{"id":5346,"date":"2026-02-17T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/?p=5346"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:32:10","slug":"achievement-unlocked-one-year-sober","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/achievement-unlocked-one-year-sober\/","title":{"rendered":"Achievement Unlocked: One Year Sober"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(This is from the Insider Newsletter that I sent out earlier today&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Back in early 2023 I wrote a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/the-curious-case-of-alcoholism\/\">long blog post<\/a> about my struggles with alcohol and how I\u2019d decided to stop. I made it a few months, and then several times on and off after that, in the classic struggle to actually stop and stay stopped, until February last year, when it finally stuck.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This Friday (2\/20\/26) I\u2019ll be sober for a year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you struggle yourself, or know anyone who struggles with alcohol problems, you\u2019ll know that a full trip around the sun sober is a major milestone and a significant mental achievement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Why am I telling you this? I\u2019m not bragging or looking for affirmation. I was public here about my struggle back in 2023 because I wanted people in the SQL community who were struggling to know that they\u2019re not alone and it\u2019s nothing to be ashamed of (and boy, was I surprised by the number of \u2018me too!\u2019 emails). And now I\u2019m being public about how I failed to stop a few times but persevered and eventually hit on the combination of things that let me stop and stay stopped.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Perseverance was the key. Eventually I figured out:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>A. A. just wasn\u2019t for me. I\u2019m not a \u2018group chat\/extemporaneous sharing\u2019 person. It was great back in 2023 for the structure it provided over the first couple of months, but later I found myself not looking forward to meetings.<\/li>\n<li>I needed substitutes. I found Athletic IPA, which tastes just like the real thing, but non-alcoholic and is pretty ubiquitous (along with Heineken Zero) in bars and restaurants. Chardonnay used to be my go-to, but non-alcoholic wine\u2026. &lt;yuck&gt; And I also found Free Spirits \u2018bourbon\u2019, so I can have my late-night \u2018clinky drink\u2019 while I\u2019m reading. And often around 5-6pm I\u2019ll go for a drive for a bit, as that was my usual \u2018start time\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So far, so good \u2013 this is working for me nicely!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you\u2019re struggling to meet a goal, don\u2019t give up. The horribly-clich\u00e9d proverb \u2018if at first you don\u2019t succeed, try, try again\u2019 is very true. And if you\u2019re struggling to give up alcohol, or any other addiction, don\u2019t lose hope. You can do it. And there are people who care that you do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This is from the Insider Newsletter that I sent out earlier today&#8230;) Back in early 2023 I wrote a long blog post about my struggles with alcohol and how I\u2019d decided to stop. I made it a few months, and then several times on and off after that, in the classic struggle to actually stop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Achievement Unlocked: One Year Sober - Paul S. Randal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/achievement-unlocked-one-year-sober\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Achievement Unlocked: One Year Sober - Paul S. Randal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(This is from the Insider Newsletter that I sent out earlier today&#8230;) Back in early 2023 I wrote a long blog post about my struggles with alcohol and how I\u2019d decided to stop. I made it a few months, and then several times on and off after that, in the classic struggle to actually stop [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/achievement-unlocked-one-year-sober\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paul S. 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