Teetotal

ALL OR NOTHING

A year ago today, I'd just returned from an all inclusive holiday to Lanzarote. Life had become particularly stressful around this time and I had overindulged one too many times on holiday with my partner and I peeling ourselves off the couch, bed or from wherever we'd ended up in the morning, still in our clothes.

I made a decision this day a year ago, that I'd give up alcohol from January the 1st. I curbed the Christmas drinking - avoiding as many 'Christmas Drinks' as possible, and stuck to enjoying just the odd tipple with family over the Christmas holidays.

I'd never intended to give up drinking for good, but managed pretty much the first 6 weeks of the year, then another couple of periods abstaining until the Easter holidays. It was a lovely, ordered, reflective period in my life year when I can say I was fully in charge of myself, my actions and much more able to deal with some heavy situations that needed clarity of thought.

My partner and I have just come through a heavy few months since summer where the alcohol has increasingly taken over the weekends and some of the week. It's come to a point again where it's getting out of hand again.

Alcohol is not good for us in many ways, but much of the problem is how dependent we become on it's use for social interaction and as a filler for possibly empty lives. There is so much more to living than getting drunk with friends and yet, that's what we tend to live for. Countless weekends have been spent getting drunk or recovering from getting drunk and the weeks lost in a haze.

The cost of drinking on health and the bank balance is one thing, but the loss of focus, drive and discipline means the demons of self loathing and shame that visit us the day after, can put us on a spin of depression that takes us down a harmful spiral where drinking really does become a problem.

The culture of drinking in the UK, means we are a nation of borderline functioning alcoholics, but there seems to be a new trend where more youngsters are drinking less or nothing alcoholic at all. It's hard to start on a non-alcoholic drive, but after a week of abstinence, it does get easier. So next year I will aim for a longer period of staying away from drinking. My goal of being a teetotaller for longer should help gain an advantage over my life and where I want it to go.