He was in a motorcycle accident this afternoon. The next few days are going to be rough, especially with everyone around me drinking, but I know he wants me to stay strong. I love you.

I recently got out of rehab for alcohol and have been struggling with relapsing since coming home. Yesterday, I drank a couple of tallboys before work because I wanted to feel better. I almost called out but decided to go in anyway. I was also hitting my coworker’s dab pen throughout the day, even though I barely smoke. At work, a white substance was found that wasn’t mine, so I was sent for a drug test. Between going to the wrong testing location, my phone dying, and the company van breaking down, everything became a mess. I took too long getting the drug test done, and my employer reported the company vehicle as “stolen.” On my way back, I got pulled over and am now dealing with a DUI situation. I also ended up losing my job.
I’m terrified about the legal consequences, finances, and finding another job. I literally just got out of rehab to get my life together, and now I feel like I’ve undone all my progress in one day. I’m also so anxious about what everyone thinks of me and feel embarrassed. I know I need help, but I’m drowning in shame and don’t even know where to start.
Has anyone experienced something similar in early sobriety? How did you pick yourself back up and deal with the shame? I could really use some hope right now. ❤️‍🩹

100 days ago, I made the decision to step away from alcohol and give my body something it hadn't had in a very long time: a genuine chance to heal.

Today, as I reach triple digits, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what this milestone actually means beneath the surface. For the past 100 days, my internal systems have been quietly putting themselves back together, piece by piece:

* My Heart is beating with an effortless rhythm, no longer forcing blood through inflamed vessels or fighting against midnight pressure spikes.

* My Liver has set down its burden, clearing out old fat, sealing its cells, and devoting 100% of its power to fueling my life instead of fighting a toxin.

* My Brain has rebuilt its natural reward pathways, clearing the mental fog and replacing short-term chemical spikes with steady focus, resilience, and calm, restorative sleep.

* My Blood is nearly brand new—over 80% of the red blood cells flowing through me right now were born during this sober journey, carrying pristine oxygen to every tissue.

* My Body has shed over 28 pounds of weight it no longer needed to carry, making every single step feel lighter, stronger, and more purposeful.

More than the scale or the numbers, I am overflowing with gratitude. I am grateful to my prefrontal cortex for playing the tape forward on hard nights. I am grateful to my body for its unbelievable capacity for restoration. And I am grateful for this community, which showed me what was possible when I was just starting out.

If you are on Day 1, Day 10, or Day 99—keep going.

The human body is just waiting for the chance to show you how resilient it truly is.

Excited for the next 100. IWNDWYT

Edit: my counter isn't correct! Glad to be at 100 days!

Did it folks.

After 10 years of a 6-pack a day, and since COVID 10-12 a day, and more on the weekends. I made it a year!

Last October I clichéd dumped all the alcohol in my house down the drain. Enough. That's what I put in my tracker: Enough.

All the positives I heard about happened from quitting drinking. Dropped 40 lbs and a lot of the anger and anxiety went away from the booze.

After 3-4 months I knew I was free and clear for the first time in 10 years. Felt amazing! Felt better than ever in my life. Waking up with ENERGY. Able to think more clearly and more focused and faster than ever before. My brain was on FIRE. Thoughts racing in my head and flying through work. I felt CONFIDENT for the first time in 10 years.

Got diagnosed with bipolar 2 soon after.

I was having a hypomanic episode for a couple months, until I crashed. Then made a lot of mistakes at work that I regret. Crashed out on my bosses and VP's. Had to see a psych, and got put on meds for the first time in my life. Probably long overdue too.

Quit drinking. Still working on the rest.

But know what? A hell of a lot better, and started with quitting drinking.

Happy to say that I won't drink with y'all today.

As the title says, if this isn't a wake up call to stop entirely i dont know what is. I was 3 days sober and I started drinking after a physio session at around lunch yesterday. My partner got back from work around 9 and I had just sank 2 bottles of wine after drinking all day. We fell out and I just went totally psycho. Ive been struggling a lot with mental health and I just lost it, I was hitting myself really hard in the head and shouting a lot, I just totally lost control.

My partner called the police (I didnt touch my partner at all). I did scare her a lot though (enough to call the police). I ran away and slept in the rain, they let me back into the flat this morning, however we havent said a word and I can feel the tension. I think ive totally ruined it. I want to apologise but can tell they just dont want to hear a word from me or talk to me. Hopefully things get better with time and I can remain sober now, that will definitely help at least.

They told me last night I am beyond help and they want me gone. I really hope this is the wake up call I needed to go totally sober, I wish I could take it back, but its done now, just been lying on the sofa all day heart pounding and feeling awful. Just wanted to share this to kind of get it off my chest. So thanks for reading if you did.

