Today marks One Year (and one day) Without Alcohol for me. I post here occasionally, but honestly haven't ended up thinking about this all that much as the year goes by. I did The Alcohol Experiment at the beginning of the year, which was helpful for me, and then I kinda just, got back to my life. Except for things like weddings, I didn't really notice alcohol or my lack of it, except for when I realized that I had simplified one more element of my life. I feel like I am back to my style of life before I drank, which is just that alcohol takes up no space in my head and I am free to be a person, however I choose that to be.
The good: no headaches or stomach aches from drinking, which were becoming more prevalent. No more spending my allowance on beer, so I have been invest more into cycling, which is now an incredibly important part of my life. The last benefit that I was not expecting was Simplicity. I didn't have to stop by the beer cooler whenever I went grocery stopping, even if only to look at what the prices were this week. I didn't have to try to plan ahead for the week to make sure I didn't drink my one 6-pack too early if I had something going on later. I don't have empty cans on my coffee table anymore from when I would drink a beer at night and go straight to bed. I also don't know, or care, anymore what the new trendy beer offerings are from the breweries in my area - that is to say I've freed up a bunch of head space for more valuable things.
The bad: Many of my problems are still my problems. Except for any alcohol related problems, I am still faced by all of my inadequacies and shortcomings in life, as well as unfortunate circumstances out of my control. I had an amazing and energetic pink cloud experience for the first few months of the year, and as that faded I realized that I am still fallible and so is everything around me, and I must get back to doing the Work. It has been freeing that beer no longer helps me to avoid my problems. This is a conscious decision I've had to make, to face my problems, rather than to try to find some other substance to help avoid them with. Even though quitting alcohol didn't solve my problems, I think that I am truly better off without it in the way.
Thanks to everyone who contributes here - I love to lurk and read how things are going for you all. As for me, I plan to continue Not Drinking.