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. Hared 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.
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.
This must be the 54% of those who put Trump in office.
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.
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.
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.
With the increase loneliness crisis 📈 and the decrease drinking at the local pub 📉
I think this headline is not a positive
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.
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.
Yeah. There’s a reason a lot of places limit the sale of things like fortified malt liquor to certain times or places. It’s the lowest cost per unit of alcohol, and often the drink of choice for the homeless.
If people literally living in jail can get a hold of alcohol, pretty much anyone can.
“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.”
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.
When I was quiting caffeine one of the things I did was I kept a bottle of water right next to my coffee cup, so every time I felt the urge to reach for the coffee I’d move my hand slightly and grab the water instead. It worked really well for reducing my coffee consumption before I quit entirely
I was drinking heavy but lack of funds meant lack of funs.
Something something recession indicator
Wording is very careful to not offend the alcohol industry.
“Growing skepticism of alcohol’s benefits”
Why not “Growing awareness of alcohol’s harms”?
You cherry picked one line from an article that does talk about alcohol’s harms, including in the opening paragraph.
Not to mention the “growing skepticism of alcohol’s benefits” is also accurate because there have been cases over the years where some study will come out saying it’s better to drink a little than not at all (despite awareness of many of alcohol’s harms, but they were blamed on drinking in excess) and people have been growing more skeptical of those lately.
Belief in those benefits drove a different kind of drinking (like a glass of wine with dinner habit) than a lack of awareness (or denial) of the harms (which can lead to more severe alcoholism involving frequently drinking to get drunk). By addressing both the awareness of harms and skepticism of benefits, it’s showing that both of those groups are on the decline.
Alcohol’s benefits, you know like feeling like shit in the morning, liver failure, being an asshole…
Eh, it helps me enjoy socializing, I’m nice AF when I drink, and I don’t get hung over unless I go absolutely crazy with it. As for liver failure, the sooner this shit existence is over the better.
I had to quit alcohol because of my husband’s issue with it. It was no problem for me to let it go, though I did miss it for a time.
Same thing, I’m happy as hell when I’ve had a few glasses of wine, it’s fun to socialize. But what really drove home to me the benefit of quitting, was even though I was happy and funny to be around, there were still moments where alcohol put me outside my own decision making.
I didn’t like that.
there were still moments where alcohol put me outside my own decision making.
That’s not something I’ve ever really had an issue with personally. I’ve never done anything while intoxicated that I regretted later other than maybe having too much and getting sick. Even when I’ve gone way overboard I have never gotten any complaints from anyone about how I behaved. Not that I’m saying that’s the case for everyone, I know people who get mean or emotional when they drink and they should avoid it. It just doesn’t happen to me. I just get more happy and outgoing and it kills a lot of my social anxiety.
No I am the same as you when it comes to drinking.
I guess I don’t know how to explain it.
Maybe, something simple, like over eating sweets at a party because I was buzzing. I only realized it after I stopped drinking, how much it really was the alcohol making the decisions for me, even if that decision is to make a joke or share a story, I’d otherwise not speak without alcohol.
I hear you and I’m not advocating all people shouldn’t drink anytime. Just personally, I didn’t realize how much alcohol influenced my decision making until after I gave it up voluntarily, about a year or so into sobriety.
Reaction times are slower for example, so to drink is really deciding to give up control of yourself for a time. Probably why it makes socializing easier.
I think I get what you’re saying. I guess In my case I don’t think of it as making decisions for me so much as stopping my anxiety from preventing me doing things I would otherwise like to do. Like overeating and things like that may come into it a bit but I still have a fairly good handle on things like that even when I’m drunk (if I’m getting drunk it’s already a forgone conclusion that my diet is shot that day). I never really lose control of myself or come around the next day thinking “Oh man, that thing I did last night wasn’t me”. I’m not taking that for granted and being reckless by like driving or operating power tools or anything but so far no major issues have arose from it like I’ve seen happen to others.
Have you heard the good news about our Lord and Savior, weed? All fun with no drawbacks
There are certainly drawbacks to weed, both short and long term. Depending on how frequently and to what extent you use they may be less severe than alcohol, but they still exist. Nothing that affects your brain chemistry that profoundly comes without downsides. Sorry.
I wish. I love weed, and it’s waaaaaaay safer than alcohol, but it does have drawbacks. It gives me a lot of anxiety. I know some people who’ve had issues with Schizophrenia. And I know others who’ve had interference with their athsma.
I’ve tried but it just doesn’t do it for me.
It’s not legal here, so it’s a bit hard to get a hold of.
Look if I can’t blame the booze for being an asshole that means I’m just an asshole.
Hey, watch it buddy. Asshole is an upgrade from my baseline, so be thankful that some of us self medicate. (Was a joke, jeez)
My husband could have said this five years ago, weeks before he quit.
He’s not an asshole, but boy did alcohol make every mental health matter he had worse. In turn, creating an asshole.
Alcohol doesn’t medicate.
There possibly might be something healthy about certain wines that, with other dietary things might keep people healthier afaik, but they probably took that idea and just out it as a factual benefit, alcohol makes you healthy, period!
Don’t mind the liver disease, cognitive decline, cancers and what not more. Hell, even hangovers are grrrrreat!
On a side note: pot hangovers are awesome.
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.
The bar around the corner from me charges $16 for a single White Claw.
At that price they better throw some simple syrup in there, needs to at least have some calories at $16
Holy fuck
Are you sure you haven’t stumbled into a movie theater masquerading as a bar?
Weed is cheaper.
And is less likely to turn certain people into assholes the way that alcohol does sometimes
Yeah I never get high and want to fight
