Well, if you had told me at anytime between the ages of 15 and 43 that I would go 5 years without a drink, I would have told you you were crazy.
Sure is easy to say “No” these days, tho I’d still love to get shit-faced at the drop of a hat.
The funniest thing is the people I’ve met in recent years, who have no idea what a drunk I was for so long!
The best thing about sobriety is you feel you’ve accomplished something just by NOT fucking up! Hey - along the same lines, I’m now working on 48+ years without shooting heroin or robbing a bank, and 23+ years of not cheating on my wife! Pretty impressive, no?
Congratulations! I can’t believe it’s been five years–although I have a suspicion I didn’t know you were a problem drinker when you stopped drinking, but found out through a more or less casual “oh and by the way, I quit drinking a couple years back” type update on your life.
Still, it’s an accomplishment to be proud of.
And congratulations on not robbing a bank or shooting up heroin or cheating on your wife while you are at it. Some things our society treats so casually are bigger deals than we give them credit for.
Just decided to stop. Had tried to moderate for a couple of years, during which I clearly proved my ability to lie to myself. I can recall my days of 4 drinks max at open bars, where my 4 drinks would be 4 large tumblers full of gin…
The daily and weekly “limits” quickly became “goals.” Found it considerably easier to quit altogether than to moderate.
My kids were of an age where I realized my drinking posed quite a poor example.
Sure is nice to know DUI is one thing I won’t need to worry about.
I was able to quit smoking too - 25 or so years ago. I guess I have considerable “self control” in the respect that when I make my mind up to do something, it really is no big deal to do it. I mean - of course it is a big deal - but to drink or smoke, or not, is such a clear either/or thing. Once I made my mind up not to, it sorta took the choice out of the matter. I don’t know, maybe I’m just pigheaded.
Then as you pile up days, weeks, months, and years, you really don’t want to piss them away just for a momentary high.
Hell, I figure I drank enough over those 25-30 years for several normal lifetimes. So it isn’t as tho I’m missing out on anything. I just got mine all out of the way up front!
Dinsdale, five years is a major milestone! I salute you for it and celebrate with you. (I’m having Kroger brand purified drinking water. I try to drink four of the 16.9 oz bottles a day.)
I quit smoking almost 2 years ago cold turkey, and I severely curtailed my drinking to make sure I wouldn’t go back to smoking (as they are very linked for me). I have a beer now and again but I guess my days of drinking a couple of bottles of rotgut over the weekend are over.
