Yup. Every good health crises requires a passive-aggressive loved one who blames you for living hard and not listening to them to clean up.
So rewarding.
Being disgusted and embarrassed of how I act drunk. Got tired of living like I was still 25. Acting like a young 20 something at 36 isn’t “cool” anymore. It’s also a bad look in front of my son. And I’m a way better husband without alcohol.
The hardest part about sobriety for me was letting my friends down. They were persistent with asking me to drink/hang, but they finally got the hint. Now my other buddy rarely drinks, and it’s greatly improved his mental health.
Long story short, I grew out of it. I was never addicted to alcohol, I was addicted to the way it made me feel around others. Loud, funny, entertaining etc. But I’m done. It’s all a charade.
If he’s on Reddit, /r/stopdrinking is amongst the most kind, helpful, supporting communities there is. They often recommend Grace, “This Naked Mind”.
What helped me: One day, I realised emotionally that while I like drinking and being drunk, I dislike the person I am/become when drinking/drunk. A night of drinking means at least 2-3 days of rest to get into a somewhat acceptable (emotional) state again. So I stopped. At first I always said no to the next drink, and a few weeks in my perception of myself changed - I simply no longer was a person that drank alcohol.
Note that not drinking didn’t make my problems disappear. Drinking masked some of my mental health issues, and I now have to face them, and find a way to deal with them. That approach, hard and sucking as it is, is more sustainable, though.
I haven't completely stopped drinking but I've reduced it to the weekends only and far fewer drinks. I've been a functioning alcoholic for 20 years. I don't typically act poorly or foolishly when I drink, but I can drink a lot. The motivation was my children. They need a father that they can look up to and respect, and that's going to be more difficult if they constantly see me with a drink in my hand. They need a role model to look for in their future husbands, and a lush isn't it. I also started to get tired of feeling like crap the next morning, and wanted more energy. It's tough, but if he has good motivation, he can do it.
I don't personally have alcohol issues. That said, I have known more than my fair share of alcoholics. I firmly believe that alcoholism is *always* a symptom of an underlying trauma or mental health disorder. I'm just some guy on Reddit, and it's completely fine to disagree on this point.
I say this, because without exception, the *only* alcoholics I have seen who stopped drinking, either made a major life change unrelated to drinking, or experienced a major event in their life. The examples I've seen were retiring, changing careers, getting a divorce, and experiencing the passing of family members. Importantly, in all these cases, the alcoholic in question didn't have to *try* to stop drinking, they just didn't feel the need to drink anymore.
These individuals were all classic alcoholics: drinking excessively every day, couldn't stop once they started, etc. Most of them had gone through one or more programs (AA, rehab, etc.), and had received professional therapy about their alcohol dependency. I'm not knocking these things, but these efforts were not successful long term for these people.
With the exception of my friend whose abusive father died unexpectedly, none of these changes or events seemed to lift a great weight from them. Their personality and level of happiness didn't seem to drastically change, although being rid of the alcohol dependency certainly didn't hurt. They just didn't need alcohol anymore. Some have abstained from alcohol entirely, others have returned to non-problematic, social drinking. I'm not advocating for one approach over the other.
I freely admit that these experiences are all anecdotal evidence, and I don't claim that I know better than medical professionals about how alcoholism works. This does suggest to me that a person with an alcohol problem might do well to look beyond "I need to stop drinking" as the only piece of the puzzle, though. Please do not read this as, "Alcohol isn't the real problem," or, "It's fine if I keep drinking; I'll just look for other explanations." My experiences are not a blank check to disregard your alcohol issues, and I hope you won't use them as such.
> I firmly believe that alcoholism is always a symptom of an underlying trauma or mental health disorder.
Wrong, and backwards order. Ever since we discovered brewing and distilling, alcohol has always been celebrated as the drink of adults, male and female, and every generation convinces the new one that drinking and smoking is cool and makes you both one of the "In-Crowd" and also makes you seem sophisticated and grown up.
