Sober Snacks #24

Bite size tips & stories to help you not drink today. For the sober and sober curious looking for digestible, on-the-go sober-positive content. These are the stories and lifestyle tips of people who don’t drink. Enjoy :)

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When you have thoughts about alcohol, what do you do or say to yourself?

Whenever I have like an intrusive drinking thought, I tell myself, “it’s never as fun as you remember it was”. It was mostly just sad and disappointing. It helps me to fast forward and I think about the level of upset I would have toward myself after I drank. All the hard work I put into my sobriety would be questioned and I know how disappointed I would be.

The old relationships where I hated myself would come back. That’s not the kind of relationship I want with myself; I like the one I have now. It’s full of pride and peace and joy. Picking up a drink is not worth losing that. If I’m ever super triggered, When I can’t think my way out of it, it helps to move my body and breathe. I’ll take a walk and take a couple of deep breaths to try to clear my mind of the intrusive thinking.

When asked “why don’t you drink?” , you say:

It depends on who’s asking me. I can gauge if I think someone’s going be as hardass about it, and if that’s the case I won’t really entertain them with my truth. I’ve realized that sometimes people aren’t ready to hear my truth because it triggers them and they’re uncomfortable with it. Mostly I just tell people, “It just doesn’t feel good to me anymore”.

If I feel like divulging, I’ll add, “Honestly, I don’t like myself when I drink. It got to a point where I was unhappy with myself — I wanted better for myself. The only way I knew how to do that was to completely take alcohol out of the equation. Moderating was just too exhausting so I quit completely”.