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Comment by Gareth321 | Hacker News Reader

Well done! It’s so great you were able to quit cold turkey. You’ll live much longer, are likely to experience far fewer health issues, and have many more healthy years at the end of your life.

Sadly many (or maybe most) addicts cannot. Through some combination of compulsive temperament, impulsivity, mental health problems, or unresolved issues, they are unable to stop. Even when they know they’re addicts. My mother is one such person. She’s been seeking the answer her whole life. Religion. AA. Therapy. Exercise. Cold turkey. Multiple divorces. Medications. Moving country several times. Nothing sticks. She knows it’s killing her and can’t stop. I’m trying to convince her to take Wegovy as it’s shown to help with addiction.

I’m grateful that whatever combination of genes I inherited, I’m also able to go cold turkey. Maybe one day we have vaccines for it.

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Thank you :) I did go to AA for 3 months when I first quit. I was encouraged by all of the stories, even the horrible and negative ones. I do realize I am lucky. My ex-spouse was not so lucky. It took damn near the destruction of her life to finally stop but she's been going for about 2 years now with lots of ups and downs. I never considered it something that could be vaccinated against but now I share your hope for it someday!

I heard GLP-1s reduce the desire for alcohol (among other things)

Honestly, I will tell you one thing: For sure there have been some drunks forever, since the "invention" of alcohol - though, the drunks of today are a result of capitalism, if you dig deep down enough. Anf if you do, you will see that its mostly money & material issues which brings people into extremes, in which then they will take the bottle. For mens in society (which is the by far bigger parts of drunks), these things are usually around losing the job, losing the partnership etc. The classic ones.

Regarding OP: Thanks for sharing your story! And you can be very VERY proud that you managed this that specific way - great!

I've known plenty of alcoholics that are happily married and have great jobs. From an outside perspective, their life looks nice but they have an uncontrollable urge to drink constantly.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of alcoholics that have lived under socialism too.

They are called "functioning alcoholics", a coined term in psy&addiction research

Alcoholism has existed for far longer than capitalism. It existed in communist and socialist states too (when people could actually get alcohol). I think it’s multi-factorial and deprivation could exacerbate the issue, but my mother is not materially deprived in any way. Her worst drinking was during periods of her life when she was most financially secure. This is a similar phenomenon you’ll see with many addicts.

Question:

>in communist and socialist states too <

when did these exist and where before Capitalism as of ~1750++ ?

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