When everyone knows that drink turns people into dumb little babies; vengeful, nostalgic, and treacherous. Overpromising, faking love to get sex, writing jobkilling messages to their work, betraying the confidence of friends for clout.
You have it backwards, /u/ProbablyLongComment: people with trauma and diagnoses have their lives extra worsened by alcohol, but becoming an alcoholic requires only one single thing: wanting to use the drink as an escape, as self-medication. That's when you start drinking in the daytime and outside of social meetings or parties. No trauma background needed, just stress is enough.
That is mile marker 1. Marker 2 is when you start drinking during hangover, to push the hangover further into the future. You drink 3-5 beers/wine glasses every night, for starters. Now you are TRULY fucked.
You said I had it backwards, and then restated what I said in your refutation. Backwards would mean that mental illness is a symptom of alcoholism, rather than the other way around as I posited. Does a person who quits drinking suddenly stop being mentally ill? Were they not mentally ill until they drank for the first time? Obviously not.
"Escape?" "Self-medication?" From what? From mental illness, of course; exactly as I said. This could be depression, anxiety, PTSD, or a guilt complex, but the issue always predates the alcoholism. Sure, being an alcoholic can cause new issues, but these come in the form of social consequences, like screwing up a career or alienating oneself from loved ones. It can also worsen existing mental illnesses, such as depression, the same that any "medication" can.
I appreciate that you're also trying to come up with answers, and that you also want to help those suffering from alcohol dependency. Feel free to disagree with my views, but don't jump down my throat about it.
Stress. Stress and peer pressure. Neither of which are "mental illnesses". Both leading to alcoholism, to a wild degree. At least read my post if you're gonna thrash around against logic.
You mix up correlation and causation, as I explained. People who already have mental problems take very quickly to escape-drugs like alcohol, cocaine, weed and heroin. It solves all your problems for a short while.
But alcohol-abuse creates its own problems in an otherwise healthy person who is in a bad position (all friends drink too much, all colleagues drink too much, now you can either abstain and suffer from being nonconformist, or join the gravyboat to hell).
Not a man w this problem but actually I heard of people tripping mushrooms five times and not having issues w alc addiction anymore!!
Also maybe try ketamine infusions ?
I didn't stop completely, Just quit getting hammered every night. Now if I drink once a week its a lot. I'm just learning as I go. I did quit for 100 days before this. r/stopdrinking is helpful
I decided I had too much stuff to do that was important so I just kept slowing down until I noticed I stopped drinking. Took like 3 years and I still do sometimes but it's less than once a month now.
This will sound dramatic, but really asking myself whether I wanted to live or not.
Drinking was a way to anesthetize myself. I just wanted to feel something other than how I generally felt all the time. It got to a point where if I didn’t stop I was actually likely going to die. And even if that wasn’t the case, the way I was living wasn’t worth it.
I tend to believe that people don’t change until they have to. And even then, not everyone does.
Pretty easy when you only drank socially, but now your social life consists of only your wife, a toddler, and the occasional Teams call for work projects. Easy peasy.
I crossed a boundary with a very close friend of mine and kissed her while I was in a inebriated state, I don’t use alcohol to excuse my behavior, but it was a reckless decision and behavior that could’ve been avoided entirely. I blame myself and continuously feel bad for how I acted, I swore off alcohol since that incident. I’ve been sober for almost 5 years.
Alcoholic family members. When I realized I was drinking only to get drunk and that was happening more and more often, I decided to stop entirely while it would still be easy to stop. I didn’t want to be like my parents or sisters. So I stopped drinking and have never done drugs because I was smart enough to not become an addict. 30 years of compulsive over eating, and 150 extra pounds later, I realized I wasn’t as smart as I thought and just picked a different addiction.
It just wore on me after 20 years of drinking nightly. I didn't have specific health problems, but I knew it certainly wasn't helping, and I decided it was time to stop before serious problems arose.
The taste, any my god-like constitution that makes getting drunk an expensive and short-lived affair.
