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Ask HN: What benefits of quitting alcohol consumption?
I've decided to do a "dry" January and if I can do it, will try to extent to all of 2020.
I didn't drink often, not more than once a week. But it was usually a binge episode, having at least 10 drinks.
Has anybody stopped? What were the benefits? I am thinking that the reduction of stress on the body might lead to clearer thinking during work, etc.
- PaulHoule 7y agoSo far as binge drinking: I used to go to parties, drink too much, and then act like a jerk. My brother-in-law kicked me out of his house. After I stopped binge drinking and atoned I get along better with my brother-in-law, which is a real benefit. Otherwise: The worst immediate consequence of overdrinking is that you feel worse the next day. Alcohol can mess up your sleep and also feed into the metabolic disorder behind insulin resistance and Type II diabetes. I don't think you will notice a difference between 2 beers a night and no alcohol at all, but if you drink more than that you probably will perform worse the next day.
- throw51319 7y agoNice. That is pretty much the same reason I am stopping. Did you notice any other benefits on a large or small scale?
- asjw 7y ago> I used to go to parties, drink too much, and then act like a jerk Alcohol doesn't make people worse, it just make more evident what they really are.
- helph67 7y agoA few recent links for your consideration... http://cancerherald.com/alcohol-itself-causes-cell-damage-and-mutations-and-its-metabolite-acetaldehyde-is-highly-carcinogenic/ http://cancerherald.com/alcohol-itself-causes-cell-damage-an... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190708084334.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190708084334.h... https://neurosciencenews.com/age-alcohol-consumption-10835/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+neuroscience-rss-feeds-neuroscience-news+(Neuroscience+News+Updates) https://neurosciencenews.com/age-alcohol-consumption-10835/?...
- throw51319 7y agoThanks for the info! I think the 2nd link doesn't work.
- ken 7y agoGoogle search suggests the title of that page began with "Quitting alcohol may improve mental well-being, health ...", which leads to pages like [1] with the same title from around the same date. [1]: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/ji-qam070319.php https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/ji-qam070319...
- supernintendo 7y agoLifestyle judgments aside, you'll certainly save a lot of money in the long term. Good luck! I'm trying to rein in my affinity for craft beer (I love the beer but hate the empty calories that come with it).
- mc3 7y ago* All the cliche health benefits and then some! Car analogy: you'll fire up the other 2 cylinders while no longer needing to tow a caravan. Combine with exercise and better diet which will be easier to stick to due to no drugs to sap your will power. * Ability to drive places. Not worry about being "DUI" the same or next day. * You'll exercise your ability to say no! In the UK for example it is sacrilegious to not drink unless you have a good excuse, which apart from religion (along with appropriate ethnicity to make that believable) there seems to be no acceptable excuse. So you can say "fuck you, I'm not drinking that shitty poison" and be an outcast for a while, then find people worth hanging out with. Australia is not as bad because of the sport culture. "My personal trainer said no" is acceptable and most places I have work have had a mild to zero drink culture. Not sure about the US, but I get the impression that like Australia and unlike UK, Russia, etc. it more acceptable to not drink.
- el_dev_hell 7y ago> Australia is not as bad because of the sport culture. "My personal trainer said no" is acceptable and most places I have work have had a mild to zero drink culture. That's a pretty specific edge case. If you're sitting at the pub with friends or work colleagues and you're the only one not drinking, you can expect some irritating comments. I've learned to deal with it. I've figured out the main reason people push a drink on you is to justify their bad choices (e.g if you're at the pub with Bob and he's sinking 12 pints tonight, he doesn't want a reminder that he's killing his body and will have a terrible hangover in a few hours).
- boblebricoleur 7y agoWhen I tried to stop drinking in college, I used to fill empty beer bottles with water to drink at parties. This helped a lot with social pressure. I reckon one could do the same in a pub if the bartender is understanding and discrete, but I never tried it.
- chrisco255 7y agoNowadays just get some Topo Chico (carbonated water) or you can drink the Heineken Zero.
