Dry January: My Journey of going from drinking wine every weekend to going stone cold sober

I never thought those words would never come from me. I had drank from a young age and I mean young. At a family wedding at the age of six, I was caught on camera secretly sipping champagne from as many flutes as I could get my hands on. All the ladies looked so elegant and sophisticated while drinking alcohol and I wanted to be like them. However, I didn't drink again until my teenage years. 

Throughout my teenage years into my 20s and even early 30s, I developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol - which of course I didn’t realise at the time. I worked hard and didn’t smoke or do drugs so therefore my way of relaxing and enjoying my weekend was to have a glass of wine. I only drank on the ‘weekends, a few glasses on Thursday, a bottle on Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday. I wasn’t hurting anyone and it was the weekend after all. This was my justification and way of thinking meant that I kept on drinking and as I earnt more money I’d buy and drink more wine.

I loved wine, any colour red, white, rose, sparkling it didn’t matter as long as I had wine I would have a good time. Unfortunately wine didn’t love me or even like me as much as I loved it. I wasn’t a nasty drunk, just the friend who would always be ridiculously and embarrassingly drunk. I used to think that blackouts on nights out and memory loss was part of being drunk and that happened to everyone. After drinking from the age of 13 to 35 and a very very drunken night that nearly cost me my marriage, I decided in December 2021, I had to change. 

When I first decided to quit drinking, I was all in, no alcohol, no zero percent alcohol drinks and not even any food flavoured with alcohol. I read books on going sober, dry January and being sober-curious but it still felt scary thinking about not drinking - I mean what else was I going to do on the weekends? 

I was determined, but at the back of my mind I thought I’d be lucky to make it to the end of January without having a drink. I downloaded the ‘I Am Sober’ app which counts the weeks, hours, minutes and seconds for how long you have been sober for. The first few weeks I checked it every single day. Many people think that you're only classed as an alcoholic if you wake up and drink a bottle of vodka for breakfast but that’s not the case. Alcoholism is broken into three categories: mild, moderate and severe. I was definitely in the moderate to severe category as drinking excessively and not knowing when to stop drinking are still under the alcoholic umbrella. 

As the days and weeks passed by, I made one year completely stone cold sober. Friends and family couldn't believe it and no-one was more shocked than me! The good news is that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. For the first few months, I avoided social situations so that I wouldn’t be tempted and once you get into the habit of not drinking it’s pretty easy to stick with - plus no hangover is the best feeling in the world. 

As I said I’m now two years in and the past six months, I’ve allowed myself to have zero percent alcohol drinks. I don’t feel like I’m missing out as there are so many non-alcoholic drinks out there. Non alcoholic beer, wine and mocktails still give me the feeling of being relaxed and enjoying myself without being drunk or losing control. I often get asked if I would ever drink alcohol again and to be honest, I don’t think I would. I mean if you could still drink  wine, beer and spirits that taste like the real thing but zero alcohol and no hangover, wouldn't you?