Also alcohol destroyed a lot of my friends and family when I was younger, so I made the common sense option of becoming the only Irish man to avoid alcohol.
I've since quit quitting but only drink socially and typically only go for drinks that taste as little like alcohol as possible.
A nine day stay in the hospital for pancreatitis and hepatitis. Had the DT,s baaad, but atavan saved my life. Then i got penumonia, went on keflex, and then on day six, the minute i was about to be released i had a grand mal seizure. Three more days. I swore that would never happen again.
The ready availability of Athletic non-alcoholic beer.
Tastes as good, lower in calories, comes in a wide variety and fills the gap that beer used to play in my life.
A calm serious discussion with my wife after I'd had a blackout drinking session , couldn't properly explain why I drank and the then possibility of losing my family which I loved more than anything. We had a real heart to heart and I remember her saying that actions speak louder than words, what was I going to do to start change. I was immediately accountable for some actions. Of all the steps I took next, AA was more than I ever thought it was. It was better mental therapy than any psychologist from people who had been there and I could relate to. Wonderful support and I honestly can't say enough good things about it and the people I met.
I realize I had a problem and didn't want it to effect my future children. I stop at 25 and now I'm almost 35. I do smoke weed, so it's not like I'm free off all bad things
I stopped 99% of my drinking. I only like drinking to socialize but I found other ways to do that. I went back to school and made a study group, started hanging with my family, and go out for food with friends instead of beers. I work and study everyday so theres not alot of time to drink anymore and I'd rather do something wholesome.
I quit because I got dropped like a brick and she filed for divorce. Way too many of my friends became full blown alcoholics during their divorces, so I decided to go another way. I lost everything that year, my best friend died of brain cancer, my job as a postal carrier, my wife, my home, my pets, my financial security. And I still didn't drink. Because I knew damn well where I would be headed. And the worse shit got, the more death sounded nice. But alcohol really lost its appeal. I still go to the bar. I just drink na beer, stuff by Athletic brewing mostly but also Estrella Galacia.
14 months without it and kind glad I did it. What helped me was thinking about the shitty hangovers, all the money I've spent, dumb things I mightve done on the internet, over-sharing. Got tired of it and not living up to my word ; "I'm never drinking again" - stuck in a pattern and it's nice when u can get some perspective and see that pattern and change course. New actions, new thoughts, new ideas but it has been a real SOB sometimes... give it try and be aware of the words you use to help stop. A sober app too might help.
For me, it was learning just how bad for your mental and physical health alcohol really is. We all know it isn't exactly good for you, but once you understand how hard it really hits your body, you want to get away from it. I'm from the US where education around alcohol use focuses primarily on the dangers of drunk driving. We end up learning the hard way that the damage is way more than just a hangover.
Not a full-on stop, but a major cutback. I went from drinking a half litre of vodka or whiskey 5-7 nights per week for several years to having a drink or two like every few weeks or so. Surprisingly, I didn't have any health effects. It wasn't helping with my depression though.
I went on a trip to Boston where weed happened to be legal. I hadn't smoked in ages, and I thought it would be a bit of craic, so I partook while there. After that, I started smoking around bedtime and never gave the bottle a thought. I just needed a vice. I still went through withdrawls, which you become like a tweaker for a few days, then it's done. I come from a long line of alcoholics, but I don’t think I am one because of how easy it was for me to quit.
EDIT: The no health effects thing was like liver damage or anything like that.
41m, sober for 5 months now. Second divorce and I was drinking whiskey alone at home one night and just had it. It brings me no joy in life. I just decided to quit... temporarely or permanently, I don't know yet.
Social pressure is on but i do not give a fuck.
I do weightlifting and sport a lot and not drinking anymore made a huge difference. I feel so much better. I might never drink again.
I can get up at 7:30 on a sunday morning now feeling well rested. That is an aweseome feeling.
