It's almost the end of my first Dry January, and I am happy to report — as if you didn't already know — that it's possible to stop drinking even when you think you can't.
Over the years, for fairly mundane reasons, I have become uneasy about my relationship with alcohol. Drinking feels too much like a mindless habit. It makes me fat. It interferes with a good night's sleep. It's embarrassing to admit to having a hangover at my age.
I've never been arrested for driving drunk, never blacked out and gone home with a stranger, never been told by a doctor that I'm endangering my health. (Although I did once instruct my doctor to write "Stop drinking!" on her after-visit notes for me, thinking that would give me an official nudge to lose weight. It did not.)
