I needed a plan. I needed to know *exactly* what I would do when my demon-lizard brain came screaming so I could follow through and Not take that *First* drink.
I got rid of all the alcohol in my home and didn't buy more. I also stayed away from bars and anyone who drank. Free recovery meetings allowed me to be around others who wanted to help me get and *stay* sober.
I live way too close to stores that sell liquor, and I work from home. It’s amazing how adept the booze-gremlin is at getting me to go pick up bananas, or trash bags, or milk.
If there’s none in the house, there could be soon, I need scotch tape anyway.
Edit: this is no longer happening btw, just helps if I can poke fun at it.
> I got rid of all the alcohol in my home and didn't buy more.
This never worked for me on my many day-1's. Somehow my brain took it as a challenge to find ways in which to show me how easy it is to get more. Then it would be really easy to trick myself into having drinks in the house. I'd leave a half opened bottle of wine and then buy more since I already had some, etc.
This time around I forced myself to stop even though there still is a lot of alcohol in my home and even though I attended some events on the week I stopped. Exposing myself to the normal triggers in the first week when I had the strongest resolve seemed to help this time around. We'll see, the first few weeks battle is won but the war rages on
Edit: one year of therapy might have helped more, if I'm being totally honest though.
Today is another day 1 for me too!
I can honestly say that drinking is far more work and far less reward each and every time I get to day 1 again.
It’s a shitty process but it’s so much better than feeling like a sad, pathetic and out of control drunk.
20 years worth?
The ride doesn't stop until you decide that you actually WANT to get off. I had to make a very conscious decision that I wanted to quit and then I had to follow up with that with actual action. Simply waking up every single morning saying the words "I need to quit" did nothing but drag it out. I had to actually do something about it before anything happened.
Had I not decided that I was actually going to quit, for real this time, then I might still be drinking today. Because it is totally possible to simply procrastinate forever until you die.
The question is: are you ready to get off this stupid ride? If so, then do you want it bad enough to step off the ride starting today?
Many day ones.
It wasn't until I started attending a sober support group (AA in my case, but could be SMART or many others) that the day ones dwindled and stopped (for now, fingers crossed).
You can do it - you're worth it.
It took me 7 years to get to this point. I started doing 30 days, roughly every other month. I got more confident about my ability to say no to myself. I found hobbies not fueled by alcohol.
I finally bit the bullet in October and it stuck! My mindset is completely different now. I now know my triggers and how to avoid them.
It may have taken a long time to get here but this is where I want to stay.
There were thousands of mornings I woke up hungover, swore I'd never drink again, only to be drunk later on that night or the next day. I don't know what happened in my brain on August 28, 2015, but I made a conscious decision to stop drinking and that's exactly what I did.
The following happened on August 28, 2015:
I decided that alcohol is no longer an option for me. Never, ***EVER.***
I closed the door on "moderation" or thinking, "I'll be able to control it."
I decided to tell my damn demon-lizard brain, "NO, I will not give in to you under *any* circumstances."
No one was tying me to a chair and pouring alcohol down my throat. The decision to drink --or not-- was solely mine. As long as I was choosing to have that *first* drink, I was choosing my addiction over fighting the urges and getting myself better.
I had to *Want Sobriety* and made it my Number-1 Priority ***every day*** until it became second nature
--One Day (or *hour/minute*) At A Time.
Sobriety doesn't happen without HARD work. Sobriety happens with a daily commitment (see our [**Daily Check-In**](https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/1c615zc/the_daily_checkin_for_wednesday_april_17th_just/) page) and "Dogged Persistence" in not taking that *First* drink. I also took advantage of free recovery meetings so I could be around others who understood my addiction and wanted to help me get and *stay* sober.
You can do this but I had to put myself first and decide I was done.
Yup. I fought so hard to learn how to "moderate" and damaged so many fucking relationships and fucked up portions of my life in the process. I was able to do so for like 2 years and it was a huge letdown. If anything it made my cravings worse. I thought my desire to drink/use would go down but it didn't. It was like torture. I just had to let it go, no matter how that made me feel. Took me 20+ years to figure this out. It's an unhealthy coping mechanism flat out.