- wetpaws 7y agoI did it for year. Two big benefits: first, you are loosing weight (I lost ~10 pounds) and second, craving has gone. It was seriously concerning me and a big motivator to quit. I did not find much difference in how I feel, but at least this disgusting feeling in your mouth in the morning has gone too.
- bawolff 7y ago>I didn't drink often, not more than once a week. But it was usually a binge episode, having at least 10 drinks. Just fyi, i think most people would consider having 10 drinks in a single session, once a week, to be "often"
- throw51319 7y agoI live in NYC so maybe it is more excessive. But usually if you start at 9:30pm and end at 3am... that's 2 an hour. Not unrealistic. Honestly it's usually even more for me.
- f_nachos 7y agoAlcohol is known by medical science to be - neurotoxic. - carcinogenic. If that's not persuasive, I don't know what else could be.
- asjw 7y agoSo are wasted fumes coming from your car, without the benefits The same can be said for barbeques When will people stop pretending that changing one thing doesn't really change anything in life in general? Drinking is like everything else: if you do it with moderation it is not that harmful If you don't, you got bigger problems
- alt_f4 7y ago> Drinking is like everything else: if you do it with moderation it is not that harmful No it's not. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/24/641618937/no-amount-of-alcohol-is-good-for-your-health-global-study-claims https://www.npr.org/2018/08/24/641618937/no-amount-of-alcoho...
- asjw 7y agoDo you know the difference between "completely safe" and "not that harmful"? Not even walking on the streets is completely safe Unintentional injuries is te the leading cause of death in US for people aged between 1 and 44 years. They kill 170 thousands people on average, while alcohol related deaths are 88 thousands (including car accidents) The first cause of death in US is heart disease, I bet you still eat bacon though... Alcohol abuse is dangerous, alcohol per se is as dangerous as driving your car (probably less, there are over 2.2 milion people injured every year by crashes)
- jakemal 7y agoIt looks like you are citing the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/LCWK1_2015.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/LCWK1_2015.pdf) study. They define poisoning (including by alcohol) as an unintentional injury. So that 88 thousand is included in the 170 thousand that you are comparing it to.
- aeternum 7y agoJust for a counter opinion: I only drink on the weekends in social situations, but have gone 2-3 months without as an experiment. I didn't notice any difference other than it completely resets your tolerance. After the break it only takes one beer to feel buzzed, whereas before it was 2-3. In a big city, I'd recommend trying it once regardless of the benefits because it is challenging from a social POV. A surprising number of events center around alcohol, and people think it is strange that you're not drinking.
- bradhe 7y ago> After the break it only takes one beer to feel buzzed Not sure if this was your experience, but at the same time hangovers get _enormously_ more painful!
- auspex 7y agoIf people think it is strange you are not drinking you can mitigate this in a few ways: 1) Order a club soda with ice and a lime in the same glass they are serving something like Vodka soda. 2) Tell them you have an early meeting 3) Tell them you have emails to follow up on after the event.
- bawolff 7y ago4) Get better friends (better being not a moral judgement, but better for your needs) Some people like to socialize over drinks, others don't really like it and some only want to do that on special occasions or rarely. Its like anything else. E.g. some people obsess over board games, some people like board games now and then, and some people really hate board games. If your friend group is based mostly around board games and you dont want to play board games anymore, in the long term, its probably best to find some non-board game obsessed friends. Same goes for drinking.
- moxd 7y agoTake the problem at the source and ask yourself why do you need to get wasted?
- bufordsharkley 7y agohttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Why_Do_Men_Stupefy_Themselves%3F https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Why_Do_Men_Stupefy_Themselves...
- downerending 7y agoNot sure how much science there is, but I suspect that a lot of drinking turns out to be self-medication for depression (and/or anxiety). If so, it's obviously not ideal, but it may be that in some cases there is no clear superior alternative.
- throw51319 7y agoYeah true. I thought about this a lot and I think it is an expression of some inner nihilism and a self-destructive habit. By trying to focus on something creative and doing a good job, I can put the nihilism at bay and thus my desire to self-destruct through drinking is reduced.
