Since sharing with people that I am choosing to live sober I’ve had some conversations with people where they say “I don’t know what you’re going through.”

To each of those people I immediately say “cut out all sugar from your diet for a week and you’ll start to get an idea.” I’ve done many diets including sugar free for 6 weeks (obviously at that point I didn’t have a drinking problem). There’s probably nothing quite as close to the vicious craving of alcohol that aligns so well as sugar.

My wife (bless her) trying to understand what I’m going through recently did 2 weeks sugar free before caving. She then said to me “I’m really sorry you have to do this.” And that was that. She understood what a craving spiral really feels like. Except for those of us committed to quitting there is no option to “cave” and return to our old ways. Even if we do, we’re miserable still.

So far nobody else has taken me up on my offer. I think everyone knows how insanely hard it would be to drop sugar, and they’re just not interested in facing that kind of monster. So kudos to all of you for facing off against something many people never will or never would be willing to face. IWNDWYT.