You don’t drink in the mornings, your friends and family think you’re fine, your IG feed is full of happy pics, you’re holding it all together but something doesn’t feel right. From the outside, your life looks pretty good but in your heart you know there is a problem. Your drinking is on your mind and has been for a while.

Think of it as a spectrum — at one end is the non-drinker and at the other end is the alcoholic. The alcoholic is the homeless man in the park with absolutely nothing in common with a high-flyer like yourself!

Here’s the thing.

Most of the population sits somewhere between those two extremes, and some of us find ourselves edging up to the “alcoholic” end as the years go by.

Alcohol addiction is insidious and it can creep up on us over the years…we should check our dependence regularly.

Here are 10 little signs you might be edging towards the wrong end of that spectrum:-

1. You start to make “rules” — I’ll only drink in the week, I’ll stop at 2 glasses, I’ll switch to beer because I don’t like it much, etc.
2. You break your own rules
3. There is a nagging voice in your head that gets louder when you are hungover. “I really must cut down,” it says.
4. You get to an event and they’re not serving alcohol. WTF? is your first reaction.
5. The end of your evenings sometimes becomes a little blurry. The next morning you find yourself checking that your bag, phone, and jacket all got home safely.
6. Although you eat organic, exercise, and do yoga you still drink. It’s the one thing you can’t/won’t let go.
7. Most of your social activities revolve around alcohol.
8. You’re quite happy home alone with a bottle of wine and Netflix.
9. You think the “low-risk limits” of a bottle and a half of wine a week are ridiculous.
10. You’re always tired, never seem to sleep well, and often wake up at 3 am feeling anxious.

If some of those signs resonate with you then why not take a break from the booze. If you can get through an alcohol-free period without a problem then you have a healthy relationship with alcohol. Well done!

If not, then that could be a warning sign you are becoming dependent and need to make a change.

So forget “the rules” and trying to moderate your drinking — just ditch it completely for a while.

No need to use the F (forever) word — just try 66 days without alcohol.

If you can’t manage 66 then see how many alcohol-free days you can manage out of 66.

Why 66?

Because you can build a new neural pathway in 66 days. This means if you do decide to quit for good or cut down you will find it much easier.

If you’d like audio, online, and community support to see you through 66 alcohol-free days then sign up for Tribe Sober’s annual 66-day Challenge.

You can join people from all over the world for the Challenge, which starts on the 27th of September.

We call it Sober Spring here in South Africa but Sober Autumn works just as well.

More info here.