Good morning, fellow sobernauts, IWNDWYT 😁!
We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we’re here together!
Welcome to the 24 hour pledge! I’m pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.
Maybe you’re new to c/stop drinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you’re like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you’ve been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.
It doesn’t matter if you’re still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, let’s not drink alcohol!
I usually do the first 111 days of every year sober, but this year was determined to do a year and a half, with a view to stay sober more permanently.
I started early on Dec 1st, and a few friends were a bit weird about it. I ended up drinking on NYE, then at a birthday party two weeks ago, then four days ago to celebrate a new job (which I’m now going to have to turn down, because the finances just aren’t there).
I’m finding it a real struggle. Work sucks, and everything seems to be annoying me at the moment. I’m trying to self isolate so I can deal with it, but some of my friends are making me feel so guilty about that that I can’t relax when I’m on my own. I can’t even manage to do chores, I’m so frazzled, so my apartment is a mess. Just a miserable start to the year! But it’ll get better. Never regretted not drinking in hindsight. IWNDWYT!
I found that what really helped me was a long period of uninterrupted sobriety. No “I’ll drink at [event],” because that was setting me back to day 1 and undoing all the good work I’d done in being sober for the time before. I’ve had enough day ones, I don’t want another one.
This first month, the only thing that matters is you don’t drink. If your friends are being weird about it, that I think says quite a lot about their own drinking habits (maybe don’t tell them that though 😉). if you need to stuff the housework and go to bed early, that’s what you do. You want to flump in-front of a terrible film with a pizza and a nice non-alcoholic drink? That’s what Fridays are for.
Make this month and easy as possible for you in terms of the basics - drinks, food, housework. Make sure you’ve got nice non-alcoholic drinks in.
There’s some good advice in the various pinned posts here. This one is about building up a toolbox of sober supports, about connection and self soothing and self care and changing the channel in your head. There’s a booklist and other resources.