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anarazel
lfaw
Have you tried loose leaf green tea? Fermented and aged tea like pu'er has very complex flavors. The caffeine content can be quite low so its safe to drink in the evening. Found it to be even more fun and interesting than tasting e.g. wine.
tpm
and for even lower caffeine content one could try hojicha (high temperature roasted bancha or sencha), higher grades have interesting taste.
al_borland
I’ve stopped drinking several times for longer stretches and I can feel a difference after a couple months in overall energy levels and sleep. It seems to have some pretty long tail effects that are subtle, but noticeable. If anyone hasn’t tried cutting it out for 3+ months, I would recommend running a little experiment.
My bloodwork improved a lot as well. I had actually completely forgot I stopped drinking when I had it done, so when the doctor asked what I did to see such an improvement, I had no idea. I had gained weight during this period as well, so the alcohol had a bigger negative impact than the weight… though neither is ideal.
bkjelden
Interesting, over the last 18 months or so I've dabbled with both quitting/aggressively cutting back on drinking as well as aggressively cutting back on sweets (some periods where I've been super dedicated and others where I'm not).
Counter to OP's experience, I've actually found sweets to be more impactful than alcohol. That is to say eating dessert after dinner will impact my sleep more than a drink or two, and the periods where I lost weight have been more closely correlated with the periods where I was eating very few sweets.
Of course with both, the delta between low/moderate consumption and a baseline of zero consumption is low - it's the excessive consumption that causes trouble.
Like OP I found the daily ritual to be pretty easy after a couple weeks, but like OP I also missed the social aspect (and this is why I've sort of settled on the opinion that giving up drinking completely is not worth it, at least for me). If I felt like I was experiencing a step function improvement in life quality I'd keep it up... but for me it just hasn't been the silver bullet it's made out to be.
I'm not really one to label one food ingredient as the cause of all health problems, but if I had to choose one I would choose refined sugar long before alcohol.
techcode
How/what are you basing your "sweets/desert impacts my sleep more than a drink or two" on?
I was waking up an hour or more before the alarm (so waking up <=6AM with 7AM alarm). And I thought my sleep was good - after all Fitbit sleep score was 80-85.
Then after stopping alcohol I started sleeping longer. Specifically waking up later, at least for the first few weeks.
Seemingly alcohol was causing earlier waking due to spiking cortisol too early.
While waking-up time took a few weeks to recalibrate. Already 2-3 days after stopping alcohol - Fitbit was showing clear improvements in actual sleep quality metrics - HRV was increasing and RHR/BR were decreasing.
And now my "bad nights" have Fitbit sleep score of ~85, and it's regularly 90+.
Lab results are night and day - e.g. CRP was 20 (>5 signals inflammation), just few weeks after stopping alcohol it was ~10 while I was having cold/fever, and now it's <1.
The biggest/hardest problem for me was that after stopping alcohol, my sweets intake increased, especially in the evening. I was doing almost no carbs during the day, and then in the evening ... I guess brain was lacking some easy dopamine that it would previously get from alcohol... I would crave sweets, ice cream ...etc.
It took almost 3 months to be able to stick with strict keto diet. I'm finally doing <=20 gram of carbs because from past experience - any higher and I have a hard time limiting carbs to say just 50 (which would still be low carb/keto).
loveparade
I haven't had a drink in 6 months or so. Not because I wanted to stop, I just have not had the desire to drink recently.
Now I would love to tell you about all the amazing magical healthy benefits that have come with that, but unfortunately there are none. I feel no difference at all.
Balgair
Haha! I'm ~4 years 'sober' and I can say the same!
However I have a rather large confound: Kids.
I'm sure that if I was drinking regularly still that I would feel much worse than I do today. But the effects of children are powerful enough to my system that they overrule any positive effects of this forced sobriety.
(To be clear: I'll have a drink every blue moon or so, but it's quite rare I get enough time off to enjoy anything like a buzz these days)
Eddy_Viscosity2
When I stopped drinking I almost immediately lost like 15 lbs. It just fell off without doing anything else different over a few weeks. It was just the extra calories from both the drinks themselves and the snacks I would usually eat with or after drinks. It stayed off too.
gandalfgreybeer
Based from my experience, stopping drinking didn't have noticeable effects as well. However, whenever I would drink once in a blue moon socially, it feels even worse than what I remember. I think it just felt normal before.
abrookewood
Yeah, I did the same for roughly 6 months and I don't think that I felt better .. I just never felt SHIT.
andsoitis
Sleeping better? Clearer skin? Lost fat? Biological age < calendar age?
brianpan
You should not be touting magical health benefits on a sample size of one either way.
There are already plenty of studies available to be found.
californical
But I bet whenever (if?) you do have a beer or two again, you’ll notice how it affects your sleep and probably just makes you feel kinda meh.
