I used to have problems with drinking and drugs in the past that I managed to overcome. I spent nearly a year sober before I started drinking again but I somehow was able to manage it all, like a ‘normal person’ would. Last year I did a dry January and this year I’m doing it as well. Spent my night drinking NA beers today and had a great time. They make some great NA beers these days and I honestly don’t see the point of drinking anymore.
This is a wonderful choice, and I wish you luck with your sobriety! You are losing nothing, while taking back years of your life, reducing your risk to all cancers by an insane margin, and saving a whole lot of money with how insanely expensive alcohol is.
If it might be any help, I would recommend buying a small stock of your favorite soda in their original forms (these can be easily found in most grocers, and they will be in glass bottles with Spanish on them as they are made in Latin America). Those bottles use the original formulas with five ingredients max depending on what soda it is (Usually Carbonated water, cane sugar, caramel for colour, phosphoric acid, caffeine), no nasty chemicals/corn syrup, and absurd amounts of sugar, while tasting leagues better then the American versions. Whenever I’ve ever felt like drinking, I’ll pop out an cold latin Fanta, and I almost always lose all desire to drink as the taste and carbonation hit the spot perfectly.
Yeah we have several Latin and Asian stores around here. They have all kinds of cool, unique stuff that often times tastes 100x better. I’ll see if I can find some nice soda’s. Also, we even have a soda brewery (?) in town. Perks of living in a big city 🤷
Booze is no good. Working at a grocery store, I’m constantly selling it and have felt a sort of peer pressure to resume drinking.
24 now. I did enough damage to my liver between 17-23 for three lifetimes lol. I’ve tried drinking since then and have had quite a few screwdrivers this past week, but it don’t hit the same. Feels more sad than anything.
Yeah I was in the same boat as you. People wouldn’t be able to tell right now but I used to be a party 7 days a week kind of guy and I spent my late teens early twenties drinking insane amount, doing all kinds of drugs and often times for days in a row without sleeping. And even though I can drink like a normal functional person right now I still get these weird urges from time to time, wanting to drink like an entire bottle of wine and then some more.
I enjoy a good and special glass of wine. I enjoy going to a vineyard while at holiday. I enjoy visiting a brewery from time to time. What I don’t enjoy is drinking the other 95% of the time because it makes me feel bloated, fucks up my sleeping and raises my anxietylevel. It does feel more sad indeed, especially if you think you need it to have fun.
Jesus, I could have written this! I’m still smoking dope though. Less than I used to but still I like to cut that out too. I feel great after a couple of weeks with no alcohol and it was surprisingly easy. The only problem is when I’m outside shopping or whatever, normally me and my wife would go for a few beers, now that we’re not doing that we don’t want to go anywhere and just drink tea or whatever, seems pointless and something we can just do at home. There’s a huge social aspect to drinking that can’t easily be replaced. I’ll stay off drinking for the forseeable, but not forever, and I don’t want to go back to drinking daily like I’d been doing since lockdown.
I feel like NA beers would really help people with that, but I guess it depends on where you live. Where I live there’s a huge beer culture and funnily enough that has not hindered the NA Beer development. It is actually thriving and one brewery is even saying NA beers make up like 25% of their sales. There are lots of good NA beer in every bar so you don’t have to drink a tea or a basic soda if you go out.
Like you said, maybe it’s not forever and I decide to have the occasional drink. Maybe I won’t, we’ll see. Good luck to you!
Best of luck to you, comrade
I should do that too
take the weed vape (bud not oils) pill, I use it on nights out and just drink (1) beer then some caffeine or soda afterwards, keeps me much more sociable (only works if you actually like weed)
Fantastic choice my friend! I just discovered the NA stuff as well too. Never tried it until a few days ago and I must say it is great to have since I had been missing the taste of beer since there isn’t anything that tastes like it. Anyway, good to see you here, sorry I’ve been incommunicado here on /c/sobriety , been a busy month, but I definitely aim to be on here a bit more and try to grow our humble little nook. Welcome to the sub ;)