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I have been a regular drinker for most of my adult life. Recently, I tried a "semi-dry July", where I told myself I would drink only once a week (with no limit
by swombat 12y ago
I have been a regular drinker for most of my adult life.
Recently, I tried a "semi-dry July", where I told myself I would drink only once a week (with no limit on that day, i.e. binge drinking allowed). But when I got to that day, I felt only like having one beer or so, and same the following week.
Well, here's an amazing thing, shocking and totally counterintuitive: I felt much better while doing this than I did for years before that. My mental acuity went up noticeably, and was much longer lasting - I would wake up at 7am and feel mentally sharp within 15 minutes, and stay mentally sharp all the way to 10pm or so.
I was forced due to holidays and social circumstances to resume drinking in August. Well, now that the social circumstances and holidays are out of the way, I've gone back to not drinking. I'm still in the ramping up phase, and every day I feel better than the last.
I strongly recommend giving this a go to pretty much everyone on Hacker News: try going a month without alcohol, see how you feel.
Oh, I'll add that near the end of "semi-dry July", I had one instance where I had a couple of pints with a friend (social pressure!). I could feel that my brain was noticeably less sharp and my motivation was noticeably down compared to before. That lasted 2.5 days. TWO AND A HALF DAYS!
My conclusion: When you don't drink, it's as if you hired an extra one of you to work on your business. When you do, it's as if you fired that extra person. Are you resource-constrained? Stop drinking. You'll save money too - bonus!
- vacri 12y agoMy old boss's brother liked to drink, and he always spent one month a year dry in order to prove he was still in control. But she said he always made it February, because it was the shortest month...
- Tyrannosaurs 12y agoI have a friend who does a similar thing with smoking - every year or so he'll stop for three to six months to prove to himself he still can. The problem with both these is obviously what happens if you find you're not in control. Would you really admit it?
- Kudos 12y agoI think this applies much more as you get older. Recovery from a few pints used to take a few hours out of the following day in my early twenties. In my early thirties it takes a few days.
- swombat 12y agoThat's a good point, I hadn't thought of that... I am 34 now, so perhaps that's why the effect seems so pronounced.
- laumars 12y ago> Recently, I tried a "semi-dry July", where I told myself I would drink only once a week (with no limit on that day, i.e. binge drinking allowed). I appreciated this part isn't the emphasis of your story, but I feel I should point out that the above approach is worse for your liver than having a couple of drinks everyday. That aside, there's been a few studies (though I can't recall how scientific they were) which follows a group of drinkers who abstain for a month, and visa versa, to monitor the after effects drinking has on a persons cognitive abilities. Those studies also supported your anecdotes.
- aroberge 12y agoThe following comment/observation could be about anything - not specific to drinking. You wrote "I was forced ... to resume drinking...". No you weren't. You chose to do so. You may feel that you were pressured by other people to drink but I would bet a huge amount that no one tied your hands and used force to feed you alcohol. If you ever need motivation to refuse to drink, re-read the rest of your post and you should find all the good reasons to do so.
- swombat 12y agoSure - it was a bit tongue-in-cheek. I was on a Tango dancing holiday in Buenos Aires and, well, dancing is more fun when you've had a glass of wine :-) There's a time for everything. The key insight, to me, is to realise that I am way sharper on zero-alcohol, and that every time I make an exception it takes two and a half days to get back to normal.
- JohnnyBuffalo 12y agoLet's step back a second and use a very clear observation. This is like saying to someone overweight - why don't you stop eating crappy food. Look at the mis-information, man. Additionally, social "norms" force a lot of cultural influence to do so. This falls in line that America is a "drinking" society. Go watch Ken Burn's Prohibition just a fact of record. I haven't even touched on the addiction aspects, because I think its self-explanatory on how it plays out on people - no matter if its eating, smoking, drinking, etc.
- notdonspaulding 12y agoNo, this is like replying to someone's statement "I was forced to eat unhealthy foods." by pointing out that they are shifting the responsibility of their actions onto their circumstances and surroundings. Those may have an influence on you, but the best way to see change in your life is to accept responsibility for your actions and bring them in line with your goals.
- tbomb 12y agoI've been doing this all of September, thus far, but I've been trying to do it completely sober. And although I have had a couple of beers (for instance I had one on NFL opening weekend) they have only been one for the night, and usually with some friends in a celebration. I have been feeling great after days that I would normally go drink. On a Saturday morning I'll wake up full of energy and ready for a bike ride or a run. However on a typical weeknight, when I don't usually drink anyway, I haven't noticed much of a difference. One thing I have noticed is that, that one beer has more of an effect the next day than I thought it did though!
- lotsofcows 12y agoVarious friends suggest "detoxing" ever now and again. The longest I've lasted has been 3 weeks. Never makes me feel any different. Just makes socialising harder work.
- netcan 12y agoIn Ireland, an old school country tradition is a dry November. I think the reason was to save for Christmas, but I think it's generally useful to have some cultural habits for mitigating these things.