In a similar vein to the previous post, I have given up drinking. For good. It's all down to Allen Carr, who in his book Easy Way to Control Alcohol, applies the same approach to drinking as he does to smoking. Rather than making you think you're missing out on something, he makes drinking seem like some kind of prison from which you're lucky to escape.
If not ruining my life, drinking was making it hard for me to face up to certain truths about my life, for example how little time I spent with my sons and how little energy I had for doing anything other than, well, drinking. I was tired and dehydrated almost all the time, and had forgotten what it felt like to get up in the morning full of energy and enthusiasm. I had even forgotten what it felt like to go to bed sober, and lie there for a while waiting to go to sleep.
I feel a great deal better now. Carr says, near the end of the book, that you must never, ever question your decision to stop drinking. Inevitably, the thought occurs to me often that perhaps I've made the wrong decision. Those thoughts I nip in the bud as quickly as I can. But there are far, far more occasions when I think myself lucky to have escaped from something that was draining the life out of me, not to mention costing me about £100 a month. Stopping drinking isn't for everyone, I know, but for me there are so many other great things in life that I really don't feel I'm missing out.
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Well done, this is amazing news. Having been off the booze myself (bar one mouthful) for 25 days now, I am feeling pretty healthy for it.
I didn't realise you had decided to give up for good. It's surprisingly easy over this short period, but how are you feeling about the idea of this meaning forever?
When you see the damage alcohol does to people's lives... (you know who I'm thinking of) it's one more incentive.
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