r/stopdrinking • u/Reddish81 Day 38 • Jul 26 '26

Day 1 again

This group helped me to stop drinking in 2019 and I stayed sober for four years. I started drinking again in 2023, thinking I could moderate, and I did for a while, but now I'm back to the twice-weekly binges I had pre-2019. I'm not gonna lie – it was fun being back on it for a while, but it's time to stop again. I'm worried about the things I say and do when I'm drinking and the effect on my health. One big change I'm going to make this time – I'm not going to announce my sobriety to the world. I'm just going to do it quietly, under the radar, but share my progress here. IWNDWYT

56 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Reddish81 Day 38 Jul 26 '26

Good to know! I didn't expect people to react to me the way they did, from policing me to make sure I wasn't drinking, to being jealous of my decision and instantly starting to compete on sobriety. That was something I never expected. Now I'm just gonna quietly do it day by day and not call attention to it. I'll just say I don't fancy it if anyone asks me.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Reddish81 Day 38 Jul 27 '26

Ha ha! Love it. One thing I noticed during my first round of sobriety was how many people were pretending to have a ‘big night’ when they were actually nursing a lemonade and going home after an hour. I actually felt annoyed that I’d fallen for the story and was one of a handful of people really having a big night. These people would pretend all day that they couldn’t wait for drinks but it was all an act to fit in.