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800 Days Sober.
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800 Days Sober.

I Didn't Think It Could Be Me...

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Zac Small
Sep 15, 2022
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The Daily Draft Newsletter
The Daily Draft Newsletter
800 Days Sober.
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My wife and I hit 800 days of sobriety today.

No alcohol for 2 Years, 2 Months, and 8 Days.

This piece is coming out later in the day than most as I wanted to wait to write it until the day of the achievement and not the night before as I do with most posts. I’m a romantic at heart, and these little things matter to me.

Today is another milestone on my journey through sobriety with my wife, who joined me the night I quit not because she was addicted to “the sauce”, but rather because she is an awesome wife and wanted to support me.

To say, “I never thought I’d be able to say this” is an understatement.

I’ve been sober for over two years; it’d be easy to think, “Yeah, this was no big deal; alcohol has zero PROS and millions of CONS, so the decision to give it up was smart and easy to execute.” having made it without relapse, hindsight is 20/20. Now, to go back to the headspace where I was still drinking, let’s say, 802 days ago - there’s no way.

It’s easy for me to write, record, and publish articles about the negative aspects of alcohol that society refuses to acknowledge:

The Daily Draft with Zac Small
Suicide By Alcohol: The Authorized Epidemic
Hello. My name is Zachary Small, and I’m an alcoholic… At least, that’s the label given to people addicted to the addictive drug we don’t call a drug, we just call it “Alcohol”.The Daily Draft with Zac Small is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…
Read more
3 years ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Zac Small

I can do all of that now, but back in June of 2020, I was fully immersed in the drinking culture, and yet even then, I looked nothing like what “an alcoholic” is portrayed to be, so there was no wake-up call given to me at any point:

  1. I was making money online, enough to support my family

  2. I was leading a community of men, helping hundreds improve their lives

  3. I was involved in my community, volunteering at schools and coaching Youth Sports

The Daily Draft with Zac Small is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I was doing the things we say men need to do, but I was burning myself out in the process because during the day, I was Mr. Production and at night I was Mr. Let’s Party Until We’re Blind.

  1. Rinse

  2. Wash

  3. Repeat

It was unsustainable, and towards the end, it wasn’t even a fun party anymore. Jackie and I were drinking because it was a habit created, and that was how ended each night. Looking back, alcohol was such a waste of time, money, and health; it makes me sick how much of myself I gave away - 20 years of binge drinking…

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