3 Years Alcohol Free.... What Changed?

And I just remember just thinking, like, with, with the alcohol, like, why, why, why have I drank so much alcohol? And why do I drink alcohol in the first place? And again, full transparency, for me, when I used to drink alcohol it was because I used to struggle with social anxiety.

You know, I used to really struggle.

Even to this day, I still can get nervous if an, if I'm in a room with more than 10 people.

If it's just one-to-one, um, or a small group, I'm absolutely fine.

But if I'm going to a party and the music's loud, I just feel like I'm hypersensitive to noises.

I find it really hard to focus, and I just find it overstimulating, and I don't know what to say.

I don't quite know what to do.

I don't particularly like, you know, small talk, and I'm not one of those people that can just kind of go up to people and just chat about random things and pretend to be interested.

I'm very much one of those people that wears my heart on my sleeve.

If I'm not interested in something, I, I can't fake and pretend, so it can sometimes come across as a little bit rude.

So I used to drink because that used to- Help me come out my shell a little bit more.

It used to help me kind of, yeah, forget about myself and just kind of get, guess, get drunk.

So I realized that wasn't healthy for me, you know, needing to go and drink to go to a social situation.

It w- it wasn't right.

Um, I'd also do it with friends because that's what all my other friends were doing, so it was just a habit that I didn't even really question.

But since stopping drinking now for, for three years, I have faced those fears.

I've been to parties.

I went to my sister's 30th a couple of years ago.

I've been to social events where I've not had one drop of alcohol, and I love it so much more.

I really actually enjoy it because it's funny seeing people drunk.

You find that you have deeper conversations with people.

You-- people reveal a lot about themselves when they're drunk as well.

It's r- something that you can't understand unless you're in an environment where you're sober, but everybody else is drunk.

And I just feel so much happier, so much healthier.

Um, and I generally think, you know, when I look at a lot of guys, I've, I've worked with a lot of people, I've seen things happen in my family, I've seen things with my friends, like alcohol, whilst it can be taken in moderation, I think there's a lot of guys that are h- highly dependent on alcohol.