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Haven't touched a drop in...

  • 27-01-2011 5:33am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,339 ✭✭✭tenchi-fan


    ... 10 days :D

    I'm abroad at the moment and try to get out as much as possible so I'll have a good group of friends away from home. I'm only working part-time in a temp job so drinking every day meant I was spending a lot more than I was earning, and my weight was hovering around the .. well i don't know the weight but my waist size is 36" compared to 32" when I was on a healthy streak 2 years ago.

    So I've decided to quit. Last week I went to the pub with friends three times without drinking anything other than soft drinks.

    My main motivation though is because I want to kick-start my life... I'm also trying to eat healthier and I intend on applying for a few more jobs this week

    I know it's only been 10 days but I think i may be on to something :)


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    Good luck techie-fan,
    One of the best ways of helping yourself is to get yourself a plan,as in restarting old hobbies or new interests,I dont no how much you were drinking so i cant really say much about whether going to pubs at the start is a good idea,But well done in going for it,and dont forget give yourself a chance.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,339 ✭✭✭tenchi-fan


    It's been one month.

    I won't lie, my social life has taken a hit. Obviously I need to find more things to do with my time.

    When I immediately quit drink I found I had very shaky feeling in the evening, somewhere between annoyed and frustrated.. so I started walking to and from work and that helped a lot.

    I already lost loads of weight.. down to size 34 and shrinking. And I'm not as reluctant to buy things like groceries because I have more money left over.

    Oh, and I got a new temp job with full-time hours and a lot more money.

    So far so good :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 416 ✭✭Wingman2010


    Nearly 14 months. The best new years resolution ever :-)


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,127 ✭✭✭kjl


    9 years

    never suited me really. Still like the company of drunk people.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    9 years alcohol free thats great, Any chance of shaing your journey with all the ups & downs that it brings.We can all learn something from each other, Thanks.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 764 ✭✭✭beagle001


    Was 100 days off it until yesterday,said I would have just a few cans but as we all know that turned into a 5am bender.
    Feel dreadful today,have gone 2years before and it was probably my most productive couple if years.
    I am firmly committed to remaining off it in Ireland but would someday like to say I can have a drink on holiday.
    Not sure if this is possible as when I say that it never happens and I can't say no to a session.
    Reckon total abstinence is what's called for and back on the wagon now it's just not worth the crap feeling the next day.


  • Registered Users Posts: 903 ✭✭✭Bassfish


    Off it five and a half weeks (day 37). Longest stretch since I was 17 and with everything else i have going on, i really haven't missed it much.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    Keep going bassfish its so worth it,

    beagle001 start again you no what you have to do,maybe for you (as it certainaly is not a maybe for me) you can drink in moderation or have social drinks later on, only you will know.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 764 ✭✭✭beagle001


    Cheers realies,
    No I have tried the moderate drinking in the past but once that second pint hits I can't get enough of them.
    I am just being nostalgic to the old times drinking at a teekee bar on holiday or by the pool.
    It's a vicious cycle you could go 5 times moderately drinking but then the one time you overdo it it's back to square one.
    I think I might just go the whole Hogg,wife is cool about it and that's a big help.
    Too many great things in life to do and it's better to try and succeed with this as it's such negative feeling being hungover.


  • Registered Users Posts: 609 ✭✭✭jmx009


    Havent had any alcohol for 25 days now.
    I am thinking of staying away from alcohol till easter sunday. Its not hard for me at all,probably its because i was only a social drinker.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 405 ✭✭Econoline Van


    28 days for me. Best thing I ever did. The amount of positive things that come from giving up regular drinking is unreal.
    Going to do another month and then make some decisions.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 18,184 ✭✭✭✭Lapin


    5 weeks this evening !

    One more week and I'll beat my own record (set 16 years ago) ! And that was only because I was ill at the time.

    Don't miss it at all tbh. Very surprised by this.

    I still go to the pub so I'm not missing out on a social life.
    This surprises me even more as the thought of spending an evening in the pub without having a drink was alien to me up to now.

    I buy my own drink (coffee/Ballygowan) and no longer get involved in rounds. If I was boozin, a night out meant kissing goodbye to €50 at the very least.

    Last Friday I had a great night out for less than a tenner. AND remembered it all the following day.

    There's also a great feeling of freedom, knowing that I can leave whenever I want. Knowing that I'm not going to be there till closing time and getting two or three in just before last orders. Then hoping we'll get one for the road or even better still - a lock in !

    Of course I could have left the pub when I was drinking too - Nobody was forcing me to stay only myself. But it never happened, unless I left to go to another pub.

    It can be amusing watching my friends get progressively more drunk as the evening passes - but only up to a point. When their normal conversation turns into gibberish, I usually reach for my coat. Nothing against what they might be saying - I'm just not tuned in.
    It also serves as a reminder of the kind of gibberish I must have been talking when I was drinking. And that in itself is an incentive to stay on the dry.

    Some of my friends drink far more than they should as well but thats their business. Alcoholics are often said to be very selfish. Putting drink before family and friends etc... I was certainly very selfish in this regard. Ironically I'm now putting myself first for different reasons. My friends are still my friends and always will be, but I have to watch out for myself.

    I would have liked if one or two of them joined me in giving it up, even for a couple of weeks. Not just for back up and support (probably selfish too), but because I am genuinely concerned about one of them in particular.
    But in the last 5 weeks I've come to appreciate how true it is when people say "You have to want to do it for yourself".

    There have been moments when I get a feeling of smugness about being in control of myself while others around me are stumbling and slurring their words. I don't do smug and it isn't my intention to feel that way - But I don't feel the least bit guilty about it either.