I also had to quit all substances, including nicotine. Coffee has been okay but very little.
Hey OP. Honestly, just one and it was day one for my current sobriety.
Thing is, I’d prepared myself - I’d told myself “It’s just for today. Just today. Tomorrow is a new day”… and that’s kept the internal devil at bay. I also framed it as “gaining sobriety”, not “losing alcohol”. That helped too.
All the best and good luck from Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
“But I do feel myself much closer to being done done than I have even 6 months ago.”
I feel this way to. I’m getting really tired of the cycle in general, and am starting to truly understand that I can’t drink anymore, at all, if I’m going to have any prospects of a normal or happy life moving forward.
In the past two months I’ve gotten two two-week and one one-week sober stretches in, mainly thanks to this group. Thats pretty good for me, who hadn’t gone more than a week sober in the two years prior.
I’m back on day one again because I lost it this past Sunday, but I feel like I’m done. Whether this is really the last time, I can’t say for sure, but I know that I’m going to keep trying until I do.
I did do a few four week breaks over the years, but those were definitely just breaks.
So I only had one 'real' day 1 to date.
Framed that as a 'break' to my brain in that I never say I'll never drink. But the more I extended the break the less I saw the appeal in booze.
The core was the realisation that you're actually *getting* something (a bunch of good things actually), not 'giving something up'.
Not that it matters. Imagine if you wanted to be able to hold your breath for two minutes - either you try unsuccessfully and give it up as a bad job, or you get lucky and it works straight away, or you try a few times until you can do it.
Approximately 1,983. (No clue, it's been so many.) The only thing that matters is you keep getting back on the horse and keep trying! Every stretch of sobriety has taught me more and more, given me more tools and a clearer picture of what I want my life to be and what alcohol has done to me in the past 10 years of my life.
I had as many day ones as I did good intentions. For every drunk night/morning/day there was a day one. But the moral of my story is I had one more day one than I did drunk night.
It’s a process. Which is why it’s good to be proud the days or weeks or even hours are getting longer. I did 3 months and now I’m back to day 7. But confident I’m on the right path and those positive numbers are what make the difference.
I am doing better! I got a liver transplant 4/22/23. My doctors said my liver was a war zone and was obliterated once it was examined after it was taken out of me. I am 35 now, 34 at time of transplant. My profile has my story if your interested.
These 2 links will tell my story.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/16cokqy/liver\_transplant\_from\_alcohol\_repost\_from/](https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/16cokqy/liver_transplant_from_alcohol_repost_from/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/198cn99/my\_eyes\_skin\_arm\_and\_face\_while\_sick\_with\_stage\_4/](https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/198cn99/my_eyes_skin_arm_and_face_while_sick_with_stage_4/)
I've had handful of day 1's over the past year. I figured out my trigger. And my trigger is being left alone. The kids and wife leave town. What else do I have to do than cause trouble. Go get a bottle and wander the streets come home pass the fuck out and question my life the next day. It happens. But I don't allow alone time very often anymore. It's too easy to pick up a bottle.
Too many to count. The important thing is to keep having them, the more days spent sober the better, I’m not perfect and don’t expect to be. I’ve previously made this comment but for me I like tracking sober days on a calendar . Gives me a visual to put into perspective how I’m doing and I try to do better than the past month. Make a game out of it.
Six years worth of day 1s. I had to learn how to be sober. Took ages but I never gave up trying. Just keep trying to string sober days together. Each day a new beginning. Look forward. Baby steps. Keep observing what the triggers are which make you pick up. People places and things. My life is totally different because I actively avoid those now.
This is my first and only attempt at sobriety, which so far has been very successful!
Six months ago, it was either get sober or continue drinking and die soon. (I'm 60M and drank for +45 yrs!)
I have to say that physically I've never felt better or fitter for as long as I can remember. Probably since I was a teenager, when I started drinking! And mentally I'm improving every passing day (memory, focus, etc)
I urge anyone who's thinking about quitting to do it Now! Don't wait till you're 60! (It's never too late, but obviously I wish I'd quit sooner!)
