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Two Techniques That Kept Me Sober for Six Years
Reflecting on a milestone.
This essay originally appeared last year in the Exploring Sobriety newsletter.
As of this past weekend, I’m six years sober.
I love these big yearly milestones. They are a great chance to reflect on my sobriety and remind myself of how far I’ve come.
I quit drinking on New Year’s Eve, the very last day of 2016. It’s an incredibly common time to quit drinking. Ironically, that makes the milestone feel even more special to me.
Every new year, as I add another year to my sobriety count, I’m joined by countless other people around the world who are also hitting a milestone — or, even more importantly, are going through their very first days of sobriety.
My original idea for this week’s newsletter was to play on the number six by offering my top six tips for sobriety. However, as I started to outline the essay, I realized that two of the techniques stood far above the rest. I decided to narrow the focus to just these two because above all else, they are what helped me to stay sober during the early days.
I hope that these strategies will be helpful to anyone trying to stay sober, but I’ve written this week’s edition especially for those of you who just quit drinking this…