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Originally Posted by Tom1975
How hard has it been not to drink?
Not very hard at all. I attribute this to two things: 1) it was making me feel like absolute crap and 2) my mother's decline and death. Her health decline really began this year, I'm no doctor but I'm 100% sure that she died early because of her alcohol abuse. And I physically just felt like ****. I have bad GI problems, alcohol was exacerbating them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom1975
Is this your longest stretch of sobriety (you mentioned you've quit a few times before)?
No, I quit for at least six months twice. Once because I was trying to get in shape, once because of the aforementioned GI issues. I can't recall when/how I fell off the wagon in these cases, but getting in touch with that seems like a good idea.
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Originally Posted by Tom1975
Do you ever go out with your buddies to a bar and not drink or do you just not go to bars any more?
I have not gone to a "bar" yet, but have been in several social situations where there was drinking. After my mother's funeral we had everyone back to the house, I might've been the only person not drinking. Also during that time I spent a lot of time with old high-school and college friends, we went to dinner, etc. They were excited to have a designated driver. The irony of sitting with several friends with martinis, etc, while I was having a Diet Coke was not lost on anyone.
Something that's been interesting, maybe only to me: everyone in my life has been extremely supportive/relieved, even people I didn't know even thought about this. Like, I tell somebody and they're like "Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea." My father said that he was glad I was quitting and that he was worried I had a problem, but had never said anything. He said my mother had never talked about it, so hopefully she wasn't worried. She would've blamed herself.