Before you quit drinking alcohol you may have preconceived notions about what you’ll really be getting yourself into.
Whether good or bad, you should know that what you think will happen doesn’t necessarily always come to be true.
This post covers some of the most shocking things that nobody tells you about early sobriety.
Maybe they’ll calm your fears (or temper your expectations).
RELATED: 7 Reasons To Cut Back On Alcohol (Even If You Don’t Quit)
Nobody Cares That You Don’t Drink
So many people new to or considering quitting drinking alcohol for the first time have a fear of being and outcast, being made fun of, or being pressured to drink alcohol if they come forward and share their new life change with others.
In many cases, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
It’s a good idea to take a break from alcohol-fueled events early in your sobriety, but once you eventually return to the scene (if you choose to do so), you may be surprised to find that very few people care.
Some people may ask how or why you chose to change your habits. Others may remember you from your heaviest drinking days and react with disbelief until they see more proof of change. But many people will likely not be paying all that much attention to what is – or is not – in your cup.
Generally speaking, if you’re not judging others or making them feel weird for drinking, nobody cares about what you’re doing.
RELATED: 8 Mistakes To Avoid In Early Sobriety
You Will Still Have Your Flaws
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The second shocking thing you may realize is that alcohol really isn’t responsible for everything bad about you.
Maybe you’ve always been a little clumsy and think once you quit drinking, you’ll balance out.
Or perhaps you tend to be forgetful, always losing things.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that once you quit drinking, everything will be perfect.
Some things are just embedded in our personalities. You will still be yourself – the good and the bad.
Not everything bad about you is alcohol’s fault.
You Won’t Automatically Lose Weight
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Third, you may be surprised to discover that weight doesn’t necessarily automatically melt off once you quit drinking.
If you’re a little bit overweight and drinking to excess, it’s easy to think as soon as you stop drinking, stop eating poorly to recover from hangovers, and (ideally) have more time and energy to work out more consistently, weight will effortlessly fly off.
But that’s not necessarily so.
It can take time for your health, weight and diet to stabilize.
Part of it is due to replacing alcohol with sugar a bit in the beginning – which is something many new to alcoholism recovery deal with.
But the other part is that it just takes time and effort to lose weight – no matter what.
Like many things in life, you still have to do the work if you want to see change in your waistline – alcohol or not.
You Realize Others’ Drinking Habits
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Next, upon quitting drinking, you’ll be better able to observe more carefully how much people drink in different social situations. You’ll quickly notice that most people don’t really drink that much.
If you never stopped to look around at drinking events and see how others were behaving around you, you may be in for a slightly cringeworthy surprise.
You can believe everyone is also drinking at a high level, when the reverse is true.
Your Feelings Will Fluctuate
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Finally, your feelings about sobriety might go up and down a lot more than you expect once you first quit drinking alcohol.
At the very beginning of your sobriety journey you may have preconceived notions regarding what it feels like to be sober. You may have fears to conquer. Doubts to overcome. Or even idealistic expectations of how amazing your life will be.
But you should be prepared for the rollercoaster of emotion that comes with making such a sweeping life change.
In the very beginning it may be exciting and new to work through all the initial challenges and overcome them. You’ll come to enjoy celebrating your sobriety milestones. But eventually boredom sets in, and you’re left to deal with years of emotional and sometimes physical baggage that drinking let you avoid.
You slog through some of that, find ways to have fun, de-stress while sober, find some new hobbies, meet some new people and things go back up again.
Then it gets boring again and frustrating and you’re left feeling a little unsettled.
It’s kind of a never-ending rollercoaster of ups and downs, and it’s shocking if you don’t know it’s coming. It makes sense that things will start out hard, then even up as time goes on and just get better and better the farther you go.
Not really so.
That’s definitely something worth mentioning if you’re totally new and don’t know what to expect.
Final Thoughts
If you’re just now considering quitting drinking alcohol, make sure you’re informed as to what to expect down the line.
Maybe if you spend time in AA or sobriety groups, you’ll have someone there to tell you what to expect.
But if you choose to go it alone, it can be helpful to be made at least somewhat aware of what lies ahead.
Best of luck to you on your journey!
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