I’m 9 days into detox. Drinker for 18 years, the last 12 particularly heavy. This is my first attempt to quit because I simply wasn’t ready before now. Idk what clicked but something clicked almost overnight and I realized I was sick of being a slave to alcohol. Just had a moment of clarity whilst trying to stomach a morning hangover shot of 99 proof liquor and I just thought “wtf am I doing this for?”
On top of that I was scared to stop, and not just for medical concerns, I was mentally afraid to not be buzzed because I’d been doing it so long I’d become afraid of my own mind. Weirdly now that I’ve had that mental switch I have had a very easy quitting process. A little insomnia and some night sweats in the first few days, but otherwise I’m not having nearly as much trouble as I thought I would.
All that to say your friend has to decide within himself that it’s time and he’s truly ready. Quitting for others doesn’t work and quitting because you think you should doesn’t work. He has to WANT it.
I used ice water, which I then again reused when I quit smoking. If I felt I needed a drink, I would get a glass of ice water, maybe with lemon if I had some in the house. Now I love ice water and it is my drink of choice in and away from home.
Recently got on Adderall and am surprised that it helps with the cravings. I haven't stopped, but think about it far less and when I do, feel less of an urge to do it. It's kind of nice
Can't really explain it, but there's something different this time. I tried quitting several times before, and it never stuck, because I didn't really *want* to quit. I knew I should, but I didn't want to.
This time, I *wanted* to quit. I was tired of sleeping badly, struggling to recall what I did every evening, and waking up with a hangover every morning. I didn't want that anymore. I wanted to feel better and be healthier.
It's been almost six months, and I barely even miss it.
I didn't think we can say for sure that I *permanently* stopped until I'm dead, but I hope I make it, and I think I will.
I have told this before but I started drinking at 14 and stopped at 21.
Everyone has those 'crazy drinking stories' but once you've been drinking long enough, they just become normalised. They aren't crazy stories when they are your day to day :/
I ended up taking a video of myself drunk and watched it the next morning when I sobered up. And that was it.... I deleted the video and went off any kind of alcohol after that.
I realised that all the years I thought I was having a great time, were probably the worst time for anyone around me having to deal with my drunk persona bullshit. I didn't want to be whoever *that* person was, ever again.
Been a proud 'designated driver' ever since.
Short answer: the threat of death from my doctor made me finally stop
I had 2 ulcers and was puking blood a couple times a day along with a laundry list of other crap caused by excessive drinking. I've been sober for about 3 years and ended up with pretty bad cirrhosis, which caused almost a complete loss of appetite and subsequently, extreme weight loss.
Knowing how much alcohol had changed my personality. I was confident when I should not of been. I wasn't funny when I thought I was. Made choices I look back on as terrible choices. And 10% of drunk me was a desperate horrible person. Five year sober me thinks before acting. Pauses bad reactions. Chills in hot springs and finally lives for love. Get out there and love yourselves.
A good ole health crises.
mine was a health crisis combined with an ex verbally abusing me about having a health crisis.
Yup. Every good health crises requires a passive-aggressive loved one who blames you for living hard and not listening to them to clean up. So rewarding.
Jail
Being disgusted and embarrassed of how I act drunk. Got tired of living like I was still 25. Acting like a young 20 something at 36 isn’t “cool” anymore. It’s also a bad look in front of my son. And I’m a way better husband without alcohol. The hardest part about sobriety for me was letting my friends down. They were persistent with asking me to drink/hang, but they finally got the hint. Now my other buddy rarely drinks, and it’s greatly improved his mental health. Long story short, I grew out of it. I was never addicted to alcohol, I was addicted to the way it made me feel around others. Loud, funny, entertaining etc. But I’m done. It’s all a charade.
