Happy Sober 50th!

As if turning 50 wouldn’t be hard enough, this year’s birthday was also the first time that I would celebrate my birthday without a beer or any alcoholic beverage. I have a problem with alcohol, but not what you would think…

On top of our allergies and intolerances, Inge and I are both very sensitive to histamine. Diamine oxydase (DAO) is the enzyme that helps the body get rid of histamine. Alcohol is very armful to DAO. Which means that when we drink alcohol, histamine isn’t properly eliminated and we get all sorts of reactions from rashes and flare ups to anxiety.

Throughout the years, we’ve tried to ignore it, we still drank beers on Fridays and celebrations. Even with a reduced quantity (2 or 3 beers), the consequences on our health worsen. We noticed how better we would feel without alcohol. For many years, we’ve tried to quit it entirely but there was always a good reason to make an exception.

But, that’s not all… While we were reducing our alcohol intake, we noticed that we were actually having a better time when we were keeping 100% alcohol free. We were more enthusiastic, more motivated and, generally, happier. The other day, Soforah asked me: “If your memory was a hard drive and you’d be reaching maximum capacity, which remembrances would you keep?”. Surprisingly, none of them would be a time when alcohol was present in my life.

I don’t say that it should be the case for everyone. I’m a big fan of letting the people choose whatever makes them happy and this isn’t an attempt at converting anyone. But, in my case, on top of my Histamine problem, I think that alcohol always took too much space. I’ve been drinking enough in my life to know exactly what my world looks like when I let that door open, and I don’t like it.

So, here I was, a few weeks before my 50th birthday, trying to come up with a plan for the celebration. I can tell you, it has been hell and I’m not sure I would have made it without the help of my sweet wife. Thanks to her amazing support, planning and cooking skills, we both had an amazing time. We visited the Christmas village, we went to a restaurant and we ended up eating the dessert at home while watching the movie Abigail. Everything happened fantastically and entirely without alcohol. The rest of December should be a breeze because Christmas and New Year are not really linked to alcohol for us, so no pressure… I hope to make another post like this in December ’25, celebrating a complete year without a drop.

Meanwhile, we both wish everyone an amazing holiday season!