Since we're talking about life changes I might as well share my story and maybe I will help someone out like Gevo did
My Dad passed away in late 2010 and I got thrown into a whirlwind of stress and anxiety that I would not wish upon anybody. First and foremost was to take care of my Mom who lived a 4 hour drive away from me and on top of my own job, I was trying to run my Dad's business that was struggling financially. Eventually I had to let his company default on some loans which included the very real possibility that my Mom would lose her house and property. Everything took around 3-4 years before I finally got her moved to Wisconsin a stone's throw from my apartment at the time.
My Dad's company eventually dissolved and my Mom did lose her house but at least we had our health right? Well, the stress and anxiety over that time took a massive toll on me and I coped by drinking heavily. Similar to what
@Will Power alluded to, my mind's coping mechanism for stress was to drink some vodka
It becomes a vicious cycle... wake up, add stress, add alcohol, sleep... repeat. They say alcohol takes like 16-24 hours to get out of your system so since I drank every day, alcohol was pretty much always in my system. I was rarely ever "drunk" but I drank every evening after work and all day on weekends. I was the epitome of the "functional alcoholic". One morning about 5 years ago I looked in the mirror and noticed the whites of my eyes were no longer white and that they were jaundiced, not to mention my skin tone showed it too. I went to my doctor and some tests showed that I had a severely damaged liver and I was only 39! One doctor was very blunt with me and said that if I did not quit drinking, I would die. In two days from today I will be 5 years completely sober... not even a cup of Nyquil
It was difficult at first but I didn't really find it all that hard considering what the doctors told me the alternative would be
I used to drink everyday so when I quit, instead of drinking, believe it or not I just started watching Star Trek The Next Generation on Netflix from Episode 1 to episode 200+... Thank God that series was so long LoL
I think it took me the better part of two months to get through them all! By that time I had started to mend... like John mentioned above, little victories. Before I knew it I wasn't even thinking about alcohol... sort of how most of us never invest any time into thinking about buying a Lamborghini. I can't afford that car so why think about it? I can't afford alcohol so why think about it? Speaking of that, I save about $4,000 a year by not spending it on booze
If you do the math that is only $80 week (I drank cheap vodka LoL) The hardest part about quitting drinking for me was dealing with people socially after you do it... you can't expect others around you to quit / not drink around you and they always feel awkward drinking around you. I still do not like going to large gatherings / parties because others look at me like "Is it OK if I drink?"
Fortunately for me, the liver is an amazing organ and within a year or two, my health had completely turned around... I did lose significant weight, my liver function is perfect (fingers crossed) and now I just have normal health issues like cholesterol of 205 and blood sugar of 110
After just a few months I felt so much more energetic and my mind felt more free and clear because I wasn't letting it convince me to drink. I really think there is something chemically in your body that convinces you that all of your problems will go away if you give in to that beer, glass of wine or whiskey coke. You see on TV the experts say addiction is an "illness" but I disagree and that word "illness" gives people with addiction a chance to justify it or use it as an excuse to continue. Illness implies there is a cure, something that your family doctor can fix if you want them to. In my opinion, drug/alcohol addiction is it's own category and can be defined as your body being convinced of a habit by your mind. The hard part is convincing your mind to change your body's habit after it has formed. For me it was simply being told ""you will die" and my mind told my body "can't do that anymore".
If I had not been told that, I know I would've kept drinking and my life would have continued to spiral. The saying about hitting rock bottom is very very true, so what is the secret to stopping before you hit it?
I never realized how much time you consume while consuming so when I quit I had a large void of time to fill... I think it was a blessing to find BladeForums to not only reinforce my admiration for knives but also to give me a social outlet that is POSITIVE! The Porch is the place to be
In addition to my time spent here and getting healthier, in the last 5 years I was able to turn my finances around, buy my first house, made ownership at my company (made Board of Directors as well) and married my loving wife
Of course with time there are always new challenges and nothing is ever perfect but at least my outlets for dealing with daily stresses have become healthier for me
So if your New Years resolution was to quit drinking or at least limit it... I for one can tell you that it can be done and you definitely will not be disappointed