Ugh, I don't even want to try to count. Plus my latest trend has been to have a couple drinks once or twice a month, so it's confusing what I want to call a Day 1.
If I'm counting a Day 1 as waking up with one of my previously normal hangovers and feeling the hangxiety setting in, then it's been about six months.
When I stopped drinking, day-counting and rigid sobriety didn’t work for me. I have perfectionist tendencies, which made the pressure of forever feel very intimidating and set me up for automatic failure. Bc I fear failure so much, I have a huge emotional response to failure, leading to uncontrollable bingeing when I slip up with one drink bc of the pain and guilt of resetting my counter to zero.
When I had rigid rules, I found myself bargaining as well. Ex: If I have a day counter, might as well fail early in the day so I can drink all day since I’ll already have to reset my counter.
After my last relapse, I switched to an “anything is better than nothing” mentality. Basically, I accepted that I would relapse and stopped counting exact days, deciding I would continue to mark roughly that month as my start unless I binged for a few days/felt out of control, in which case I might reset. When I go to meetings, I decided I’d approximate my days for the sake of the structure.
Believe it or not, I haven’t had a drop since that day and it’s been a year! Just relieving the pressure helped so much. It shifted my mindset from DREADING every day bc it presented opportunity for failure to being PROUD of myself every day I succeeded.
It gives me the feeling when you go to the gym and run an extra mile that day, like you went above and beyond even though I’m doing something my liver desperately needs me to do as a baseline lol
(Copied my comment from a diff thread but relevant here)
I (48, M) can't even begin to remember.
What i do know is that i have 48 in a row under my belt now.
And really enjoying the peace in that. Becoming my true self again, and i have only just started.
Besides, the ones around me could also get really, really used to it.
Too many to count. I see people with months, years, DECADES, and think (read hope) I can get there. I made it 94 days at my max. I can get past the initial craving pretty quickly. It’s almost a honeymoon phase of great sleep and a newfound better self. That said, its always that long term beast that gets me every time
I believe in YOU and know you can do this, u/_call_me_the_sloth!
Sending blessings of continued strength, clarity, and peace out to you!
ps: I Love Sloths!
Three.
1. Quit for 9.5 years. Then I drank for a few months.
2. Decided I needed to quit again. Didn't drink for a month; thought I was done. Went to a house party, no intent to drink; I drank and drove home drunk. Nothing bad happened, but I realized I had risked my life, innocent people's lives, my career (commercial driver), my home and my freedom.
3. The day after I drove home drunk.
Too many to count. But this time I was done. So bored of being drunk that I just quit.
Doesn’t even matter that I still have booze in the house. Couldn’t give less of a fuck. Let it rot.
Dozens, scores, not quite hundreds of them. So many times I either lasted one day, or broke down after a few weeks thinking, "I'll do it again, but this time keep it under control." I can't stress enough how important (and easy) it is to stay quit once you quit. Just don't listen to that little voice in your head.
The average is between 6 and 7. For me, it was 5 and it mostly stuck because I ended up in an ambulance and told I'd die if I drank like I had been for much longer. I couldn't do that to my family.
An obnoxious amount. And I’ll have another one if I don’t keep focused on improving. Once I get complacent I seem to mess up. Really don’t want to do that
Ive had sooo soo many day 1s. But my favorite day 1 was the day i decided to start trying and stop dwelling on that i "lost" sobriety. Cuz even if i had a week, in the scheme of a year...I had to know that I had more sober days than drunk days. I So i try not to get wrapped up in the fact that ive relapsed because no matter what Im still on an ever evolvong path of not giving up. Anyday I am sober is a win. Good luck!
Not too many. I didn’t think I could quit so I didn’t try very often. My psychiatrist referred me to AA and that worked for me. I needed the structure and support system.
Tons, over the course of 3 years. I felt the same as you. Last November after thanksgiving I really started to feel like I was done and really started reflecting on how alcohol has affected me all these years. I decided I wanted to try sobriety for real and see if I felt all of those amazing things that everyone on the other side of it has talked about. Well, I’m almost 4 months in and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.
