congratulations!

choo choo, all aboard! 🙂

congratulations on a week, that’s huge.

I hope you manage to get some sleep soon.

That’s the good thing about AA and other sober supports; if they’re working as intended, they’ll let you step away and be waiting for you if you realise that you’re going through a period of needing more support.

I never used an excuse, either, I just said that my drinking got out of hand during lockdown and it was easier to stop. But some people find it difficult to be that forthright, and using a cover story can be helpful.

“Oh, I’m on this new medication and I can’t drink on it”, may or may not be a useful fib for your beer festival. There’s a surprisingly long list of medication where alcohol is contraindicated, including some common antihistamines.

It’s what one of my friends did, said she couldn’t drink because of medication and then “Oh, remember when I couldn’t drink? When I could drink again, I decided that I didn’t want to, so I’ve stopped.”

Welcome, we’re glad to have you here 🙂

So no more “only on weekends”. Or “not at home” Or “not alone”. Or “not more than 2 beers”. Tried all that, didn’t work.

I tried setting rules like that, it didn’t work, it was exhausting and annoying (setting rules, thinking of ways to break the rules, feeling guilty for breaking the rules, thinking of new rules that’ll absolutely definitely work this time…) Way easier to just not bother with all that by not drinking.

I found it helpful to make a commitment to myself to keep good non-alcoholic drinks in, and I use it as an opportunity to explore that space and find interesting things to drink.

woohoo, congratulations!

“You can offer an apology to others, but you can’t force them to accept it” can be a hard lesson to receive. People are entitled to say “no” or “not yet.”

The good thing about apologies is that they don’t go off, and once you put them out there, they can wait.

Welcome, we’re glad to have you here.

Congratulations on your milestone!

Woohoo! 🎆

Yes, alcohol affects your sleep, it stops you going into proper deep repair/recovery sleep.