i love beer. it is a passion, along with bikes.
but i am seriously thinking about giving it up.
over the last few months, whenever i have a drink, even a odd pint, i feel terrible after.
shocking headache, upset stomach, terrible dehydration and just a horrible groggy feeling.
if i have a good drink ( 6 to 8 pints) i cant sleep and spend the whole night cat napping and feel like a zombie for the whole following day.

i never ever suffered like this in the past, and it is now making me not want to drink anymore.
anyone else given up booze in their 50’s

I have. Tried. I’ve been hypnotised and it helps put me off the after effects of too much but not put me off the beer itself. I’ve plugged the book on the forum before, but have a read of this if you haven’t already. Really helped get my priorities straight, and a good, entertaining (if a little worrying) read for anyone who enjoys a drink. It’s not a lecture, it’s not a life improvement thing, just a well written account of what many people already know, though probably without the escalation that the author encountered…

I gave up booze completely for 40 days up to Easter Sunday. It was a brilliant feeling to be waking up with a clear head every day, I enjoyed it so much that I’m having a few glasses of wine tonight and beers every night when I head off on a mtb trip to Finale on 15th May just so I can give up for another 40 days when I get back and enjoy that initial pleasure all over again. Just worried that it’ll never be as good as the first time and I’ll end up having to drink heavier and heavier prior to giving up to get the same sense of relief and self righteousness 🙂

BTW, only joking about the self righteousness obviously.

Wheres the report button…

Better to just cut back. A beer with mates relaxes me as much as post big bike ride.

An old mate seems to have gotten a career out of this!

He started one year no beer following a tough time with booze and now he is doing great it seems. Look up oynb on facebook etc.

whenever i have a drink, even a odd pint

That seems extreme. Some sort of allergic reaction maybe or just bad luck in choosing some of the insanely strong beers available nowadays. I know certain beer types hit me hard regardless of strength and so mostly avoid them although its not at the one pint limit.
If I was feeling that shit after just a pint I wouldnt have problems giving up entirely. As it is an occasional session of roughly the 6-8 pints has me putting off the repeat for a while.

Is it beer or alcohol making you feel ill? Do you feel bad after a pint or two of cider or a couple of glasses of wine? I stopped drinking beer after I found it started really upsetting my stomach.

@dissonance

. I know certain beer types hit me hard

Could you expand? I really try now not to drink as like the OP I have become a little shocked as to how I feel the morning after. 2 cans of 3.6% 330ml beers will make me feel groggy and ‘dry’ . I’m now wondering if it these fancy IPA and APA beers that are doing it.

I’ve converted to non alcoholic beer now mind. There are 3 or 4 I’ve found that really are great

I stopped enjoying beer about a month ago so just have a coffee now. I used to feel a bit odd being the only one but beer was making me tired. I treat myself now to a speciality beer at home now and again, also just a small glass of red with food.

I noticed a few people drinking the zero alcohol stuff so you could try that.

What is your drinking pattern, alone , social etc do you have dry days ?

I have not given up completely but drink a huge amount less than I used to – both at in a session and in frequency – perhaps 3 or 4 pints every couple of weeks from a consumption 10 years ago of 3 pints 3 times a week and a good sess at the weekends

Mainly because of the hangovers getting so bad.

Funny, I’ve been contemplating this exact scenario. I’m not even 40 but a couple of cans of decent craft beer seems to leave me feeling crap! I also drink a ton of coffee, maybe ten mugs a day, so I’ve cut that out this week to see if that helps. I really enjoy the whole craft beer scene and I sometimes feel like I deserve a beer at the end of the day. Maybe it’s a slippery slope. Maybe I should just do a month with no beer, less coffee and more water and see what happens.

Strange to have that strong a reaction to just the odd pint.
It’s always been my plan to give up the drink at 40, but I might bring that forward as I’ve noticed looking at regular drinkers in pubs, how much it ages people.

It gets harder as you get older and the mass produced beers, especially the premium high strength lagers, are so full of crap it’s not the beer that is giving you the hangover it’s all the crap in the beer. I only drink once a week now with a couple of mates, down the local and decent beer. On the odd occasion we have a larger night I don’t get a hangover on the decent beer. If for some reason I have a few of the premium strength lagers then I just wasy to be euthanatised as soon as I wake up the hangover is so bad.

