What Happens After 30 Days Sober

The first Friday night I spent at home after I quit drinking was tough. I felt lost in my own house. I didn't know what to do, where to go. At 10 pm, I was already sleepy, but it was the time I used to be leaving the house for the bar. Every bone in my body told me to go out and have a drink, but I stayed home and went to sleep. The next day, I woke up early, made myself breakfast and then took my son to the beach. Something I hadn't done in months. It was a good day and I felt good about myself.

The first few days of sobriety can be very tough. Depending on the level of drinking you had endured before quitting, you may feel different symptoms of abstinence. The weekend before I quit, I drank for three days straight. On Monday, I was a shadow of myself. The hangover lasted another three days. I decided that I never wanted to feel like that again. Fortunately, the only signs of abstinence I felt were psychological. My body felt good, but my mind did not.

The first thirty days went by in a flash and a lot happened. Here are five things I noticed on those first days:

I started sleeping better

Drinking alcohol disrupted my entire sleep cycle. For years, I had been sleeping terribly. On regular days, I had trouble falling asleep and had very light sleep. On days where I drank, I slept heavily, but woke up feeling sick and spent the entire day feeling tired.

I had been pushing myself to the extremes. Going out late at night and drinking till morning, several nights in a row, only to then have to wake up on Monday at 7 am for work. My body did not understand what was happening. 

When I quit drinking, the first thing I noticed was an improvement on my sleep. The first few days were difficult. After the second week, I started sleeping better. For the first time in years I was actually able to feel sleepy, to let myself be tired. I learned how to listen to my own body and obey it. If I felt sleepy, I went to sleep. When I felt rested, I woke up. I finally realized that my body had been telling me for a long time that it needed a break. 

Within a few weeks, my body was well rested and my sleep cycle had improved greatly. I stopped having nightmares. I woke up fewer times at night. I woke up feeling good. I started enjoying life again. 

I started losing weight

I have been struggling with my weight since I was a teenager. Pills, diets, exercises. I had tried everything. In addition to the weight, I also had the effects of alcohol on my body. I mostly drank beer, which means that I also had the effect of gluten. This meant that not only was I overweight; I was often bloated. I had a lot of fat around my belly. No matter what I did, it never went away. 

When I first quit drinking, I immediately started losing weight. Two weeks in, the bloatness subsided and my face was thinner. At the end of the thirty days, I had lost three kilos. I stopped feeling stomachaches and nausea all the time. I stopped having diarrhea. My digestive system started to work better. 

Alcohol can disrupt the regulation of insulin in the body. I was starting to develop metabolic syndrome at the time and at the end of thirty days, my blood exams came back 100%. My markers for metabolic syndrome were gone. I was metabolizing insulin correctly again. I then knew I could actually focus on my health again because my body was regulated.

My mental health improved

I drank alcohol to numb myself and to keep myself from having to face my life and my problems. I thought that once I stopped, everything would come tumbling down and I would be a wreck. That didn't happen. I immediately started to feel better. 

My depression subsided almost immediately. I wasn't cured by any means, but the depressive episodes became much lighter. I was taking antidepressants to lift me up and the alcohol was bringing me down. Without the alcohol, the medication could actually do its work. I started to recover. 

Another thing I noticed was that my anxiety also improved. I was a smoker back then and I started smoking less. I felt less need to soothe myself. I felt less awkward, less uncomfortable. I felt my mind starting to think clearer, to work better. I could go to work and actually focus on the task at hand. I felt less stressed. 

After so many years of doctors, therapists and medication, it turned out that removing the alcohol from my life was the turning point. It changed everything and I finally started to improve my mental health.

I realized how many problems I actually had

I drank in order to forget about the problems that I had. And it worked. One of the first things I noticed during those first days of sobriety was how many problems I actually had. It felt like I had been hoarding problems for years, stacking them up and pushing them aside, hoping they would disappear on their own. 

My finances were wrecked, my house was a mess, my career was ruined, my relationships were damaged. Wherever I looked, something was wrong. But it didn't overwhelm me. I could see the problems but I could also see how I got them, where they came from and how I could deal with them. I was no longer afraid of them. I knew I was going to be able to solve them. And even if there was no solution, I knew I would be able to take the loss. 

I realized who my real friends were

I had so many friends back when I used to drink that I could barely keep up with them. Every weekend I was out with a new group. We spent the week discussing what adventures we were going to have on the weekends, where we were going to, who we were going to see. We knew each other for years, knew each other's deepest secrets. But when I quit drinking, almost immediately everybody disappeared. 

Without the alcohol, I had nothing in common with those people. There were no topics to discuss, the energy was different between us. We were no longer interested in each other. Nobody wanted to grab a coffee or go to the movies. They had plans at the bar. Nobody wanted to go to the beach because they were hungover from the night before. Nobody wanted to go to the bookstore because that was boring. I realized how different we all were. It was the alcohol that had brought us together. 

But then, there were the friends who were still there for me. Who didn't feel like they had to drink every weekend, or get drunk every time they drank. Friends I had set aside suddenly started showing up. They were interested in me again. I was able to figure out who my real friends were. And this alone changed my life. 

Staying sober past the first 30 days

Getting sober is hard, but once you get past the first thirty days, it gets easier. You feel healthier, happier, stronger. You have more energy. You look in the mirror and you finally feel good about yourself. You want to keep the momentum going. You want the feeling to last. So you are able to continue pushing yourself. You get to forty days, then sixty, then ninety. Before you know it, it has been a year. Before you know it, you can't even remember what it was like to drink. 

Being an alcoholic means that you have to make a decision to not drink every single day. But the first day is the hardest and every other day after that gets progressively easier. Pretty soon, it becomes harder to consider having a drink. You don't want to lose what you gained. You're afraid of what might happen. You still remember what hangovers feel like and you don't want that feeling again. 

The truth is, it doesn't matter if you fall off the wagon. You can always stop again. You will go through those first thirty days and you will notice all of those changes. They will fortify you. They will push you to continue moving forward. And you will try again. 

One day, you will have had your last drink for the last time and you won't even know it. But your body will feel it and your life will be forever changed.