I’m not newly sober, well almost 11 months in, I don’t feel newly sober anyway. The reality is though, I’ve spent less than 10% of my adult existence sober. Not to mention my misspent youth, which is a whole other story for another day. Life is good these days, I eat well, sleep well, think well, but this wasn’t always the case.

For more years than I care to think about, I tortured my body, mind and soul with daily amounts of alcohol, enough to drop a person twice my size into the gutter. I replaced meals with booze often, in a misguided attempt at staying slim, whilst ensuring I got thoroughly shitfaced on a budget. Eating is cheating was a long thrown around motto of mine. Doing a Dry July or Sober October was like asking me to jump out of a plane without a parachute. Don’t be so ridiculous.

Still, I always considered myself a high functioning person, someone who stitched all of the far reaching pieces of life together in a carefully crafted tapestry. I just liked a drink, or ten, I mean, doesn’t everyone? Growing up in a culture where almost everyone lived and worked to get boozed up, I had no fathomable concept of life without alcohol. I thought the only people who didn’t drink were religious fanatics or those poor sickly folk. As the decades rolled by in a haze, my tapestry started to look more like a very complex cross stitch undertaken by someone with cataracts and only one hand.

It took more than 20 years for me to come to a crossroad, to consider that there were other paths to choose from. To examine my life under the scrutiny of a microscope, looking at an upended dead bug in a petri dish was hard. Perhaps, it could possibly be revived, maybe it wasn’t dead, just comatose…

Looking back, its hard to reconcile who I am today with the person I was a relatively short time ago in January 2022… And for the decades preceding. It’s like looking upon some parallel universe, where there was another me, but then here I am, the other me, the real one. It is akin to hatching out of a cocoon, a torpid pupa, who finally metamorphosed into a moth. Although I’d rather have been a butterfly, I am most definitely a moth…but I digress.

The journey has been a challenging but rewarding one, and at nearly 11 months sober I can really start to see some benefits racking up. They are extremely hard to deny. I could rant all day about the positives, but below are the things that just happened naturally, byproducts of one healthy choice. Without further ado, here are my top 5 health benefits from quitting alcohol.

• Sleep

Admittedly, this part was hell to begin with. As a natural night owl, without a heavy dose of liquid sleep to make me drowsy, I was still awake at 1 or 2 am most nights. But my previous habits of passing out at 9 pm, enduring fitful sleep, to wake at 3 am with worries of what I did the night before was hardly a better alternative. When you do normalize your sleep patterns, you will sleep like tutankhamen in his tomb in the Valley of Kings, and wake feeling like you spent all night in a flotation tank. Eventually.

• Skin and eyes

Results were noticeable from 2 weeks, especially the eyes, being whiter and clearer with even a glint of sparkle. My skin took a little longer to get a bit of a glow back, to rid myself of grey shades and red blotchiness. But by 6 weeks, I looked fresher than I had in years. People commented that I looked “different in a good way” but they couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I like to imagine it was the awakening of my soul they could see in motion. Instead of costing me a small fortune in lotions, potions and gimmicks, I had spare cash in my back pocket. Win.

• Weight loss

As an added bonus, my love handles and booze bloat have melted away like hot fat dripping off a rotisserie leg of lamb. 11 months, almost 11 kg! It seems liquid calories are just as bad for your waistline as doughnuts, ice cream and chips. Who knew. I may dedicate another post to this if I ever feel brave enough to share photos of me in my undies in my very depressing circa 1975 bathroom. C’mon, cheer me on.

• Mental clarity

Giving your brain a chance to function without the daily fog of a hangover feels amazing. Imagine getting smarter and more productive at the same time. It’s true, results here were not instant, but by around 6 months, I was less panicked about having permanently dimmed my brain from the indulgences of my drinking career. My memory is now sharp and reliable and my to do lists get done. Mostly.

• Improved mood

My moods have gone from dark storm clouds thundering around in my head to sunshine and rainbows, with a spring in my step. OK, so I still get bad days, who doesn’t? But it’s so much easier to wipe the scowl off my face and think of a more positive slant on things. Most days I start by belting out a bit of Jimmy Cliffs “I can see clearly now the rain has gone” at the top of my voice. Absolutely a true story. This song came to me in sobriety and refuses to leave. It’s probably exceptionally annoying for those around me, and I couldn’t give a damn. This is now my day to day life’s theme tune. I’m unapologetic for it.

To sum up from the title of this post, after a few of months of being fairly tired, grumpy and generally pretty out of sorts, I started to feel quite good. Really good. Low and behold, when you don’t guzzle a decent amount of poison daily, life gets easier, and actually quite enjoyable. It would have been nice to know this ten or twenty years before now, but what does wallowing in regret achieve?

Having heard about the pink cloud phenomenon, I started to worry that perhaps I might come crashing down to earth with an almighty thud. That everything had been an illusion, some cruel prank my brain was playing on me.

Can I really have been floating around on the pink cloud for 8 months? Or is life without alcohol genuinely more fulfilling? I know one thing for certain, that every minute I spent drunk or hungover, didn’t bring me joy or satisfaction. A lot of my life passed me by. Most of the so called good times, I can’t remember anyway.

Every day, I continue to get more enjoyment out of life than I have in years. I’m more engaged and active in my community. My ability to deal with problems is dramatically improved. Shit still happens, life is not all rose petals in the bath and long walks on the beach. But instead of burying my emotions in the bottom of a cheap bottle of shiraz or two, I take the time to look after myself and work through things on a conscious level. Today I choose self care over self destruction. That brings me joy.

Quite honestly, I can’t imagine going back to my old ways now, and I’m fiercely protective of myself and my needs these days. Whatever it takes to maintain my newfound peace, I will do. At almost 43 years young, I’m finally starting to feel like I might be able to pass for a grown up. Better late than never!

I’d love to hear your thoughts, are you currently on the pink cloud? Or falling off it? Or trying to figure out where to start your journey? Please leave a comment below.