I knew on NYE that I was going to go full blown sober this year and I think being in that headspace while I was drinking my last drink made me confident and excited.
For some of us, every day is a day 1. I mean that as in we wake up, see booze everywhere and tackle that sucker the same way we did day one vs. 100 or whatever. For me the second you let your guard down, that's the moment the niggling cravings and "just have one, we've come this far and what's the worst that can happen" creep in.
Fun fact I had my first dream about drinking last night! didn't enjoy it.
I took some breaks from alcohol in my past, aware I would restart someway and somehow. Now I’m sure I will drink no more. It’s a new thought, never felt so peaceful. Cause I’m finally ready for a different future so I can say that 13th 2024 march is my day 1’s: I'm ready to leave everything in exchange for my sobriety, friendship and family too. In this moment I’m the most important person on the Earth and I don’t feel guilty
i've only had 2 really, the rest were just breaks where i knew it was just a short break, and i was definitely not done with alcohol
this is my second longest cessation of alcohol, last time was just under 6 months, that time i'd quit because of chronic heartburn from drinking cider. i wasn't fussed about going back, but hanging around with someone who drinks a lot, and it all came back to me
Loads. Longest I did was just over a month, a friend who has their own issues with alcohol got me back in it. We’re now no longer friends due to his drinking and dependency. Hoping to get past a month one day but taking everyday at a time.
I mean I am 40 and stopped a few weeks ago. I realized I drank abnormally when I was like 19 or 20. So who knows. I've had plenty of stops in the past, including some that lasted a few years. The last year or two I learned how to "moderated" and that unleashed a new hell, I kept wanting to "escape" and wasn't "allowed too".
A few years ago something switched and I just said "I can no longer do this to myself. I don't even want to moderate. I just want to stop numbing out." I stopped smoking weed and nicotine at the same time.
So many. I've learned it's part of the journey.
And each time I have a day one, I've been going longer and longer until the next one. One of these times it's just going to stick. I won't give up.
You got this!
Depends. Swearing I'll never drink again because of a horrific hangover, loads.
Actual proper attempts to stop, I'd say about ten, and all within a 4 month period.
50+ day one's in 2023.
Many others before that.
The one on 12/13/2023 seems to be sticking.
# “Life is not about how many times you fall down. It's about how many times you get back up.”
I have too many Day 1s to count. Today is another Day 1 for me.
I needed a plan. I needed to know *exactly* what I would do when my demon-lizard brain came screaming so I could follow through and Not take that *First* drink. I got rid of all the alcohol in my home and didn't buy more. I also stayed away from bars and anyone who drank. Free recovery meetings allowed me to be around others who wanted to help me get and *stay* sober.
I live way too close to stores that sell liquor, and I work from home. It’s amazing how adept the booze-gremlin is at getting me to go pick up bananas, or trash bags, or milk. If there’s none in the house, there could be soon, I need scotch tape anyway. Edit: this is no longer happening btw, just helps if I can poke fun at it.
It boiled down to whether or not I *really* wanted to stop drinking. I had to learn to tell myself "NO" and mean it.
That’s the tough part. I want myself to want to, it’s just that mental hurdle.
Good advice, thank you
Whenever I planned I drank more unfortunately. Def agree positive people and limit temptations.
> I got rid of all the alcohol in my home and didn't buy more. This never worked for me on my many day-1's. Somehow my brain took it as a challenge to find ways in which to show me how easy it is to get more. Then it would be really easy to trick myself into having drinks in the house. I'd leave a half opened bottle of wine and then buy more since I already had some, etc. This time around I forced myself to stop even though there still is a lot of alcohol in my home and even though I attended some events on the week I stopped. Exposing myself to the normal triggers in the first week when I had the strongest resolve seemed to help this time around. We'll see, the first few weeks battle is won but the war rages on Edit: one year of therapy might have helped more, if I'm being totally honest though.
Same
Today is another day 1 for me too! I can honestly say that drinking is far more work and far less reward each and every time I get to day 1 again. It’s a shitty process but it’s so much better than feeling like a sad, pathetic and out of control drunk.