I say that as an occasional drinker. Some of my family loves to drink, nearly every evening. But I join them occasionally and just feel kinda bloated and bad, especially if it’s been a few weeks. Makes it harder to make other healthy choices
But yeah love the taste of beer so it is all about tradeoffs!
browningstreet
I remember a bar acquaintance who stopped drinking for a year. I saw him when that year was up and I asked him how it went.
“I didn’t notice any changes, so I’m quitting for another year.”
ffsm8
Tbf, if you're not drinking much (eg only once per week or month) a moderate amount - so not enough to get drunk... Then your body is able to handle that.
Statistically you're still more likely to get cancer etc, but that's still a pretty low likelihood, hence... Complete abstinence may be healthiest, but is also unnecessary.
steve1977
That's kind of what I did. I initially stopped for a month for some health reasons. That became another month. And another one. And now it's a bit more than 4 years.
The interesting thing is, when I quit smoking (almost 20 years ago), I knew I must never touch a cigarette again. I think with alcohol, I could have some wine or beer occassionaly, I just don't feel the need for it anymore.
zeroq
It's easy to stop drinking when you do it socially.
There are many people who would consciously love to stop drinking but can't find alternative to stop the storm in their heads. This could be caused by many things, from trauma to ADHD.
The best quote I heard about addiction is: "I only have control over my first drink".
The worst part is that alcohol and drugs have a strong stigma, but for people who are suffering anything that can turn their mind off is viable, gambling, binge watching tv or playing video games. The latter are often overlooked and ignored by relatives.
SwiftyBug
To me it's the opposite: I can go weeks without drinking. The moment there's a social event, I feel the urge to drink. It's like I can't enjoy it without alcohol. I've been trying to figure out why this happens, but I haven't had the strength to try and not drink in one a social gathering.
mfru
For me it is social anxiety / being on edge around more than 4-5 people (apply from 1 person upwards if they are strangers) and having sensory overload because it is a bar / pub / whatever.
A lifetime of masking leaves its mark on a nervous system, i.e.
And alcohol down regulates / takes the edge off
You might look into neurodiversity / trauma in your life (if you haven't done so already)
not_a_bot_4sho
Don't drink. Or if you must, drink less.
Who am I to tell you what to do? No one important. But I did recently discover I have colon cancer, perhaps related to my great fondness for beer. And now I'm awkwardly figuring out my final exit strategy. 0/5 stars not recommended.
Oh, and schedule that colonoscopy you've been putting off. Better to catch it early when more treatment options are on the table.
SapporoChris
I looked up the risk factors for Colorectal cancer and it is influenced by various lifestyle and genetic factors, including: Diet (high in red and processed meats), Obesity, Smoking, and Lack of physical activity.
I also noted that rates are appear to actually be decreasing. At least according to the National Cancer Institute. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/colorect.html
Schiendelman
Yes, people are smoking less.
HerbManic
I will second the early testing, it caught my mothers cancer in the early stages. That was 10 years ago and she is going strong in her mid 70's.
As for the final exit strategy, do what works for you and don't worry about others thinking you are being "selfish". You are the final arbiter.
Be well.
irishcoffee
In my mid 30s (I'm older now) I got breast cancer I drank so much, which was after I got pancreatitis because I'm too fucking stupid to learn my lesson. I am a biological male now one nipple shy of a set.
Oh and a DUI. Sleeping in a running car. I’m a jackass and an idiot.
I'm done drinking. Ideally my feet will be less numb and painful, my shoulder might stop hurting, the outer two fingers on my left hand might become un-numb, might even gain some weight.
My family is a bunch of alcoholics, "functional" if you believe in that sort of thing. I realized if nothing else, I need to break that cycle for my kids.
I'm so sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. I was (and am) terrified that I took ~20 years off my life up to this point, and it could be over any year now.
Alcoholism is no joke. I just wrote up a 17k letter to myself (with my spouse as the audience, not sure I'll ever show her, she hates me right now) about how I got to where I am. Reading it back and editing it has had me bawling for hours. I can't believe this thread popped up.
Schiendelman
On the numbness - if you want it back, lift weights. Consistently. Like 2/3 of days consistently.
x______________
> the outer two fingers on my left hand might become un-numb
Care to share more how this happened?
polotics
could an ADHD test be opportune here?
dhruvkar
For 12 years, I did one year ON, one year OFF (2012 - 2024).
On my ON years, I felt compelled to drink, every night I had at least a beer, if for no reason other than, I wanted to make the "most of it".
On my OFF years, I didn't feel the need to drink, and generally slept better, lost weight and was more focused.
Stopped drinking completely after that.
senkora
I applaud your commitment to statistical rigor.