But clearly if you’re Feeling crap then maybe take a break and try again at a much reduced consumption level, if you enjoy beer then just have a few a week.

Oh yes ..At the age of 52 after 30 years of very heavy drinking I went from 25 pints a day ( at the end ….wife counted) to Zero overnight.
Did take an emergency admission and week in a hospital being detoxed to complete though! Had no alcohol for 28 months now .Love the stuff ..all of it… but was self medicating in truth ..trying to be happy in a brain riddled with chronic anxiety and depression ( drink didn’t exactly help long term as you might expect!). Despite all the trouble it caused me and having nearly killed me ..if drink didn’t make me ill / sick …I’d still be doing it. Life is softer and lubricated by well by drink…but as you’re finding out .. there’s a price to pay and for some that’s a very high price indeed.

Since stopping drinking last November a month before heart surgery, I’ve struggled to start again. Even one pint or large glass of wine means broken sleep and a mini hangover.

Yes, pretty much given up. Last drink was mid January (one pint). I’m sure I’m sure I’d still enjoy a pint, but just don’t feel I need one. I wasn’t someone who had to have a drink if I went out, so don’t really miss it now.

I haven’t drunk since before Christmas (that is actually a lie, I had a few glasses of wine with food on holiday last month). I was only drinking once a week, but it was a Friday night binge and ruining my energy for the weekends. That was an established pattern going on for probably a couple of decades (before that I was drank much more)

Interesting thread – I’m not a drinker, only a pint or two at most, though I love trying new beers, but for the last year maybe, even just one beer, not even silly strong, will ruin my sleep and have me feeling like death the next day – splitting headache, dodgy guts, amazing hoppy tarts.

Had a bottle of Banks about 9pm last night. Bed at 11 but didn’t go to sleep properly till 1, woke up in time to enjoy a spectacular fart about 7.30, now feeling mildly hungover.

Only seems to be beer that has this effect though.

Farts, not tarts.

I used to drink years ago (not massively, maybe 2-4 pints a couple of times a week) and particularly liked real ales, but they started giving me disaster pants more and more frequently.

I tried ciders and the after effects weren’t so bad, but the alcohol seemed to hit me straight away and I’d feel yucky

Now any alcohol at all makes me feel crappy almost immediately, hot flush heady just yucky. I’ve even felt it with a shandy FFS!

Some one had left a couple of cans of magners in a bothy I was at a bit back so after a day out I thought sod it I’ll have one. I enjoyed the cold cider briefly, but then felt like shit the rest of the night.

So, other than a moment of madnesses I don’t bother as it’s just not worth even a shandy!

People can be very outraged when you don’t drink though. First they assume you’re driving, then they seem to assume it’s an affront to them or criticism of them drinking. Nope, it just makes me feel awful!

It’s alcohol that gives a hangover, not ‘chemicals’ in beers, alcohol is the dominant chemical in any beer. Ever had a wine hangover? It’s awful, again, it’s the alcohol, nothing else.

And Ton only drinks ale, not mass produced stuff.

Could be a gluten intolerance? Worth trying a gluten free beer big yin, see of its any different.

I’ve not had any alcohol since 4th July Last year, came home from a week in Malta, decided to can it for a bit, as I often did, but found no urge to have a beer came, so I haven’t.

It simply doesn’t fit with my lifestyle any more, I’ve too many things I wanna do to glet the beer lethargy get in the way, love waking up fresh every day, and starting a degree at 43 meant I need all of the little grey matter that I have.

I’ve told my uni mates that I’ll have a pint with them when we (hopefully!) Graduate in 3 years time, but the I probably won’t.

Saved a bloody fortune as well, and lost nigh on 3 stone too.

All of that outweighs the joy of a beer 10 fold for me.

Nobeer by name…..

😊

I stopped in December aged 34 cos I really didn’t like the person I was when I drank. I also struggled to stop drinking when I started – one pint easily became four. Made the decision to stop and just have Diet Coke in the pub now and feel a lot better for it.

