I am living the most wonderful life imaginable.
I have an amazing wife, a fabulous job, a beautiful home and lots of good friends. I feel fit and strong and like nothing better than going on fantastic hiking adventures with my wife and dog Betty. I am complete.
However, if I'd written this story 13 months ago, it would've been a very different tale. The ingredients would've been the same but there was 'a fly in the ointment' or rather 'a raging bull in the ointment'.
It was alcohol.
We think that alcohol is everybody’s friend right? It wasn't my friend; it was my enemy.
Alcohol embarrassed me, made a fool of me, made me angry, made me sad and turned me into a bad person. It made me hurt the people I love it and stripped me of my mojo. It tried to take everything but luckily, it failed.
If I'm totally honest, I was what people would call a bad drunk. Alcohol did nothing for me at all.
I don't want to talk about things I did in the past or how I behaved ... I'm sure you can imagine. As far as I am concerned, the past is the past and it's well behind me now.
I tried to stop drinking for years. I tried not drinking in the week or having a month off; we all know the script. The result was that I'd end up drinking more and more; every night and every weekend.
At the time, I wouldn’t have said I was alcohol dependant but looking back, I was. It was hard to admit because the truth was I couldn’t stop.
I've lost count of how many times I tried to give up but the problem with alcohol is that whilst it makes you feel awful, it also promises to make you feel good.
Now we know the truth though. Alcohol is a liar.
In April 2017, my wife found Sober Fish online and was inspired to stop drinking. A month later, on 21 May 2017, with my wife's full support, love and encouragement, I drank my last drink.
To go against the grain is a hard thing to do. To become a non-drinker is 'against the norm' however if people love and care about you, they should encourage you. You have to do what's right for you and find something to replace the alcohol. This could anything; God, yoga, meditation or in our case, hiking. We've hiked thousands of miles over the last year; we're fit, have lost weight and completely changed our way of life.
By ditching the alcohol, I literally found the real me and I couldn't be happier.
Written by Lee x 2018
Edited by Sober Fish