2 weeks in and I am waking up with a 🙂 on my face that not a drop passed one’s lips the night before. Boozing at home 4-5 nights/week became the norm and I started revolving my life around cracking a beer or bottle of wine open. 20 units a week was the norm, so nothing in the scheme of things. It feels great to have broken what became a terrible habit. I tried to recollect a Fri/Sat night where I didn’t have a drink and I’ll be honest and say I could not remember.

Since giving it up, I have realised just how in your face alcohol is.

Any others on here decided to give it up?

Other than the odd glass of wine/bottle of beer if I’m away for work (and usually only to be sociable if out with clients) I don’t drink.

It has been this way for years.. don’t miss it, not bothered about it.
Wouldn’t trouble me if I didn’t touch a drop for months.

I found I was getting hangovers before I got drunk which kinda ruined it for me.

Don’t really miss it.

It has been this way for years.. don’t miss it, not bothered about it.
Wouldn’t trouble me if I didn’t touch a drop for months.

That is what I’d love to have been like, but unfortunately, as soon as a bottle of wine was opened, having just one or even none was not on the cards.

I found I was getting hangovers before I got drunk which kinda ruined it for me.

I get where you are coming from there!

Piss off, I’ve just kicked the ecig into the long grass. You’re not coming for my beer yet 😉

The problems I have is a high tolerance and I don’t get hangovers. 😥
This weekend saw a good couple of bottle’s of wine consumed on Saturday night followed by an 8am rise and 2,5 hours on the bike. No hangover and no noticable drop in performance. Sunday was another normal day.

Since giving it up, I have realised just how in your face alcohol is.

In what way ?

I was similar to you OP, but more like 30+ units a week.

I decided after Christmas to cut back massively, and now often go weeks without a drink. I still drink socially if we have friends round or we’re out for a meal, but in much lower quantities.

And yes – alcohol does seem to be everywhere, and especially on peoples Facebook posts.

And weekends without feeling flat and in a brain-dead haze are a big improvement.

I drink litres of fizzy mineral water now!

Not given it up but I drink a heck of a lot less now I’m in my 30’s, now usually only a couple of glasses of wine one night at the weekend with food.

I used to binge drink once or twice a month from the age of 16, until my late 20’s. I was never a daily drinker but the amount I’d put away at the weekend when I went to uni probably didn’t do me much good. I’ve had all the tests done for liver function problems and everything came back normal so I’d like to think all that drinking was offset by going to the gym / riding bikes but still, I do regret some of it and I’ll certainly be teaching my kids not to go down that path.

I don’t drink on a week night any more as I find it really disrupts my work and sleep pattern. No weekday drinking was my first rule written in stone to cut down and I think making that initial demand on myself was the catalyst that helped me on my way.

One of my best friends from school went through some mental health problems (depression and anxiety) back in 2012 and stopped drinking completely. He hasn’t touched a single drop since 2013 and he says he doesn’t miss it at all. I sometimes think about giving that a try but I really enjoy good wine and beer (less so the act of getting drunk) so I’m happy where I am with alcohol now.

Good luck with the sobriety OP. I’ve read that after 4 weeks of zero booze your body is well on its way to a better place.

One new years eve I got wrecked. Had to walk 5 miles home in the pissing rain. Hoped it would sober me up. It didn’t . Had the hangover from he’ll. Tried to walk it off by doing laps of Croydon.
As I was walking around I saw a group of mountain bikers returning home, covered in mud and having a right old laugh. That should have been me with them.
As I stood there with a pounding head in the miserable surroundings of Croydon I vowed Never Again. That’s been 17 years and I’ve not wasted 1 second of my life to a hangover.
I’ve also stopped being Mr Party but maybe that’s just part of growing up.

In what way ?

See how much exposure it gets in TV dramas or how central the pub is in soap operas. But in TV dramas it seems the norm to pour a glass of wine or crack a bottle of beer at any opportunity.

why on earth would I want to give up something that I love and enjoy so much.

In what way ?

TV adverts, walked into M&S and there was a massive stand of beers right by the door …

When I was drinking I never paid attention to it, but now I am like “wow, it really is ingrained in society”

@Zippykona – Nice one! Hope I can post in 17 years time stating the same.

9 days dry here, but over the previous fews weeks I had cut down from 4/5 days a week to 1/2. I’m nursing a broken ankle and don’t want to pile on weight whilst not being able to exercise, but a break from booze has been a long time coming and I feel really good, apart from the broken ankle.

Good luck with the sobriety OP

Thanks. Still feels really strange to not be drinking and to get to the weekend and reach for a Bundaberg or fizzy water in the evening.

Waking up on Sat / Sun morning and having motivation to do stuff feels great.

I still drink because I like beer (and rum, and wine…), but really don’t like getting drunk. If nothing else I hate losing a day to feeling awful.

