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/SOBHOP 2840 days 1d ago

Same- I never asked anyone to adjust their drinking. My husband barely drinks at all now. He never drank like me, but he was starting to drink pretty heavy on the weekends . He said he just feels better without it. I think the truth is, I was the pusher drinker getting everyone to drink along with me. My daughter stopped as well. I think people could see I was happy without it. I always worried about being a bad influence. It makes me happy that now maybe I’m an influence for good!

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u/EssayCautious 202 days 1d ago

Yes! Being a good influence feels amazing. Who would have thought? Us? Good influences HA!