This is exactly how I stopped drinking

When I started my sober journey I wanted to know EXACTLY how to stop drinking. I looked for the playbook for a long time. And what I discovered is that there isn't a playbook. The path to sobriety is different for everyone. I will tell you, though, how it happened for me. Here are a few thoughts on exactly how I got sober. ⬇️

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Did I wake up one day, decide to stop drinking, and then stop drinking forever? Nope. It was a p-r-o-c-e-s-s. I stopped drinking in 2020 but the process started in 2018. Honestly, I was questioning my drinking way before that but 2018 is when I took action. And what did that action look like? Quit lit and sober podcasts. If you're unfamiliar, quit lit is the term for sober memoirs. And I devoured them (while still drinking) for years. Quit Like a Woman, We are The Luckiest, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, and Drinking, A Love Story are a few of my favorites. I'd listen to sober podcasts during the day - put on my headphones and walk for miles listening to other people's stories, hoping they'd tell me the secret, give me the playbook. There are a TON to choose from now, but my favorites at the time were The Edit Podcast, The Home Podcast, and Recovery Elevator. I spent two years reading and listening while still drinking. I was learning. And I couldn't unlearn any of it.

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After many starts and stops I finally reached the point of saying “uncle”. I was tired of moderating, thinking about drinking, being hungover - ALL OF IT. I picked a date and joined Annie Grace's Alcohol Experiment. After uneventfully polishing off a final bottle of wine on July 31st I started the experiment on August 1st. It was EXACTLY what I needed - online, anonymous (if I chose), had a lesson each day, and had homework. I did each lesson at the time I would usually open a bottle of wine in th