After this there are only the large dates at 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and finaly 40.
I wasn't sure if quitting would take or not and honestly I was concerned that I couldn't.
I had no idea what the extent of my addiction was or if I would need to seek outside help to quit, which would never have happened. I had managed to quite tobacco years before, that was brutal, so I wasn't sure what getting off the booze would look like. I just felt, deep down, that I needed to quit.
Anyway, for me it began after a particularly rough night of excess. I wouldn't call it 'hitting rock bottom', just another random week night of too much cheap vodka from a plastic bottle.
The early morning commute in traffic to work the next day with a raging hangover, the recovery during the day in a dingy beige cubicle lit in cold fluorescent and a longer commute home in more traffic was my tipping point.
I started that night.
I set small goals and kept adding to them.
I told myself that if I could do 1 day without drink, then I could probably do 2 days.
And if I could 2 days, I certainly could do 3.
If I could do 3 days, I could make the effort to do a week.
1 week then 2.
2 weeks then a month.
This was a big one and I felt that at this point the real hard part was over for me.
1 month turned into 3 months.
3 months turned to 6.