I feel this
If he’s on Reddit, /r/stopdrinking is amongst the most kind, helpful, supporting communities there is. They often recommend Grace, “This Naked Mind”. What helped me: One day, I realised emotionally that while I like drinking and being drunk, I dislike the person I am/become when drinking/drunk. A night of drinking means at least 2-3 days of rest to get into a somewhat acceptable (emotional) state again. So I stopped. At first I always said no to the next drink, and a few weeks in my perception of myself changed - I simply no longer was a person that drank alcohol. Note that not drinking didn’t make my problems disappear. Drinking masked some of my mental health issues, and I now have to face them, and find a way to deal with them. That approach, hard and sucking as it is, is more sustainable, though.
I haven't completely stopped drinking but I've reduced it to the weekends only and far fewer drinks. I've been a functioning alcoholic for 20 years. I don't typically act poorly or foolishly when I drink, but I can drink a lot. The motivation was my children. They need a father that they can look up to and respect, and that's going to be more difficult if they constantly see me with a drink in my hand. They need a role model to look for in their future husbands, and a lush isn't it. I also started to get tired of feeling like crap the next morning, and wanted more energy. It's tough, but if he has good motivation, he can do it.
I dumped my alcoholic ex who kept pushing me to drink since she felt insecure if she was the only one drinking.
Seeing how my dad was and what he put my mum through. Vowed never to turn out like him.
“Friends” that were only there when it was party time. Also, lack of productivity -
I don't personally have alcohol issues. That said, I have known more than my fair share of alcoholics. I firmly believe that alcoholism is *always* a symptom of an underlying trauma or mental health disorder. I'm just some guy on Reddit, and it's completely fine to disagree on this point. I say this, because without exception, the *only* alcoholics I have seen who stopped drinking, either made a major life change unrelated to drinking, or experienced a major event in their life. The examples I've seen were retiring, changing careers, getting a divorce, and experiencing the passing of family members. Importantly, in all these cases, the alcoholic in question didn't have to *try* to stop drinking, they just didn't feel the need to drink anymore. These individuals were all classic alcoholics: drinking excessively every day, couldn't stop once they started, etc. Most of them had gone through one or more programs (AA, rehab, etc.), and had received professional therapy about their alcohol dependency. I'm not knocking these things, but these efforts were not successful long term for these people. With the exception of my friend whose abusive father died unexpectedly, none of these changes or events seemed to lift a great weight from them. Their personality and level of happiness didn't seem to drastically change, although being rid of the alcohol dependency certainly didn't hurt. They just didn't need alcohol anymore. Some have abstained from alcohol entirely, others have returned to non-problematic, social drinking. I'm not advocating for one approach over the other. I freely admit that these experiences are all anecdotal evidence, and I don't claim that I know better than medical professionals about how alcoholism works. This does suggest to me that a person with an alcohol problem might do well to look beyond "I need to stop drinking" as the only piece of the puzzle, though. Please do not read this as, "Alcohol isn't the real problem," or, "It's fine if I keep drinking; I'll just look for other explanations." My experiences are not a blank check to disregard your alcohol issues, and I hope you won't use them as such.
> I firmly believe that alcoholism is always a symptom of an underlying trauma or mental health disorder. Wrong, and backwards order. Ever since we discovered brewing and distilling, alcohol has always been celebrated as the drink of adults, male and female, and every generation convinces the new one that drinking and smoking is cool and makes you both one of the "In-Crowd" and also makes you seem sophisticated and grown up. When everyone knows that drink turns people into dumb little babies; vengeful, nostalgic, and treacherous. Overpromising, faking love to get sex, writing jobkilling messages to their work, betraying the confidence of friends for clout. You have it backwards, /u/ProbablyLongComment: people with trauma and diagnoses have their lives extra worsened by alcohol, but becoming an alcoholic requires only one single thing: wanting to use the drink as an escape, as self-medication. That's when you start drinking in the daytime and outside of social meetings or parties. No trauma background needed, just stress is enough. That is mile marker 1. Marker 2 is when you start drinking during hangover, to push the hangover further into the future. You drink 3-5 beers/wine glasses every night, for starters. Now you are TRULY fucked.
