Dry January

But good luck Rob! I have never tried to give up alcohol, but then I don't drink that much anyway (no raised eyebrows at the back there please). I don't think I'd miss it except at times of stress, when the thought of a nice gin and tonic or brimming glass of wine waiting for me when I get home does sustain me...

I imagine the hard bit will be not turning to other comforts like chocolate etc, but I'm sure you can do it! Treating yourself to yummy non-alcoholic drinks (rather than flat Coke or warm, fake orange juice) might be a good idea. Fruity smoothie things will also aid the detox.

I just end up reading books and watching glorious garbage on telly.

I shall endeavour to stop drinking on my own. But it's such fun sometimes!!

Good luck, Robster.

I have been drinking much more than usual over the past week or so due to xmas, new years, etc. Not having any in the house would be the best idea. Right now I've got lots of wood chuck hard ciders in the fridge along with wine coolers. Then I've got a couple bottles of wine and some rum around too. And those cool drinks, wood chucks and hard ciders, are easy to grab when I'm out of soda. So go buy yourself a bunch of fruit juices and sodas to quench your thirst and try not going to bars at all.

(A stone is 14 pounds Sarah.)

And yes, fruity smoothie things are U & K.

problem is, long-term abstinence is untenable, and may actually lead to binge drinking 4 relief. i am trying to drink more in moderation- learn 2 have a glass of wine w/dinner and stop- which i seldom do. this seems a better long-term solution.

but good luck with it. it really isn't as hard as it seems once u get past the first week.

But then, that's a plus: more cash means you can indulge any vices you want....

also, as an aside, a pint of OJ&L is likely to be the most expensive drink in a round (esp in SS pubs, where beer is cheap), so ignore em's comments on round getting in :)

Should've said before: the best thing about not drinking is knowing you will have a clear head the next morning, I definitely noticed a great increase in general well-being thanks to this, no wasted days recovering from the previous night.

i mean, thats the other thing, if you're going to go dry, why not also stay in for the month too, you can catch up on all the other things theres never enough time for

month without bouze vs month without pub: TS

more seriously i've had dry spells several times (once lasting about a year); the clear head thing is great, the rubbishness of pubs for the non-drinker less so. i tended to lose touch with quite a few friends as a result, which makes it a dud in my book.

Seriously, just drink some nice fruit juice. Or even a lassi.

I'm trying this and just want to eat every snack in the house now :{

Yes, you'll be missing the extra sugar, that's been my experience. I just took two days off and I was wandering through the store aisles craving something--I got fruit popsicles :)

yeah, not my first rodeo but it feels like the timing is right... everything else is going fine, I took some melatonin and sleep doesn't seem to be an issue

but there's a bunch of left over Xmas candy that my sister sent, I better hide it

This is our third year I think. For many years we used to start with a one- or two-week alcohol fast, but the full month really isn't bad. This year I'm going to try extending it with a hybrid approach — for Feb and March, no drinking at home, just when I'm out.

I'm not really trying to "change my relationship with alcohol" or whatever people say about dry January. I consider alcohol a net positive in my life in all respects except health — I accept that it's by far the least healthy I do regularly, so moderating it in various ways is worthwhile. (And btw I totally recognize that it is not a net positive for everyone, I'm not an evangelist. I just feel like I have a good relationship with it, except for the cumulative effects of its poisons on my aging internal infrastructure.)

Mostly what I replace it with is other beverages. I kind of always have a beverage at hand all day long — coffee, seltzer water, tea, etc. In the evenings, that is most often a cocktail or glass of wine. So in dry times I mostly drink more tea (as noted on the tea thread).

before Covid I had a (pretty) hard/fast rule about never drinking alone, but in the early days (like summer 2020) I used to meet a couple buddies in the park (all the bars were closed) and we'd drink beer and maybe a little whisky and then little by little my self-restraint eroded and I've been drinking alone, usually a tall can (or two) on a walk after work
It's become something I expect these days so I'm ready to disrupt that habit and get back to something more celebratory/occasional and less automatic

I enjoy drinking alone with a book so much! More than with people, I think. At some point of getting tipsy I'm going to regret that I'm not reading in peace.

Still having the most trouble with sleeping sober, unfortunately. Does melatonin really help? I can doze off but I can't stay asleep.

