The benefits of giving up alcohol

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32 contributors in last 30 days

Oscar the Grouch Jun 2020 9:45am, 14 Jun 2020 1,644 posts	0 Oscar the Grouch Welcome Chramies and Tracey. Good stuff, WP. I turned my social media off yesterday. I was spending too long on it and there was far too much division and hate being sown. Turns out that whilst the majority of people I know would like to build social capital, there's a minority in the 'I'm not a racist, but...' type camp. Let's not have that discussion here (that's why I turned it off), but what I would say is that me plus alcohol would probably have had a much stronger reaction. Let's all agree to spend more time spreading love and less time on our differences. We might find a way forward then.
mrs shanksi Jun 2020 9:46am, 14 Jun 2020 10,772 posts	0 mrs shanksi Welcome to the thread Tracey 😀 Great post WP. I'm in for today, have a good Sunday everyone.
Wombling Plodder (Welsh Womble) Jun 2020 10:03am, 14 Jun 2020 3,108 posts	0 Wombling Plodder (Welsh Womble) Welcome back Tracey and welcome to the thread. And Chramies Oscar - I took a break from a lot of FB posts at the start of C19 and have snoozed them again when they started popping up. That way I only get to read what I am interested in - there are a few pages / groups that I follow. It’s like anything addictive, at first I thought I might miss out on something but then found that it was mostly cr@p being posted.
Oscar the Grouch Jun 2020 10:06am, 14 Jun 2020 1,645 posts	0 Oscar the Grouch It most certainly is (crap mostly)
iaincr Jun 2020 10:32am, 14 Jun 2020 654 posts	0 iaincr Oscar, your mail reminds me of another benefit of no alcohol, no longer having to wake up with a hangover and wondering if I had said something embarrassing on social media. welcome tracey and charmies, Liking your thought process WP.
Big_G Jun 2020 10:51am, 14 Jun 2020 44 posts	0 Big_G Interested in knowing what people's strategies are for trying to counter any urge to drink, for those who are trying to abstain totally. I think in the first couple of months for me it was the "play it forward" strategy. I.E., just pausing for a minute and thinking what I would feel like the next day if I had a few drinks. Not necessarily being hungover as I rarely got drunk, but just the feeling of "what was the point of that?!". I think that strategy always worked for me in the first couple of months, so was just wondering what has worked for others. (I am new to this thread, so no doubt this has all been discussed a lot already, so apologies if that's the case. Doesn't hurt asking again though, I suppose).
mrs shanksi Jun 2020 11:04am, 14 Jun 2020 10,773 posts	0 mrs shanksi How I managed in the very early days was I ticked a calendar. Each day sober got a tick. It was pinned up in my kitchen where my family could see it. And if I was tempted to drink I would sit and think about all the bad things that happened when I got drunk. Including the next day anxiety with regards to social media.
Sigh Jun 2020 11:48am, 14 Jun 2020 6,643 posts	0 Sigh @Big_G, I was able to narrow down my urge to drink to specific times and settings, in my case it was any evening after about 9pm when watching a film or TV with my wife. It was to complement a nice evening, but I'd drink too much, then try and soak it up with food. I was never violent or antisocial with it, it was just over self-indulgence. Anyway, having narrowed it down, I'd then make a point of drinking something else at that time, usually a pint of a cold soft drink, and over time I no longer needed to do that. In the first year I found all the TV adverts for booze around Christmas were getting to me, so I watched less and read more. That was four months after stopping.
Big_G Jun 2020 11:54am, 14 Jun 2020 45 posts	0 Big_G Mrs S, good news the calendar helped for you. Sigh, interesting you say that about the adverts. One thing I did notice is that booze just seemed to be everywhere - happy hours, promotions in supermarkets, stepping foot in a restaurant and having the wine list thrust in your hand, social occasions, newspaper ads, characters in TV/fims etc. In the first couple of months that is one of things I remember most.
LindsD Jun 2020 12:51pm, 14 Jun 2020 37,905 posts	0 LindsD I just wanted to say to WP's post on the last page about dealing with difficult situations/ stress sober that I used to feel like when one of my parents got ill and/or died I would 'allow' myself to have a drink to 'cope', but luckily by the time it did happen that Dad got ill (2014, at the end of my first year not drinking) and then died (2017) I had realised that drink doesn't help you to cope with that stuff, but makes the coping infinitely harder. I have posted before about how OH helped me to cope with triggers by telling people around me that I didn't want to drink. I also found going to bed early/leaving places early was a great help in the early days.

About This Thread

Maintained by HappyG(rrr)

Looks as though this thread has become popular again, here in 2010 (it's now 2024, and it started in 2008, so I think "ever popular" might be more apt! :-)

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Good Luck everyone.

A recent plea for those struggling to "reach out" as they say in US of A!

"Anyone not feeling strong and confident, please shout out. Or fmail. Or any other comms that works. Don't drink alcohol when you don't want to, for lack of someone to talk to. Pick up the phone, not the bottle."

Some acronyms, in case people use them:
JFT - Just for today
ODAAT - One day at a time
KIS - Keep it simple
TBOGUA - The Benefits Of Giving Up Alcohol (the title of this thread!)

New feature: article/blog of the month (period may change randomly!) Swittle's wonderful 14,611 days blog: (see links below)

Linking Joopsy's 17 year blog too, cos it's awesome!

There is a GREAT article summarising some of the benefits, to save you having to trawl through the thread (includes links to helpful apps and other resources).

And a great list of Alternative Drinks started by the lovely LindsD:

Please add to these articles and make them as valuable as possible! Thanks! :-)

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And one from way back when...
Dirt Monkey's brilliant blog on TBOGUA too - go try this...

Rebel has recommended a couple of good books:
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
by Catherine Gray

The Alcohol Experiment: 30 Days to Take Control, Cut Down or Give Up For Good
by Annie Grace

A great response from a health professional in Ireland responding to a question from a Guardian reader about why the warnings on alcoholic drinks that are coming in:

theguardian.com

"Alcohol is responsible for at least 1,000 cancer cases every year in Ireland, with one in eight breast cancer cases arising from alcohol use. Even one to two drinks per day increases the risk of developing cancer, and that risk is the same whether those drinks are wine, spirits or beer. Unfortunately, there is a very low level of public awareness that alcohol has been classed as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is carcinogenic to humans. That is why Ireland has passed legislation that provides for health information labels on alcohol products, including warnings about cancer, liver disease and the danger of drinking in pregnancy. It is unsurprising that the alcohol industry, which promotes its products with carefully crafted myths of good times for all, is objecting to the mandatory provision of facts (Anger brews in Italy over Ireland’s plans for alcohol health warnings, 12 January).
Dr Sheila Gilheany
CEO, Alcohol Action Ireland
"

And the all important fabulous services:
Alcoholics Anonymous
National Helpline (FREE) 0800 9177 650
help@aamail.org

Al Anon
020 7403 0888

medal

Contact TBOGUA medal

We're adding in our own Fetch offer of one to one contact too, for anyone who doesn't want to post in the thread for whatever reason. Please feel free to fmail ANY of the names listed below.

- - - -
HappyG(rrr)
( Oscar the grouch RIP )
mrs shanksi
Derby Tup
iaincr
Love Lettuce
DocM
LindsD
GeneHunt59
GregP