I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I kind of feel the same, OP. I don’t drink much during the work week but probably go to at least one happy hour (2-3 drinks) and have 3-4 drinks on each of Friday and Saturday. I’ve stopped doing that this month and haven’t noticed any discernible benefit either. I will probably go back to my normal pattern next month.

Curious are you in your 30s?

Yeah, early 30s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL if I lost a lb a week from quitting drinking I’d be underweight fast.

I quit because it made me terribly anxious the next day. It made me puffy and bloated in the face. It made me sad sometimes while drinking. It made me foggy headed and unable to see my exH”s alcoholism and how I was enabling him.

Do you, OP. But your singular short term experience doesn’t reflect that of all people who quit drinking. For me it’s been a game changer.

Alcohol is super lowbrow/low vibration. Alcohol sober is so trendy out west (where I live) and I freaking love it. We have recognized how it ages us and keeps us inside getting fat and anxious, vs out experiencing the world at large.

I don’t hang with drinkers.

Being incredibly superior like this and so self congratulatory reeks of anxiety and is terribly low brow. Quit patting yourself on the back all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have long known that processed meat - bacon, sausage, pepperoni, as well as red meat is a carcinogen and it has been recognized as such and due to the industry you never ever hear about avoiding it on a regular basis whereas right now, huge alcohol is the devil message everywhere.

What's your gut instinct about why the focus is alcohol now vs red meat, processed food, environmental factors, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you replace wine with hot chocolate, you will not help your sleep at all. Avoid sugar all together and don’t eat or drink anything within 5 hrs of going to bed.

This is nuts. How late do you go to bed? We eat dinner at 8 and I go to bed around 10:30. I’d be eating like an old fogey if I followed that advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I quit 6 months ago, with occasional drinks here and there for special occasions. I'm not fat (opposite-- skinny runner). Mid-40s.

Yeah, my cancer risk has gone down. The pp who mentioned red meat is right, and I stick to the recommended 1 serving per week of red meat.

I suspect that the benefits people talk about don't really accrue to people who just have wine with dinner. I was particularly interested in not waking up at night and here I am at 2am, having awaken yet again. It's fine if the benefits are all internal, and none it changes things for me since I have other reasons not to drink, but I can see why people are ambivalent about giving up a nightly glass when the benefits are oversold.

If you’re waking up nightly you have a different issue going on, not one that cutting alcohol will fix. Your poopooing of the health benefits is wild.

I think OP’s wake-ups have to do with peri-menopause, not drinking. That’s my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's also the question of under-reporting. Lots of people under-report their drinking. That one glass of wine might be a 12 oz. glass (I think 6 oz. is considered a serving.) And maybe we refill it. So, are we really having one small glass, after which I would not expect major side effects, or the equivalent of three or four? If it's three or four, I would expect to feel pretty different after giving it up.

Why are you using “we?” Just talk about yourself. If YOU pour heavy and refill, own it. But don’t attribute this to everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have long known that processed meat - bacon, sausage, pepperoni, as well as red meat is a carcinogen and it has been recognized as such and due to the industry you never ever hear about avoiding it on a regular basis whereas right now, huge alcohol is the devil message everywhere.

What's your gut instinct about why the focus is alcohol now vs red meat, processed food, environmental factors, etc?

I think the weed industry is stepping up lobbying efforts. I think the food industry just has to stay quiet. Processed food is clearly the main issue right now. This is all a giant distraction for most of the population. Now me, I’m a drinker, so I knew all this already and I’ve cut down to only drinks on the weekend. But I understand the risk of all of it. Food, weed, alcohol, the sun. Not understanding it’s all risky makes people make wild claims about superiority that are asinine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same. I quit drinking too (with the help of naltrexone, which has been incredibly helpful. More doctors should do more to help patients. No one even knows about it).

I will say that not only do I not see any benefits, my life is also less enjoyable now. After a long day with the kids, there's nothing to look forward to when they go to bed. But I do plan on sticking with it. I don't think I could get more Nal out of my doctor and I don't think I could have stopped without it. I tried many times over the years.

Really, why? What’s the point of long life if you’re not enjoying it? I’d rather have a slightly shorter life that’s fun, than a longer one with few pleasures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drink 1-2 glasses of wine most evenings. So moderate to heavy. I read things like that I had to pee at night or woke up at night because of the alcohol. I read that alcohol caused weight gain and if you quit drinking, it just falls off. Relationships improve, they say.

None of this has happened for me. Possibly, I may experience less anxiety. But that's hard to tell for sure and hard to pinpoint causation.

