I reached my 6 month anniversary of being alcohol free on August 3rd, one week ago. Many people told me that 6 months is HUGE. I wasn’t sure I believed them, but I can say that nearly every day since the 3rd, I’ve experienced revelations and a-ha moments around my drinking. The best word to describe it is CLARITY.

One of the biggest changes I’m experiencing now is how much more tolerant and patient I’m becoming. Many things that would upset me or make me angry when I was still drinking, are now just rolling off my back. I actually experienced some of this early on in my sobriety when a friend of mine’s daughter committed suicide. I lost one of my brothers to suicide 30 years ago and, as you can probably imagine, a lot of the emotions surrounding his death came to the surface when I was reaching out to my friend to offer support. I remember sharing with my friends that I believed if I was still drinking, my emotions would have been all over the place. I had only been AF a few weeks by this time, but I was surprisingly calm and better able to support her without becoming a total wreck in her presence.

Another thing like being around people who drink, including my husband, is starting to become less annoying. From the beginning, I never really had any problems being around drinking. I didn’t have to get rid of the alcohol in our home. I could and can offer alcoholic beverages to guests and watch them drink without any problems. My husband joined me in going AF for nearly 2 months, but eventually went back to drinking in moderation. Initially, some of my annoyances were listening to people get drunk and repeating themselves. Or knowing that a conversation I had with my husband isn’t going to be remembered the next day and having to repeat myself was extremely annoying. However, the past month when I’ve encountered these things I’m finding I am not near as annoyed as I used to be.

This past week I’ve almost experienced the Pink Cloud again. My mind is racing with thoughts and ideas around my drinking. I’m experiencing a-ha moments and revelations and am blogging like crazy! I’m still sleeping unbelievably well and absorbing so much information from the class I’m taking. Like I said, clarity. It’s a beautiful thing and I’m allowing myself to take this time to take all of it in and put it to use.