I stopped drinking alcohol some years ago. Before that I hardly consumed any alcohol at all for many years, but in my college years and maybe some years after that, I drank socially like “everybody else”. But I gradually kind of got tired of dealing with the bad feelings (physical and emotional), so I drank less and less.
And maybe because I drank less and less, even one beer often just made me feel kind of bad, so then I just stopped altogether. Anyway, I’m curious if this has happened to anyone else? And how do you go by it socially? What do you order at a bar? Maybe I’m a little afraid to go to places that has an “alcohol culture”, even if there are some places I would like to go. I don’t want to drink, but at the same time I don’t want to appear weird about it either.
I was a binge drinker. I would buy a big bottle of whiskey and drink until I fell asleep, then wake up and start drinking until it was gone. Then I’d be sober for a while and eventually binge again.
I had a sort of similar gradual experience with quitting. I was enjoying it less and less, mostly just getting depressed and feeling sick from the constant changes in body chemistry. I went from being blackout drunk 2 days a week to 2 days every other week, and then every month or so. At one point I realized I had been sober for 50 days and decided I needed to be done with it forever.
Now I’m at 200 days and almost never think about drinking. I have basically zero desire to drink, all I can think about is how bad it made me feel.
I don’t go to bars or really socialize in person at all. I would recommend trying to find other ways to socialize that don’t involve bars, but I have known sober people who can happily hang out with people who drink.
I have shifted the occasional cocktail or two after work to a vaporizer bag of home grown indica. Still a crutch, but I won’t feel like death the entire next day.
Sativa for me. Give me a good, smooth sativa and I’ll clean my entire apartment and catch up on my chores.
The safe toxic limit of alcohol is half a glass of wine per year.
Alcohol is implicated in 50% of reported sexual assaults.
Alcohol is a leading causal factor of vandalism, violence and death.
There is no lethal dose of LSD.
LSD is known to be therapeutic for people suffering from PTSD, OCD, anxiety and treatment resistant depression.
LSD is known to produce effects similar to meditation and bring people closer to their environment.
Which one of these drugs is banned in most jurisdictions?
I have never really enjoyed alcohol. If I’m at a social event and someone hands me a beer I’ll drink it. Or, if I’m in 500 year old pub in London I’ll order one. But the last beer I brought home my wife cooked with after it sat in the fridge for months. And I have never let myself get drunk.
Wasn’t a huge drinker, maybe like 1 beer a night at home. I lost my appetite for it once I started hitting the gym regularly. Just didn’t get the craving for it like I used too. Will still occasionally drink socially.
One beer every Friday night. A glass of wine if it is offered to me at a wedding or something.
Cannabis is so much better. Just about every sat afternoon.
My body stopped responding to alcohol like it once did. I was never a big drinker but through my 30s, I’ve slowly stopped feeling any sort of buzz and instead get anxiety and insomnia. I’m also having a harder time handling cannabis, a little bit can send my heart rate through the roof. I’m sure I’ve got some health issue contributing to these changes but haven’t figured it out yet.
Hey thanks for writing this out. I noticed these exact changes a few years ago, but I don’t have enough self-awareness or articulation to have expressed it the way you did. I am relieved that my bodies reactions are not unique.
Not really, I used to drink a lot on weekends, stopped when I was 22 or so, because the drunk was not worth the health problems it was causing. Drank about once a year till I was 40 or so, then picked it back up as my social circle changed and more opportunities to host parties, and I am a good cook and enjoy flavors so just got into making drinks as part of food culture. Now I drink a little on weekends - like one drink two or three days a week, not every week, and always take a month off in July, sometimes October as well. This pattern feels good to me. Moderation, I’d call it, intentional drinking of intentionally made, delicious drinks. I never drink anything just because it’s got alcohol, I drink the things I find delicious.
I stopped drinking about six years ago. My university had a very “party” atmosphere, and I faced a lot of social pressure to drink during most outings. Being an oddball nerd, I drank for the first time alone in a basement so that I could understand how it felt before doing so in front of others. After some vaguely pleasant spinning about the room I ended up vomiting and had a rough hangover the next day. And that pretty much summed up my relationship with alcohol for the following decade. Have a mildly good to mediocre time, followed by regret. Even with just a small amount. Eventually I had a moment of clarity in my late twenties where I realized “this is not for me” and just stopped. I wish I had possessed the self awareness and bravery in my late teens to take the stand then.
Any adult pushing you to drink alkohol is weird (when not yet drank any, I shall prepend).
The coolest thing to do is your own thing. So just pass with a smirk and tell them right out:
I don’t need a drink to think you are fun!
I don’t drink nearly as much as I used to. Not that I ever did a lot anyway. But after having my child I noticed drinking made me way more impatient instead of relaxing me. Now I really only drink when my wife and I go on a date. I do partake in a good THC gummy fairly frequently now though. They are quick and easy to make you feel good and I don’t get that impatience from it. But I normally take it after my child goes to bed anyway. Helps me sleep and doesn’t make me feel bad the next day.
Same here. I bought a big bottle of gummies and cut them up into smaller cubes. Now I can just pop a cube or three for however much I want to feel that day.
It wasn’t gradual, but I didn’t make a deliberate choice either. It was during 2020. My fear of covid (I did get it, it was hell) outweighed my desire to go to the liquor store. By the time places were opening up again, I realized my life was a lot more livable without the blackout binges. I’ve felt really weird about it ever since then, that I don’t really have an inspirational “I chose to do this, it was my strength and willpower to get better” quitting story since it was purely from literally not being able to, but I try to just be grateful because it really was destroying my life.
When I was younger drank like a fish, full bottle of whiskey, vodka, rum, at a time. I’m turning 45 in a few days and last drink I had was 3 weeks ago. Last time before that was several months. I’ve gotten to the point where I’d much rather just have water.
The number of times I think “A drink sounds good” is zero, and always has been. It doesn’t relax me or reduce my inhibitions. My wife likes to drink though, and it does those things for her. She definitely enjoys it more when I drink with her, so I do sometimes. I actually kind of enjoy the taste of a good tequila, but would pretty much always prefer a good root beer.
So I drink as much as ever, but if I lived alone it would be pretty much never.
Yup. The cons heavily outweigh the pros in most situations.
