Owning our choices
03/09/11 • 0 Comments

  With two more days left of my three months, going out sober just seems normal to me. Some people are still a little bit shocked/confused/offended by my abstinence from alcohol but, generally, I no longer have to explain it to anyone. I feel like this is truly a personal choice for me now, and others have begun to accept that. I went to a couple more 21st birthdays recently, drinking soft drinks and orange juice. I was definitely more comfortable and confident about it than I would have been three months ago. In fact, the hardest thing has been making myself shut up about it. I am so proud of how far I’ve made it that I feel compelled to tell anybody who’ll listen about my three months of saying no to drinking. While it’s great to be sharing the HSM message, I don’t want to come across like [...]

Lost Property
03/08/11 • 1 Comment

  Exactly two months today! Feels good. Two more benefits have just occurred to me. Benefit #1: when you leave a bar or a house party sober, you remember to take all your stuff with you. I was never a totally messy drunk, but certainly a forgetful drunk. I lose shit. All the time. I have always said that if I could choose any super power it would be the ability to instantly locate things. In the drunken haze of last semester, I lost a cell phone three times, a coat, a set of keys, a blazer, a purse and sometimes more abstract things like my dignity. Some miraculously came back to me, some didn’t. Since starting my HSM two months ago, however, I still have all the belongings I started with – including some extra cash which would have otherwise been spent on G&Ts. Benefit #2: One thing I have [...]

Ballin’
31/07/11 • 0 Comments

  Eight weeks! That’s over half way! We had our flat Red Card with a couple of other flats last week – once again they had me chugging back Coke Zero so I could still be a part of the drinking challenges that had been organised. I actually think I got the rough end of the deal: it’s just SO FRICKEN FIZZY. I’m stoked with the way my flatmates have handled the whole thing – even if they thought the idea was pretty odd at first, they’ve supported my decision right through. Not everyone, though, will be one hundred percent supportive. There was one particular acquaintance who, while totally sauced and slurring, starting raving on about how “gay” I was being and thrusting a glass of wine in my face. The worst part was being asked if I was like that all the time. Like what? Dull? Antisocial? Am I [...]

The Sober Social Butterfly
24/07/11 • 0 Comments

  It’s been about 7 weeks, and not a drop. Not one gin & tonic, not a single glass of red wine, not a pint of beer. I’ve made up for it with other things – like drinking excessive amounts of soft drinks whenever I go out or just continually eating – but still haven’t touched alcohol. Uni has started again now and it is 21st season. Remarkably, being sober hasn’t yet stopped me from having the same social life I would have had otherwise. One thing HSM had made me notice is the number of times in a week that I am normally faced with the decision to drink or not have alcohol. You don’t realise how often you are offered a drink until you start actively saying no to it. The first week or two was the most challenging, especially when people kept asking, “not even just one [...]

The Beginning
09/06/11 • 1 Comment

I’ve just returned from half a year of studying abroad and travelling around North America. Alcohol played a pretty big part in my experience. Living in one of the cities with the most bars per capita in the world, there was no escaping it. I did I few stupid things and spent a lot of money, but overall I probably wouldn’t take it back. The pub was quite a good place to meet the locals, see some great live music, and have an awesome time. After returning home, though, I thought I’d like to get healthy again and focus on my goals. I want to spend less time feeling like shit after drinking, and use that time do do things like catching up with mates and going running and concentrating on studying. I’ve a had a think about what it is I get from drinking. It’s not really for the [...]