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There's a South Park episode about the alcohol industry relying on ten percent of their buyers being alcoholics. That was me until a month ago. But I quit because it was now rampantly destroying my body in ways that severely affected me, even when sober. I'd keep drinking if I could.
Oh well, more money in my pocket. And more mental energy for nerd projects, which I'd long wanted to get back to anyway.
Congrats! The first month is the hardest. Come check out stopdrinking@lemmy.world, if you haven’t already.
When I started, I listened to many hours of the Happy Sober Podcast. Craig Beck does a good job of exposing the tricks alcohol plays on the brain.
Keep it up! It gets easier.
I've sobered up for a month to eight months at a time. The difference is that the long stint was just because and I got talked into drinking by someone I was dating and then it was on top of me again. The one month stint was just to take a break. I did about two weeks right before the USA election last year, but then the asshat got in control again and I said fuck it.
This time, I really don't have a choice. The effect on my body made it clear that I can't keep going. I had a good run. I drank very hard for a very long time.
But thank you for the kind words. They are appreciated.
I quit.
Work stress, financial stress, time stress, family stress… I didn’t used to drink much, but it sneaks up on you when it helps quiet the noise in your head about all the stresses. You find yourself looking forward to drinking even if technically you’re not an alcoholic.
Yeah, you know intellectually what the dangers are, but so much social life revolves around alcohol and media really doesn’t help by pushing the idea. Out and drinking, bbq at home and drinking, watching sports and drinking…etc.
I quit for a bit, tried to ease into light social drinking and hated looking over my shoulder all the time to see if an extra drink or three was going to sneak up on me. Hated that. Stopped being fun.
Drinking is expensive and overrated. I was sober for the majority of my life. Went on a 1 year drinking binge due to problems at home. It was fun but I paid a hefty price for it. Not worth it honestly. 2/10 wouldn’t do it again.
Try drugs, instead
Alcohol is a drug.
Not just health hazards, but legal hazards, too. Get a DUI, and you instantly becomes a pariah to everyone around you, including work, who may fire you. Then there are the costs, fines, possible prison, increased insurance, etc.
Going out and partying it up in a city that requires cars, is too much of a risk, and getting drunk at home is kind of pathetic.
Also, legal/ semi-legal weed.
With the increase loneliness crisis 📈 and the decrease drinking at the local pub 📉
I think this headline is not a positive
Society needs to decouple socializing from drinking that's all
You see, to do things that cost money you need money to spend.
To get money you can get a job, maybe in a bar or restaurant.
Places that hire people need people to spend money at them to then pay people.
No one can afford the high prices in bars and restaurants on a regular enough basis.
Not enough people go to bars and restaurants to have them hire you, and with less people going there is less reason to go.
Its cheaper to buy booze and drink at home.
Government and everyone wants more money, so the price of everything goes up (booze included).
You don't get paid enough for non essential purchases.
You go into debt, just to have a little joy.
The debts are not paid and the debt companies struggle (klama etc). They stop lending.
You have to cut spending, by not drinking (even the cheap swill at home) you save money and feel like ass less often.
You (and many others) stop drinking altogether. <---- We are here
At some point the K type recession becomes so clear and you understand that you are not on the good part of the K.
I only drink with friends, but one friend doesn't drink, one is an alcoholic, and one also only drinks with friends. It's kinda hard to make it work even if we're able to meet up.
I just hope we don't slide into another Prohibition, honestly. Between people who don't drink because health, and the social conservatives who want a fundamentalist theocracy, we are squeezed.
For me, it's money - I finally have a good job AND a husband with a good job, and over time have accumulated a collection of booze to use for cocktails. And if we want to go out for a drink it won't bankrupt us. I practice moderation, one drink 3-4 times a week but never more than one, plus two months off each year, and really like that much drinking, feel good physically.
Wording is very careful to not offend the alcohol industry.
“Growing skepticism of alcohol’s benefits”
Why not “Growing awareness of alcohol’s harms”?
Alcohol's benefits, you know like feeling like shit in the morning, liver failure, being an asshole...
Health concerns are legit, but have they seen the prices? A 6 pack of Bud Light is regularly 9 bucks. FOR BUD LIGHT. Forget about premium brands, those are 12 and up. Hell, small batch locals are up to 15+. Liquor hasn't shot up quite as much, but it has climbed.
Don't even get me started on how much bars/restaurants charge.
Man, I wish. Check out Canadian liquor prices. I don’t drink Bud but I’m pretty sure a six pack is $16 ($11.58 USD). Hard liquor is where we’re really hit though. Whisky is my drink of choice and it’s very expensive up here. I remember going to Boston a few years back and buying a few bottles of scotch because of how much cheaper it was, it was crazy.
One of the many things I've cut down on because of unemployment. I used to socialize in bars more often.
When I was unemployed I went from drinking sparingly to drinking like six to eight beers and a bunch of shots every day. It was years of just getting messed up and having fun with my spouse.
Now it’s been way too long of doing that every day and we have bellies. We quit recently (after a medium/fast taper) and the only issue we’re both running into is horrible sleep. I assume it gets better after a few weeks.
Be proud of yourselves, that's a huge accomplishment! Me and my partner are tapering right now too and I hope we'll be like you soon!
Thank you! I was sooo scared to go from a couple beers daily to zero alcohol. I realized that even with a couple beers before bed, I was still sleeping poorly, so we jumped to zero this week. It’s been so odd, no cravings, no seizures, no anxiety or shakes… just shit sleep, but then I wake up not hung over and feel awesome. It’s been a LOT easier than I expected. I hope it’s also easy for you! We’ve been taking a lot of naps when we can. Overnight sleep should get better over the next couple weeks.
