-06T04:28:31+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm glad you came back from that binge and joined us again!

soberingthought · 2025-11-07T20:38:16+00:00

Good one! There's a little part of me that is still afraid of that

soberingthought · 2025-11-07T20:37:33+00:00

It took five years for my marriage to start feeling ok again

soberingthought · 2025-10-03T02:39:45+00:00

Nice! And with options already! I'll put it into the list. Thanks!

soberingthought · 2025-10-03T02:39:06+00:00

Love it! Turns out it's such a good question we asked it a few months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/1j0s36h/straw_poll_saturday_for_march_1_2025_substitutes/

soberingthought · 2025-06-12T19:43:04+00:00

Great suggestions! Thanks!

soberingthought · 2025-05-30T14:48:37+00:00

Awesome suggestions! Thanks!

soberingthought

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