I've been three+ years sober, really can recommend. Life is much different now, things that used to be fun aren't anymore - but I'm making strong connections nevertheless.
[EDIT] I suppose in hanging out with drunks every evening, it normalized the idea of being drunk every night. What I was doing seemed normal because everyone I hung out with was doing the same thing. Thats a good way to start a bad habit.
Plus no one needs those calories.
One exercise to illustrate the ridiculousness and disrespect of phrases like that is to replace "alcohol" with "crack".
"I don't do crack anymore" would basically never be responded to with "you know, you could still have a little crack every so often!", so what's the difference? Some folks don't do alcohol anymore. And whether that's for health reasons, for "I'm tired of dancing on the bartops" reasons, or just for "I got bored of the scene" reasons, that's their business.
The difference is the huge influence alcohol has had on all human cultures throughout history. Yes, it's poison, but it's our poison.
FTFY :P
That article is vague and I don’t think the overall methodology is that good, however it does say:
“ The most harmful drugs to the individual are heroin, crack and crystal meth “
if the same number of people who regularly consume alcohol chose to use crack instead.. well I bet the situation would be a whole lot worse.
Or replace it with "oxygen" and see how ridiculous it is to suggest absteining from it. See how bad analogies cut both ways?
A, ad-hominem pop psychology, the hallmark of every good argument.
You'll sometimes see the same stuff said if someone announces they are vegetarian or made another dietary change.
Anyway what I'm getting at, is they will be a lot more open to suggesting these things when the thing is legal, both due to pure numbers of fellow enjoyers you encounter but also social factors of being open about it. Up until they get used to your change, then they might stop.
Saying "I cut this thing out of my life" is one thing, it's another to say "I cut this thing out of my life, and so should you". The former is a statement about one's own preferences; the latter introduces a conversation about how much of the thing should be in the lives of the people in the discussion.
That's two people expressing opinions about how often the other ought have that thing in their life. The person who initiated that should know that.
You can drink or don't drink I don't care. I'm saying that you don't need to feel bad about what you do as long as you like it.
Its more fun to go for a hike or pickup a hobby/sport than to always drink. But that doesn't mean you can't have a ice cold beer on a beach with your friends. Moderation is the spice of life.
As someone (e.g. me, and presumably you) who does not feel that high, it can be difficult to comprehend how some people feel like they end up on one of the two extremes.
Then there are some people who have done something inappropriate, dangerous, illegal or otherwise unacceptable when drunk and decided to sober up permanently because they can't control themselves when they do get drunk (but otherwise do not have a drinking problem).
I agree that totally rejecting alcohol is probably not useful life advice for most people, but hopefully the above explains why it is useful for some people.
There are people who haven't done anything inappropriate, dangerous, or illegal, yet have ended up in a severe health crisis because they were thinking "hey... I didn't quite reach the threshold of "alcoholic" so I can just continue the lifestyle".
Just do what works for you it's not a life ending vice to enjoy getting drunk once in a while.
I recently started on Naltrexone which is a opioid blocker which stops the brain from getting this pleasure reward, and it's a game changer. Now I feel no euphoria when I drink at all, and I can stop whenever I want. Would seriously recommend everyone struggling to look into it.
If you take it daily you also are supposed to wear a bracelet since it effectively makes you immune to regular painkillers so if you were to get into a car accident or something they need to know not to give you morphine since it won’t have its intended effect
Overall I would say it’s a decent solution if you have a problem like OP has, but unless you take it every day it won’t solve crippling alcoholism for you. The scientific literature really only backs taking it every day and say the efficacy of the Sinclair method long term is not statistically significant. But it does help me, since being able to not drink for me is pretty easy, but once I flip the drink switch on it’s hard to stop - basically exact situation as parent poster
It certainly works in my case. Now when I have another drink, I choose to do it, and it feels like I'm wading against water forcing myself to get it. Before, my brain would go on autopilot and order them automatically.
But sure. Some people can have a drink or two once in a while. Just like some people can smoke a cig or two once in a while. Just like some people can insert other thing that is unhealthy for you and addictive.
I like a glass of wine with dinner for example I don't need to get plastered after for that to be enjoyable. If that shaves a year off my life I'm fine with that.
* hanging out at a bar and talking to intoxicated people
* house parties
In exchange, new things are fun:
* skateboarding
* learning Japanese
* building an arcade cabinet in my basement (I'm a software developer, very little experience with wood working and other hardware stuff)
* waking up in the morning and being excited for the day
You should update your blog with the arcade cab project!
* learning Japanese
* building an arcade cabinet in my basement (I'm a software developer, very little experience with wood working and other hardware stuff)
* waking up in the morning and being excited for the day
I don't know about building an arcade cabinet, but all of these other things are both more fun and more efficient with alcohol. All of the Japanese I have learnt has been due to alcohol. You also are more daring when drunk, so you'll push yourself harder when learning skateboarding.
Sounds like the things that are "not fun" were pointless activities in the first place and you're blaming alcohol for having chosen yourself to waste your time.i
It reminds me of when all my friend and I used to smoke weed daily. “Everything is better when high, you may as well just always be high”. The reality is that when you break your addiction things become more enjoyable while sober. I used to not even watch a movie unless I was high because it didn’t interest me enough. Low and behold, when I was no longer addicted to weed movies became more interesting again.