Cutting the Booze
I am quitting alcohol for a month to see what it does for my mental and physical state. But it's mostly for my brain. I've been in the doldrums mentally and some changes are in order.
I am not a heavy drinker by any means (like 4 to 5 drinks per week) but I've been doing it consistently for years. In fact I can't think of a time since before college that I've gone more than a month without a beer (my drink of choice). So, practically speaking, I don't know what it's like. I don't know what will happen, if anything.
For posterity, I will record the last time I had a drink here which was last Wednesday night, November 5th '25. So the earliest I can have another cold one is early December.
Theoretically, quitting alcohol should help with one's motivational state. It forces you to derive pleasure from, say, more productive acts. This is harder to do but ultimately should improve metal well being. That's the theory anyway. I do believe that alcohol consumption has a role to play in our culture that is not entirely destructive. So I am not against it on moral grounds. In fact, I am quite skeptical that quitting will have any positive effect on my depression at all, but we'll see.
In fact, I have a theory about what's going on here...
I actually think I have been drinking too much, despite the fact, as I said earlier, I have only been doing it moderately. The thing is, different people have different genetic makeups and therefore different abilities to metabolize alcohol. Therefore, the amount that constitutes "too much" will vary widely between individuals.
I think the trick to being able to enjoy alcohol without appreciable long term ailments is to do it rarely enough to let your body recover fully before knocking it down again. It is chronic exposure that will ultimately lead to a whole range of pathologies, only one of which you might describe as depression.
I guess you can think of your body like a sponge that can absorb a lot of shit but eventually that sponge becomes saturated and the ill effects start leaking into and effecting your body at large. The sponge needs time to flush out before being inundated with new rounds of toxins.
Anyway, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence to support this theory that I won't go into. Bottom line is, quitting alcohol can never be a bad thing, and the longer you do it the better the effects must be. I think regular drinking effects the body and perverts your motivational drive far more severely than one might think, even if the amount is considered "moderate".
I will write about the results of this experiment here on my blog.
