Here I am, One Week Sober! I made the decision to go sober in December 2022 and gifted myself sobriety for Christmas. My first dry day was December 26th, Boxing Day 2022. You can read the start of my journey here.
One Week Sober – challenges
The first week was bound to be hard. I was expecting it to be difficult. Abstinence is something that I have done regularly without a problem so far. Normally it feels like a month to be endured with the promise of a large glass of wine at the end of the month to celebrate! There is no ‘light’ at the end of this tunnel. Oh, other than massive improvements to my health (I hope!) 🙂
Firstly there is the constant nagging voice telling me that a glass of wine would not hurt. It is Christmas and everyone I know is drinking alcohol. I could decide to keep drinking until Jan 1st and start then like everyone else. I remind myself that I gifted myself sobriety for Christmas for a reason.
Then there are the habits to battle. The habit of saying ‘yes’ when I am offered a glass of wine in the evening. Drinking wine at dinner. The habit of curling up on the sofa to watch TV with a glass of wine by my side.
Next is the environment I am in. Wine and alcohol are everywhere in the house. People gave and received alcoholic Christmas presents. I even gave some of those myself! In addition to my standard wine habit, this time of year means mulled wine, snowballs, cocktails are also ‘normal’.
One Week Sober – physical changes
Maybe increased awareness from all the background reading I did made me notice the changes more. Having given up for a month or more at a time in the past I did not expect any problems. Although, I know the amount I have been drinking has been on the increase. Steadily increasing intake is something that many people report. It is the way the physical addiction works.
These are some of the symptoms I have been experiencing getting to one week sober:
- Inability to get to sleep
- Really REALLY poor sleep
- Weird vivid dreams when I do sleep
- anxiety
- hot flushes
- low level background nausea
I don’t know how long these symptoms are going to last but they are accompanied by a little voice telling me that one glass of wine would make them all go away!
The nausea is particularly triggering for me because I have emetophobia, a fear of sickness. If interested, you can read about my phobia here.
I am also feeling very very tired. Probably due to the lack of sleep rather than anything else but I am glad not to be working this week!
One Week Sober – help and support
I cannot begin to tell you how helpful the ‘I Am Sober’ app has been this week. You can read stories from other users who are at the same place in the sobriety journey as you are. You can also read ahead to see what to expect next. The stories are inspirational. All the lessons learned and shared are so helpful. The community on the app is incredibly supportive and knowledgeable.
There are varying opinions on whether to share your plans to go sober with loved ones. Some people say the support that your family can give is essential. Others say that telling people helps you feel accountable and makes you more likely to stick to plans. I also read that declaring to friends and family that you are going sober is sometimes met with questions and a lack of support.
I have a mixed bag here. Some of my family are highly supportive. Others for well intentioned reasons are less so. There is a perception that alcohol is a treat and a route to relaxation. Moderate drinkers in my family are happily ignorant of the negative health impacts my drinking must have been having. They see me giving up as an unnecessary denial of pleasure.
I chose to share in full with the supportive members of the family and to down play or even hide the changes from the less supportive people. Please do not read this as being in any way critical of my family. They simply do not understand what I was doing to my body or how important it is to me to make that change.
One Week Sober – keeping busy!
One of the things I am finding is that the days are longer when you don’t drink. My evenings previously were spent watching TV, regularly refilling my wine glass. I have replaced the wine with sparkling water but there is definitely something missing.
I have been making the ‘pledge’ every day on the ‘I Am Sober’ app but I find that that is too quick for me. Thinking about why I am doing this and having a bit more of a ritual about it feels important to me. I decided I would use one of my hobbies to support this process. Designing and making crochet blankets is something I have been doing for a few years. You can see some of my work and patterns over on my sister blog www.Sticktapeandstring.co.uk. During the first year (I hope) of my sobriety I am going to make a Sobriety Blanket. If you would like to join me in this I will post separately and you can find the details here.
Exercising is going to be important to me as a coping mechanism so as I look to the New Year I am going to make a resolution to go back to running. Just starting with Park Run – a free to join 5km timed run every week. I did not do the 31st December one so that was a fail but starting January I will be there!
One Week Sober – the biggest challenge
Without question the biggest challenge of my first week sober was New Year’s Eve. We stayed home and had more family round. Our guests did the cooking which is a lovely treat and a re-run of the previous year. It was set up to be an alcohol fuelled evening starting with Prosecco and moving on through cocktails and wine then back to champagne for the new year.
I thought a lot about whether to share the fact I was not going to drink with everyone. In the end having road tested it with immediate family, I decided the best route was to stay silent on the subject! As the hostess I would have control over glass filling through the evening so planned to hide my sobriety.
I bought in alcohol free drinks for each of the types of alcohol that we would be drinking. There is one teetotal member of my household which is a real source of support and inspiration plus a good cover for having the alcohol free stuff about.
The evening was lovely. Really good fun and the company and food was delightful. Mexican food in abundance soooo tasty. I kept control of glass filling and managed to stay below the radar. Time went really quickly and before I knew it we were ringing in the New Year raising toasts and watching the firework display.
We are really lucky having a hot tub out in the garden and as in the previous year the end of the evening was spent in there. Younger family members who had been out for the evening came back and joined us with lots of stories. For the first time I noticed the effects of alcohol on those I had been with all evening, from a totally sober perspective. Not that anyone was any more intoxicated than usual. I suppose that would have been me in any of the last 40 years or so.
I went to bed around 4am tired but happy, clear headed and looking forward to what 2023 would bring. Proud of my one week sober! Next challenge is New Year’s Day when we have nine people for a family birthday and re-run of Christmas Day.
Wish me luck!
Annie 🙂
Nice post.
Thanks! 🙂