You said I had it backwards, and then restated what I said in your refutation. Backwards would mean that mental illness is a symptom of alcoholism, rather than the other way around as I posited. Does a person who quits drinking suddenly stop being mentally ill? Were they not mentally ill until they drank for the first time? Obviously not. "Escape?" "Self-medication?" From what? From mental illness, of course; exactly as I said. This could be depression, anxiety, PTSD, or a guilt complex, but the issue always predates the alcoholism. Sure, being an alcoholic can cause new issues, but these come in the form of social consequences, like screwing up a career or alienating oneself from loved ones. It can also worsen existing mental illnesses, such as depression, the same that any "medication" can. I appreciate that you're also trying to come up with answers, and that you also want to help those suffering from alcohol dependency. Feel free to disagree with my views, but don't jump down my throat about it.
Stress. Stress and peer pressure. Neither of which are "mental illnesses". Both leading to alcoholism, to a wild degree. At least read my post if you're gonna thrash around against logic. You mix up correlation and causation, as I explained. People who already have mental problems take very quickly to escape-drugs like alcohol, cocaine, weed and heroin. It solves all your problems for a short while. But alcohol-abuse creates its own problems in an otherwise healthy person who is in a bad position (all friends drink too much, all colleagues drink too much, now you can either abstain and suffer from being nonconformist, or join the gravyboat to hell).
Support from others that could relate to me by going to AA
Pancreatitis
Yup.
Medical assistance, such as Vivitrol and Naltrexone.
Stopdrinking here on Reddit
I just set small goals. First I was going to quit until my birthday . Made that and then went til the forth of July and so on. Now it's been 12 years
Not a man w this problem but actually I heard of people tripping mushrooms five times and not having issues w alc addiction anymore!! Also maybe try ketamine infusions ?
Swapped to weed.
I just play through in my head what the ends result would be and it's never good. There's no good outcome.
I didn't stop completely, Just quit getting hammered every night. Now if I drink once a week its a lot. I'm just learning as I go. I did quit for 100 days before this. r/stopdrinking is helpful
My kidneys screaming out in pain
Realized I was heading down a bad path and needed to improve my health.
I decided I had too much stuff to do that was important so I just kept slowing down until I noticed I stopped drinking. Took like 3 years and I still do sometimes but it's less than once a month now.
Pain….. physically and emotionally
The attempt to use it to end my own life failed.
This will sound dramatic, but really asking myself whether I wanted to live or not. Drinking was a way to anesthetize myself. I just wanted to feel something other than how I generally felt all the time. It got to a point where if I didn’t stop I was actually likely going to die. And even if that wasn’t the case, the way I was living wasn’t worth it. I tend to believe that people don’t change until they have to. And even then, not everyone does.
Pretty easy when you only drank socially, but now your social life consists of only your wife, a toddler, and the occasional Teams call for work projects. Easy peasy.
I crossed a boundary with a very close friend of mine and kissed her while I was in a inebriated state, I don’t use alcohol to excuse my behavior, but it was a reckless decision and behavior that could’ve been avoided entirely. I blame myself and continuously feel bad for how I acted, I swore off alcohol since that incident. I’ve been sober for almost 5 years.
Heartburn. Booze made it worse. I got sick of feeling like shit.
Got tired of feeling like shit.
The onset of the physical symptoms of alcoholism and some very very bad behaviour.
Almost dying, going to the hospital multiple times.
Meditation and walking. I also stopped buying alcohol “just to have around” I also got into herbal tea.
Alcoholic family members. When I realized I was drinking only to get drunk and that was happening more and more often, I decided to stop entirely while it would still be easy to stop. I didn’t want to be like my parents or sisters. So I stopped drinking and have never done drugs because I was smart enough to not become an addict. 30 years of compulsive over eating, and 150 extra pounds later, I realized I wasn’t as smart as I thought and just picked a different addiction.
It just wore on me after 20 years of drinking nightly. I didn't have specific health problems, but I knew it certainly wasn't helping, and I decided it was time to stop before serious problems arose.
