A Glass of Wine versus Sobriety

Is as Happiness is to Joy!

We view a glass of wine or two with rose tinted spectacles and it is never as good as it seems.

Annie Grace wrote in a recent email about happiness being an event and joy being a state of being and that is so true.

A glass of wine may make me fleetingly happy, a bottle of wine may make the evening more pleasant, but the next day I never feel the bubbling joy of sobriety.

As Catherine Gray wrote in The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: “Drinking steals happiness from tomorrow.” Unknown.

But it is not just happiness as Annie points out, it is the clarity and elevation of the mood of joy that is missing from the next day. And there is nothing worse than having a glass of wine after a long stint sober — one expects to feel so good and happy, instead I feel flat.

This more than any other consideration is what makes me want to stay sober. Having largely solved the health problems that I was facing with drinking, I still prefer the joy of the early morning and the clarity of thought to the slightly zombiefied feeling of having a drink — even one.

Interestingly taking just one drink after a long period of sobriety you can actually feel the odd fuzzy effect upon the brain. If you are a writer like me then that does not…