#TOTW Anyone quit the booze?

You would be surprised at how many people no longer drink booze.

I am! After I posted, It was a nice suprise to see that actually many of the regulars here are not drinkers/alcolhol free

I find the ‘what you’re not drinking thing’ is not such a thing anymore. I have stopped for a loving period a few times to sort my head out. When I’ve been out and said “No, thanks I’m not drinking at the moment I’ll have a lemonade.” No one really says much.

I’ve given it up and feel all the better for it. Not having hangovers is a godsend.
The social aspect isn’t too bad. By the time my pals are three or four pints in, they’ve forgotten or aren’t bothered that I’m not joining in.
I’ve not bothered with no/low alcohol beers. I prefer ginger beer or a soft drink. Low alcohol beers would probably make me crave a real one.
Strangely enough, I still brew beer but give most of it away. I’ve some bottles up the loft for a special occasion that I can’t see happening!

I’m two weeks in from my last hangover, I lost a day’s work the next day due to feeling awful and as a bonus I caught Covid in the pub I was in (at least that’s my assumption).

I do drink perhaps more days than not, but have days off, but my problem is that once I have a couple I don’t really know when to stop (one isn’t enough, two is too many), this leads to feeling like I’ve had no sleep at all the day after, 4 pints is enough to do this to me, this leaves me feeling horrible, depressed and miserable, which if I have a skin-full can take a couple of days to pass, my memory is affected by this, not just of the night before but I’m sure in general it has a negative effect on my cognitive abilities.

if that isn’t enough, I’m pretty obnoxious when drunk, rude and lairy, it’s not a good look at 51.

So, 2 weeks into not having a drink, not yet facing up to the reality that I shouldn’t bother to have another one ever, but ultimately coming to terms with the fact that it’s bad for me and any perceived social upsides are just the beer talking.

I took a year off drinking recently. It just occurred to me that I’d been drinking consistently since I was about fourteen. Wanted to see what it was like to not drink, and all the pubs were shut due to lockdowns etc so I wasn’t missing anything. I’d gotten in to some bad habits just before I stopped where I’d been drinking a bottle of red every night, which kind of felt acceptable, but was in reality pushing up my tolerance so at the weekend when one wanted to blow off steam I’d end up drinking huge amounts. Then compound the damage the next day by ordering crap food for the hangover etc. It’s so bloody easy these days to just use an app to order another bottle when you’ve run out, or a load of filthy food the next day. Couple of bottles of wine delivered in ten minutes at 4am? No problem!

So yeah, what’s my point? Dunno really, it did break that habit, been drinking again for a few months and will have a few beers. Honestly a few 😉 on a Friday/Saturday night, but can see it starting to slide if not careful. I’m thinking of cutting it out completely except for Christmas/New Year. I was really productive during my year off and definitely noticed more mental clarity and less low-level angst. But not sure I could be a full-time non-drinker. Not for the sake of the buzz of booze, which is crap compared to say, psychedelics, but just because I’d never see my family and friends again. This country seems to run on booze.

Yeah @Nick that’s a lot more cons than pros!! Makes you really wonder why we do it

Well if you also factor in the cost and the underlying health impacts (weight, cancer, kidneys, liver, mental) and the impact it has on relationships (my wife hates it when I drink), it’s a no-brainer.

Plus, the only time I smoke is when I drink, bumming fags of people at 51 is also pretty tragic.

Still, the idea of never having a pint after a walk or ride again leaves me feeling a bit sad.

I still crave the cigs now, 10 years quit! Probably always will. But that was definitly, without any doubt a good thing to quit

How much are you guys drinking to feel that bad the next day that you waste the day?

I enjoy going out with mates and will have 5 or 6 pints over the evening. I’ll feel a bit pissed and will be a bit wooly headed the next morning but it soon passes with a coffee and some food.

It certainly doesn’t stop me going on a bike ride or doing something the next day. That said I am very careful about driving the next morning after my brother got done the morning after his xmas do so if its an early one I’ll ask my mate to drive that week.

The one that prompted this was an all day sesh. So A LOT! (No idea how many). These are rare though. I feel pap on 4 or 5 pints the next day anyway

Neither me nor my wife drink. Her because it never really was something she liked. Me because as I’ve got older I’ve seemed to get more intolerant to it with even small amounts giving me bad guts and feeling awful so I guess some sort of intolerance to the alcohol or the gluten or something.

If I had say 3 pints on a Friday my weekend was ruined with no sleep, not daring to stray from a toilet and feeling awful and just wanting to eat crap. Just not worth it.