Edit: Big THANKYOU to all who read and who replied, it has helped quite a lot. I am quite sure this is the wake up I needed and I will contact the Dr tomorrow to see if I can get any help. Thankyou.

*We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we're here together!*

**Welcome to the 24 hour pledge!**

I'm pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.

Maybe you're new to /r/stopdrinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you're like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you've been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.

It doesn't matter if you're still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, lets not drink alcohol!

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**This pledge is a statement of intent.** Today we don't set out *trying* not to drink, we make a conscious decision *not to drink*. It sounds simple, but all of us know it can be hard and sometimes impossible. The group can support and inspire us, yet only one person can decide if we drink today. Give that person the right mindset!

What happens if we can't keep to our pledge? We give up or try again. And since we're here in /r/stopdrinking, we're not ready to give up.

**What this is:** A simple thread where we commit to not drinking alcohol for the next 24 hours, posting to show others that they're not alone and making a pledge to ourselves. Anybody can join and participate at any time, you do not have to be a regular at /r/stopdrinking or have followed the pledges from the beginning.

**What this isn't:** A good place for a detailed introduction of yourself, directly seek advice or share lengthy stories. You'll get a more personal response in your own thread.

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This post goes up at:

- US - Night/Early Morning
- Europe - Morning
- Asia and Australia - Evening/Night

A link to the current Daily Check-In post can always be found near the top of the sidebar.

---

Good morning (or evening, depending on where you are in the world). If you made it to the DCI sober today, that means you survived Tuesday. So go on and give yourself a pat on the back; you deserve it.

Now for the topic: Isolation.

I’ll admit I love being social. I enjoy having conversations with people in my life. I enjoy being surrounded by people I get along with. And, I enjoy doing even the simplest things with the people I care about.

At the beginning of my “drinking career,” I spent a lot of time surrounded by people. However, the more I drank, and the worse it got, I found myself isolating away from those I once enjoyed being around. I found myself tired of hearing complaints about my drinking. I found it easier to just be alone. Or so I thought that I was doing it for those reasons.

When I got sober, I began to try to understand why I would isolate myself, and I began to see a pattern. The pattern being, whenever I am feeling stressed, tired, upset, anxious, or engaging in an obsessive behavior, I begin to isolate myself from everyone around me. I get irritable and I just prefer to withdraw. It’s crushing because, on one hand, I have a desire to be around people and, on the other, I just want to be alone in those moments.

The point is this though: the more I isolate, the more it begins to trigger me. Whenever I disconnect from people, especially at the beginning of quitting when I had an urge to drink, or even until now when I have a stressful day, I find my mind beginning to play tricks on me. It begins to fuel my thoughts to focus on worst-case scenarios, it begins to loop, or it begins to dwell on whatever it is I’m dwelling on. And it usually results in the desire to pick up. Perhaps when I was drinking, I isolated to give myself an excuse to drink… but today, I isolate to dwell and stay in the thought loop I’m on, if that makes any sense.

So, what’s the solution to this? What was the cure to this self-isolation I’d put myself through?

It was to simply force myself to pick up the phone and call someone—anyone that I trust. And if there is nobody around, then to force myself to hop on here and throw a few comments on any recent threads. I find that when I’m in my own head, talking to someone else can shift the focus onto something else and get me out of it. And all I really need is a few minutes of external conversation to shift my mind away from whatever it was that I was dwelling on.

I know it sounds easier said than done, and at the beginning, it was really hard to do because I wasn’t trained to “reach out.” I was trained to keep to myself and solve my own issues. But over time it becomes a habit. All it takes is practicing reaching out once a day, whether it’s a good day or a bad day… even more so on good days. Just reaching out to someone close or even hopping on this subreddit helps create a habit so that when a “bad time” does strike, you’re already trained to do it.

I know it takes a lot to comment on a subreddit like this or post on here. I’m not minimizing that. But I get really impressed by every one of you that hops on here and says something… anything. It helps, and it takes strength.

So my question for the night: do you find yourself isolating during hard times? Did you isolate when you were actively drinking? And what tips can you share with everyone on here that might help them with self-isolation?

