Brighten Your Day

The way alcohol is marketed they make it seam that as long as you are not sleeping on a cardboard box on a rainy sidewalk, you don't have a problem, but drinking, at least like the way I did, had so many consequences it is truly astounding to see, now that I have space from my drinking days.

I got sober 416 days ago and my life has completely turned around in so many ways it is kind of crazy. I will just list a few things that have changed since I stopped drinking:

- I use to drink because I was 'bored' with life/the world. I would wake every morning with a hangover and say 'shit I gotta do this again..." Now I get up every morning clear headed, full of energy and when I lay down at night I say 'shit I wish I had more time in the day to do everything I want to do...'

- I lost 58 pounds.

- I went through 3 months of credit card bills and saw I spent on average $37 a day on alcohol 7 days a week. I have been sober 416 days so that is $15,392 not spent on alcohol

- I use to think I was a high-functioning alcoholic, because I kept a job. Well since I quit drinking I got a 26% raise at work (my manager said, 'I don't know what you did but you are kicking ass'), plus because I am not hung over I am more productive at work, and my job has an incentive program where I get paid more for being more productive. This means I have increased my yearly income by about $25,000-$30,000

- I use to start my nights drinking at fancy restaurants because I would sit there at the bar and drink $12 glasses of wine, and look at all the fancy people and say 'I don't have a problem because look at how sophisticated I am, I am not drinking malt liquor from a bottle at the park' Now I prepare dinner every night for my wife and baby and no longer partake in the delusion that you can't have a drinking problem if you have money.

- I fixed my relationship with my family, and am now speaking to everyone, whereas I had not spoken to my brother for 2.5 years because I said stupid shit to him, and other family members when I was drunk.

- I have found a profound sense of peace that I have not experienced since I was a child.

Literally everything in my life is better since I stopped drinking.