I am coming up on three years sober from alcohol. I lost my dad to alcohol and many other members of my family have gotten cirrhosis so I knew I needed to make changes. I joined the stop drinking community on reddit before I was ready to officially quit, and lurked. I loved hearing their stories and reasons why they were doing what they are doing. From there I learned about a book called “This Naked Mind” and reading it was just what I needed to finally kick alcohol. It talks about what alcohol does for you, what it doesn’t do for you, and what it claims it does (but doesn’t actually do) and it is all backed by science. It really resets the way your brain thinks about alcohol and by the end, I didn’t really want to drink anymore. I realized that alcohol doesn’t help me relax (it decreases my baseline so that I needed alcohol to feel normal). And it helped me better understand that alcohol is addictive and that anyone who drinks enough will get addicted- there isn’t anything wrong with me for becoming addicted.

Since the book, I’ve been able to stick with sobriety and been really happy with that decision. My health is better, I’m more relaxed, my sleep is better, etc. I replaced cans of beer with cans of sparkling water, and I am surprised at how much I love that stuff. I now know I can’t moderate drinking- there is no such thing as “I’ll just have one.” And that is ok. I’m happy with my non-alcoholic beer at happy hours and sparkling waters on normal nights. My friends and family are really supportive of my decision and that makes a difference too. I wouldn’t have stuck with it if my friends pressured me to drink.

Whatever your addiction may be, find a positive community of people that have similar view points to you. Alcoholics Anonymous wasn’t for me, but /r/stopdrinking was. Try a few things and you’ll find your people. Good luck to you! You are stronger than you think!