Lessons from 30 days of no alcohol.
And why it was harder than I expected.
Then:
I have had times in my life where I drank to excess.
They were called my 20’s. And a couple of years in my early 30’s.
And I could make a strong argument to suggest it was the culture of the time.
The “lad culture” of the 90’s & 2000’s and growing up in a mixed school meant my first nights out were not delicate low calorie elegant tipples leaving you able to get to 6am pilates barre class. No. They were nights of pints. And you kept up. Or in my case… I would keep up until I vom’d in a pit of shame and despair.
Ahhhh but the craic.
Leaving college and entering into an industry that would rather pay you in fridges of free beer than an actual salary, advertising, I worked hard and drank hard. I mean proper proper hard on both fronts. You couldn’t leave a client behind, which meant you were out until they ended the night. And as it was your agency footing the bill, they stayed around until the biter end at which point you’d be generously given a late start the night morning… and then shamed as you arrived at 9.15am realising everyone else had still showed up with complete loyalty at 8am.
The point is, the world I operated in was very booze heavy.
It was in my friend circle and in my work circle.
After work drinks - during work drinks… client entertainment drinks.. my client at one point was a drinks brand so that was simply non-stop interactions with drinks “for work” which started as fun but 9 times out of 10 ended up with me shamefully