I am in good hope to having reached a new state of sobriety and in this state studying my feeling of getting resistent to alcohol temptations:

By New Year’s Eve, I realised that something severely interesting had happened to the way I was watching alcohol. When I attended the Holiday Party of my company or a concert with a fried or a pre-Christmas evening out in a pub with colleagues, I had reduced AF beer by a lot already. But by Christmas, I didn’t even think of the “need” to substitute beer with an alcohol free alternative like AF beer or Mocktails or something like that.

I simply had water or juice. Interestingly, normally I would have drunk the same amount of alcohol free alternatives in the same frequency as I had formerly drunk beer. But on Christmas (and, for that matter, on New Year’s Eve), I had broken through this habit. I guess it has to do with the fact that I feel very bloated up after having too much alcohol free beer. Since I didn’t feel like drinking the same amount of water, I sticked to a normal daily hydration routine. After reflecting on these experiences, I had the same routine when visiting friends or having dinner with my parents-in-law, where I originally drank beer or – when I quit drinking – AF beer, I simply drank water.

Breaking this cycle of cue – craving – response – reward of a behavior (cf. James Clear – Atomic Habits) led to a normalizing of drinking habits. What I mean is, I detached my behaviour from the original habit and I can do without the substitutes. I think this is one major step into the direction of steady and sturdy sobriety.

Until next time: Keep up the faith in yourself and take one step at a time.