The sober truth

There are a variety of activities that I enjoy, however the common ground for majority of them is the drinking.

If you want to know anything, I mean anything, about alcohol you can ask me! How to choose the right kind of wine, or how to choose a drink that will go with any situation or the feeling you want to achieve. The best places to drink? Yes, I have the answer. The recipe for an unheard of cocktail? I will know it, heck I can even make it for you with my expertise. We could discuss the downfall of a society that is in the grips of a massive drinking problem. The mentality of an alcoholic, the positive and the negative aspects of drinking...

When the subject is alcohol I will always have an opinion or know some facts. This being said I am not an alcoholic. This is a fact.  I am very particular about what I drink and need to know exactly how each drink will make me feel therefore it is not possible for me to become a reckless alcoholic. Let’s call it an alcohol enthusiasm.

This brings me to the predicament that I find myself in. Two weeks ago I decided, with my own will, to detox. To go completely teetotal! Ouch I hear you saying? Ouch indeed. It’s a tough call. However the last two weeks have shown me how in fact it is becoming harder and harder to socialize without drinking.

The decision to go teetotal was for a number of reasons mainly health and because I wanted to make sure that I was not relying on anything to have a good time. 

The first two days happened to be the weekend and quite frankly a whole night out with people getting drunk around me was not bearable, so had to cancel evening’s plans. Second day was better, being a Sunday it was easy to relax and part take in wholesome activities like going to the gym. Monday would be easy I though, until the stress of the day got the better of us and it was suggested that we go to the pub to beat the Monday blues. If I was to be a teetotaller then surely I must test myself, so I agreed. Suffice to say nothing interesting happened; even the bees and flies were staying away from my barely palatable camomile tea. Whilst my colleagues had a couple of drinks and let the worries of the day dissolve I became irritated with my tea going cold. 

Indeed each and every day since I began my detox there has been one offer or another to go out, parties, events and dinners. Being optimistic about my will power I attended a few, in fact I even allowed my friend to go ahead and drink whilst I stood around not drinking, nursing a glass of beverage. It seems as though it would have been possible to enjoy the evening just the same without alcohol however the sad fact is that it wasn’t. Perhaps most people would state that they don’t require alcohol to have fun but many will not be able to withstand being in a club till 3 am just with a glass of coca cola!

Having concluded that; 1.) A pub is the worst place to have tea 2.) I was indeed jealous of my friends drinking in front of me, we decided to go somewhere else. Not being hungry and currently off the alcohol we found ourselves at a loss as to where to go and sit after work to have a chat. In the end we reluctantly walked over to Starbucks to have tea. So we sat awkwardly with our giant cups of fair trade ethically bagged bunch of grass and dirt and whatever else they are packing into those hideous bags and tried to converse. The conversation kept on circling back to the fact that it was almost a prison punishment not to be able to drink freely. 

We managed around an hour of teatime until giving up and heading home miserably.

 It may not be a way of life for majority of people out there, perhaps some people have never tried it and don’t intent to. Quite frankly I don’t know who those people are.

 In the second week of my life as a teetotaller I am not getting any nearer to coming to terms with the fact that alcohol is not a part of my life for the next few months. It would have been good to have discovered that life without alcohol is just as great in the last two weeks. However it has simply been harder to find places to hang out and barmen sympathetic with my order of beverage without perceiving it as a total waste of their precious time to serve it to me. It is a struggle to maintain this new status of teetotaller without sacrificing essential parts of my social life. Undeniably this short burst of abstinence is good for anyone who regularly socialises, it adds excitement to the time when I will be able to continue with my old ways, safe in the knowledge that my consumption is under control. There is no denying the fact that I have spent the last two weeks wondering why alcohol without calories or which isn’t harmful to our liver has not yet been invented and have been mourning this.

Drinking may not solve any problems and may in fact be the cause of many, but there are plenty of occasions in our lives that are enriched with some well-chosen wine to accompany it. Many celebrations are merrier and livelier with the addition of those precious bubbles. Tough days at work are more bearable with the promise of a relaxing pint after work as a reward. It isn’t the vice of the lost and the soulless; in fact it is the elixir to our busy and hectic lives to drown the stress with a glass of something special.

In the countdown of my life as a teetotaller I now plan the day when I will be free of this burden and can drink in celebration of it. When faced with my question about alcohol Melike said ‘I, for one, have been raised with the belief  that alcohol is the root of evil and all I can say is lets drink up and be merry!’ this statement sums up my sentiments exactly.