You’ve decided to ditch the booze, hooray!

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So you’ve decided to quit drinking, congratulations! The first day you’ll 
likely feel like shit because you overdid it last night or maybe you’ve 
overdid it every night for the last week. Expect to feel sluggish, maybe a 
bit depressed, maybe questioning if quitting is even possible. Go easy on 
yourself, rest. Treat yourself like you have the flu and drink plenty of 
water, gatorade, and fruit juices. Have some chicken noodle soup, curl up 
on the couch with a blanket and a good book. Take a nap.

Reach out to others who are in the same boat there’s plenty of sober facebook groups, plus recovery websites like “Be Sober”, “This Naked Mind”, “The Alcohol Experiment”, “Living Sober”. Research and find what’s best for you. Or you might want to join AA, Smart Recovery, or Celebrate Recovery. The choices are endless. This is your journey and you can choose how you want to do it and what tools you’ll use.

Speaking of tools it’s important to have many tools in your sober toolbox to keep you motivated and prevent you from drinking. The tools and tricks I use include journaling, crafts to keep my hands and mind busy, keeping alcohol out of the house, playing the tape forward. What I mean by playing the tape forward is thinking to myself what will happen if I drink again, how will it make me feel, what stupid things will I say and do if I drink again, knowing I’ll be disappointed in myself if I drink, and knowing that it will be harder to get sober again if I take that first drink.

If you do take a drink again after quitting don’t beat yourself up, it’s part of the journey and most people don’t get sober on their first quit attempt. It took me many, many tries to get the 4 3/4 months I have today. This is a learning process, you’ll begin learning who you are again once you give up the booze. You’ll discover what you like, what your personality is like without the alcohol, your interests. It’s all really very exciting it’s like uncovering a buried treasure and you don’t know what wonderful piece of gold you’ll discover about yourself.

Never give up on yourself, even on the toughest of days just keep in mind brighter days are up ahead. As long as you don’t give up, keep learning, keep trying, you will become successful.

Wishing you much success on the exciting journey that lies before you. You got this!

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