Sober October – What happens when you don’t drink for one month?

Sober October, have you ever tried it? Or have you ever tried going a significant period of time without alcohol? I have recently cut back my alcohol consumption and feel all the better for it, choosing now to drink more socially than solitary, here’s what can happen when you cut back or go sober for a stretch!

As it implies Sober October is a challenge, usually done to raise money for charity, it is the entire month of October without alcohol, none, nada. Going completely dry for one month proves harder for some than for others, I guess it all depends on how big a part of your life alcohol is, for most of us its a social elixir, for others a nightly or weekly ritual. 

Before we get too far into this I’m not at all saying that alcohol is the devil, I really do enjoy my glass of wine especially around the Christmas period, but here’s to the exploration of what life could be like without it, or a least with less of it!

Giving up your nightly, weekly or fortnightly beverage and swapping it for some chamomile tea may actually have more of an impact than you may think, let’s look at some things that happen to our bodies when we stop drinking alcohol for one month.

SLEEP

You will sleep like a baby! Eventually… If you’re more of a daily drinker this may take some time to achieve. Your body has gotten used to that nightly beverage and giving it up will have some withdrawal symptoms – trouble getting to sleep being one of them, although this is only temporary and after a few nights (give or take) you will be getting a much better quality sleep than you were when alcohol was in your system! This will massively improve your energy levels and quality of life, a rested mind and body is a happy mind and body.

SKIN…MY FAVOURITE TOPIC

Now I know I said I wasn’t going to demonise alcohol but in the spirit of the truth and halloween month, here are some horror story style effects that alcohol has on your skin…

Alcohol has major effects on the skin, its dehydrating, drying, causes premature ageing, puffiness redness, rosacea in some people and sallow looking skin, it causes vasodilation, this is the bursting of blood vessels under the skin, it also decreases the skin’s elasticity that can cause skin to sag… cue cliché halloween scream… just one month without alcohol and the skin begins to repair itself, you will notice a brighter complexion, brighter eyes, more hydrated healthy looking skin, less fine lines and wrinkles and all over clearer looking skin! I’ll drink to that… Pass the water.

HEALTH

Referencing from the book ‘The unexpected joy of being sober’ – Catherine Gray – ‘Given a bottle of wine is the calorific equivalent of two chocolate bars, I was effectively putting away 14-16 bars a week’, if you haven’t read this book and are interested in learning more about sober life, please do, its an amazing insight into the world of sobriety, its full of facts and figures alongside her incredible story, I highly recommend. Whilst reading this book I learned so much about what alcohol actually does to your body. 

The calories in alcohol are ‘empty’ and contain little to no nutrition, this adds to weight gain and high blood pressure. Excessive alcohol consumption also causes a whole collection of nasty health issues such as liver damage, heart palpitations, stroke, digestive issues and various different cancers, we are talking about abusing alcohol and drinking more than the recommenced amount, but really… do we all stay within the limit? or are we guilty of over doing it? 

We need to know more about what we are putting into our bodies, about the dangers of abusing alcohol, we only ever hear the good stuff, like the amazing nights out you had while drunk, the funny alcohol dowsed stories, or the really bad stuff, like the person who ended up in rehab for becoming addicted to alcohol, or the woman who’s now been diagnosed with fatty liver disease, and the problem with this is we can all relate to the first part, the fun, the memories, the romanticised allure of a glass of red wine and a candlelit dinner, but its super hard to relate to the bad, because we think it will never happen to us and that’s when we become careless or ignorant. 

How much is too much? Doctors talk in units but who really knows how many units they’re drinking really, we are all different shapes and sizes who says it’s one size fits all? The information is out there, one google search will show you exactly what you need to know about the dangers and the limits, but there is also a crazy amount of drink encouragement, that paints alcohol as something we are allowed/encouraged to over indulge in, and for the most part people do.

Do we just assume we are drinking an ok amount or do we know we drinking too much and ignore it because change is hard? Some of you do drink a safe amount, stay under your units and lead perfectly healthy lives with the occasional drink, kudos to you guys.

A challenge like this one can really help reset the body and mind for changing, maybe realising that you have gotten into an unhealthy habit, I can tell you this for certain and from cutting back myself – nothing bad will happen to you if you give up alcohol for a month, but maybe great things will.

MIND

We all know that alcohol makes us feel relaxed, helps us unwind in the moment, helps us socialise better, helps some of us sleep (even though it doesn’t really as we talked about in section one!) clever marketing from alcohol companies calling it a ‘nightcap’ doesn’t help!

Drinking alcohol to help you relax because you are feeling stressed might feel great in the moment, but… there’s always a ‘but’ when you take a short cut to solve your problems isn’t there! It will leave you feeling worse the next day, alcohol increases the stress hormones that make depression and anxiety worse, top that off with withdrawal, a dehydration headache and your mood is in the gutter. 

According to Aspenridge recovery, a recovery centre for drug and alcohol addiction – ‘ Alcohol affects the prefrontal cortex first, This part of the brain is responsible for judgement, reasoning and suppressing impulsive behaviour. Thats why after a few drinks you lose some of your inhibitions and feel more confident venturing out of your comfort zone’ – this makes complete sense and it does nothing for our mental health, because who we are when we are drunk is for most of us definitely not who we are when we are sober, this leads to the ever cringeworthy next morning after a heavy night when we all feel that ‘hangxiety’ of; did I really do/say that? 

Having a break from alcohol and using other ways to relax your mind instead is definitely the healthier option. You could try doing some yoga or meditation, having a chat to a friend over a cup of coffee, this actually helps to control any anxiety and is a far better long term fix, after thirty days alcohol free you should find yourself feeling more motivated, have bags more energy and feel altogether much healthier along with having skin that glows, eyes that sparkle and more cash-money in the bank, all these things contribute to a healthier mind.

If you would like to ask any questions or talk about this topic any further, you can ask me anything at your appointment in clinic or in the comments section below! you can also send a direct email if you prefer a little more privacy.