Does melatonin really help?

works for me but I think it's meant to be used occasionally, not routinely

have done it about three or four times now, maybe more, can't remember before covid. i drink a fair bit so i enjoy a break. it can be hard. it leads to an absolutely huge amount of free time, i find, as at weekends means i'm up very early. but over time i find you build routines to make it easier, for example i'll go somewhere for breakfast early on saturday or sunday. last year i went to early films at the bfi or other good cinemas, they often have something old screening at 11 or 12am. the prevalence of zero alcohol options helps a lot too, if you do go out.

i treat it a bit also as a chance to be alone a little more as after xmas i find myself a bit tired of so much socialising. it is nice to go out and have a zero beer or two but it can be very isolating and weird if everyone else is drinking alcohol.

the drinking i miss most in dry january is:

- wine with dinner on a sunday
- wine with a meal at a restaurant (it's just not the same without)
- a beer on a friday after work
- definitely a beer alone with a book (tho this can be nice with a zero beer as it's more about atmos)

i don't find myself craving the sort of longer drinking sessions so much even tho i do those once a week or so with friends during normal months.

Still having the most trouble with sleeping sober, unfortunately.

Ah, well here's where "California sober" helps. Understand that's not for everyone either, but thc does way more for my sleep than alcohol. Alcohol's actively bad for sleep for me.

I have some strong (2400mg) valerian root capsules that help to knock me out as well

I did this last year, and I think I drank fewer than 25 drinks the rest of the years. As some of you might know, I used to be what could be called a "functional alcoholic." Honestly, it was the best decision I ever made, totally changed the way I live my life and relate to alcohol. Still not sober, but approaching it.

I do, however, pop 5-10mg THC edibles every evening around 9:30p.

What's funny about the sleep thing is that when I *drink* alcohol, particularly beer or wine, I cannot sleep at all. I had to give up beer this summer because I simply cannot drink it and get the necessary amount of sleep that I need.

i mean prob gonna quit weed for january also. i have about one joint per week but it is nice to see how your mind works free of substances for a while.

sometimes at the end of january i am tempted to go further and see how that would feel for longer. but i am always tempted by the fun of socialising.

I know! Everyone says they sleep better sober, that with booze they can fall asleep but not deeply and not stay asleep. I have the polar opposite. I had wine last night and I slept LIKE A DAMN BABY.

I don’t like being high enough to have an issue with weed, it’s almost purely medicinal for me at this point

i've sort of stopped getting so high now as when i first got back into it about 18 months ago, but don't really want to smoke more. i quite enjoyed once a week on a weekend night in having a piece of cake, some tea, wine, and a joint, while watching a film.

now it kinda just mellows me out a bit but i sort of miss the high. i could easily stop again as a result.

I just bought a massive $5 bag of buds from a street vendor (he was mostly selling shrooms, this was on his 'bargain' table) but I'm kinda afraid to try it lest it's too strong

Not to be righteous about it, but Jan-March is a terrible time for bars and restaurants, so I’d rather support them now than withdraw. Saying that as a moderate drinker.

“right now is terrible time for the poison-sellers, won’t someone think of them”

Oh, that's true, if you think of them that way.

my liquor store owner is currently wearing a barrel with suspenders

Where do you guys go for social irl spaces?

It's funny, I have a few friends that are non-drinkers... one who has never drank as far as I know (old straight-edge punk) and of course the former problem drinkers.. and I see them around, they're not hiding in their homes, I do pub trivia with one of them and he just orders food and a coke or whatever. For people like this, there is no barrier to socializing w/o alcohol, they've been doing it for years if not decades. It's only us on-the-wagoneers that worry about stuff like that.

Yeah I have no problem going to a bar and ordering an NA beer, which almost all of them carry now.

I do hear the complaint/concern about the hit to bars' bottom lines, but I don't know what to do about it beyond continuing to go and get food and non-alcoholic drinks. My favorite cocktail bar has a mocktail menu I haven't tried, so probably I'll acquaint myself with that this month.

ginger beer, bitters & lime is an old standby for me... settles the stomach as well

I do hear the complaint/concern about the hit to bars' bottom lines

yeah, I guess so... but booze kinda sells itself, and it can sit for years without going bad. I think a bigger concern for bar owners is the demographic shift when Gen B or whatever they are now just aren't really socializing in bars as much, they're off kitesurfing on E or tiktoking or something... it'll be interesting to see if they grow into drinking or if there's a major generational shift away from booze long term

Having a ton of friends who've stopped drinking (as well as my partner), I've noticed that it's now standard for a lot of bars to have non-alcoholic options: NA beer, CBD water, NA cocktails, and so on. I think bars are (sensibly) figuring out how to sell a $6-$10 drink rather than a $2-$4 Coke or cranberry juice.

Yes these days I am surprised to find a bar that can't scare up a Heineken Zero from the back or something. Even while traveling (Houston, Huntsville,
St. Louis) and in airports I was rarely disappointed.

I have been ubersober about 10 months, and I am a musician so I spend a LOT of time in bars with my closest friends. It was an adjustment at first, but now it is routine.