{"id":34779,"date":"2024-03-17T06:58:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T13:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=34779"},"modified":"2024-03-17T09:57:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T16:57:55","slug":"sober-fos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=34779","title":{"rendered":"Sober F\u00f3s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_8445\"<\/a>Sober f\u00f3s: still sober. Today, Saint Patrick’s Day, marks 17 years since I last drank.<\/p>\n

I quit on or about the 13th of March, 2007. I wasn’t sure it’d take and didn’t want to crow about it, so didn’t mark the exact date. I assumed, based on decades of daily drinking, I’d become such a stone alky I’d have relapses or even fail outright. I thought I’d have to go the AA route to get support.<\/p>\n

But it did take. I didn’t fall off the wagon. I didn’t have to seek help. Over time, Saint Patrick’s Day has become my self-chosen anniversary … sometimes I even feel it’s Saint Pat himself who stands by me.<\/p>\n

What prompted me to quit, honestly, was fear of getting a DUI and growing feelings of disgust with myself. Absolutely, yes, I’m an alcoholic. But a lucky one. Lucky because I was able to quit.<\/p>\n

Getting sober, at least in my case, turned out to be less of a struggle than anticipated. I expected a hellish ordeal, like the one I put myself through in 1978 when I quit smoking, the hardest thing I’d ever done. Turned out my alcohol addiction was more psychological than physical, and once I began to appreciate waking up rested and clear-headed, I was able to lock those just-one-little-drink urges in an airtight box, and over the course of time have almost forgotten where that box is. Like I said, lucky. I know it’s a monumental struggle for most alcoholics to quit drinking. But I also know it can be done.<\/p>\n

For the first few years after quitting I’d promise myself a Famous Grouse (my old favorite \u2014 you can have your single malts) when I made it to 75. But 75 came and went with no drink: I just had no desire for one. I used to tell myself that once recreational marijuana became legal in Arizona I’d try it again, not having smoked pot since college. But that day too came and went.<\/p>\n

I like the way I feel straight, without alcohol or drugs. I don’t want to feel different. I don’t want to alter myself. I’m happy the way I am. So Saint Patrick’s Day is a big deal for me. If you’ve been building up to quitting, today’s a great day to start. If you’re a sober alcoholic, I wish you continued success. Saint Patrick has been good to me; may he be good to you as well.<\/p>\n

\u00c9irinn go Br\u00e1ch, y’all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sober f\u00f3s: still sober. Today, Saint Patrick’s Day, marks 17 years since I last drank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4529,4528],"class_list":["post-34779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-stayingclean","tag-stillonthewagon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34779"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34798,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34779\/revisions\/34798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}