Sami Davis

Professional singer, songwriter, musician, & part time member of the band Rocket Surgeons.

08/10/2023

One year ago today, I decided that I needed to stop drinking. It was an easy decision because it had gotten completely out of control, but it was extremely hard to follow through on. I’m not gonna lie, the first few months were BRUTAL. But once I got passed the emotional withdrawal and got my mental health more or less on track, I started to notice areas of my life that alcohol had drastically affected.

1. ALCOHOL DULLED MY SENSES: I’m not just talking while I was drinking alcohol, I mean the times in between as well. Example: I used to have a horrible sense of smell but when I stopped drinking, a couple of months later my sense of smell came back with a vengeance. Now I definitely can smell too much 😂

2. ALCOHOL STUNTED MY COPING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: My only coping mechanism as an adult was alcohol. For every problem, alcohol was the solution. But now that I’ve quit, I’ve been forced to develop other habits that help me to come up with solutions to my mental health problems as opposed to pushing them to the side, making them tomorrows problem.

3. ALCOHOL MADE ME LAZY: before I quit, I thought that laziness was just a part of my personality. But that’s not true at all! Ever since quitting, I’ve become more and more productive and motivated to get things done. Before quitting, simple tasks like cleaning my house were extremely intimidating.

4. ALCOHOL LOWERED MY CONFIDENCE: I used to rely on alcohol as a crutch, because I thought people wouldn’t like me without it. I was the “party animal,” the “fun drunk,” the “life of the party,” so on… and I loved being called those things. Alcohol became a part of my identity, so how could I live without it? I can not only live without it, but I can thrive without it. These last few months, I have learned to love myself for who I am without alcohol…I really like that person better ❤️

I could go on and on about all the positives of not drinking, but Instagram will only let me write so much 😜 here’s to a successful first year of sobriety and to the ongoing discovery of my sober self 🥂

Photo Credit: .captures.concerts