I’m not saying I don’t drink. I have 1 beer and I’m such a lightweight it gets me a bit pissed then I have to have a nice cup of tea.

why on earth would I want to give up something that I love and enjoy so much.

I still enjoy beer and the odd whisky – just not in the same quantity! 😀

Probably only drink 1 day a week and then only 1-2 small beers….

If the bottles looked like this would you still drink it?

I still drink because I like beer (and rum, and wine…), but really don’t like getting drunk. If nothing else I hate losing a day to feeling awful.

Much the same here – I’ll have a beer or two at the weekend, but try and avoid getting slaughtered. The last time I was pissed was a couple of years ago and I don’t miss it at all – especially now that we have a little ‘un who wakes early.

Yes. About 13 years ago. I was becoming a problem drinker; not that i needed drink to function but the switch that said ‘you’ve had enough now, time to go home’ got stuck wide open. As a result i couldn’t have a social pint or three without it becoming a session, i was horrible with it at home, and found myself in some bad scrapes including one night after a works do in London in which i binned my colleagues because they weren’t drinking fast enough, wandered the streets, missed the train, slept rough and woke up having been robbed. Twice I woke up having vomited in my sleep, so easily could have died as a result.

I couldn’t cut down, as I said the slow down / stop switch was jammed. So the only option was to disable the start one instead. For a year i didn’t touch a drop, apart from a glass of toasting champagne at my best mate’s wedding. Some people criticized me, my social circle at the time had a drinking culture but my true friends supported me and never pressured me to ‘go on, have one!’ and the ones who didn’t understand could just **** off.

I like a drink now, maybe a beer with a meal or after a hot ride. Sometimes (gasp!) I even get a bit tipsy. But that particular monkey is now off the back and it’s never getting back on again.

Gave up binge drinking years ago (okay, the office Xmas party is known to lead me off the straight and narrow).

The riding actually ‘saved’ me, within weeks of getting a bike I knew I didn’t want to waste another Sunday laying about, feeling like shit and spending £300-£400 a month to do it.

How I drink a couple of times a year, 2-3 small beers, no taste for wine or spirits.

I actually enjoy my drinking more now, rarely get a hangover, don’t feel the need to drink because others are etc.

When somebody tells me they “don’t get hangovers” what I hear is “are always drunk”.

I think if you can reset so you can easily adopt a “take it or leave it” attitude then alcohol is most likely ok. I just couldn’t and on a Thurs / Fri / Sat one drink would turn into 3 or 4 and 8 – 10 units. On reflection, I think my 20 units I mentioned earlier needs to be increased to more like 30 🙁

When I was a student, I went on a night out with my best mate, Ewan and a couple of other guys one Friday night.
I had work at 8 a.m the next day.

The last thing I remember of the night out was sitting in the bar at Strathclyde Uni students union, drinking a can of Lucozade Light, coz I was feeling a bit ropey and , using drunk logic, I thought it would help perk me up a bit.

Next thing i remember was opening my eyes and realising I was in bed, but not my own. A few groggy moments later I realised it was Ewan’s bed but he was nowhere to be seen and the sofabed in his room had clearly been slept in but was empty.
It was still quite dark and I blurrily looked around the room and saw an alarm clock….. 6:45 .

Result! I could sneak out of Ewans house without waking anyone, walk the 20 mins home, get changed and make my shift at Safeway for 8:00 – No problem.

I got out of bed and realised that something was amiss. I was wearing and old pair of worn out blue joggers and a green t-shirt exactly like the one favoured by Shaggy off of Scooby Doo, but they were both miles too big for me. They were Ewans, who is about a foot taller than I am…..Where are my clothes???

I decide to worry about this later, put on a pair of Ewans trainers and a hoody and start to creep downstairs in the dark , making for the front door without waking anyone.

As i reach the bottom of the stairs I see a light in the crack s around the living room door.

Yes! Ewan must be already be up or maybe even his mum? I can cadge some breakfast or even a lift home in the car.

I push open the door and stick my head into the living room only to be be confronted by Ewans parents and his sister sitting watching Noel’s House Party on TV.

His mum explains how I had to be carried a mile and a half from the bus stop by Ewan and three other guys, covered head to toe in my own vomit and how she had to strip me, wipe me down with a sponge, dress me like an incontinent baby and manhandle me in to her sons bed. She had also helpfully phoned in sick to work for me.

As I shamefully contemplated the blackout that I had inflicted on myself and the consequences thereof, I vowed to myself that I would never get in that state again and have never had more than a few beers or a couple of glasses of wine since.

I don’t get drunk any more, but still enjoy beer and spirits so not giving that up. I found caffeine had a much worse effect on me, so I’ve now stopped drinking that – so actually on average I’m probably less sober 😉

I posted about this a while back…..ive been ‘dry’ for months and dont miss it at all.

When you’re out of ‘the circle’ you’ll be surprised at how many friendships are purely based on getting pissed together. When you start to suggest other things watch how things change.

