If you are participating in Dry January, good for you---you are probably feeling better even after this amount of days (this link will tell you why)! Attempting this doesn't mean you are admitting to any problem, but it does mean you want to change things up, or resent your relationship from alcohol and drugs. From personal experience, Dry January meant a few things, but I had a few signposts that it was a good idea the rest of the year.
You many need a Dry Post-January if:
1) You went hog wild New Year's Eve, and are planning to go hog wild on Feburary 1.
2) You particularly pick romantic partners for the potential to drink/use with them, thus normalizing your own drinking. A social drinker in a relationship may, and will have something to say to you about yours.
3) You pick events and locations you can drink at, and if you can't drink at them you SYO (sneak your own). You also have weird traditions, with silly names for non-social drinking.
4) You always buy nips at the liquor store so you have something to drink on the way home, or if you are looking to hide it.
5) You've lost a lot of friends, either directly from something you've done, or indirectly....people are just sick of your relationship with booze.
6) You wake up feeling crappy and are angry that it happened again.
7) You wake up exhausted because you thought you might, for once, get home early enough to get enough rest.
8) "Just one" becomes the same old amount.
9) Night time drinking at home used to start at dinner, and the time seems to be creeping up. earlier, and earlier.
10) You have to monitor your own consumption.
11) You wish bad things would just stop happening related to your use, but you don't wish to stop.
12) It's January 9th and you are either pissed, concerned, or don't give a shit, that you couldn't do it.
13) You are in bad health, need to stop and cannot.
If you identify with any of these, no problem, just objectively look at things, there are still 22 more days in January.
