HOW TO QUIT ALCOHOL
Here's the thing if I come across in the next few minutes in any way sanctimonious or preaching yourself righteous I'm gonna give myself a slap in the face because I've made a big life choice and like most people who make big life choices you can get a bit preachy about it.
You know we've all met vegans so I'm going to talk about this big life choice I made why I made it why I feel like for Hannah and I it was great decision to make and how we did it because it was it took two years it took years of training to get to the point where we could make this life choice and that is.
And how and that is quitting Booz a life of sobriety or not sobriety still do other stuff I mean not you know not crack or cocaine but you know the odd you know I mean a bit of Mary Jane that's fine but yeah quick boost that's it we're off we're well we're on the bandwagon we're staying there two years of one month off one month on drinking we did.
And on the months that we weren't drinking we had we had a get out of jail free card a golden ticket we called it where we could drink and the whole month that we weren't drinking was all about that golden ticket I just couldn't wait to get to the point we could use that golden ticket.
And that really made us realise that okay I think we got a bit of a problem I started drinking when I was in my teenage teenage years like literally a lifetime ago and I started off on the old hooch I don't know if you fellow Boomers out there rememberers Hooch it was just like alcohol pop stuff tasted like rainbows just sugar basically.
And alcohol in it and I remember drinking it thinking my God I can't believe this stuff actually tasted delicious.
And it's alcoholic I get pissed and it tasted delicious not like there's you know because you try alcohol when you're a kid with your mum and dad you;d give you a sip you'd be like oh what is this stuff and then I got weaned onto it through Alka pops.
And so yeah I was drinking the old Hooch he got the old wkd all that kind of crap all that sugary stuff and then that was it set me off I then later on in life got into my vodka being a bit polish I'm big into vodka I like potato based spirits into my whiskeys.
I mean if I think back about like my life of drinking I'm not going to pretend it wasn't amazing I had some amazing times but yeah of course I made some dubious decisions on while under the influence like we all did but I had some of amazing times you know some great times.
I mean a single malt whiskey on a on a cold winter's Day by a fire with a friend talking about something interesting oh what about a hot Summer's Day a blistering hot summer's day you know a nice cold crips in a pub Garden somewhere a beer just a beer out of the fridge , I mean I just love it I just adore alcohol.
Okay one more what about a big glass like a goblet glass a really clean thin glass of like a chardonnay in a restaurant with some nice food I mean there's just so many there's soap I love it so much that I had to quit it,
You know it became such a habitual thing for us to do to build our lives around when we can next have a drink and when we could go out drinking I couldn't imagine going to social event and not drinking to take the age off the social level to get rid of the social anxiety or to help with that like I couldn't going out just why you go out and not just be sober I couldn't think of anything worse I'll be boring I'm just some rigid old 40 year old who doesn't drink with no chat because he's not loosened up.
I didn't what quittingalcohob has taught me to do is a be able to deal with social situations without having to drink through them and B try and be interesting enough to friends and family without having to drink without needing alcohol to do it.
And the reason the main reason why I personally needed to quit is because of one very important thing 4 AM debilitating and crippling anxiety see this is the thing right when you start drinking when you're in your teenage years you wake up you're a little bit sore head you laugh it off that's funny I'm bit hungover you get to your 20s maybe you're like a the next day.
You're feeling a little bit ropey you're like oh God never again 30s you're looking at like you know a couple of days of feeling like you want to just cut up into a ball and die 40s you got like the best part of a week to get over a boozy session a best part of a week and then you've got like the following week to have depression.
And anxiety and then you've got the 4am crippling anxiety as well that wakes around 4am where you're so anxious you need to go downstairs and watch world War II documentaries on Netflix that's how bad about it gets so there comes a point in. your life you've got to be like okay I'm done I'm done this is not serving me this is not this is not enhancing my life.
Yes I'm having some nice times on it and yes it states absolutely delicious but it's me up so quitting just is it basically for somebody like us was just impossible you can just stop we have to basically do one a month off we really then it highlighted how much we had a problem with drinking and how much we were socially addicted to it.
And then after a couple of years we were like okay now let's just we've done enough training let's do it now let's stop.
So now bang I'm about five weeks in I haven't touched this I'm not doing any golden ticket I'm just going Flatline making this Post putting it out just so I can't it almost like heels with the temptation.
Because now I've made a Post and I public said I'm not drinking anymore if I do then I'm gonna try and get a year that's my mission I'm gonna try and do a year of knobs and if I could do a year maybe I'll push for two years I want to get to a thousand days I really for a thousand days of no drinking.
So this is me committing to it and I will say I do genuinely on the months of drinking what I have found a month off drinking I just feel better I just feel physically better I have more energy I don't feel as depressed I'm more focused in terms of work some more productive.
I don't have as much anxiety I just feel better and also another thing that's really helped me through it is non-alcoholic beer I don't know where I'd be with that non-alcoholic beer it tricks my brain into thinking I'm having a beer because it's thick it doesn't realise there's no alcohol in it.
So that's how I've managed to go through it non-alcoholic beer and just sheer determination I'm not going to fall the wagon I'm determined I'm going to stick to this because as long as I'm feeling good as long as I'm feeling mentally balanced and not feeling depression or anxiety.
I'm just gonna keep going like this I genuinely think a lot of people out there who have depression and anxiety could could really say I'm going to tell you this is a very delicate I've just very careful because this could be sanctimous sounding.
I think that a lot of people out there who have depression anxiety could really benefit from cutting back on alcohol consumption I genuinely believe that'd I think a good way to try it is try a month on month off for a while and just keep going month on month off stock up the fridge with non-alcoholic beers.
But the one thing I would say that we found when Hannah are doing month a month off we almost were playing catch up on the month of drinking like we were drinking every day because our week it's drinking month it's Monday 9am get the Vodka out it got that bad so we were almost drinking too much because it was a month on drinking.
So I was like no let's do this let's go all ham so that's why I think now we just quit for good because we're like we don't want to do that and so if I feel great so if I feel really good I'll tel you how it goes I'll give you some more updates maybe in a few more months let you know how I'm feeling.
Just gotta work on my Banting I've got to try and bless boring when I go out I've got to be a bit more interesting and not so highly strung gonna relax a little bit a bit more loose.
But I've got to do that myself without booze without stimulants and I'm sure I can do it anyway if you want to try it too if you want to give it a go do the journey with me I'd love to have you on board on the wagon with me arm and arm chugging along living a life of sobriety sucking it all in.
And not being depressed I mean I'll probably still get depressed but you know it'll probably help with that anyway yeah I'm gonna leave it there I hopefully didn't sound sanctimonious hopefully it didn't sound preachy or self -righteous.
Hopefully I didn't anyway I didn't have to slap myself let me know if you want to try it let me know if you are sober if you if you live a sober life let me know if you would love to try it.
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