It’s been two weeks and I feel great. It took almost 10 days for the low mood to lift but for the last few days I have been feeling calm and content. Usually my mood is up and down and erratic and I have a constant jangling sensation in my brain and body. The main thing I have noticed the last few days is that this is gone. I feel relaxed. Nothing has changed except the not drinking. My life is still stressful but it’s like I have a little buffer of calm between the stress and me.

This is not my first visit to soberland but it’s the first time I’ve really considered making a permanent move here. It’s not that I can’t drink, it’s more that I now realise I have two options.

1. I keep drinking and remain anxious, depressed and not moving forward with my life. Or
2. I stop drinking and feel energetic, calm, content and start to gain some forward momentum.

I can’t have both. I can’t drink and feel happy and energised and meet my goals – I think the difference this time is that I do finally get that. So I choose not to drink. It hasn’t always been easy this past two weeks but I just remind myself of the choice every time a craving hits and I have been so far able to get through it.