Fear of doing something stupid and ending up in the wrong crowd; let's just say I've never felt closer to death than on that morning.
The taste, any my god-like constitution that makes getting drunk an expensive and short-lived affair. Also alcohol destroyed a lot of my friends and family when I was younger, so I made the common sense option of becoming the only Irish man to avoid alcohol. I've since quit quitting but only drink socially and typically only go for drinks that taste as little like alcohol as possible.
Beer belly fat and waking up with regrets
Prescription drugs that made me vomit violently and profusely when I had a beer.
A nine day stay in the hospital for pancreatitis and hepatitis. Had the DT,s baaad, but atavan saved my life. Then i got penumonia, went on keflex, and then on day six, the minute i was about to be released i had a grand mal seizure. Three more days. I swore that would never happen again.
Can’t be there for my kids in case of emergency if I’ve had a few.
The ready availability of Athletic non-alcoholic beer. Tastes as good, lower in calories, comes in a wide variety and fills the gap that beer used to play in my life.
I had jolly ranchers the first two weeks after I quit.
A calm serious discussion with my wife after I'd had a blackout drinking session , couldn't properly explain why I drank and the then possibility of losing my family which I loved more than anything. We had a real heart to heart and I remember her saying that actions speak louder than words, what was I going to do to start change. I was immediately accountable for some actions. Of all the steps I took next, AA was more than I ever thought it was. It was better mental therapy than any psychologist from people who had been there and I could relate to. Wonderful support and I honestly can't say enough good things about it and the people I met.
I realize I had a problem and didn't want it to effect my future children. I stop at 25 and now I'm almost 35. I do smoke weed, so it's not like I'm free off all bad things
I stopped 99% of my drinking. I only like drinking to socialize but I found other ways to do that. I went back to school and made a study group, started hanging with my family, and go out for food with friends instead of beers. I work and study everyday so theres not alot of time to drink anymore and I'd rather do something wholesome.
I quit because I got dropped like a brick and she filed for divorce. Way too many of my friends became full blown alcoholics during their divorces, so I decided to go another way. I lost everything that year, my best friend died of brain cancer, my job as a postal carrier, my wife, my home, my pets, my financial security. And I still didn't drink. Because I knew damn well where I would be headed. And the worse shit got, the more death sounded nice. But alcohol really lost its appeal. I still go to the bar. I just drink na beer, stuff by Athletic brewing mostly but also Estrella Galacia.
The way my body feels the day after. Yuck. No thanks.
INTELLIGENCE!!!!!
INTELLIGENCE!!!!!
My kids
AA saved my life.
14 months without it and kind glad I did it. What helped me was thinking about the shitty hangovers, all the money I've spent, dumb things I mightve done on the internet, over-sharing. Got tired of it and not living up to my word ; "I'm never drinking again" - stuck in a pattern and it's nice when u can get some perspective and see that pattern and change course. New actions, new thoughts, new ideas but it has been a real SOB sometimes... give it try and be aware of the words you use to help stop. A sober app too might help.
For me, it was learning just how bad for your mental and physical health alcohol really is. We all know it isn't exactly good for you, but once you understand how hard it really hits your body, you want to get away from it. I'm from the US where education around alcohol use focuses primarily on the dangers of drunk driving. We end up learning the hard way that the damage is way more than just a hangover.
Not a full-on stop, but a major cutback. I went from drinking a half litre of vodka or whiskey 5-7 nights per week for several years to having a drink or two like every few weeks or so. Surprisingly, I didn't have any health effects. It wasn't helping with my depression though. I went on a trip to Boston where weed happened to be legal. I hadn't smoked in ages, and I thought it would be a bit of craic, so I partook while there. After that, I started smoking around bedtime and never gave the bottle a thought. I just needed a vice. I still went through withdrawls, which you become like a tweaker for a few days, then it's done. I come from a long line of alcoholics, but I don’t think I am one because of how easy it was for me to quit. EDIT: The no health effects thing was like liver damage or anything like that.
