My experience with dry January.

Dry January is a very popular new year trend so after doing more drinking than I ever had before, over Christmas I am ready to try it. Over November and December, I’d started to realise how much regular drinking was impacting my mental health, I drank most weekends, but I wouldn’t necessary describe that as an unhealthy habit. However, the morning after I had drunk my depression and anxiety would be worse than usual and I was losing days of just being alone and upset.

I think it’s important to recognise that drinking is a massive part of British culture, and often problems with alcohol go unrecognised. I found dry January hard, it wasn’t the lack of being drunk that I found hard, and that surprised me. It was the act of mixing a cocktail or pouring a drink that I missed; so, I consumed a lot of fizzy drinks. I still have depression and have bad days; however, they have decreased, and it feels better not knowing that I am knowingly making it worse. Alcohol is a depressant, and I didn’t recognise how much it affected me until I stopped.

Looking forward I will be drinking less because I have realised, I don’t need to, especially when in lockdown, I know I don’t need to drink to have fun, therefore I think I should break this habit. I don’t have a problem with alcohol, but I feel better when I reduce my intake and I’m glad that I’ve learnt this.

I would encourage anyone to try this if drinking is negatively impacting you, despite the stigma surrounding it. putting your mental health first is always the best thing to do.