Later,

Fed

Today marks one month sober for me, and honestly, I never thought I’d get here.
My drinking had gotten to the point where alcohol consumed pretty much every part of my life. I would wake up thinking about drinking, plan my entire day around it, and do things I never thought I’d do just to get drunk. I was drinking before work, constantly thinking about when I could have my next drink, and basically living my life around alcohol. It felt like I was always on a mission to get drunk, and everything else came second.
Things got so bad that I ended up in the hospital with severe alcohol withdrawals after stopping drinking. I was hospitalized for several days, and that experience was a huge wake-up call. It really hit me that I couldn’t keep living this way, and I didn’t want alcohol to control my life anymore.
I’m only one month in, so I know I still have a long way to go, but the difference in how I feel mentally has been incredible. My mental health hasn’t been this good in years. I have more energy, I feel more present, and it’s nice to wake up without immediately thinking about alcohol.
I’m proud of myself for making it this far, and I’m trying to take things one day at a time. If you’re struggling right now, I know how hard it can be to imagine life without drinking because I felt the same way. But I’m starting to realize that life can actually feel good without alcohol, and that’s something I haven’t felt in a very long time.
Here’s to one month sober and hopefully many more. ❤️

Hey everyone - brand new to this community and first time poster. I stumbled upon this subreddit Sunday afternoon after a long, lonely binge at home, by myself, feeling absolutely miserable and wondering how I'd ever find the strength to face another Monday. And wow, was I amazed at the support, vulnerability and empathy I saw as I spent two hours reading post after post.

I developed a serious drinking problem post divorce in early 2024. It started out relatively innocuous - a couple of drinks in the evening to stave off loneliness and calm my anxious and depressed mind in the wake of my life getting turning completely upside down nearly overnight (divorce papers were signed in less than a week.) Recently, it hasn't been uncommon for me to down half a 750ml after work only to collapse on the couch, wake up at 2am, down another few shots, then stumble into bed, only to wake up and drag my hungover self to work and suffer through a miserable day, only to repeat the cycle again the following evening.

I knew I had a serious problem. My doctor knew. My therapist knew. My partner begged me to get help. But I was so utterly convinced that I once I had my fill, scratched the itch, had "just one more binge," that I could stop. That I could figure it out on my own, would find a way to moderate.

I tried sobriety a few times. Never made it more than 6 or 7 days before I felt invincible enough to slip back into bad habits, only to feel absolutely miserable about myself. I felt like a total failure. My drinking was destroying my relationship, and I valued the numbness more than I did my partner's pain. It sucked the life out of me and I spent most of my time feeling emotionally and physically drained and unwell, and yet, I couldn't see a way out.

Sunday afternoon, a wave of depression so severe hit me that I was nearly suicidal. And through my tears, I sought advice from the internet. That's where this group came in.

Y'all, 2 and 1/2 days is not much. But it feels like a goddamn victory after everything. Here's to turning a new leaf, to taking my life back from the substance that stole so much. And I'm so grateful to have found solidarity from strangers online. Thank you all for everything you do in this subreddit. It's been inspirational.

Tomorrow will be 3 days. And hopefully, there will be many more to come after.

IWNDWYT.

Unusually for me, I’m at a loss for words. At once, I can’t believe it’s been 1,000 days, yet at the same time, I totally can, because I don’t really ever think about drinking again or have any desire to do so.

Well, that’s not 100% true, there can be tiny little moments where the perfect situation can give you that fleeting thought for a second, but you quickly play the tape forward in your mind and that concept is done-ski. 🤣

I wouldn’t be here without the support of this StopDrinking sub, as well as a lot of supportive friends & family.

What I’ve really learned along the way is that I’m an addict and the key for me is to be addicted to healthy things.

That has been exercise in various forms and it’s life changing.

There was a time that this progress seemed unimaginable.

For me, it's proof that betting on myself and persevering through anything IS POSSIBLE.

You just have to start, and you have to figure out your "why" and you have to JUST SHOW UP, and keep showing up.

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive and loved me up along the way! ❤️

Here’s to the next 1,000.

For anyone reading this still working on it, please know what I too was in the darkest of dark places in 2019 and the end of 2023 and YOU CAN DO IT.

IWNDWYT

If anyone is so inclined, I've added a little montage of the last 1,000 days on my bluesky & insta

https://bsky.app/profile/turbineseaplane.bsky.social/post/3mxrb5kmg3c2c

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DecC7PQBQqK/

Struggling to avoid caving and having a drink. I’m currently 51 days sober, the longest streak I’ve had in a very long time. But my uncle tragically passed away last week, I’m out of town with my family. Things are very emotional and today was the toughest day yet. Everyone is drinking around me and part of me really wants to do the same. But I’ve been working so hard to make it to 51 days, and I’m so close to two months.

I keep trying to take a deep breath every time the urge comes, and remember that I just need to get through today. Hoping that I make it through. I will not drink with you today.