I packed up in October 2018 apart from a couple of glasses of wine at Christmas (which I didn’t enjoy). When I get in from a ride on a hot day I could murder a cold tin of beer but then the crap feeling next morning etc etc reminds me to have coke instead.
I’ve certainly got far more money in my pocket at the end of each month. Not lost any weight though 😀

If people are having reactions to just one pint of beer, then it can’t be the alcohol they are reacting to, as it’s barely 4percent alcohol, must be the other stuff in it surely.

Could you expand?

Mostly stouts/porters. Can get away with one but beyond that chances of feeling crap go up fast. Mixing different types can also be crappy but never figured out the pattern.
There are increasing numbers of decent low alcohol beer in the 2-3% range. Hopefully trend will continue.

In the alcoholic beverages industry, congeners are substances, other than the desired type of alcohol, ethanol, produced during fermentation. These substances include small amounts of chemicals such as methanol and other alcohols (known as fusel alcohols), acetone, acetaldehyde, esters, tannins, and aldehydes (e.g. furfural). Congeners are responsible for most of the taste and aroma of distilled alcoholic beverages, and contribute to the taste of non-distilled drinks.[1] It has been suggested that these substances contribute to the symptoms of a hangover.[2][3] Congeners are also used by forensic toxicologists to determine what a person drank in a sub-discipline called alcohol congener analysis.

From Wikipedia.

Maybe I should just do a month with no beer, less coffee and more water and see what happens.

I would suggest it’s better to change one thing at a time and check the outcome. Personally I suspect the coffee.

I had that. So have two other people I know.

Cider and ginger beer were fine, so switched to those for a few months and I recovered (as did the other two). I think it’s a gut bacteria issue of some kind.

Sounds very familiar Tony. A few years ago I developed an intolerance to beer (I’d not put it as severe as an allergy). Basically, I’d develop migraines after as little as a pint. Certain beers were worse than others (and it wasn’t just down to type of beer – lager vs IPA vs stout etc). With some beers I could tell when I was drinking it that it was going to hit me. I switched to ciders for a while and didn’t have the problem. Similarly with whisky and wine. So, it was just beer and not alcohol. I did some digging and found out that there are certain enzymes, produced during the malting process of barley, that some folk react to. With that information, I then found that wheat beers were much more acceptable (much lower barley content).

The phase of this intolerance lasted around 10 years and has, largely, diminished now but I still get the occasional bad day after as little as a pint.

Totally support this. I have one beer and feel like death. Since having children I have found it unbearable to have a hangover and look after the little ones. I have also put on weight in the last year or so which I attribute to drinking

I think it’s a gut bacteria issue of some kind.

In that case, I have an idea . . . Faecal Transplant 😉

Been off alcohol for almost a year. Did it to support a weight loss program, lost 20kg. Biking is a remarkably easy now in comparison, I sleep better, snore less, eyes look better, skin is a better texture and I haven’t had a headache in almost a year. Sort of got to a target weight but I can’t see the point in taking up the alcohol thing again.

Draught Guinness in the pub no issue, Draught Guinness in a can and one can is enough for me to get a thick head feeling. As discovered this weekend, never used to get this but Ii’m starting to find a few beers that seem to disagree with me even if it is just a single can. No such issues with cider, wine or this evenings port. Some ports do have a similar effect though. I’m guessing it’s an age thing.

That’s 22ml of alcohol. You know that it’s a toxin? It’s the alcohol.

Sorry, that’s in reply to Handybear.

i keep thinking about packing it in too. but its the thought of not drinking round the fire on camping trips or that quencher after a good bike ride or long walk that puts me off. i live for those moments!

i attempted veganuary after crimbo and while i didnt too well at that i manged to stay off the meat so decided to keep that up… it was the thought of not tucking into a bacon butty on a sunday morning or a steak & ale pie at the pub that put me off quitting meat sooner – but i have done and ive not missed it one bit, so maybe theres hope for the booze.

or that quencher after a good bike ride or long walk that puts me off. i live for those moments!

indeed. Thats my favourite pint – the well deserved one

53 here and stop drinking real ale last year due to struggling with my breathing ( diagnosis with asthma at 51), dire stomach upset and general feeling crap. Tried just lager and reduction of intake from 3 to 5 pints at the weekend to one or two, now on lager shandy after a walk or a ride.