I really don’t miss it. The odd time when out for a meal I’d like to have just a nice pint of ale with it, but whenever I do I regret it, so no longer bother.

It now amazes me how dependent on booze so many people are for fun or to manage stress.

I would assume we also save a small fortune, particularly over those that drink in bars and restaurants rather than at home. It has pissed me off wje I’ve gone out for a curry with mates and they want to split the bill equally, but I’ve had a couple of comes or fizzy waters and they’ve had 5 pints and a iriah whisky. Makes me feel very tight, but then wtf should I pay for all that.

@hooli

How much are you guys drinking to feel that bad the next day that you waste the day?

For me it would be 5 pints of 5%ABV beer or a bottle of wine. I would then feel rubbish, and very tired the following day. I would then eat some crap like a kebab if the option was available, I even find myself scrolling through the delivery providers to see if I can have same lard land at my door timed with me arriving home.

I am really trying to minimise drinking at home, and focus on one social night out every other week. I have the problem with not being easily able to do moderation, 2 pints in and all self control is gone! To make matters worse my current tipples of choice are hazy craft IPA’s and some of my faves are 6.5%ABV. So easy to mess up when drinking these, and wipe out a day. I guess it might be one step away from Tennants Super Strength and a park bench 🙂

Good luck to the OP I hope you are successful.

I enjoy going out with mates and will have 5 or 6 pints over the evening. I’ll feel a bit pissed and will be a bit wooly headed the next morning but it soon passes with a coffee and some food.

Good for you, if I have 5 or 6 pints I feel awful the next day because my sleep is really ruined.

How much are you guys drinking to feel that bad the next day that you waste the day?

I enjoy going out with mates and will have 5 or 6 pints over the evening. I’ll feel a bit pissed and will be a bit wooly headed the next morning but it soon passes with a coffee and some food.

Wonder if this is an age thing.

For me @ a tender 38 years, a ‘decent’ session might be a dinner with friends so half a bottle of red, maybe a beer or two to start, maybe a whisky to finish. I’ll not be crazy drunk but my sleep will be crap (I think if I drink red after say 7pm the sugar or something just keeps me awake) and I’ll get pretty rubbish sort of paranoia and non-specific dread and stress which adds to the poor sleep. The next morning I’m usually just be a depressed and irritable bugger which quite often puts me off going out on the bike which usually makes matters worse (if only because those at home have to put up with me!).

So yeah, no more ‘comical’ student chundering and hugging the toilet bowl, more just a wretched mental state, can easily last in to a second day.

Imagine doing that for 13 years from 38 to 51. Personally I wish I’d realised that regularly feeling like shit (two to three times a month) is actually shit, 13 years ago.

Yes, best thing I ever did.

I still crave the cigs now, 10 years quit! Probably always will. But that was definitly, without any doubt a good thing to quit

I quit everything on the same day; booze, fags, recreationals etc. Of all the things I miss the most it’s a cig. Put a nice red in front of me or a really good scotch and I find it easy to turn down. If I’m out and one of my friends sparks up it takes real will power not to cadge one. Just thinking about them now makes me yearn for one…

Yep, similar story to many above, an unhealthy relationship that got knocked on the head after a massive blow-out. Originally aimed for a few weeks but, testament to not being able to do anything in moderation, here I am 15 yrs later. No temptation at all now, just not part of my make-up. From the POV of post-ride/walk pints, AF is very refreshing!

I’ve actually gone the other way. I’d go months without a drink pre covid but during lockdown would regularly drink midweek which I’d never have done before to avoid heading to work with a hangover. But I’m wfh now so they’re far easier to deal with.

At one point it was maybe getting excessive so I’ve found a happy medium and never drink to point of being drunk, but don’t feel bad about having a drink if I fancy it.

Yes, best thing I ever did.

Same here, best thing we both ever did.

I’m not really sure if I’ve quit yet. Maybe I have. Not sure.

I did two months off last year and I’ve just done dry January.
I’m weighing up whether to make sobriety a longer term thing, or if I trust myself to drink very much in moderation from now on (at the moment I probably don’t trust myself)

Even though over the past year or 2 I cut down a reasonable amount, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been a problem drinker at times in the past (not alcoholic tho). It tends to go in cycles for me:
Start drinking progressively more, get to a point of feeling pretty awful, rein it back in for a while, then the drinking creeps up and so onwards we go.
Like many above – problem with self control. Can’t just have one or two, would mostly turn into several once I started. To be honest I would now rather just not start at all to avoid the temptation to have a session.