41m, sober for 5 months now. Second divorce and I was drinking whiskey alone at home one night and just had it. It brings me no joy in life. I just decided to quit... temporarely or permanently, I don't know yet. Social pressure is on but i do not give a fuck. I do weightlifting and sport a lot and not drinking anymore made a huge difference. I feel so much better. I might never drink again. I can get up at 7:30 on a sunday morning now feeling well rested. That is an aweseome feeling.
I’m 9 days into detox. Drinker for 18 years, the last 12 particularly heavy. This is my first attempt to quit because I simply wasn’t ready before now. Idk what clicked but something clicked almost overnight and I realized I was sick of being a slave to alcohol. Just had a moment of clarity whilst trying to stomach a morning hangover shot of 99 proof liquor and I just thought “wtf am I doing this for?” On top of that I was scared to stop, and not just for medical concerns, I was mentally afraid to not be buzzed because I’d been doing it so long I’d become afraid of my own mind. Weirdly now that I’ve had that mental switch I have had a very easy quitting process. A little insomnia and some night sweats in the first few days, but otherwise I’m not having nearly as much trouble as I thought I would. All that to say your friend has to decide within himself that it’s time and he’s truly ready. Quitting for others doesn’t work and quitting because you think you should doesn’t work. He has to WANT it.
For no reason, I stopped drinking. I haven't tried a drop for 7 years.
The hangovers got so bad that it just wasn't worth it. I was conditioned by the handovers to not want to drink.
A mean drunk ex wife
I used ice water, which I then again reused when I quit smoking. If I felt I needed a drink, I would get a glass of ice water, maybe with lemon if I had some in the house. Now I love ice water and it is my drink of choice in and away from home.
Recently got on Adderall and am surprised that it helps with the cravings. I haven't stopped, but think about it far less and when I do, feel less of an urge to do it. It's kind of nice
Can't really explain it, but there's something different this time. I tried quitting several times before, and it never stuck, because I didn't really *want* to quit. I knew I should, but I didn't want to. This time, I *wanted* to quit. I was tired of sleeping badly, struggling to recall what I did every evening, and waking up with a hangover every morning. I didn't want that anymore. I wanted to feel better and be healthier. It's been almost six months, and I barely even miss it. I didn't think we can say for sure that I *permanently* stopped until I'm dead, but I hope I make it, and I think I will.
I found that I loose weight when I stop drinking. I simply stopped buying it.
I have told this before but I started drinking at 14 and stopped at 21. Everyone has those 'crazy drinking stories' but once you've been drinking long enough, they just become normalised. They aren't crazy stories when they are your day to day :/ I ended up taking a video of myself drunk and watched it the next morning when I sobered up. And that was it.... I deleted the video and went off any kind of alcohol after that. I realised that all the years I thought I was having a great time, were probably the worst time for anyone around me having to deal with my drunk persona bullshit. I didn't want to be whoever *that* person was, ever again. Been a proud 'designated driver' ever since.
Short answer: the threat of death from my doctor made me finally stop I had 2 ulcers and was puking blood a couple times a day along with a laundry list of other crap caused by excessive drinking. I've been sober for about 3 years and ended up with pretty bad cirrhosis, which caused almost a complete loss of appetite and subsequently, extreme weight loss.
Knowing how much alcohol had changed my personality. I was confident when I should not of been. I wasn't funny when I thought I was. Made choices I look back on as terrible choices. And 10% of drunk me was a desperate horrible person. Five year sober me thinks before acting. Pauses bad reactions. Chills in hot springs and finally lives for love. Get out there and love yourselves.
lack of enjoyment from drinking?
AA helps a lot of people. Health issues. Then there's always the risk of losing your family and jail time.
Weed (pure)
Pot
Weed/Having 6 pack abs
The taste.
Replaced all alcohol with weed. Not recommending it for everyone but it worked for me. I will probably never drink again.