    Sorry for the long post but its good to be able to say this to someone.


  • Registered Users Posts: 416 ✭✭Wingman2010


    15 months today :-)

    I couldn't be happier!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    Well done wingman, its a great feeling isn't it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 416 ✭✭Wingman2010


    It's a great feeling.

    I'd love to encourage more young people to knock it on the head if they really want to do it! I still go out and all my mates respect my decision not to drink now though it took time for them to come around.

    The major thing for me is I took up a new hobbie which I love; cycling. The last week alone I have cycled over 200k's. So basically my point is anyone can do it; just try and find a new hobbie that works for you and keep the faith!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 400 ✭✭Im Only 71Kg


    3 years 4 months. dont miss it at all..saved nearly 10K too.


  • Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭Forest Fire


    My social life revolves around drink and I'm getting really tired of it. I've befriended drinkers as that's what I was into. Coming off it is tough as who do you talk to? where do you go to wind down and relax? Everyone goes to the pub in this country. Giving up is like looking down the barrel of loneliness and social exclusion, turning my back on life-long pals, staying in with the wife and kids and
    being 'good'.
    I don't think I am an alcoholic...yet...but don't particularly want to end up as one. Continuing on drinking 4/5 nights a week and contiually rising will only lead to one unhappy ending!
    Any tips out there?
    FF


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,801 ✭✭✭✭Kojak


    Haven't touched drink in nearly 4 and a half years.

    Just stopped one day for no reason, and then never started again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭Forest Fire


    Lucky you Kojak.
    I really admire that.
    I have watched close family members try and try again.
    At least they are trying.
    Why should I criticise them for failure when I'm at it myself.
    Well done.


  • Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭Forest Fire


    It's funny, I had a few drinks at the weekend, at home but really didn't enjoy them much. I just think about the nervous stressed feeling I get the next day before drinking a drop and this puts me off starting. I just hope to remember this feeling all the time. After 2 weeks going very light, I'm feeling great, looking much better(vain as I am), and appreciating the rest of my life more. Avoiding my life long pals is tough though but family is more important eh? :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 61 ✭✭Crystalset


    I'm not being critical but time and again I read of people having a 'few drinks'.
    Does this mean 3 bottles of beer or 3 pints of premium lager or maybe 3x3 pints? I suspect most drinkers have have a more precise idea of their intake.


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,209 ✭✭✭✭Autosport


    Havent had a drink in over 7 years, dont miss and doubt i'll ever touch a drop again. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 73 ✭✭boogeyman


    I'm toying with the idea of giving up the drink for good. It's 4 weeks now since I drank (albeit only 2 beers) and before that it could have been another month...

    When I was in college I could have a few beers most nights and a good session twice a week but bit by bit, little by little I started to rethink things. I would get very bad hangovers and most of the next day would be a write-off. I basically thought about what I was giving up in order to get drunk...which was a day of my time recovering not to mind all the cash!:(

    So I started reducing the amount I drank. When in a bar I would enjoy a few pints but when we moved onto a club I stopped drinking. No shots, no bottles...I would switch to diet coke etc. What I found was by the time I was going home after the club I was completely sober and could get up the next morning without any fuss and go off and enjoy the day!

    I did this for 6 months or more and now I find I drink very little. I basically have a pint for the sake of not feeling left out. Or I might have 2 or 3 bottles and sup them slowly all night.

    Not only does this save lots of money but it gives me more time, cos I'm not wasting a day of my life to a hangover. Perhaps I'll stay off the drink for good or I may have a beer Saturday night - but I definitely won't be going back to that crazy sort of drinking which had me killed the next day.

    The feeling of waking up fresh and being able to get up and enjoy life is too good to give up for that.:cool:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 141 ✭✭DoubleBogey


    2 years. Overall it's been very positive. Has had its downside too. Social life has taken a knock but at the same time it made me realize my "friends" were not real friends. They were just drinking buddies. When I look back now my life was so pathetic. Everything, absolutely everything was connected to drink. Sad.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,098 ✭✭✭MonkeyTennis


    Just a month but Ive done more in one month than in the last 2 years. My social life has improved cos I go out a lot more knowing I can drive home


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,101 ✭✭✭derealbadger


    just gone 2 years on the 20th of may


  • Registered Users Posts: 334 ✭✭crimsonfire


    Just over a year now. After a few months you hardly miss it. Once in a while you get the yearning to have a few but the benefits far outweigh the downsides. The best thing is it forces you to go out and find new stuff to do. I'm worried sometimes that I come across a bit pretentious though with all the unusual interests and arty farty stuff I find myself attracted to now so gotta watch out for that too :D


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 460 ✭✭four18


    18 weeks and 2 days. I was off it for 7 years before and spent the next 5 years trying to stop again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,802 ✭✭✭oranbhoy67


    16 months .. i still go out quite often but find it boring now tbh..had my wild teens & twenties & have to laugh when someone tells me to have a beer & not be boring.. i tell them i wish they had some CCTV to watch of me when i was drinking they would be glad i was sober..usually shuts them up... i cant & i dont regret the good & bad times i had drinking,, just knew when the bad days were far outnumbering the good that it was time to give it up..common sense really though it was still very hard..... my live has improved in so many ways since..its not perfect or as close to perfect as id like it to be... but its getting there :)


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 648 ✭✭✭k4kate


    18 days. Surprising myself. Have been off it for longer (6 weeks) but never been off it for as long while still going out at the weekend. 3 weekends now have been to pub and still had no drink. Know it's not as long as a lot of you guys but am feeling really pleased with myself.:)


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