On a related note, “sequential analysis” is the keyword in stats for experimental designs that allow for stopping the experiment early in the face of clear results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_analysis#
dhruvkar
haha... I'm slow..needed the dozen years of data.
tim-tday
Good start. I quit drinking for six years. My only regret is that I didn’t do it twenty years earlier.
gnabgib
You missed[1][2] one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47752798
tim-tday
Consistency is king I suppose. I was just thinking this morning about how if every drink I had at a bar over the last 20 years had gone into the stock market I’d probably be a million dollars richer. I was putting nothing into the stock market in my twenties because I “couldn’t afford it” but somehow I could afford to go out and spend a hundred bucks a night on booze. Then there’s the hangovers, pretty sure every bad hangover made me permanently stupider. If I could go back in time and kick myself I would.
gnabgib
$100/night in 2006? Wow.. NYC? That is a lot of income that could be disposed of elsewhere.
x______________
Is it to late to go back to the stock market?
chrysoprace
I've found that nowadays I largely like it for the taste (which often surprises non-beer drinkers) and so I'm quite pleased that non-alcoholic options are becoming more widespread.
My main wish is for non-alcoholic craft beer to become much more widespread and cheaper. In Australia alcohol is taxed at a ludicrous rate, but non-alcoholic drinks are not, however they often attract the same price - which is disappointing.
boyter
Id be ok with that if wine had the same taste. No alcohol free wine tastes even close, and none of them are good in their own right.
Some of the non-alcoholic beers are pretty good though and I am happy to drink them.
nunez
i cannot wait for an actually drinkable NA wine of any vintage. the last one i had was horrible.
same with the NA whiskey i had.
phony negroni, however, is pretty solid.
esafak
One thing that annoys me is that non-alcoholic beer is subject to age checks in the US. I assume it's because the programmers didn't create a separate group for them, so they ring up with the rest of the liquor, triggering a check? Maybe there's a good reason ('coz that's not one).
mk89
Most likely because even non-alcoholic beer still contains like 0.5% of alcohol.
Unless it's a "0.0%" alcohol-free beer, and even then it might still contain a bit...
zdragnar
I bought hops-flavored sparkling water from a grocery store's beer cooler on a lark and, despite my attempt to explain the logic to the poor cashier, we both bent to the whims of the computer system and scanned my ID to complete the purchase.
There are other drinks that have trace amounts of alcohol, such as kombucha which is regulated to stay under the 0.5% threshold. Fruit juices will also likely contain upwards of the same amount, depending on how much they're processed.
reverius42
I think orange juice can be up to 0.5% alcohol, and they don't check ID for that.
intrasight
Weird since kombucha has 0.5% and they don't age check that.
chrysoprace
Probably just a legacy thing. Might as well have a vanilla cake trigger an age check for all the good it'll do.
anonymousiam
Coming from a family of alcoholics (half of my aunts and uncles, my father, and my sister), I have seen the social and physical damage that alcohol does. My father was a role model to me of what not to become. I do drink, but nothing stronger than wine, and not very often.
It may have been easy for the author to quit, but it's a different story for the people who are addicted. The ones who are trying to quit are at least aware that they've got a problem. Many never even make it that far.
nunez
> I did find not drinking to have one clear downside: It’s just not that much fun to hang out with people who are drinking if you are not drinking yours
This is the big one. Alcohol is the lubricant that makes many social activities function, for better or worse. I've reduced my alcohol intake to 2 drinks per session with about a drink per hour intake rate (slower as ABV increases). One big plus to doing this is that staying out super late isn't nearly as appealing.
Regardless, this article reads like the year I quit drinking caffineated coffee. A roaster here in Houston had an award winning decaf bean that was incredible enough for me to make that decision on the spot. It turns out that they won the WBC on that bean for a reason! It is outstandingly hard to get a good decaf pourover, assuming that the shop even does that. Most times, you're stuck with old espresso or nothing, more often than not.
I've introduced it back into my diet but have decaf days throughout the week so that caffeiene continues to "work" when I need it.
charles_f
This is inspiring, you might have convinced me to do the same, if only for the sleep part.
One thing that I'd miss is the taste though, I don't drink soda or sugary drinks, and I can't think of a replacement for the taste of good wine, beer or spirits. (there's good dealcoolized beers nowadays but it feels like cheating). Not that I guess one absolutely needs it, but is still part of the culinary experience. It's probably because I never looked though, is there anything non alcoholic that "grown ups" drink?
aardvarkdriver
Second coffee and tea. I'm nearing a year and have enjoyed tasting and learning about origins and processing methods of tea in a similar way one might for do craft beer. Just as fulfilling with less downside.
Also, I wouldn't consider NA beer cheating! For me, the ritual of social drinking was just as important as the taste. Drinking good NA beers with friends is a 95% solution.
californical
Coffee and tea! Chamomile is nice in the evening, always makes me feel cozy
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I stopped drinking a few years back, after some (unrelated) health stuff. I don't miss wine, beer, that stopped - like for the author - after a relatively short amount of time. But interestingly I still really miss the feeling of a good scotch after a long day. Not being buzzed, but the sharpness mixed with interesting tastes.
My sleep has gotten so much better. I really didn't realize that alcohol didn't affect just the night after I had a drink, but even the next one or two nights..