I’d echo many of the problems above, that have all got worse as I’ve got older:
– Horrible sense of dread the next day(s) after a session. Thats the worst.
– Although I could always function the day after (I never since my 20s got horrendously pissed, to the point of making myself ill or anything), it would definitely be a struggle at times and take the enjoyment out of activities.
– Crap sleep
– Feeling generally shit, tired and grumpy
– Easting loads of crap comfort eating and getting fat as a result
– Also alcohol seems to be a trigger for a (benign) heart arrythmia that started last year, particularly if I have had a few drinks over a number of days (like it is building up a background level that triggers the arrythmia, which can then stick around for days, and then plays mind games with me)

Dry January was absolutely fine – no problem at all to stick to once I decided I was doing it. The only time I was really tempted to drink was when the in-laws came over last weekend and shared some nice wine with my wife.
The temptation to drink soon passed though, and otherwise I’ve dropped a bit of weight, am fitter (both are goals for the year for me), getting way, way better sleep, and am generally feeling good.

The social thing does worry me a bit as I have many friends who I would often enjoy having a session with.

Ultimately though, I am starting to think the benefits of not drinking (or at the least drinking very, very much in moderation) are really stacking up for me.

Thanks for starting the thread op I’m finding it quite therapeutic writing it down 👍

I stopped in my mid-thirties (now 43) I do a job with early starts that can’t be done hungover. I hate hangovers as well. I also realised how much time I wasted being hungover. Once I stopped I realised that I could now ride rings around most of my friends at weekends who were usually suffering from drinking the night before.

Then after a few months I noticed the weight had come off, fitness had gone up, sleep had improved immensely and I realised I didn’t miss it.

I’m not teetotal, I had a beer at Xmas and have the odd one during BBQ season if it’s a hot day. But if I never drank again I wouldn’t miss it.

I issued to be a heavy social drinker and I think I used to equate drinking with socialising.

Now I look back and wish I’d stopped earlier.

The worst, and I mean literally the worst ever hangover I have ever had was from drinking 15 bottles of an alcohol free beer (can’t remember which).

And I have no idea why it was almost enough to drive me back to drinking!

I’m still alcohol free but I avoid those things like the plague now.

Timely thread for me, this … Me and @el_boufador ^^^ were chatting this over in the pub after riding Wednesday night this week … he had 3 AF beers, I had 3 standard beers …

I didn’t do dryanuary, as my birthday falls into the month, but had been building up to considering dryebuary. I’ve more or less decided to stop for the rest of the month and see how it goes.

I typically drink a beer or two, followed by a glass or two of wine, Fri, Sat and Sunday. More regularly on holiday or for a weekend away, but generally not a school night drinker. And haven’t been a ‘smash the drinks and not be able to function the next day’ drinker for a couple of decades or more. So, to an extent, I’d see myself as a moderate drinker but aware enough that I could get close to tipping over into more dependent and (even more) habitual use.

The social aspect doesn’t much bother me in terms of ‘nights out’ as I rarely do this anyway. But, a beer with a family pub meal, wine with extended family coming for dinner, or a couple of beers after riding with mates, is something I very much enjoy.

I’m not sure I’m ready to go teetotal forever. I’ve pretty much settled on not drinking for the rest of February, I’ve got a case of Brewdog AF beers on the way, and will see how I go.

I’d like to be in a place where it’s OK to drink just very occasionally, ie once or twice a month, rather than the somewhat habitual “it’s the weekend, I deserve a couple of drinks” approach I’ve used for most of the last couple of years …

My story/confessional about booze if you can be arsed to read it:

4 years booze free for me (23rd Jan, decided to start on a day that suited me not dry January). Never looked back really, was beginning to depend on alcohol more and more. I was always looking for an excuse to drink as much as possible to get hammered(socially, not alone). If I was on it, I was proper on it, started turning into one of those annoying mates with a drunk arsey attitude, bit of a dick and I was turning into a liability for others. There were other incidents too that I’m not proud of.

Then, 6 years ago life got very serious. We had our beautfiul son who turned out to be profoundly disabled. Two years after and I was kind of ramping the drinking up, not in a way that effected the family but quietly in the man cave at night trying to cope with how our new future looked. My grandfather was an alcoholic and a complete shit, although to us kids he was alright most of his antics were well hidden from us. I started to wonder if I was slipping into his shoes so to speak.

One day I decided to ride the northern coast to coast ride for my sons charity (raised 7k, quite proud of that!), it was at this point I decided to change my life, get fit, get off the booze and lose weight originally to just do the ride. Life was so much better without the alcohol that the break just continued.

