Hello. Today at 5pm, I stopped drinking. I have been wanting to for over a decade and it has caused lots of heartache. I am 34, married, also a mom of 3 kids- 10, 6, and 10 months old, work f/t and back in school. My normal consumption on a day I’m not working is 1.5-2 litres of wine, which def seems crazy after typing that. In the last week, I think I have made a breakthrough in how I view my life and hv cut down so I don’t go through terrible withdrawal and no wind up in detox for a 3rd time. I want to be and stay sober so badly. I am hoping this forum (which i didnt realize existed on this app whenever I have reset before) can help me. When I am home I am taking care of our children and when I work, I am taking care of other people. Realized I have zero time for myself and hubby and I rarely get out. Trying our best to clean up our lives which on the outside look amazing since we are functional alcoholics (most the time) and very few know we both have drinking problems. So, here is to sobriety!
P.s. any advice if quitting smoking at same to me a good idea? Has anyone stopped both together? I want all this crap out of my body. I eat very healthy and exercise so if I could just drop the alcohol (over 1000 calories a day right there) and gross cigarettes, I would be happier, healthier, in much better shape, and maybe even fit into my damn prepreggo clothes again. Anyway, rant over.
Hey Dani!
Welcome and congrats on taking on this journey
I was drinking as much as you daily and functioning also. It will be 3 months in a couple hours. (4months with one laps)
I quit smoking about 3-4 weeks after I quit drinking and while I’m having a pretty hard time right now, it’s the longest I’ve gone in like 20 years. Lol I’m about your age also.
I use a vape to keep me away from buying a pack when things get especially rough, but I often don’t use it for long periods of time and don’t ever bring it out of the house.
There are loads of options to help you quit smoking quitting drinking made it soooo much easier though that’s for sure!
Hey @Dani welcome, welcome. Good for you deciding to better your life and be a healthier happier individual. I’m sure others with more experience can weigh in here but maybe go slow. You seem to have a lot going on with work, kids, and school (You wonder woman, you😉) that maybe just focusing on the challenges of sobriety would be best first. Quitting tobacco can be crazy stressful and if it puts your sobriety at risk would not be worth it. Whatever you decide to know there will be a ton of knowledge and support here. Wishing you the best.
@Decided @kiki Thank you for the support. Getting kids ready for school and going to focus today on keeping busy, which shouldn’t be a problem. Whenever I have tried to stop drinking it’s suddenly on my mind constantly that I CAN’T have a drink. Going to try to reprogram that somehow to being grateful I won’t have a drink. We shall see. I’m definitely going to try and participate in this forum since that hasn’t been part of my prior attempts and hope helps if I get weak. Have a great day everyone!
Focus just on your sobriety and recovery. You can do other goals later, like quitting smoking. Doing too much at once can set you up for failure because it’s too much too soon. Dont think “I cant drink forever” Stay in today…today, in this moment, I WON’T drink. And tomorrow, you’ll tell yourself the same thing.
Hi @Dani and welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your decision to become sober! But as you already know it will be a challenge. I never smoked so sorry no advice there, but if it were me, I would tackle one thing at a time. Speaking of calories I was able to finally lose weight once sober - slowly but 45 lbs so far.
Stay positive and keep fighting!
Here is a good topic to help with early recovery:
Welcome to the forum @Dani and congrats on taking the big first step.
I wouldn’t suggest doing more than one at a time. Stick to the alcohol first and then set a new goal to quit smoking later on. If you overwhelm yourself you won’t get far. It can be too difficult to tackle both at once is what I’ve heard from others on here.
Can you and your hubby start going on date nights or something? Sounds like you need to set up some much needed time for you two. Definitely take care of yourself in these next few days!
Thanks for your response We are going out dinner Friday and haven’t in quite awhile. I love restaurant we are going and wondering if we should cancel because can’t even picture sitting down, having a great meal, finally out without kids, and NOT having a glass of wine with my food. This has been a struggle for me in the past. We don’t have much of a social life, so whenever an event comes up or we are able to go out don’t enjoy myself without drinking. I need to learn how to do that. Hoping it’s just reprogramming and if stay sober enough times out can start enjoying it? Idk. Just going to focus on today. Already thought of drinking has been in my mind since dropped kids at school. Going for a nice long walk with a friend at 10 and going to try to focus on schoolwork and baby when we get back home.
Yes! You got it. Reprogramming for sure. It’s a process, but you will get to the point where you can have fun again sober. Order a sparkling water or pop instead. Or a virgin drink. Yum sugar.
@Dani. Hello. I am new to the community as well. I understand your problem. It’s the same with me. I have 4 boys. 11,11,9,7.
I also smoke, but I think it will be better for me to focus on giving up alcohol first and not trying to take both at the same time.
I have been sober for 1 day. One very long day. I stay at home which is extremely hard that’s when I drink. No one is home and it is very easy to do. I know you don’t have a lot of time for just “you”. But maybe try to take up a hobby to stay busy. :). That’s what I’m going to try to do. Best of luck to you. You got this!
@Florida81 it’s so hard I can’t wait for the snow to be gone so I can get back into hiking with my dog. Sometimes it’s so hard (which we all can agree). I love my job but the stress of my job really gets to me at times and I don’t want to give up but maybe I need time away from this environment. I don’t know.
Hi Dani, good on you for making yourself accountable; to get to the origins of your issue, why did you start drinking and smocking, was there a cause?