37. Can we talk about Dry January?

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Hello darling heart and welcome to the drink less, live better podcast. This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking

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less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year alcohol

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free as a little life experiment and haven't looked back. With my experience and training, I now help other women with their

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alcohol free or drink less adventures. I'm here to tell you that you can be truly joyful without alcohol in your life. Join

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me here each week to find out how. Now, can we talk about Dry January? The idea for a dry Jan campaign was born in 2012. That's

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10 years ago, when Alcohol Change UK started the conversation and movement in this country. Its popularity has soared since

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the idea was first tried on for size and last year over a 130,000 people signed up for it with many squillions more taking

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part without signing up. Footnote here. Squillions. That's a highly technical term and entirely appropriate tool for measurement

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in this instance. I think you'll agree. I'd love to know what your stories are around dry January. Please do email me this

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month and tell me. I'd love to feature your words on the podcast either anonymously or not, as you wish. I've engaged in dry

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Januarys in different ways over the years. I can remember once claiming I was doing it Monday to Thursday, once claiming I

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was doing it as not drinking at home, but if I was out, it didn't count, and once I just made it through the 1st week before

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giving up. My birthday is the 4th January, and I went through many years of telling all my friends that dry jam couldn't start

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until the 5th Jan. Insert eye roll here. I look back on my old self and wonder what I was trying to achieve with that. Was

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it a last ditch attempt to hang on to the old party girl me? I don't know. So dry jam, There are positives to it. Yes. It

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makes for the start of a conversation around our habits. It gives our physical selves a break. It potentially breaks a pattern

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of regular drinking, and emotionally, we get a chance to recalibrate without using alcohol to either cheer us up or numb us

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down, and that's all okay, isn't it? Well, kinda. Thing is, come Feb, I used to go back to my old drinking ways with knobs

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on. Woo hoo. I've had a month off booze. I've proved to myself and everyone else I don't have a problem with alcohol. So back

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to it, and of course there was the same attitude in December. I'm having a month off Jan, so I can drink all the drinks in

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the run up to Christmas and New Year. Hooray. Go me. What if you go into dry jam thinking you can do it and find you can't?

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Who will be there to hold your hand? What if you are overcome by guilt and shame because you didn't achieve what you set out

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to do? Will you laugh it off like I did? Will you beat yourself up in private like I did also? Jan is a rubbish month for

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piling too much onto our to do lists. Any month is a good choice to do dry or any week or any day. Just because we're partway

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through January doesn't mean you cannot start your sober streak right now. Dry January may not be suitable for some people.

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If your body has become dependent on alcohol, stopping drinking without supervision from a medical professional, all team,

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is a serious no no. Thank you for listening to this episode. Please listen in again next time when I either hope you are or

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aren't doing dry January. You can sign up to my 5 day drink less experiment and find out about working with me one to 1 at

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drink less, live better.com. Thank you. And PS, I believe in you.