It’s taken a few years for the families to adjust, they love a good drink, friends have always been very supportive, guess I must have been turning into that annoying mate. When they visit now they bring me non alcoholic beer selections which is really pretty cool.

When I gave up I replaced the beers with fizzy squash for around 4 months, sounds crap I know but I didn’t want anything tasting of beer (non or low alcohol) to make sure I had a proper break form alcohol. It worked for me, after the charity ride I then started drinking non alcoholic beers as drinking sweet fizzy drinks when out socialising was a bit rubbish.

Anyway, not sure that has helped but it felt good typing it out! Good luck, after the first couple of weeks it gets a lot easier.

White wine. One glass and I’m depressed for the next week. It’s utterly ridiculous but it’s reality – so I don’t touch the stuff now. Does anyone else share the same experience? Why is this?

Thanks @nt80085 that’s amazing

One week down easy. Feel very good, espcially so with regard to mood.

Did the big shop on Saturday, walked straight past the booze!

Bring on “dryebuary” 👊

I posted a brief bit earlier but as everyone else seems to be giving their full back story I thought I would add mine as it doesn’t seem to match most of the others – except smoking being harder to quit than booze. Oh, and just to protect be from future blackmail / awkward interview questions, this is all about a mate, not me obviously.

Started drinking at 13-14 with nicking Dads beer from the garage or little shots of whisky from the drinks cabinet. Looked old for my age so was a regular in the pub by 15 and drinking most nights. I lived in a quite well off area so a Saturday spent car washing could get me £50 at a time when it was 90p a pint for bitter. Week day evenings in the pubs playing pool, darts, quiz nights. Weekends with big bottles of cider in the park with the usual crowd. Continued and worsened through late teens and university to be Vodka breakfast and pub for lunch.

Met wife and knocked off all the recreationals and most of the spirits. Still drank copious amounts of beer and wine most days but was largely asymptomatic in that I rarely got hangovers and never felt that rough the next day even after 10-15 pints of a couple of bottles of wine. Sometimes I would get the most horrendous hangovers but not real pattern and not matched to volume consumed so I just put it down to bad beer. This continued into my 50’s.

Last summer my wife got a home blood pressure kit as her blood pressure was fine normally but sky high at the Drs and I thought I would have a go too. My blood pressure was on the line between “Call the Ambulance” and “Call the hearse” to the Dr gave me a full set of blood tests and a pile of bad news. I was 120kg so obese, had dangerously high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and there was an anomaly on the blood tests. I still felt fine though so wasn’t too worried, lose some weight and all would be well, right? Apparently not. A mixture of long term alcohol excess and 5 years on heavy opiates for various injuries and ankle ops had shagged my liver.

The hep woman (liver specialist) was surprised when I walked in smiling as she said my results suggested I should be yellow and bleeding from the eyes level of unwell. Further test confirmed that I was as ill as she thought but again, completely asymptomatic. She said normally she would be lining me up with the MLE team at this point but because I was looking okay she wanted me to stop drinking completely and measure the results. I had two questions: how long I would need to stop drinking? – For Ever; What is the MLE team? – Managed Life End team

This seemed relatively important so I thought I would play along and see what happened. I mean, how hard can it be to drop from a couple of bottles of wine with a whiskey or two to finish down to zero? I was stunned, my wife was stunned, the hep woman was stunned. I just stopped and felt no cravings, shakes, withdrawals or anything. The habit of having a beer in my hand persisted so I found a low-cal alco-free beer that was acceptable (Brewdog Nanny State) and reviewed my diet. Turn out my diet was fine as long as I cut down on the salted nuts and full fat cheeses that I only really ate when I had a beer so they fell away naturally. The smoking bit was the same. I had quit smoking years ago but still had the occasional beer cigar but no beer and no cigar. I did try a cigar with AF beer but it was horrible so I finally managed to properly quit.

So since quitting at the end of August last year, what has changed? I wake up and hour earlier, no brighter, just earlier. I have lost 20kg so far and still losing 0.5kg per week on a steady average without any change to diet and only a marginal increase in exercise. All my blood test are looking good and am no longer diabetic but my liver is still ****.

How do I feel for all of this? Absolutely no different. Damn you asymptomatic illnesses.

Finally got round to it after a couple of month procrastinating

This is pretty decent if fizzy cider is your thing

2022-02-07_06-17-52 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

And this with a glass of ice and some ginger ale makes a tasty nojito

2022-02-07_06-18-10 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Just thought I’d add my bit, in case anyone wants to read it.