I'm not going to reverse course, I'm kind of stuck with not drinking due to a medical reason. But, I do want to say that people are kind of overhyping the immediate benefits. If you're doing dry January, do it for the mental discipline, do it for the hot chocolate. The rest of it is kind of misleading.

I think you are probably not the norm, and that lots of people do experience benefits. It's also true that there is evidence that drinking is associated with many more health risks than not drinking. It's pretty irresponsible to say that the health stuff is wrong because you don't "feel" different, OP.

Reporting one’s own experience is not irresponsible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you replace wine with hot chocolate, you will not help your sleep at all. Avoid sugar all together and don’t eat or drink anything within 5 hrs of going to bed.

This is nuts. How late do you go to bed? We eat dinner at 8 and I go to bed around 10:30. I’d be eating like an old fogey if I followed that advice.

DP. I don’t follow that advice as a rule but I go to bed at 11 and eat dinner at 5:30/6 (if it’s up to me - if it’s a restaurant dinner then later) and feel so much better when I do. I hate going to bed full.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you replace wine with hot chocolate, you will not help your sleep at all. Avoid sugar all together and don’t eat or drink anything within 5 hrs of going to bed.

This is nuts. How late do you go to bed? We eat dinner at 8 and I go to bed around 10:30. I’d be eating like an old fogey if I followed that advice.

DP. I don’t follow that advice as a rule but I go to bed at 11 and eat dinner at 5:30/6 (if it’s up to me - if it’s a restaurant dinner then later) and feel so much better when I do. I hate going to bed full.

I eat lunch at 1 so no way could I then eat dinner so early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL if I lost a lb a week from quitting drinking I’d be underweight fast.

I quit because it made me terribly anxious the next day. It made me puffy and bloated in the face. It made me sad sometimes while drinking. It made me foggy headed and unable to see my exH”s alcoholism and how I was enabling him.

Do you, OP. But your singular short term experience doesn’t reflect that of all people who quit drinking. For me it’s been a game changer.

Alcohol is super lowbrow/low vibration. Alcohol sober is so trendy out west (where I live) and I freaking love it. We have recognized how it ages us and keeps us inside getting fat and anxious, vs out experiencing the world at large.

I don’t hang with drinkers.

Teetotalers are so unbearable.

Except that idiot isn’t a teetotaler. They smoke weed and call it “California sober,” or in PP’s case “alcohol sober.” It’s no mystery why they write such an inane post—they have fewer living brain cells than non THC users.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have long known that processed meat - bacon, sausage, pepperoni, as well as red meat is a carcinogen and it has been recognized as such and due to the industry you never ever hear about avoiding it on a regular basis whereas right now, huge alcohol is the devil message everywhere.

What's your gut instinct about why the focus is alcohol now vs red meat, processed food, environmental factors, etc?

DP here. It’s two things: the cannabis lobby and further testing by government to see how messaging works to change society. Will enough of society stop thinking critically and follow the herd if the right messaging is repeated over and over? For the last year, the answer was largely yes, but I think people are finally starting to wake up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you replace wine with hot chocolate, you will not help your sleep at all. Avoid sugar all together and don’t eat or drink anything within 5 hrs of going to bed.

This is nuts. How late do you go to bed? We eat dinner at 8 and I go to bed around 10:30. I’d be eating like an old fogey if I followed that advice.

DP. I don’t follow that advice as a rule but I go to bed at 11 and eat dinner at 5:30/6 (if it’s up to me - if it’s a restaurant dinner then later) and feel so much better when I do. I hate going to bed full.

I eat lunch at 1 so no way could I then eat dinner so early.

I have acid reflux and I was told three hours before bedtime if that also includes not laying down on the couch before bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have long known that processed meat - bacon, sausage, pepperoni, as well as red meat is a carcinogen and it has been recognized as such and due to the industry you never ever hear about avoiding it on a regular basis whereas right now, huge alcohol is the devil message everywhere.

What's your gut instinct about why the focus is alcohol now vs red meat, processed food, environmental factors, etc?

DP here. It’s two things: the cannabis lobby and further testing by government to see how messaging works to change society. Will enough of society stop thinking critically and follow the herd if the right messaging is repeated over and over? For the last year, the answer was largely yes, but I think people are finally starting to wake up.

+1 I'm really starting to buy into the conspiracy theory that the cannabis lobby is behind the recent negative messaging around alcohol. Even in DCUM you had a post immediately after the surgeon general's recommendation asking for recommendations of gummies or a THC drink to replace alcohol.