Transcription
All right, welcome back to Getting Sober... again. My name is Jay, and today we're going to talk about the timeline of health improvements after getting sober. But first, if you haven't yet, don't forget to show your support and give this video a thumbs up. And if you care about your sobriety as much as we do, then make sure that you're subscribed to this channel.
All right, let's get started. I know a lot of you out there are probably thinking, "All right, I got sober, so where are my health benefits?" Just relax; they're on the way. Now, depending on how much you drank, when you drank, and how long you've been drinking, and your individual health, it's important to remember that results are going to vary. So be patient. Make this your motto: if you're not where you want to be in your sobriety journey, or in any journey, then do what? Keep going. That's right.
Now, to make things easier, I'm going to divide this video into three sections. The first section is going to be short-term benefits, which are benefits that you're going to see anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. The second section is going to be midterm benefits; those are going to be benefits that you're going to see in the first few weeks to a first few months. And then the third section of this video is going to be long-term benefits, and those are going to be benefits that you're going to see in a few months to a few years. And then stick around after that for a good old-fashioned pep talk to put the wind of motivation in your sails of sobriety.
So first, here are 10 short-term benefits that you might expect to see in the first few days to a first few weeks. Short-term benefit number one is improved sleep. Once alcohol's out of the system, sleep patterns may start to normalize. I know it took me quite a while to get back to my natural circadian rhythm, but that's mostly because I was working second shift for nearly 10 years, and also, too, I still had other bad habits affecting my sleep, like caffeine intake being too late in the day. A very good rule to stick to is to not consume any caffeine within 10 hours of your bedtime. Another bad habit I had was looking at my phone while I was laying in bed at night, and another one for me personally was not paying attention to what I ate before bed or how close to bedtime I ate my last snack or meal. Initially, there may still be some disturbances in your sleep after getting sober, but gradually your sleep quality should improve.
Short-term benefit number two is increased energy. Without the depressant effects of alcohol, individuals have more energy and feel less fatigued. And don't we all want to be a little bit more energetic through the day? Short-term benefit number three is better hydration. Alcohol is dehydrating, and sobriety allows for improved hydration levels, leading to healthier-looking skin and healthier body functions. Short-term benefit number four of sobriety is enhanced mental clarity. You can start to say goodbye to the brain fog because cognitive function and mental clarity tend to improve as the brain heals from the effects of alcohol. We're going to talk about more of the benefits of improved cognitive function in the midterm benefits and also, too, in the long-term benefits, because it's a gift that keeps on giving.
Short-term benefit number five is stable mood. How many of you are looking forward to being less irritable all the time? As we all found out the hard way, alcohol can increase mood swings and depression, and sobriety can lead to more stable emotional well-being. When I was still drinking, I was going to therapy hoping that somebody else would solve my problems, but the funny thing is, while I kept drinking, I kept creating more problems. We always like to say that sobriety is giving up one thing to gain everything else. Think about consuming alcohol and your mental health like this: if you wanted to lose weight by going to the gym but went and got greasy processed fast food every day after your workout, you wouldn't see the results that you deserved. But the combination of therapy and sobriety is similar to a better diet and exercise. By the way, we have a link for those of you that are interested in online therapy in the video description down below, and the best part is you can get online therapy from the comfort of your own home anytime you want, and you can also cancel anytime you want without any penalty.
Short-term benefit number six is weight loss. Alcohol, just like fast food and junk food, is calorie-dense. Drinking a six-pack of logger or IPA beer every night is the equivalent of the same amount of calories in two Big Macs. Quitting alcohol will not only help you to stop ingesting a bunch of empty calories, which, by the way, means calories without important vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc., but also, too, sobriety helps us to make healthier food decisions because we also start cutting back on other bad habits like constantly opting for greasy and fatty foods to sober up every night. Keep in mind that when we're robbing our brains' reward centers from the instant source of dopamine release that we expect from alcohol, we may be more inclined to reach for foods that give our brains the same dopamine release. Results we mentioned in a previous video: when we quit alcohol, we tend to pick up a nasty sweet tooth because sugar also hijacks our brain the same way that alcohol, nicotine, sex, and drugs do. And if you want to watch that episode, I'll put a link in the video description down below, but make sure that you finish watching this video first.
