At one time I had one year of sobriety under my belt from November 2007 to November 2008. When I stopped drinking at that time, I had no cravings or desire to drink alcohol again. Life was great. I was having lots of fun and did not miss it at all. I did not even think about it. It was like I had never had alcohol before. Everything was great. So why did I start drinking again you ask? I was on a business trip with some co-workers and they had all ordered an alcoholic drink with dinner which wasn’t unusual. I was used to haging out with people who drank a lot. All the sudden the thought occured to me that I hadn’t had the taste of a good beer in a while. Heck I had not drunk alcohol in a year, and now I knew what not to do. I knew to never drink like I had before, so this time would be different. Before, I was drinking a six pack to 8 beers every night or 2 bottles of wine a night. It had taken a lot of prayer and a miracle from God to stop, and I knew to never drink like that again.
I decided that I could drink in moderation. The official definition of moderation is no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. At the time, my personal idea of drinking in moderation was “drink as much as you want one weekend a month”. So for me that meant like 3 beers Friday night, a six pack on Saturday and another six pack on Sunday. I thought, yes, I can do this once a month no problem. It sounded like a great idea to me…and for a while this worked.
The first four months were great as I was able to stick with drinking just one weekend a month. Then the next four months I decided it was ok to drink two weekends a month…no big deal right? Then it became ok to drink three weekends a month…and you can see where this is going right? Its classic. By the fall of 2009 the Renaissance festival near our town was the place to go on the weekends, and of course you got to drink the tasty beer there in your medieval costume and leather or glass-blown mug. So I started drinking ever weekend, and then added Thursday to my weekends. Well by the time 2010 came around I was full blown back to my old drinking habbit that I had sworn off. I was drinking every night again. I was so very displeased with myself. How could I have let this happen again? After a while beer or wine weren’t enough for me and I switched to Vodka. I couldn’t imagine going back to drinking only one weekend a month. My alcohol consumption just got worse and worse and my need of it more and more.  I was unable to get sober again until November 25, 2013.

Now that I have over 2 years of sobriety, I know exactly what will happen if I decide to drink alcohol again. I much prefer my sober life then the hell of drinking again. I want and need to stay sober for my physical and mental well-being. I hope you decide to stay sober too.