- boblebricoleur 7y agohere is a testimony that motivated me to try and stop like you are : https://thinkfaster.co/2019/02/quitting-alcohol/ https://thinkfaster.co/2019/02/quitting-alcohol/
- alt_f4 7y agoI don't drink at all anymore, but I also never liked the taste. I used to drink socially (maybe a beer or two or three, once a week), but I found better friends, so I don't need to do that anymore. It's been like 5 years. > What were the benefits? The benefits are that I look younger and I'm definitely smarter and sharper than people that binge once a week at my age. Alcohol dehydrates you (which makes you look older) but it also destroys your brain, especially in binges. The downsides are some people try to peer pressure you or try to make you feel bad for not drinking in social situations. My $0.02 are - if you can't do a dry January, for whatever reason, then you probably have a drinking problem and need help.
- ramraj07 7y agoI don't drink and I really wish it were true, but just drinking (unless you're alcoholic) by itself doesn't make you "dumber". You probably are anecdotally associating idiots around you (who tend to drink like the morons they are) with causation.
- batt4good 7y agoI reached six months alcohol free in January. I didn't have a problem but once I turned 23 I found my body just seemed to no longer tolerate alcohol and decided just to try not drinking for a while. To be honest, my life hasn't really changed as a result (socially), but I definitely feel healthier, have a clearer head and my skin has never been better. Friends from college that kept drinking 4-5 times a week (2-7 drinks per outing), especially women, appear to have aged years more than me.
- alt_f4 7y ago> Friends from college that kept drinking 4-5 times a week (2-7 drinks per outing), especially women, appear to have aged years more than me. I have observed this too. Not sure why but this and also smoking seems to hit women's age appearance a lot more than men's.
- batt4good 7y agoIt's really kind of uncanny. I think the root of it is alcohol dries out your skin and causes lots of mid-level inflammation. Smoking is just all around bad for your body (I didn't realize it causes your body to heal about half as fast - although I've never smoked), granted your face is always inches away from a source of smoke.
- throw51319 7y agoHow long until you noticed the clearer head and the better skin? I wonder if it takes a certain amount of time (1 month, or 3-5-6 months)?
- batt4good 7y agoI had really bad skin in high-school and college. Unfortunately, my parents had me take antibiotics for years instead of just going through with a treatment of Acutaine. To be frank, I'm stunned that I don't have more severe acne scarring, fortunately my minor scarring is covered entirely by my beard. In my last two years of college or so my skin started to improve but was still incredibly dry and I continued to have dark circles under my eyes (which I've pretty much had permanently since childhood). I stopped drinking as often for about a year prior to completely stopping drinking, so I'm not sure how useful my experience will be to you, however I'd say about 4 months in I really started to notice how vibrant my skin was. Zits would clear within 1-3 days and my skin seemed to need less moisturizer and have a healthy "oily" texture. As someone who used to really enjoy drinking, I have no clue how or why people keep up drinking habits just to bend to social "norms".
- robsinatra 7y agosorry but this doesn't belong on the front page of Hacker News..
- ramraj07 7y agoAnother angle: ego. Never drank in my life till 25 due to growing up in India and luckily finding myself among folks who didn't drink most of the time. I then had a chance to decide without baggage and never drink in my life. The voluntary reasons are several, but the primary is the fact that I respect my authority over my mind too much. Even if you're slightly drunk, you're legally not allowed to drive. Neither are you considered "able" to give consent for things. Suggests to me (rightly?) That we momentarily don't consider people who are drunk as human, but as some mentally challenged being that is incapable of good reason. I personally feel like voluntarily becoming a mentally challenged person just to get a buzz is just too demeaning, so it encourages me to stay dry. Why completely dry? It's always easiest to draw the line where it's absolutely clear, and with "addictive" things like drinking it's easiest to draw it at 0.
- throw51319 7y agoYeah I agree with the completely dry. My parents are always like "just have a few!". Which I can do at family events, etc. But at a big party, it is tougher and sometimes impossible to just have 2-3.