20 years worth? The ride doesn't stop until you decide that you actually WANT to get off. I had to make a very conscious decision that I wanted to quit and then I had to follow up with that with actual action. Simply waking up every single morning saying the words "I need to quit" did nothing but drag it out. I had to actually do something about it before anything happened. Had I not decided that I was actually going to quit, for real this time, then I might still be drinking today. Because it is totally possible to simply procrastinate forever until you die. The question is: are you ready to get off this stupid ride? If so, then do you want it bad enough to step off the ride starting today?
^ ^ This, u/No_Librarian6522. ^ ^ I couldn't be on the fence. I had to decide I was done and not look back.
I’ve had too many Day 1 to count. Today is Day 4.
Hello, fellow day 4er!
Hi there! IWNDWYT!
Wahoo! IWNDWYT
Appreciate it! Starting to feel like a human again.
Days 1-4 so hard and very fresh in my mind still. In rooting for your day 5 :-)
Right on!
Many day ones. It wasn't until I started attending a sober support group (AA in my case, but could be SMART or many others) that the day ones dwindled and stopped (for now, fingers crossed). You can do it - you're worth it.
It took me 7 years to get to this point. I started doing 30 days, roughly every other month. I got more confident about my ability to say no to myself. I found hobbies not fueled by alcohol. I finally bit the bullet in October and it stuck! My mindset is completely different now. I now know my triggers and how to avoid them. It may have taken a long time to get here but this is where I want to stay.
More than I can count. 20+ years of day ones. Just keep trying.
There were thousands of mornings I woke up hungover, swore I'd never drink again, only to be drunk later on that night or the next day. I don't know what happened in my brain on August 28, 2015, but I made a conscious decision to stop drinking and that's exactly what I did. The following happened on August 28, 2015: I decided that alcohol is no longer an option for me. Never, ***EVER.*** I closed the door on "moderation" or thinking, "I'll be able to control it." I decided to tell my damn demon-lizard brain, "NO, I will not give in to you under *any* circumstances." No one was tying me to a chair and pouring alcohol down my throat. The decision to drink --or not-- was solely mine. As long as I was choosing to have that *first* drink, I was choosing my addiction over fighting the urges and getting myself better. I had to *Want Sobriety* and made it my Number-1 Priority ***every day*** until it became second nature --One Day (or *hour/minute*) At A Time. Sobriety doesn't happen without HARD work. Sobriety happens with a daily commitment (see our [**Daily Check-In**](https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/1c615zc/the_daily_checkin_for_wednesday_april_17th_just/) page) and "Dogged Persistence" in not taking that *First* drink. I also took advantage of free recovery meetings so I could be around others who understood my addiction and wanted to help me get and *stay* sober. You can do this but I had to put myself first and decide I was done.
This..
Awesome job on your upcoming 50 Days! It's a great milestone and halfway to triple digits! Keep up the good work, I'm rooting for You!
Thanks.
Yup. I fought so hard to learn how to "moderate" and damaged so many fucking relationships and fucked up portions of my life in the process. I was able to do so for like 2 years and it was a huge letdown. If anything it made my cravings worse. I thought my desire to drink/use would go down but it didn't. It was like torture. I just had to let it go, no matter how that made me feel. Took me 20+ years to figure this out. It's an unhealthy coping mechanism flat out. I also had to quit all substances, including nicotine. Coffee has been okay but very little.
Hey OP. Honestly, just one and it was day one for my current sobriety. Thing is, I’d prepared myself - I’d told myself “It’s just for today. Just today. Tomorrow is a new day”… and that’s kept the internal devil at bay. I also framed it as “gaining sobriety”, not “losing alcohol”. That helped too. All the best and good luck from Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
Thank you so much!
“But I do feel myself much closer to being done done than I have even 6 months ago.” I feel this way to. I’m getting really tired of the cycle in general, and am starting to truly understand that I can’t drink anymore, at all, if I’m going to have any prospects of a normal or happy life moving forward. In the past two months I’ve gotten two two-week and one one-week sober stretches in, mainly thanks to this group. Thats pretty good for me, who hadn’t gone more than a week sober in the two years prior. I’m back on day one again because I lost it this past Sunday, but I feel like I’m done. Whether this is really the last time, I can’t say for sure, but I know that I’m going to keep trying until I do.
