We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we're here together!

Welcome to the 24 hour pledge!

I'm pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.

Maybe you're new to /r/stopdrinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you're like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you've been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.

It doesn't matter if you're still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, lets not drink alcohol!

This pledge is a statement of intent. Today we don't set out trying not to drink, we make a conscious decision not to drink. It sounds simple, but all of us know it can be hard and sometimes impossible. The group can support and inspire us, yet only one person can decide if we drink today. Give that person the right mindset!

What happens if we can't keep to our pledge? We give up or try again. And since we're here in /r/stopdrinking, we're not ready to give up.

What this is: A simple thread where we commit to not drinking alcohol for the next 24 hours, posting to show others that they're not alone and making a pledge to ourselves. Anybody can join and participate at any time, you do not have to be a regular at /r/stopdrinking or have followed the pledges from the beginning.

What this isn't: A good place for a detailed introduction of yourself, directly seek advice or share lengthy stories. You'll get a more personal response in your own thread.

This post goes up at:

  • US - Night/Early Morning
  • Europe - Morning
  • Asia and Australia - Evening/Night

A link to the current Daily Check-In post can always be found near the top of the sidebar.

WARRIORS, COME OUT AND PLAY-YYY!

In "Courage" P!nk opines perfectly: "I'm walking uphill both ways it hurts, I bury my heart here in this dirt, I hope it's a seed I hope it works. Don't have to do this perfectly." Then she asks something we've all felt deep down inside when facing many big life changes: "Have I the courage to change today?"

I want to talk about pride vs being prideful today. A lot of "biblical scholars" love to talk about queer pride like being proud is a sin. There's a marked difference between the two. Being proud of who you are is a HUGE thing. It takes some serious cojones to flip the middle finger to the establishment and say "screw you I'm gonna be the best me ever!" I've been the recipient of hate for both my queer status and my sobriety even!

Being proud of my queerness and my sobriety to me isn't about being better than literally anyone, that is what the pride sin really is about. It is simply about being better than myself yesterday. Being proud of both those aspects of my life is because I was killing myself slowly with booze-fueled denial which was literally declining my health. I'm now fully present in my life, living every day as the woman I should have been living as my whole life, and so damn sober that even caffeine has an effect again!

I'm proud as hell of the things I've accomplished, but because I put in the work to get there. Over two years of being out of the closet and 14 months sober does not happen without a strong will or desire for change for the better. I took a huge leap of faith getting on HRT, I took almost equally as big of a leap getting sober. I had to go on blind faith that these things would work in my favor. The multitude of ways that my life has improved would take a year of DCIs to cover. I could literally write a book on the subject from the three volumes of journaling I've done to date.

Today I'm truly happy to feel healed from the breakup of my marriage enough to just miss the small aspects of it. It's more the feeling alone in bed at night than anything. But I'm living my life being the most alive, and I'm battling on my own...something I never did before. I'm happy to have all of this time out of the closet and sober. I'm happy to be alive and finding my purpose on this planet.

I also want to shout out u/nitram6119 for the glorious humanity check yesterday. I needed that more than words can even express, thanks friend! Thanks to all who gave support and uplift yesterday with my battles as well.

Tonight, Boston faces elimination again and I'll be watching with all my r/BostonBruins family in the GDT, who got to witness my rock bottom firsthand during a gameday thread in January 2022.

Question of the Day: What made you happy before getting sober that you discovered you love more now that you're sober. For me, it's watching hockey. NHL, PWHL, college, doesn't matter. Hockey is brutal and violent and a grind and I love watching the flow.

IWNDWYT!