- cyorir 7y agoBinge drinking is not synonymous with alcoholism, but comes with many downsides nevertheless. The benefit to stopping binge drinking is to avoid the associated risks of binge drinking (including risks to health). Avoiding binge drinking could certainly improve work performance. However, just trying to avoid binge drinking may be difficult. I would consult a health professional who specializes in addiction. https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcoholism-treatment/binge-drinking-problem https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcoholism-treatment/bi...
- smallcharleston 7y agoI wonder why some folks seem to only go on these huge drinking sprees. Why do few people seem to discuss simply drinking 0-2 drinks daily? Ie using moderation like an adult.
- cmdshiftf4 7y agoI don't go on huge drinking "sprees", but I feel like this comment applies to me. I don't drink during the week as I reserve it for social occasions, even though I really enjoy certain drinks (wines, cocktails and liquours). I also eat healthily during the week and try to look after myself physically and mentally. I'm pretty actively social, between family and friends, and we get together pretty often. That manifests itself usually with a dinner, with a drink or two proceeding it depending on the time available, drinks over a nice slow dinner, maybe a digestif and then either relaxing with a couple bottles of wine and good conversation at one of our houses/apartments or maybe move on to go listen to some music, go dancing, etc. All-in-all, over the course of a typical 5:30pm to 2am gathering, that can equate to quite a few units of alcohol (at one unit per hour you'd be looking at 8.5 units, and it doesn't take an hour to finish a cocktail or glass of wine) and the majority of the time it's not people getting wasted, it's simply enjoying themselves with a variety of alcoholic beverages they enjoy. I, and I'm sure many others, enjoy this approach while also enjoying not drinking on a day-to-day, "more moderate" approach.
- throw51319 7y agoProbably because they (me too) are viewing it as an experience in itself or as a momentary escape. When you have 2-3, it's just an enhancement of whatever you are doing. When you have 10, it's an experience in and of itself. You are drunk and "going crazy". Maybe also, some people were condition in college to "go hard" and that's what they associate alcohol with deep down.
- rdiddly 7y agoYou will save a ton of time, money, energy and productivity that you currently waste in going drinking and recovering from drinking. I mostly stopped, not particularly by trying, but just by sort of growing out of the lifestyle and almost like, "forgetting" to drink, after a while. I'm big on the forgetting thing. When I failed to quit smoking dozens of times, it was by paying close attention to what day/time I was going to stop, how long it had been since then, etc. In other words, thinking a lot about smoking. The time when I finally succeeded, was the time when I just sort of forgot to smoke. Although note that there was undoubtedly an "infrastructure of forgetting" in place, without which it wouldn't have been possible to forget. For example the band I was in (with two smokers) broke up, so I stopped being reminded so often of smoking. So set yourself up for success by going through and trying to get rid of things that remind you of drinking. And don't make a big deal of it or count the days. Certainly "Only 5 days left until I can drink again" is a sign of failure, but in my opinion so is "Alcohol-free for 12 days! ... 13 days! ... 14 days!" Makes me thirsty just typing it! The biggest indicator of success in my book would be that the thought doesn't enter your head, and you're not paying any attention to it. Fill the extra time that you save, especially at first, with new or neglected activities that are more interesting & pleasant, yet not too demanding, so that you have better things to do and experience and think about.
- throw51319 7y agoSo true about "forgetting". I've also come to the same conclusion, in my experiences with other substances. If I simply forgot about it being something that I would do, it just seemed a lot easier. For instance, a nic vape, I would just put it in a drawer after the last coil finished... and within a day I forgot about taking hits in the morning or while on the computer.
- cmdshiftf4 7y ago>I've decided to do a "dry" January and if I can do it, will try to extent to all of 2020. There's no "can" about it, you'll do it, and you'll enjoy it. Whether it has to be a whole 2020 thing is up to you. Personally I do dry months during the comparatively quieter social periods at the start and near-end of the year (leading up to Christmas), and I find that I both enjoy the months where I allow myself to drink and those that I remain dry all the more because of it. YMMV.