Five days sober: here's what it feels like

We’re on day 5 of our booze-free lent, and so far it’s been kinda WEIRD. This is the longest I’ve gone in probably 10 years without having any sweet liquor, and while Mogg successfully completed a booze-free lent last year, she somehow can’t remember what 40 days and 40 nights sober was like.  So we’re in more-or-less uncharted territory here.

I didn’t expect to feel much besides a burning desire for red wine (check), but not drinking is producing some unexpected sensations as well.  Friday night (day 3) was the first sense I had that something funny might be going on in my brain/body.  I felt super alert and a bit edgy, but in a good way.  I also found out on Friday that Alfie the dog is a LEMON (he’s got congenital cataracts and will require life-long really annoying eye drops) and came home to find him retching all over my bedroom (another illness, I suppose), so I also felt then for the first time that I really ‘needed a drink’. But I didn’t!

I awoke Saturday morning to what I initially assumed to be a horrible hangover.  Once I remembered that I hadn’t ingested even one drop of alcohol the previous night, I thought, WHAT GIVES and immediately started complaining.  Oddly, mogg seemed to be in the same boat – headache, disorientation, the jitters, etc. – and we proclaimed ourselves afflicted by acute hangNOvers, a condition with the same symptoms as a hangover but minus the enjoyable cause: you get it from having NO drinks and NO fun.  Nick, who has been so kind to commit to a booze-free lent with me and not subject me to a household of temptation, seemed equally afflicted.  Strange, because Nick drinks far less than mogg or me and has claimed that not drinking for 40 days will be “easy”.  I guess we’re all going through withdrawal! COOL!

The rest of my Saturday was spent rearranging furniture, and I found the activity to be a good distraction.  I was tempted when I had to move the liquor cabinet, a feat that required removing and replacing all the liquor bottles I own, but otherwise, I didn’t feel that desperate for a drink.  Other feelings to report:  dizziness, kinda like BRAIN ZAPS, hunger and increased muscle aches.

I have yet to socialize with strangers, though.  That will be the real test.  Drinking is fun alone, but it’s IMPERATIVE among strangers.  Nothing numbs social anxiety like a few g&ts.  Mogg, for example, attended her first sober social gathering yesterday and texted me in tears from the closet. We’ll see how I do!

More updates to follow.