r/stopdrinking 468 days 1d ago

Sobriety - a cautionary tale

460 odd days ago, I stopped drinking.

460 odd days ago, my wife lost her drinking partner.

Directly or indirectly, so did her parents, my sister, brother in law and a number of friends.

Today, we have had a get together of 10 of us and what would have been a very boozy get together (historically double figure bottles of wine plus various other) has been a very gentle affair where the grand total is 2 bottles of wine and a half dozen bottles of beer.

All of that because I stopped and others followed....

So a word of caution - your (and my) sobriety can have positive effects way beyond your own little world.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the sub, I raise a glass (of hot chocolate in my case) and salute you all - Be you on day 1 or day 1000 - and say once more IWNDWYT

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u/on_my_way_back 115 days 1d ago

I am not even drinking and I still was worrying about the amount of alcohol we have in the house for Christmas. It turned out that we had more than enough alcohol as everyone drank way less than they did in the past because I was not pushing it on everyone or making it the center of attention. The alcohol free lifestyle is spreading.

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u/SauerkrautHedonists 78 days 1d ago

This! I also worry about there being enough alcohol for everyone, and empty glasses, even though I am not drinking. Crazy. And I definitely was the one keeping glasses full and encouraging others to partake when I was drinking. This Christmas it was weird to not be mixing drinks or filling peoples glasses. A lot of awkward standing around for me feeling weird in my own skin.