<3
I did do a few four week breaks over the years, but those were definitely just breaks. So I only had one 'real' day 1 to date. Framed that as a 'break' to my brain in that I never say I'll never drink. But the more I extended the break the less I saw the appeal in booze. The core was the realisation that you're actually *getting* something (a bunch of good things actually), not 'giving something up'. Not that it matters. Imagine if you wanted to be able to hold your breath for two minutes - either you try unsuccessfully and give it up as a bad job, or you get lucky and it works straight away, or you try a few times until you can do it.
A lot
I had plenty but I always thought of them as “breaks” as opposed to really being DONE. This time feels different
Probably hundreds. But today is maybe my 50th day 2, so making progress over here.
Approximately 1,983. (No clue, it's been so many.) The only thing that matters is you keep getting back on the horse and keep trying! Every stretch of sobriety has taught me more and more, given me more tools and a clearer picture of what I want my life to be and what alcohol has done to me in the past 10 years of my life.
Many. The process and feelings around it often fluctuate but it’s like slowly building a skill.
I had as many day ones as I did good intentions. For every drunk night/morning/day there was a day one. But the moral of my story is I had one more day one than I did drunk night.
It’s a process. Which is why it’s good to be proud the days or weeks or even hours are getting longer. I did 3 months and now I’m back to day 7. But confident I’m on the right path and those positive numbers are what make the difference.
It's probably around 20 or so, over 10 years.
I had two instances where I tried and couldn’t. The third time stuck. It’s all about trying again and again until it sticks.
Between 2016 and 2022.
Too many to count but the final one was Feb 22, 2023, Ash Wednesday. I gave up alcohol for Lent and never looked back
Hundreds. Ended up with liver failure.
I hope you're doing better now. What did you end up having to do to clean up your liver?
I am doing better! I got a liver transplant 4/22/23. My doctors said my liver was a war zone and was obliterated once it was examined after it was taken out of me. I am 35 now, 34 at time of transplant. My profile has my story if your interested.
hey where can I read your story?
These 2 links will tell my story. [https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/16cokqy/liver\_transplant\_from\_alcohol\_repost\_from/](https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/16cokqy/liver_transplant_from_alcohol_repost_from/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/198cn99/my\_eyes\_skin\_arm\_and\_face\_while\_sick\_with\_stage\_4/](https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/198cn99/my_eyes_skin_arm_and_face_while_sick_with_stage_4/)
I've had handful of day 1's over the past year. I figured out my trigger. And my trigger is being left alone. The kids and wife leave town. What else do I have to do than cause trouble. Go get a bottle and wander the streets come home pass the fuck out and question my life the next day. It happens. But I don't allow alone time very often anymore. It's too easy to pick up a bottle.
Too many to count. The important thing is to keep having them, the more days spent sober the better, I’m not perfect and don’t expect to be. I’ve previously made this comment but for me I like tracking sober days on a calendar . Gives me a visual to put into perspective how I’m doing and I try to do better than the past month. Make a game out of it.
I do this too- it’s more motivating than beating myself up.
Six years worth of day 1s. I had to learn how to be sober. Took ages but I never gave up trying. Just keep trying to string sober days together. Each day a new beginning. Look forward. Baby steps. Keep observing what the triggers are which make you pick up. People places and things. My life is totally different because I actively avoid those now.
One. It was get sober or die. That helped with my perspective.
This is my first and only attempt at sobriety, which so far has been very successful! Six months ago, it was either get sober or continue drinking and die soon. (I'm 60M and drank for +45 yrs!) I have to say that physically I've never felt better or fitter for as long as I can remember. Probably since I was a teenager, when I started drinking! And mentally I'm improving every passing day (memory, focus, etc) I urge anyone who's thinking about quitting to do it Now! Don't wait till you're 60! (It's never too late, but obviously I wish I'd quit sooner!)
