Six big life lessons I learned because I don't drink
There's a million more but these are top of mind right now
Countless things in my life have majorly changed since I got sober and started my recovery in January 2022. Things I never would have learned, been aware of, or experienced the same way had I not gotten sober. Here I’m sharing six of them that feel most timely and relevant. It’s a random collection of personal revelations, truths, and life lessons, and yet they’re all connected to each other, too. Such is the mysterious web of what we call life.
One
My husband still drinks, but exponentially less since I got sober. This only bothers me once in a great while when I can smell it. He likes the hoppy IPA’s which seem more pungent to me? I never liked beer. I never expected him to get sober with me. As this has all shaken out over the past two years of my recovery, it’s clear I suffered true addiction brought on by trauma. I cannot and will not drink again. For him, it’s clearly not as big a deal. He’s fine with one beer (in general, he’s a successful micro-doser of all ‘addictive type’ things up to and including sugar). To me, one drink sounds like torture.
We did attend a wedding recently where he over-drank and regretted it. I told him it made me sad because I missed him when he drank so much because he ‘disappeared’ from me emotionally. He said he missed me, too, and felt the disconnection. It was a one-off and very rare situation under extremely rare circumstances. We talked about what it was like for him, which was a welcome change from me always talking about what sobriety is like for me. I think these things take a looooong time to be revealed and then to work through as a couple. I’m only two years in to sobriety. There’s newness for both of us. We just keep being honest and sharing our observations without judgement. This is a particular kind of intimacy we are new to—and we deeply respect each other for it.
Two
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