How many days are you free from booze?

Great going Worztron.

How are you doing with this igCorcaigh? When your health is being threatened in the way you suggest, including liver signals, I’d be wanting to see myself able to to seriously limit my drinking, or stop altogether. For me the latter was much easier than I thought, even though I was very fond of it.

I was never really into the AA thing.

In my opinion three in nine days isn't enough though.

I rarely missed a day in my first few months of my final departure from booze.

I traveled many miles to get to meetings, which might sound odd, when I actually found a lot of their stuff difficult to swallow, and one or two members well worth avoiding. I bought into a lot of it though even getting the "big book" and the twelve steps.

I never had a sponsor or went to their main functions and never volunteered for anything other than doing the washing up.

It worked though, for more than ten years and I don't go to meetings at all now and have not done so for years either.

Just passed 9 years on NYE. I stopped at 36, a good age to stop. The giddiness which led to the fun times was disappearing rapidly due to age, the hangovers were getting worse. I was also doing far stupider sh!t drunk at 36 than I was drunk at 18.

I didn't just suddenly stop one day and everything was kittens and rainbows. In the 18 months before that I did two 4.5 month sober stints, then back drinking before it all finally clicked.

So glad I quit when I did. In my experience I think drinking as you get older is pretty much a scam. There is no possible way you are having fun like you were when you were 18.

Just stop. Which is simple but it's not easy. But never quit quitting, if you fall off the wagon then get back on. Eventually the sober life will become your routine.

You never fail if you keep trying. 6 months off it and got through Christmas no problem, glad to have that muck out of my life as it turned me into a selfish arsehole

Yes, it can be a complicated road to sobriety in terms of sober stints, can be hard to explain to people.

In the last 22 years, this is my fourth stint that exceeded a year and it is now my second longest stint. I would have done a fair few, say, 6 or ten week stints also. All pointing towards the fact that I really don't want to drink.

I am certain this is my final attempt, I will pass the 2.5 year mark (my longest stint) in April and just continue no big deal.

For me it was a case of whittling down reasons to drink to zero.

My last hurdle was drinking with particular friends and that's what stopped my last sober stint.

Cue a few more years of sort of regular drinking, bit of stinting.

Then I don't know what happened, something clicked, I realised I could be out with friends and have the crack with something non alcoholic and also know when to go home, seemed like a win-win. It's actually like a superpower, in social situations.

This sound familiar to anyone?

3rd sober Xmas over, easy enough just found it boring. Glad for the new year, well done all.

426 days 1st attempt 2023 / 2024
323 days and counting 2nd attempt

15 months booze free. I’m at a stage in life where I’m not doing a huge amount of pub socialising anyway and have a lot of family commitments, but for the times I have been out, there’s been a mixed reaction. I couldn’t care less now, and I strangely enjoy having a bit of craic as people get tipsy while I’m sober - I can manage a few hours of it anyway.

We have a wedding next week down the country in a hotel, our first since we came off drink. We’re Looking forward to the weekend away without drink being the priority, and looking forward to the actual weekend break rather than the wedding!