Personally, i think getting pissed regularly is a mugs game.

have you found out as well how much people talk about it?? It’s like they have nothing better to do with themselves!! 🙂

Just over 4.5 years since I last had any alcohol after finding out that a few too many head injuries reduced my tolerance to near-0. Used to be out most weekends having a few before that.

It’s great getting up in the morning and just get on with stuff. Really brings home how much time you waste recovering! For example, I was camping with a few friends down the Gower last month and the usual bottles of wine and beer appeared after the evening BBQ and the kids were put to sleep. We all turned in for the night about 11ish so all slept the same. They didn’t really get going until around 11am the next day, especially the ones who got out of kiddie duty. I was up at 6.30, out on the bike for a quick 20-miler along the Gower Way and back before some of them had got up all fuzzy! Wouldn’t have seen the early morning views if I’d had a few the night before. Bonus was arriving back just as the fried breakfasts were starting 😆

I’ve also noticed the constant theme of alcohol in everyday life. The supermarket stacks in the entrance, offers at the petrol station ( 😯 ) whole isles or more dedicated to the stuff, the constant offers, everyone on TV drinking when they can, etc. It really is a national addiction.

The only thing I miss is being with mates in that ‘Happy Drunk’ state where all the fun stuff seems to happen without remorse or consequence. The silly jokes, the wind-ups. Still do that stuff but when viewed sober it can look very childish.

Apart from that I’d never go back to drinking again 😀

When somebody tells me they “don’t get hangovers” what I hear is “are always drunk”.

Try taking your fingers out of your ears.
Last weeks or so’s consumption.
Monday nothing
Tuesday nothing
Wednesday nothing
Thursday nothing
Friday some wine
Saturday some wine
Sunday nothing
Mon- some wine.
Tuesday nothing
Wednesday nothing
Thursday nothing
Friday nothing
Saturday Party! 2 x bottles of wine.
Sunday couple of beers
Monday nothing
Tuesday nothing
Feel free to judge though. 🙄

Didn’t drink for 8-9months at one point when I was 24. It wasn’t life changing, just a bookend to going out on a Friday night and spending £40 on drink and spending Saturday regretting it, meant there was a circle of friends I missed seeing, but mehhh, more time for other friends. Still drink, just when I want a beer rather than that sort of enforced drinking for the sake of it.

53 years old never had a hangover and yes i drink once a week to excess.. really pisses my missus off as she suffers

I drink too much, probably not an exceptional amount but still too much and enough to make maybe one day a month at work more difficult that it should be and reduce my cycling a few hours each week.

When I stop for a week or two I feel much better but always end up have too much again sometime later. I think I should probably just stop altogether tbh.

20 units a week is a lot, OP! Fair play to you though.

Pretty much don’t drink in the week and try to keep it to a minimum at weekends; like others, it’s remarkable how much then you realise some people centre their lives around it. My Mrs said this a long time ago and she’s right.

What was momentarily annoying was that I’d been like this for a bit and then got seriously ill last year anyway, I then went through a phase of resenting heavy drinkers their health. But I recognise that that’s a very unfair and negative emotion, so given that up now, too!

The acceptance of alcohol in our society is fascinating considering the harm it does to the body (liver disease, cancer etc) and others (think deaths as a result of drink driving or domestic abuse).

A few years ago I stopped drinking completely, this lasted for a couple of years. I was not a result of a problem, or any sort of statement, I just didn’t fancy drinking. I didn’t regard it as a big deal, but everyone else did. It was like I was a novelty. It was only then that I realised how much society links drinking with having a good time. I lost count of the amount of times I would offer to drive and people would say but don’t you want to have a good time?

It bought into focus for me how embedded alcohol is as part of a good night out.

It was around the same time that my dad had his 60th birthday party. He spent several hundred pounds on taxi’s so his friends that lived further away could come and have a good time without having to stay sober to drive home.

Funny old world

I still drink because I like beer (and rum, and wine…), but really don’t like getting drunk. If nothing else I hate losing a day to feeling awful.

I still drink, beer and whiskey, and I have no plans to give up something which I get great pleasure from. I only drink spirits during the winter, and beer mostly at weekends, with maybe one bottle an evening during the week if I can afford it.
I certainly don’t notice any particular emphasis on drinking beer, and there are plenty of other things people over-consume that damages their health, it’s just alchohol seems to bring out the worst of the finger-wagging, nanny-knows-best types.

My problem is food and cooking. I like cooking stuff from scratch and love the food, but enjoy it way more with some kind of booze. If I don’t have the booze the food is less enjoyable to make so I resort to boring things. The boring food no booze option occurs less then the opposite 😀

Not great for weight though. Riding bikes keeps weight gain at bay but makes me more hungry so I make bigger meals plus beer/wine and need to ride even more to burn that off. If I stopped riding I’d be a fat bastard within a week.

I won’t stop drinking till I’m not a prison officer, but I might be dead by then from either alcohol related problems or stress. 🙄