#7 Reason for not drinking for 90 days: drinking fatigue
When you come to depend on drinking to relax you, to calm you, and to help you wind down every day but you also happen to have to drink it in large quantities in order to get that benefit, you can experience drinking fatigue. You don’t actually feel like drinking but you know that if you don’t you’ll remain the tightly wound non-sleeping and anxious person you are when you don’t drink. So you drink, even though part of you would really like to take a break and perhaps just drink some tea for an evening. A person who has a good relationship with alcohol doesn’t ever experience this. So one reason not to drink for 90 days is to recover from (and cease to experience) the peculiar ennui of being obligated by habit, rather than desire, to drink a lot of beer.
I’m glad that I have forcefully removed the obligation to drink tonight. It annoys me that I feel so much less angsty about not drinking today than I did three days ago. Like, accepting that I’m not drinking, not just for tonight but for 3 months, is giving in to something I was determined not to be okay with. Except that I am okay with it. But I sure as hell won’t admit yet that it might actually feel GOOD to not drink. Don’t worry, soon I will experience irritation fatigue, in which I begin to get really tired of being irritated all the time and forcefully remove my obligation to be annoyed.
I’ve been there before, wanting the escape but not actually wanting the drink… but drinking it anyway. You’re doing the right thing with your 90 days – hitting the reset button like this is a very good thing!
Also, I’m starting my own 90 days in regards to smoking cigarettes on Thursday (day after my 44th birthday)… not quitting outright at the start but working through a plan to taper down the ridiculous amount I smoke. Lately some cigarettes are like some of your drinks – I don’t really want it but I smoke it anyway because of X, Y or Z. Part of the plan is adding in more good things – creating better habits for myself to fill in the gaps and feel better.
So thanks again for your inspiration – I’ve been meaning/wanting to work on my smoking and now is finally the time. jen
I’m so happy to be an inspiration. I was a chain smoker for many many years. I remember getting to that smoking fatigue point too. Doing it after your birthday is smart (birthdays should be as pain free as possible – starting something like that ON or just before one’s birthday just seems masochistic). And hey! We’re almost the same age! I think your plan is good. Different things work for different people in quitting smoking so you have to try whatever sounds most appropriate for you and if it doesn’t end up getting you where you want to go – don’t give up. Just adjust your plan and try again. You don’t have a blog, right? You’re my flickr friend, Jen, right? If you have a blog I want to follow it. If not – you can come here and talk about your own challenge if you like.
(I just emailed you thru Flickr mail with my best email address)