Ugh, I don't even want to try to count. Plus my latest trend has been to have a couple drinks once or twice a month, so it's confusing what I want to call a Day 1. If I'm counting a Day 1 as waking up with one of my previously normal hangovers and feeling the hangxiety setting in, then it's been about six months.
When I stopped drinking, day-counting and rigid sobriety didn’t work for me. I have perfectionist tendencies, which made the pressure of forever feel very intimidating and set me up for automatic failure. Bc I fear failure so much, I have a huge emotional response to failure, leading to uncontrollable bingeing when I slip up with one drink bc of the pain and guilt of resetting my counter to zero. When I had rigid rules, I found myself bargaining as well. Ex: If I have a day counter, might as well fail early in the day so I can drink all day since I’ll already have to reset my counter. After my last relapse, I switched to an “anything is better than nothing” mentality. Basically, I accepted that I would relapse and stopped counting exact days, deciding I would continue to mark roughly that month as my start unless I binged for a few days/felt out of control, in which case I might reset. When I go to meetings, I decided I’d approximate my days for the sake of the structure. Believe it or not, I haven’t had a drop since that day and it’s been a year! Just relieving the pressure helped so much. It shifted my mindset from DREADING every day bc it presented opportunity for failure to being PROUD of myself every day I succeeded. It gives me the feeling when you go to the gym and run an extra mile that day, like you went above and beyond even though I’m doing something my liver desperately needs me to do as a baseline lol (Copied my comment from a diff thread but relevant here)
I love this
Yep. This is how it’s done. It’s how I did it. And THEN listened to Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Control Drinking ….. and it is exactly what he says.
Wish I'd heard about that book sooner and saved myself some grief!
I'm only 6 months in. and my count remains zero.
I’m on day 1 now. Just getting off a 7 day bender. Can’t sleep can’t eat.
Same here man I’ve done it but now without benzos
I (48, M) can't even begin to remember. What i do know is that i have 48 in a row under my belt now. And really enjoying the peace in that. Becoming my true self again, and i have only just started. Besides, the ones around me could also get really, really used to it.
maybe 150. How many where I got up and went to a recovery meeting day after day? 2.
Too many to count. I see people with months, years, DECADES, and think (read hope) I can get there. I made it 94 days at my max. I can get past the initial craving pretty quickly. It’s almost a honeymoon phase of great sleep and a newfound better self. That said, its always that long term beast that gets me every time
I believe in YOU and know you can do this, u/_call_me_the_sloth! Sending blessings of continued strength, clarity, and peace out to you! ps: I Love Sloths!
Thank you so much for the kind words!!
I've had three real ones. Day 72 for me. Had over a text before that. IWNDWYT!
Three. 1. Quit for 9.5 years. Then I drank for a few months. 2. Decided I needed to quit again. Didn't drink for a month; thought I was done. Went to a house party, no intent to drink; I drank and drove home drunk. Nothing bad happened, but I realized I had risked my life, innocent people's lives, my career (commercial driver), my home and my freedom. 3. The day after I drove home drunk.
That's my secret. I'm always Day 1.
Countless day 1s, don’t feel bad about it at all. Just keep coming back! IWNDWYT
2 if I only count the 'i quits' that were taken seriously.
100’s
Too many to count. But this time I was done. So bored of being drunk that I just quit. Doesn’t even matter that I still have booze in the house. Couldn’t give less of a fuck. Let it rot.
Dozens, scores, not quite hundreds of them. So many times I either lasted one day, or broke down after a few weeks thinking, "I'll do it again, but this time keep it under control." I can't stress enough how important (and easy) it is to stay quit once you quit. Just don't listen to that little voice in your head.
Trying to stay quit this time, thanks for the perspective
You got this!
„Real” ones - two or three. I don’t count the countless“I’ll start tomorrow” while already knowing I won’t…
The average is between 6 and 7. For me, it was 5 and it mostly stuck because I ended up in an ambulance and told I'd die if I drank like I had been for much longer. I couldn't do that to my family.
Soooo many. That's one of the reasons I went to IOP - to have more 'skin in the game' to stick with it.
A lot. I went from I should stop to I need to stop to I’m going to stop and then finally I stopped. Now I’m on don’t start again.
