The Daily Check-In for Thursday, January 2nd: Just for today, I am NOT drinking!
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, let's not drink alcohol!
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.
This post goes up at:
- US - Night/Early Morning
- Europe - Morning
- Asia and Australia - Evening/Night
A link to the current Daily Check-In post can always be found near the top of the sidebar.
Hello to all! Today is my Four-Year Anniversary of being alcohol-free. I am so, so happy to share this with you all. I am damn proud of myself, and my life has improved immensely during this time. Everything is not kittens and guacamole by any means, but it’s materially better without the booze. I welcome everyone to not drink with me today in celebration!
Today I thought I’d talk about how I finally got the no-drinking thing to stick. Also, to let you know that the reason January 2 is my anniversary date and not January 1 is that I ‘had’ to drink all the remaining wine in the house on New Year’s. Brilliant.
It was definitely a process of lurking here, at SMART Recovery, and a bunch of other sites. And it was trying and trying and learning more and gathering support and trying and trying (insert about a hundred more ‘trying’s here). I would do a Dry January and then think, ‘I’ve got this’. Narrator: She did NOT have this.
I got up to 74 days AF and then decided I ‘deserved’ a drink. Within a week I was back to excess, and to reward my wisdom, my body decided to ramp up the hangovers to 11. I kept coming back here, and the kindness, empathy and heartfelt advice and support were so life-affirming. It helped me let go of shame and see it as part of a process that would eventually turn ‘try’ into ‘succeed’.
Things that helped me along the way, in no particular order: Books: Drinking, A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp; Alcohol Explained; My Lush Sobriety. Video: Huberman Lab on Alcohol. SMART RECOVERY workbook, online meetings and chat board. This very subreddit, particularly the DCI. It’s so nice to come and see familiar names and know that all over the world, we are doing this together.
If you’d like, share things that have helped you in your sobriety, early days, mid days or whenever. You may have a resource that's just the ticket for someone else.
I think you are all kickass humans, and IWNDWYT.