I gave up drinking for 2019. Basically a decision I took on my own after wondering if I was drinking a bit too much and because I thought it would be an interesting thing to try. And it was great, after a while. It took a couple of weeks to mentally adjust to not opening a beer when I got in from work in the evening, and a couple of months to socially adjust to not apologising for not drinking, or making excuses. In fact going out with a bunch of new people and simply saying “I don’t drink” meant there were no awkward questions, no cajoling, no pressure, people were just cool with it.

It took about six months to stop eating way more calories than I needed to, like my body was trying to compensate for the drop in my consumption, and I started losing weight in a healthy way and running and riding better (when I got chance to). I even had a couple of really tough times – death of a close relative, significant crash on the bike needing surgery and metalwork – and because I wasn’t drinking, I didn’t drink.

I re-started drinking at the end of 2019, because I’d done my planned year, but I don’t really know why I did. It actually took a couple of days to re-develop a taste for it, and I bloody love a Dalmore or a dark milk stout.

I’ve just stopped for 2022 and I think I’ll stick with it. Once I decided, and told myself I’d decided, that was it.

Allen Carr (the writer, not the presenter) says repeatedly “there’s no power in will power.” If you want to stop, stop. He talks about giving something up as battling two monsters, the big monster and the little monster.

The little monster is the physical addiction. Nicotine, alcohol, weed, caffeine, sugar, meat, whatever it is you’re trying to stop, there’ll be some physical effects you’ll feel from stopping putting that substance in your body that it’s got used to. BUT these are pretty mild and usually pass within a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

The big monster is in your head and it’s basically your thoughts that tell you you’re giving up something you enjoy. As long as you feel you’re “missing out”, and telling yourself it’s hard and it’s a battle of will power, this will be a massive battle and you’ll probably lose because “there’s no power in will power”.

I gave up smoking after reading all of Allen Carr’s Easy Way about 20 years ago and I really recommend it – by the end of the book I simply didn’t want to smoke any more, so I stopped. So there was no battle, no will power involved, I had changed my thinking to realise I didn’t get anything out of smoking so I actively wanted to stop.

I’m no Allen Carr evangelist but this approach seems to make so much more sense – after all, if you don’t want to do something, you won’t do it. I’d started feeling like I didn’t want to drink any more, and I absolutely loved drinking, it was so easy and sociable and “normal” and part of my life and there are so many wonderful and interesting drinks out there… but at the same time I had an increasing feeling that it wasn’t a brilliant idea and maybe I should give up for a bit again.

There are paragraphs most of us could write about how to deal with it, and most of us will happily share our stories and our experiences, but if you’re thinking of quitting either temporarily or permanently, don’t view it as “giving something up” but “doing something different”. I’m happy for anyone to DM me if they want to ask any questions and / or can stand me waffling on about this!

Also, there are LOTS of interesting things to drink that aren’t alcoholic, or contain very little alcohol. I signed up to Sober Sauce for a box of alcohol-free beers every month and found loads of good ones (and some downright weird stuff). I haven’t found a beer from Big Drop Brewery I haven’t liked…

I did dry January and it’s morphed into dry until Easter, possibly longer.

I haven’t had any issues cutting it out but need to lose some weight so it seemed like a good move.

My sampling of non—Alc and low-Alc beers and spirits has been pretty extensive though – I’m quite happy with the following:

Tanqueray non-Alc gin
Sol non-Alc lager
Lucky Saint low-Alc lager
Drop Bear Yuzu Pale Ale low-Alc beer
Drop Bear Tripical IPA low-Alc beer
Tiny Rebel Tropical IPA low-Alc beer

One of the posts above is a good call – when you’re on the booze alternate every drink with a soft drink or low alc alternative.

One of the posts above is a good call – when you’re on the booze alternate every drink with a soft drink or low alc alternative.

I wouldn’t try alternating with AF beer as it will make you realise all the gaps between what they provide and what real beer provide. I would perhaps try alternating nights rather than drinks. Watching your mates get pissed while you stay sober is a more compelling reason to stop than feeling every other pint has been watered down for me.

@Pierre speaks a lot of sense and it is matching my own recent experience / thoughts on this really.

Personally speaking, it’s been the growing realisation over the past couple of years that drinking is starting to take more from me than it is giving to me…and therefore it simply makes sense not to do it any more.

It is still hard to keep this in mind when socialising with friends who are drinking, though.
I’ve had a couple of wobbles since start of Jan (both socialisation situations) but I’ve not succumbed and have felt very positive about that the next day.