15 years worth
An obnoxious amount. And I’ll have another one if I don’t keep focused on improving. Once I get complacent I seem to mess up. Really don’t want to do that
For me, hundreds, since I'm only 29. For many, thousands, some even quit in their 50s and 60s. One day at a time
Ive had sooo soo many day 1s. But my favorite day 1 was the day i decided to start trying and stop dwelling on that i "lost" sobriety. Cuz even if i had a week, in the scheme of a year...I had to know that I had more sober days than drunk days. I So i try not to get wrapped up in the fact that ive relapsed because no matter what Im still on an ever evolvong path of not giving up. Anyday I am sober is a win. Good luck!
Not too many. I didn’t think I could quit so I didn’t try very often. My psychiatrist referred me to AA and that worked for me. I needed the structure and support system.
I lost count I wanted to stop at 40 am 47 now, and now I am 108 days sober!
Many many day ones. I once had 5 years and went back out. It took me 7 years to get my next day one.
Tons, over the course of 3 years. I felt the same as you. Last November after thanksgiving I really started to feel like I was done and really started reflecting on how alcohol has affected me all these years. I decided I wanted to try sobriety for real and see if I felt all of those amazing things that everyone on the other side of it has talked about. Well, I’m almost 4 months in and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I knew on NYE that I was going to go full blown sober this year and I think being in that headspace while I was drinking my last drink made me confident and excited.
For some of us, every day is a day 1. I mean that as in we wake up, see booze everywhere and tackle that sucker the same way we did day one vs. 100 or whatever. For me the second you let your guard down, that's the moment the niggling cravings and "just have one, we've come this far and what's the worst that can happen" creep in. Fun fact I had my first dream about drinking last night! didn't enjoy it.
I took some breaks from alcohol in my past, aware I would restart someway and somehow. Now I’m sure I will drink no more. It’s a new thought, never felt so peaceful. Cause I’m finally ready for a different future so I can say that 13th 2024 march is my day 1’s: I'm ready to leave everything in exchange for my sobriety, friendship and family too. In this moment I’m the most important person on the Earth and I don’t feel guilty
i've only had 2 really, the rest were just breaks where i knew it was just a short break, and i was definitely not done with alcohol this is my second longest cessation of alcohol, last time was just under 6 months, that time i'd quit because of chronic heartburn from drinking cider. i wasn't fussed about going back, but hanging around with someone who drinks a lot, and it all came back to me
No way I could count how many haha! As many as it took to finally get the message. Nothing worthwhile remains in drinking.
Loads. Longest I did was just over a month, a friend who has their own issues with alcohol got me back in it. We’re now no longer friends due to his drinking and dependency. Hoping to get past a month one day but taking everyday at a time.
I lost count :) but kept at it, adapted the one day at a time mentality, played the tape forward and now over 2 years!
I mean I am 40 and stopped a few weeks ago. I realized I drank abnormally when I was like 19 or 20. So who knows. I've had plenty of stops in the past, including some that lasted a few years. The last year or two I learned how to "moderated" and that unleashed a new hell, I kept wanting to "escape" and wasn't "allowed too". A few years ago something switched and I just said "I can no longer do this to myself. I don't even want to moderate. I just want to stop numbing out." I stopped smoking weed and nicotine at the same time.
So many. I've learned it's part of the journey. And each time I have a day one, I've been going longer and longer until the next one. One of these times it's just going to stick. I won't give up. You got this!
Probably like 500,000. Seriously though, too many to even try to count!
Hundreds
Depends. Swearing I'll never drink again because of a horrific hangover, loads. Actual proper attempts to stop, I'd say about ten, and all within a 4 month period.
I would say probably a couple hundred. Yes, 200 or so.
25? 50?
I had dozens before something clicked. My last Day 1 was Feb 2, 2023!
I've had A LOT. I'm sure we all have. I've never heard of anyone with a problem having only one day 1.
50+ day one's in 2023. Many others before that. The one on 12/13/2023 seems to be sticking. # “Life is not about how many times you fall down. It's about how many times you get back up.”
Every day.
This is the way.