Dry January Challenge

Hi Ann

Thanks :-)  I just love sparkling water, soemtimes adding elderflower cordial to it.  Also love coffee, though not after mid morning, decaf later, and Earl Grey tea, also cuppa soups!  There are lots of alternatives out there if we but look for them.

Hope you are doing well and have a great day today

Lizzie xxx

Hi Lizzie what relief for you a weight off your shoulders, both JJ have been thinking of you.  JJ and I are putting our money away have you been putting yours in a pot?    I am now on day 6 and basically although the thought is in the back of my mind I am working with my mind that drink is not a part of my life now I have been doing a lot of reading on people's stories and the destruction it causes along with everything else it no longer exists.  I am also mindfully thinking of when I gave up smokes and I don't miss them.  Thinking of when I was younger and I never had it and remaining as strong as I possibly can be.   Hope to hear from JJ to see how she is getting.  Once again so pleased to hear your good new xx

Hi Radley

Thanks for thinking of me, I really appreciate it. 

What I am doing about the money I am saving is this:  Firstly, having committed to completing January dry at the very least I have given £100 out of my current account to a dear friend who needs it more than me (so that its not there for me to put on my debit or credit card for booze (I always pay off my full balance every month on my credit card)), and who also doesn't drink, and secondly i have bought some books from Amazon to read in all the extra time I have due to not being hung over every afternoon. I am also saving in cash terms as well and with this so far I am treating myself to an alchohol free meal out tonight at my favourite Indian restaurant.  Its hard to belive how much better off financially I am in even this short space of time, I seem to have the same amount of cash in my wallet as I did just before Christmas, its amazing, I don't think I'd realised just how much I wasting on booze.

I'm on day 9 dry I think, not weakened at all.  

Like you I gave up smoking years ago, 1992 I think it was.  I'd tried cutting down endless times but had relapsed every time.  In the end my gp of the time convinced me it was going to kill me and I just stopped there and then, never looked back.  This time I look back on that experince positively thinking that if could give up nicotine I can give up alchohol.

I hope both you and JJ are doing well too

Lots of love from LIzzie xxxx

 

Hi Lizzie. Saw you on another forum and thanks for your comments. Well done you and the other musketeer!! Apart from one night a week ago I've stayed sober for about a month I think now(must work it out). I don't count like I used to as relapsed so many times in the past!

Yes, it's great waking up in the morning without a hangover or reaching for a drink to get rid. I've got so much done also and caught up with lots of people too. Plus the money saved is a massive bonus. I can't stop eating but haven't put on weight over Christmas so that's good. I love my cup of coffee in the morning too. Anyway here to another productive, enjoyable, sober day xx

meant 3 musketeers !!!

Congratulations to you Paper fairy, you are doing really well too and are so right, being rid of the hangovers is such a benefit and as for the money saved that is just amazing.  It really improves the quality of ones life giving up, or some people just cutting down, alchohol, I feel closer to my mum and our friends as well as healthier in lots of ways.

I thought your post on that other htread was very wise.  I try to keep in touch with other threads on this and some other groups, although I can't always help not having been though the really bad things some poor folk have, I like to read what they are saying and support by the odd word or two, or even just a vote soemtimes.

Its great to hear from you again

Lots of Love

Lizzie xxx

Hi Lizzie it all sounds very promising.  I would like to ask you and JJ a question?  Somebody asked me this why do you drink ?  When you don't drink you Say there is something missing  in your life.   Is it the drink or is there something else missing and that is why you drink.     Thanks R xx

I don't think there is anything missing in my life either when I drink or when I don't.  I drink because I enjoy it, at least until I get a hangover lol! I like the taste, the actions associated with drinking and the relaxing effects of the alchohol. I've been through some very tough times in my life being bipolar with anxiety and intrusive thoughts, and right now is probably the best time of my life, I just don 't want to ruin it with booze.  My mental health is good now due to the meds I take and the love I am surrounded with, just don't want to spoli that.

LIzzie xxxxxxx

Hi JJ

Thanks for sharing that, it takes guts to come out like that, well done.

I was lucky in that though I used to "self medicate" my bipolar I got a brilliant psychitrist who got me onto some great meds and I no longer needed the alchohol to sort my mental health.  Trouble was, I just enjoyed it so much I carried on drinking, it really hits the pleasure receptors in my brain - which makes my current abstinance a miracle, its day 9 now and I give thanks for all the support and strength I have been given. I know one thing for sure, it would be a damn sight harder without you guys beside me :-)

Incidentally, in reply to your other point, I'm actually eating less!!!!  This is due to my association between food and booze, cheese and wine were a perfect combination for me, without the booze I'm eating much less cheese as well as other things I used to nibble with a bottle of vino.  My addiction was very much associational rather than physiological which could explain why I'm not getting any withdrawal symptoms.

Lizzie xxx

Cheese......oh i so love cheese & wine in the evening but now you say it...no i've not had any either, well except cheese on toast at lunch yesterday! I have however swapped my evening cheese for chocolate which is odd as i never used to like chocolate?? 

I got on the scales last night and it appears i have put a pound on since abstaining - this was so not the plan ;-) My official weigh in day however is Friday so we will wait and see. I have been tracking my calorie intake and been around 1800 a day since NYE so surely i have to lose :-)

I am sleeping like a log and my husband says my snoring is better - still snoring but not like a wart hog apparently so that is a plus point! 

You have got a lot on your plate Lizzie. I know a few people with bi-polar, i'm very pleased to hear you're stablised on good meds as it can seem so difficult for some people to control and so harsh. One thing has to be certain is that any mental health meds work better without the booze in your system. i have been lying in my med reviews for years about how much i drink...they always tell me not to drink at all as it is a depressant but i was drinking up to 2 bottles of wine a day on them. 

I am quite hopeful with the elimination of the booze i may one day be able to come back off the Citalopram, who knows.

How are the rest of you doing today? Day 6 for me now....that is £48 saved :-) xxxx

 

Hi JJ Lizzie Paper Fairy.   Pleased to hear we are all on the same track. I love cheese too however I am not eating as much the same as you guys.  Remaining focused still at times feel there is something missing but hey early days - now on day day 7.    Xx 

Hello everyone

I shouldn't have posted about my great mental and physical health yesterday as from lunch time on things got really bad, my worst day since the autumn.  To summarize:

During the morning my anxiety levels began to rise, maybe the first sign of withdrawal symptoms? so I took 5mg of diazepam, with the result that I spent the whole of the afternoon asleep and incapable of doing anything, I might as well have had a hangover.  On top of that my shoulder, arm and neck became very painful again, its happened before, trapped nerve maybe? In the past I have taken diclofenac or voltarol for it but these are no longer allowed for me due to tummy troubles, no codeine either as they only give me small prescriptions of it and I'd used it up and paracetamol does nothing for me.  So as the day wore on my anxiety got worse and worse, and my arm became unbearable.  I went out on my own for a meal in the evening to the local Indian but it was horrid, and very expensive so I arrived home feeling anxious, depressed, in physical pain and £25 worth of ripped off and with indigestion.

Up shot of all this was that I think I have become the first of us to cave in, I had two large g&t's to numb the physical and mental pain.  It worked for that and I slept really well, pain free,  but I feel terrible for letting all you guys down, so ashamed, which is making things worse, my self esteem is pretty low today and I'm so sorry :-(  I don't know how to carry on.

Lizzie xxx