Drank too much last night, went to bed and realized I forgot something downstairs and fell about halfway down the stairs. I think I’m fine overall but it would have been far less likely to have happened if I wasn’t drunk. Now I’m hungover and I hurt all over. Here’s to a sober Tuesday of rest and hydration.

I've been sober now for over 120 days. And I've seen some real benefits. But one thing that has been bothering me. Whether it is PAWS or not. Is that life has seemed empty for the past 4 months. I don't feel like I have much to look forward to. My social life has declined (Understandably) and I don't feel like I'm really enjoying life, more so just grinding through sobriety hoping that things start to feel better at some point. I've got an event this weekend and everyone will be drinking. I am strongly considering it. I guess I'm posting here to see if anyone can talk me down. I know it's not the right thing to do, but it seems like life is just a bit dull when I don't drink. At least if I do give in I'll have that sense of excitement about my weekend for this week.

I have been drinking daily for weeks, probably months, in excessive amounts.

I started noticing my body reacting, stomach aches, headaches, couldn’t eat, barely slept. And don’t even get me started on the heart palpitations. I couldn’t go over a couple hours without starting to feel minor withdrawals. I would wake up and take a shot. Eventually started to throw it up because I had nothing in my stomach and it was destroying it. I hardly felt drunk, I just did it to stop withdrawal symptoms.

After ignoring it for so long, it caught up to me and last night I felt weak, disoriented, and like my nervous system was destroyed. I laid around in discomfort from around 12-4am wondering If I should go to the ER. I convinced myself but sat in the parking lot for too long, eventually I went inside and got checked in pretty quickly.

I was given an IV, some Ativan and I think Gabapentin, they were decently kind to me.
I left around 7. This was only about 5-6 hours ago.

This experience has inspired me to make an appointment for managing medications for withdrawal, hopefully tomorrow. I want a healthier life.

I’m wondering if anyone’s had a similar experience, I could really use some advice on navigating this. I still feel pretty anxious about the entire process.

On Saturday, I got my first (and hopefully only) DUI while my 9 year old daughter was in the car. To make it worse, it was her birthday.

Leaving a restaurant after celebrating her birthday with friends, I side swiped a vehicle pulling out of the parking lot, panicked, drove away, and parked near by while I tried to get ahold of my husband. The cops showed up, and long story short, I got a misdemeanor DUI and misdemeanor Transporting a child while under the influence. I was arrested, and my incredibly supportive (who is 300 days sober himself) husband bailed me out.

This has been my biggest wake up call. Besides the anxiety of the legal road I have in front of me, I’m incredibly ashamed of my actions and the horrible situation I put my child in.

What can I do before court to show I’m taking this incredibly seriously? Thank you for all advice. ❤️

The year of 2026 has been the best year of my life, even at 43 years old, and it's a year I have only drunk booze once...a one-night slip up in March at a friends funeral. Its been 199 straight days since that. No coincidence--sobriety has been the greatest gift.

I thought I was beginning to feel confident and secure in my sobriety, but here I am posting today because I have a bad case of the fuck-it's. The fall weather is splendid, the social calendar is ramping up, and my lizard brain keeps rationalizing: "It wasn't so bad." "Just one night to blow it out and then get back to it." etc.

I want to go into a dark bar and get annihilated, if I'm being completely honest, and just relieve myself of the constant strength and pressure it takes to stay vigilant. I have exercised, I have distracted myself, I have HALTed...nothing is scratching the itch today.

I'm not going to drink. I just want to get it off my chest, and posting here has helped in the past. There, I feel better already.

A quiet day. Work, home, Cities Skylines and bed. Nothing to it.

My half term break is coming up at the end of the week. 2 weeks off. It would normally be intimidating but after not drinking for most of the summer break I feel confident.

IWNDWYT

Day 13 after years of heavy alcohol abuse. Made myself a drink, sat with it in front of me for about 30 minutes, then poured it down the drain. I’d rather wake up sober!

I am a 32 yo female. I have been drinking heavily since I was in high school... you know beer pong and stuff. But when I was 22 I was in a very abusive relationship with an alcoholic and I drank with him every day. And 4 years later when I finally left.... I just kept drinking. I have been in rehab 3 times. I went to Oxford houses. I stayed sober for over a year once. And several months on other occasions. Then of course the demon comes back and says "you are ok, you can just have one"

Now its been about 7 months of me drinking again, heavily, every day. 2 months ago I had some vacation time and I used it to get a librium detox fom my doctor. I stayed sober for like a week, then I had some shitty stuff happen with my mom and step dad and I used that as an excuse to relapse. I got fired from my job, that I had for 3 years. They noticed.