Short-term benefit number seven is improved digestion. Digestive issues, such as gastritis, can improve in a few days to a few weeks as the body heals from alcohol-related damage. I know that a lot of us out there suffered from irregular bowel movements, myself included, and after becoming newly sober, I actually found out that I had pancreatitis. A quick note about pancreatitis: alcohol, nicotine, fatty foods, and drugs are all very hard on the pancreas, and the overall five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 7.2%. So if you're constantly having irregular bowel movements, including diarrhea, and you're concerned about your pancreatic health, talk to your doctor about a fecal elastase test. Write it down; it's called a fecal elastase test, and that way they can easily tell if there's something wrong that may be treatable, like in my case, and I'm happy to say that I'm no longer suffering from the effects of pancreatitis.
Short-term benefit number eight is better relationships. Sobriety often results in improved communication and relationships with friends and family and also, too, co-workers. Think about it: when you stop hating yourself and externalizing those negative feelings onto the world and everyone in your immediate environment, it tends to make your day-to-day interactions with people that you care about much more pleasurable. Short-term benefit number nine is the financial savings. Not spending money on alcohol can lead to significant financial savings. On top of that, when we're constantly spending money on alcohol, we're also probably spending more money on other things that aren't good for our minds or bodies either, right? And lastly, for the short-term benefits, short-term benefit number 10 is reduced risk of accidents. Alcohol impairs coordination and also, too, our judgment, and sobriety reduces the risk of accidents or injuries caused by impaired driving or other reckless behaviors. And if I had to guess, every single one of us gained a few blemishes on our resume of integrity during our drinking career.
Now moving on to section two, which is the midterm benefits, and these benefits can be seen in a few weeks up to a few months. First up are the physical health improvements, followed by the mental health improvements. So the first midterm benefit is that our liver function begins to improve. In mild to moderate cases, fatty liver can actually reverse—yes, it can actually reverse. Midterm benefit number two is that your blood pressure may start to decrease. After just 30 days of my own sobriety, my blood pressure went down from 160 over 90 down to a normal range of 120 over 70. And a lowered blood pressure also helps in reducing the risk of cardiovascular problems and also, too, heart attack. Midterm benefit number three is those digestive issues that we talked about earlier; they're going to continue to improve. Comment down below how many of you have random aches and pains in your side, in your stomach, and maybe, too, in your bladder, kidneys, and even in your colon.
Now moving on from the midterm physical health improvements onto the mental health improvements. Again, these benefits will be seen in the first few weeks to the first few months of sobriety. Midterm benefit number four is that your cognitive function and memory may continue to improve even more as the brain continues to heal from the effects of alcohol. Like we mentioned earlier, the brain fog may start to alleviate itself in the first few days, but in my particular case, I didn't really start to see the larger cognitive benefits until I got between one and two months sober, and it certainly continued to get better since then. It was just little things like being able to comprehend what I just read, and now, after being a few years sober, I feel like my cognitive abilities are crystal clear and very sharp, which is beneficial with regard to the work that I do here on this channel by doing research, reading articles, and preparing all this information that'll be beneficial to the community. So actually, here, let's do something fun; let's uh watch a clip from one of my very first episodes here on the channel, and you're going to be able to see in great detail how different my body language is, how slow I used to blink, how sloppily I organized my thoughts, and even the cadence in which I spoke, all of which are completely different just five years ago.
Okay. Welcome back. This is a progress report for my 30 days of uh sobriety, and so I'm just going to give you a couple of um a little bit of information about how I approached it and what I'm doing to make sure that I get there. Um, for some of you, you might think like, well, that's not really a big deal, six days, um, so what? I usually only drink on special occasions, but um, I bet if that's how little you drink, you're probably not watching this video. What a big difference, right? It's difficult to see our daily improvement because every day that we look in the mirror, we look exactly the same as we did yesterday. That's why it's always advisable to make sure that you grab some before pictures of yourself or even better, to make a pre-sobriety video like that one, because in just a few months, you're going to be looking better and feeling a lot better, too. And on a long enough timeline, people are definitely going to notice that there's something different about you, that you look healthier, that you sound healthier, and little secrets that people didn't want to share with you before when you were daily binge drinking are going to start to come out because people in your life are going to start to feel more comfortable around this new version of you.
