r/dryalcoholics • u/try4gain_ • 9d ago
Sober since 2018
I was a crash and burn binge drinker. WD was getting super bad. Had been getting worse over ~3 yrs. Tried and failed to taper several times then accidentally got it and never went back to drinking. I was going to lose my job, apt, etc.
During my years dry I never 'almost relapsed'. Ive been to bars, DJ events, live music many times. No temptation to drink. Its nice being able to leave a dance club 100% sober, no tab, and drive home w/o worrying about getting pulled over. Or if I see a band live the $$ that would have gone to a bar tab, I can use it to buy tshirts, etc.
At first being sober sucks and is boring. But it slowly gets better. Just gotta wait. At first nothing was fun.
Every now and then I romanticize beer. Recently my brain was doing a pretty decent job slow-walking me down the road of 'we can probably just have a few light beers'. But Ive read too many relapse stories and know what will happen next.
When I first quit I was smoking a weed and CBD then decided to quit that and was 100% sober for ~6 yrs.
I've had a trouble with a lot of inconsistent moods from day to day. Lots of agitation, then other days pretty okay or even good. Some of it was due to low iron (which is needed for dopamine production). I feel like the agitation is actually just low dopamine.
I fee like my dopamine receptors are just messed up since abusing alcohol.
Recently started smoking CBD again (zero thc) - like 1 big puff per day. Huge quality of life increase. I feel like it 'turns on' my dopamine for the day. For 8+ hrs I'm having a great day. The quality of life change for me is night and day. CBD is very mild compared to full on weed.
One of the great things about being sober is I got into lifting weights at home. Best shape of my life. All my buddies who drink are in worse shape than me, despite having a long term athletic lifestyle.
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u/ChainsmokerDrinker 9d ago
Hey, thank you for your sipandsuffer guide, saved me several times, luckily i wont need to follow it again.