A short diary telling why I stopped drinking alcohol after one day

In the book Alcohol Explained 1, chapter 32 author William Porter describes an exercise — “While you are still drinking, commit key parts of your day to paper… Do it as often as you can, maybe even hourly,..”

Last Good Friday, on what was to be my second-last day of drinking (I was planning to stop for good after Saturday), I undertook this exercise. I could have never known how powerful it was.

It was as if for the first time I was ´watching´ myself throughout a typical drinking session. Observing myself from another place that I’d never been. This is something I never attempted before. Usually, always in fact, I just blend away with the sedative effects of the alcohol for hours on end.

This was a massive impetus to my decision to stop, in fact so powerful that following this session I had no more desire to drink. I am now coming on 5 months alcohol free and have no intentions of ever looking back.

I am a happily retired drinker!

For those of you who would like to read it, I am going to post the log here. It’s a long one!

Friday 2nd April 2021

11:10

Already smoked this morning. In fact it was the first thing I did when I got up even before having any…