A sober year

Thoughts on a time without drink

Today it is a year since I had any alcohol. As this year has passed, every time that I’ve remembered that I’m not drinking I’ve had a stab of excitement, that I’m managing to do this thing that I’m really proud of.

I’ve written and rewritten this post. Stopping drinking has been a pretty profound experience for me, but it turns out I’m not good at articulating why (well, certainly not in a remotely pithy or readable way!)

I didn’t have a rock bottom and I think some of my friends were surprised by my choice, as I don’t think I necessarily presented as a problem drinker. But a nagging sense, and a lot of reading, helped me realise that it had become a slow poisoning of the things about myself that I care about, and that I’d be smart to try doing without, for a while anyway.

I’ve read a lot of books about living without alcohol, but really want to mention Annie Grace’s This Naked Mind, which I’ve read a few times and found so helpful, along with her podcast of the same name.

I drew the below comic in February 2021, when I was living in Brighton and I’d not had a drink in four months. I think I did another few months that time, then a sober patch in early 2022, and then began my year that August. Everything in this comic still rings true to me, and is helpful to remember when the “pink cloud” fades, and I’m forgetting why I stopped drinking in the first place.

Anyway, who knows what will be next, as who ever knows what’s next? But I know I’m really proud of making this year, and I wanted to mark it! Thank you for reading!