And midterm benefit number five is again mood stabilization. We talked about this earlier in the short-term benefits, and I'm guessing that one of the things that you so desperately want to do is to be in a better mood more consistently. Am I right? Getting sober in the short term does make you happier; they even have a term for it; they call it the honeymoon phase of sobriety. This typically lasts about the first three months or so of sobriety, but beyond that, having more time in the day, having more energy in the day, building up your self-esteem and your self-confidence allows you to start chipping away at the long to-do list that you've been putting off for so many years. It allows you to start showing yourself, your friends, your family, and your co-workers that you're more trustworthy, reliable, and dependable. And when those things start to happen, you start to feel good about yourself, and you start to feel excited about life... again. But you have to want it, and you have to do it for yourself. Only you can get sober for you, just like only you can go to sleep for yourself at night. First and foremost, you have to get sober for yourself, but the bonuses when you get sober for yourself: everybody else gets to benefit from it, too.
All right, moving on to the last section of today's video, and these are going to be the long-term benefits of sobriety. Also, stick around after the section for a good old-fashioned pep talk if you need more motivation for sobriety. Remember, long-term benefits are going to be seen over many months to anywhere over a few years, and I can vouch for all of these, and as I always like to say, be patient, or you're going to end up being a patient. Long-term sobriety benefit number one is reduced risk of chronic diseases. Long-term alcohol abstinence can significantly reduce the risk of chronic conditions such as alcoholic liver disease, liver cancer, cancer, and other various cancers such as esophageal and GI tract cancers. You can also expect to see reduced risk of hypertension, cardiomyopathy, gastritis, pancreatitis, alcohol-related dementia, nutritional deficiencies, and a weakened immune system.
Long-term sobriety benefit number two is your brain health will also continue to improve over several years. Remember, we just talked about mental health improvements and re-regulating your brain's chemistry. Think of it this way: sobriety is the gift that keeps on giving, in that the longer you stay sober, the longer that you increase your longevity, and the more health bonuses that you're going to unlock along the way, just like a video game. I like to imagine that every day that I wake up sober, I get to enter another raffle ticket to win the chance at a longer, healthier, and happier life. Feel free to write that one down. Long-term sobriety benefit number three is improved social and emotional well-being. Rebuilding relationships and social connections can take time, but it's an essential aspect of recovery. Remember that you can't control how someone else feels about you, but you can control how you feel about yourself, and in time you'll be able to show the people that you care most about that you're worth caring about... again. Emotional stability and overall quality of life can also improve significantly over the long term. Isn't that something that we're all looking for these days—a little bit more emotional stability?
Lastly, let's talk about the benefits of sustained sobriety, or maintaining your long-term sobriety. The longer we maintain our sobriety, the more that we can benefit from recovery. It's important to remember that relapse is a risk at any stage. We can easily fall victim to thoughts like, "Maybe drinking will be different now that I'm sober," or "Maybe I can have just one drink," "Maybe I can just drink on the weekends," or how about these classics: "I proved that I don't have a drinking problem, so I should be able to have a drink," or "I've been good for long enough; I deserve a break." So ongoing support, therapy, and relapse prevention strategies are crucial to your ongoing success. And if nothing else, just watch one of our videos the next time you're having a craving. I made these videos to feel like you're hanging out with a friend who genuinely cares about you, because I do. The whole point of me making these videos is to be the person that I needed back then. One of the best aspects of getting sober is that you're going to be proud of yourself, and if I had to guess, it's probably been a long time since you've been proud of yourself. Am I right? And if you're proud of you, chances are other people in your life are going to be proud of you, too, and that's when the real magic starts to happen—when you start to inspire yourself, you start to inspire everyone else around you, too. How many people in your life right now could also benefit from being inspired to cut back on their own alcohol use? Maybe you taking this very important step in the right direction will not only save your life, but it might also save theirs, too.
If you haven't yet, don't forget to give this video a thumbs up, and we always love hearing from you, so don't forget to leave a comment in the comment section down below. And while you're down there, don't forget to practice positivity and say hello to some of the other members of this community, because that's what community is all about. So make a friend. And I know you're probably ready to binge-watch more of our videos, so go ahead and click the link in the top corner of the screen. And with that, I want to wish you good luck on your self-improvement journey, and I will see you in the next video. If you want to see another one of our videos, click here. [Music]