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 /r/stopdrinking 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, lets not drink alcohol!

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This pledge is a statement of intent. Today we don’t set out trying not to drink, we make a conscious decision not to drink. It sounds simple, but all of us know it can be hard and sometimes impossible. The group can support and inspire us, yet only one person can decide if we drink today. Give that person the right mindset!

What happens if we can’t keep to our pledge? We give up or try again. And since we’re here in /r/stopdrinking, we’re not ready to give up.

What this is: A simple thread where we commit to not drinking alcohol for the next 24 hours, posting to show others that they’re not alone and making a pledge to ourselves. Anybody can join and participate at any time, you do not have to be a regular at /r/stopdrinking or have followed the pledges from the beginning.

What this isn’t: A good place for a detailed introduction of yourself, directly seek advice or share lengthy stories. You’ll get a more personal response in your own thread.

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This post goes up at:

• US - Night/Early Morning
• Europe - Morning
• Asia and Australia - Evening/Night

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I worked in the packaging industry for almost 20 years, supplying beer, wine and liquor companies all the containers it’s sold in. Worked for a company that made the containers, sold the containers, worked with marketing departments on the bottle designs too. Customers ranged from the homebrewers to microbrewerys to the global companies currently being boycotted for supporting transgender as of this writing. From my first day at 23 years old, I was asked the question if I had an issue with alcohol because the bulk of our customers were in the alcoholic industry so if I had any ethical or moral issue, this was not a good fit. I was a year out of college, of course I didn’t have a problem with alcohol! In one day I went from a user to a contributor. Drinking alcohol in my mind was supporting my customers and securing my employment. Alcohol was recession proof. I remember visiting our corporate office in Napa Valley, having dinner with one of our suppliers and having my first glass of wine. “The Punisher.” Little did I know how true this was. Two bottles later I was driven to my hotel, got into my room and threw up. Managed to wake up on time and drive 40 minutes to visit another supplier, talking to my coworker on the phone, who scolded me for drinking red wine as my first wine ever… apparently I was supposed to start off with white. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I don’t remember much from that next day… except the meeting felt so surreal. I thought the fact I was there in a suit holding a conversation meant I was successful. I justified to my Little Sister (from Big Brother Big Sisters) that the alcoholic industry was a huge employer globally and it would destroy the economy outlawing it. And sadly, that led to 15 more years of “successfully drinking”.

tl;dr: The culture brainwashing is real. And I was a part of it.

PS: made it through a 4 hour cookout today and only once needed to say “no thanks, I don’t drink.”

5 more days to go. 😁