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/alwaysoffby0ne 440 days 1d ago

My Mom, who was a pretty serious alcoholic, stopped drinking shortly after I announced my sobriety and she is coming up on a year sober next week. My mind is completely blown because I would’ve guessed that she’d die an alcoholic after decades of drinking too much. But, she has totally proved me wrong. She read Allen Carrs Easy Way which helped her on her journey, just as I did. I’m truly astonished at her transformation and it’s shown me that anybody with enough determination can do the same thing.