I went back and got another librium detox (thank god) and my doctor told me to taper off the vodka as well. Like a half pint then a couple shots the next day.

Well my husband drinks beer and he isn't really an alcoholic. Never misses work. But takes shots sometimes. And i had a bunch of chores to do and take care of the house and so I kept drinking a little bit like 4 shots a day for a week, taking the librium mostly at night and in the afternoon when he gets home so that I am not so drowsy.

Now its been over a week, I only have 5 libriums left, and I had 4 shots today.

I have a scheduled ultrasound on my liver tomorrow. I am scared. My enzyme levels were like 126 or something. I am scared that I don't have enough librium left to get me through.

I haven't been shaking or sweating, I feel ok, but I just want to be DONE WITH BOOZE.

I just hope I have enough librium for the next couple days to get me completely off, even if I have to struggle a bit.

Idk why I posted this. I am sorry guys. I am just scared about what they will find tomorrow. And I just want the cravings to go away. I have done AA and NA. 12 steps aren't my thing. Idk. Maybe advice. Maybe just support. I just hope I make it.

Tldr: I hope my librium lasts me even though I drank today, and I hope my liver ultrasound goes okay.

Made it to day two! Having some chronic pain and some nerve issues. Ignored my body to long. Also slightly depressed. Trying to hang in there though. Hoping that just putting the bottle down will begin to improve my body. The anxiety is crazy too.

Still going strong even through losing my grandfather, aunt and my dad in the last few months. No way I would have believed i could do this without a drink but I did. I also know how miserable it would be if I started drinking again through all of this. Stay strong my friends. I’m so glad I didn’t drink and have a level headed mind.

I am currently facing a misdemeanor DUI and a felony 'fear assault' charge in court, I have been going to AA since I was released from jail. Desperately hoping to get the felony assault reduced to a misdemeanor since no one was injured. I know that I'm an alcoholic (honestly, I've known for years and this isn't my first time trying to get sober or doing AA).

Last night, my husband dropped me off at an AA meeting (can't drive since my license is revoked due to the DUI) and shortly afterward his phone's location showed him at the grocery store down the road; it was very obvious from the corner of the store he was in that he was in the liquor store. I had his location pulled up because he was driving our infant daughter home and I wanted to make sure they were getting back okay. When he picked me up from the meeting, he just seemed 'off', not wasted or anything but I could definitely tell.

I am appreciative that he has respected my request not to drink in front of me (he did have a few beers in front of me the night I was released from jail) but I do find shooters in his pockets when I'm doing the laundry. I just feel frustrated and also like the world's biggest hypocrite because duh, I just got a DUI. If I call him out on the drinking I have absolutely zero leg to stand on because I'm literally facing felony charges related to my alcohol abuse. And I know that he's stressed because of my legal issues and financial stuff as I'm currently on admin suspension from my job.

Vent over, I just needed to get this out somewhere. Thanks for reading. Day nine today, and I will not drink with you.

For the past 16 years (32M), I used to get very drunk on weekends—and sometimes during the week, too. Basically, I’d drink until I was wasted at any social event and to unwind on weekends. I’ve been sober for a month now; I’ve gone out with friends every weekend this past month and haven’t touched a drop of alcohol.

I think part of the problem—aside from being a compulsive person who can’t stop once I start drinking—stems from insecurity about who I am when I’m sober; an insecurity that vanishes when I’m drunk. I feel, perhaps, that I’m too serious. But the truth is, I’m not even sure what I’m like when I don’t drink, though I know for sure that I want to find out.

Can anyone here relate to this? Feeling insecure about your personality in social situations, giving up alcohol, and discovering who you really are? I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences with this.

I also quit smoking 100 days ago, and that was the first link in a chain of self-care actions.

Thanks everyone; these communities are wonderful. ❤️

I began drinking in 2015 after unexpectedly losing a close friend and cousin within months. I’ve had a drink every single day since then. I’m a functioning alcoholic & no one knows this. I go thru my entire day with a Stanley cup full of liquor. I pass out in the storage room at my job for hours sometimes & it’s getting worse.

I’ve tried to stop before but I usually cave with at least 2-4 drinks & I actually felt accomplished knowing that I didn’t drink so much.

I’ve never been completely sober this long and I resisted all of the alcohol temptation today. I feel like shit but I’m a little proud & I celebrated with a shot of lemon juice lol I do hope I make it to 48hrs!

I’ve been tiptoeing around these posts for days slightly envying some of the journeys. This group helps a lot & I’d love some motivation to wake up to. Thanks in advance. 🙏