We’re still going to have Drinkin’ Fridays, which is not recommended, but for our own sanity we’re taking one day a week.
We're scared too. Especially my boyfriend is really scared about withdrawal symptoms. Anyway he's also started to realize that he got a beer belly already. I know it's not recommended but I think drinking once a week isn't that bad. And also I don't believe in the whole one drink again and you will drink again all the time. Hope your sleep improves soon!
If you don’t mind sharing, how many drinks were you having every day, and how many are you down to?
My partner and I were having between 14 and 16 standard drinks daily, sometimes more if we were doing coke or something. For a while I was taking Xanax every morning and drinking a ton every night. I stopped Xanax about a year ago.
We tapered our drinking over two weeks down to 6-7 beers and no hard booze. The last day we drank, we had a couple whiteclaws and split a little bottle of soju. Then we went to zero this week.
If he’s been drinking less than that, I think he’ll be pretty fine on withdrawal symptoms like I am! I realize the amount I was drinking is pretty insane, but my tolerance was skyrocketed after like seven years of it.
So my boyfriend was drinking about 6-8 beers per day and some schnaps. (Sometimes half a bottle to a bottle per day). For me it's like 3 beers a day, but because of work I can't drink everyday so I guess for me it's not going to be that hard. Just when I have a hard day at work I'm so happy to come home to my boyfriend and beer. I think it's not going to be a physical withdrawal for me but a mental thing I will have to fight. And also of course when partying we used to drink much more also ...
Ooh everyone is different, but I really think he will not have any withdrawals! That’s a similar amount to what I was drinking… at my worst I’d split half of a 1.75 with my partner on top of 8+ beers.
The mental thing I completely understand! Our house is cluttered cuz we’ve been too tired to clean this week, and we have empty whiteclaw cans on a bedside table and some boxes with crushed cans in the kitchen. Even with that stuff around, we have not at all been tempted… just tired.
I’m back in the office next week (hybrid) after being home for months, so I DEFINITELY will have some struggles not having some drinks after dealing with being in the office… but I will persevere! I want to fit my cute clothes again!
I really hope both of you have a similar experience to us, but maybe with more sleep. Other than sleep, it’s been way easier than we thought it would be.
The hard part was quitting. The next hardest part will be staying quit. You require sleep to live, the sleeping will eventually sort itself out.
Troof. We were very responsible drinkgurls until COVID. I drank a bit more than they did before, but once we had nothing to do, we just drank a bunch and had fun every day.
Now we have things to do, and bellies we don’t want. So we’re adamant on this. We have other stuff we can do to get weird occasionally, so we can always do that if we wanna get weird during the day. I did some THC yesterday for the first time in like a year (it gave me super anxiety/panic because I was hung over all the time) and it was a LOVELY experience. I think I’ll be having some toots of live rosin after work now instead of 14 drinks.
I get it, I enjoy the herb, too, but it's generally not a good idea to replace one bad habit with another.
You're trying substitution therapy, but you're doing it wrong. You might want to try replacing drinking with working out or running. It will fill your drinking time with a positive activity. My Dad quit smoking by playing with Rubik's Cube when he got a craving. I've lost 85 pounds by keeping a guitar next to my chair, and picking it up and playing, instead of eating out of boredom. Knitting, needlepoint, woodworking, painting/drawing, etc., nearly any hobby can help.
Or, y'know, fire it up. Weed has its it's issues, but it's definitely not as dangerous as liquor.
Weed is cheaper.
And is less likely to turn certain people into assholes the way that alcohol does sometimes
Seems about right. My partner doesn't drink alcohol, and I very seldomly drink alcohol. I petty much buy it if I'm going from cook with it, but beyond that, it's money I'd rather spend (or need to spend) elsewhere.
If I'd had to guess, I'd say it's a combo factor of people being poor, health consequences of partaking being more widely known, and adults choosing to socialize more online instead of going to bars.
Being poor is not really a factor. If you want to drink, in most countries usually you can buy some crappy alcoholic drink for cheap.
"The findings of the poll, which was conducted in July, indicate that after years of many believing that moderate drinking was harmless — or even beneficial — worries about alcohol consumption are taking hold. According to Gallup's data, even those who consume alcohol are drinking less."
Alcohol doesn't give me any fun benefits. Like, it doesn't remove my inihibitions and doesn't feel good. It just makes me feel nauseus and numb and it doesn't even taste good.
Weed is like that for me, I can't find the high at all, just feel stupid and tired and annoyed. It is so unpleasant. Tried a few times over the years and nope.
I'm gonna be honest. I need to do a lot more reading because I'm just more confused about alcohol consumption now.
I'd really like to better understand the direct health effects, like cancer mentioned in this article with low or moderate consumption.
"There is no safe level of alcohol consumption" isn't the most helpful piece of information. A lot of things we consume aren't completely safe. Whether it be carcinogens, red meat, or microplastics, we are always ingesting things that have both negative and positive effects.
Life is about managing risks. Eating fatty or high caloric foods, affects us a whole lot differently than eating whole foods, vegetables, and low carbs. Alcohol is just another item on the list of risks to manage.
How does low to moderate alcohol consumption compare to the risks associated with all the other sources of consumption?
🤔
"There is no safe level of alcohol consumption" isn't the most helpful piece of information.
It’s mostly to bust the myth that there’s some level of alcohol consumption that’s actually beneficial for the health. You should never pretend that alcohol is good for your health.