I Quit Booze for A Month
This is a followup to my original post on the topic of quitting booze.. I said I would post a follow up post, so here it is.
Anyway… on to the subject at hand…
It is now December 6th. I haven’t had a drink since November 5th, so it has been a month.
What do I have to report?
Welp, sorry to say, I am underwhelmed about the positive effects but I’m still glad I did it because I learned something.
In my original post I expressed hope that quitting would help with some very personal mental health issues I have been navigating. Did it help with that? Maybe. Not sure.
And how about physical health?
The results in this category were more definitively positive. While it wasn’t some sort of magical cure for feeling unwell on occasion. Headaches from focusing too much on my computer without taking breaks, for example, was still a thing. This is obvious. There are many ways you can abuse your body other than alcohol but eliminating it from my life entirely definitely did lead to less time feeling low. And for this reason alone, perhaps it is worth quitting.
Another thing I will mention, anecdotally, is the effect it seemingly had on my morning inspiration. I’ve often mentioned that my inspiration arises in the morning. It’s typically when ideas spring up. With the clear mind of abstinence, this seemed to happen more often. Another good reason to quit.
Was it hard?
Well, there were several occasions where we were out at a restaurant and my wife ordered a beer and the urge to have a drink was noticeable but easy to resist. In fact, I appreciated having a larger calorie budget for the food where I could actually finish my meal without a debilitating blood sugar spike. And do I even need to mention the cost savings?
Overall, quitting required very little will power. It was easy.
Sleep
I think sleep was a little bit improved but I can't say with certainty that it was significant. But I have had issues with getting a full night's sleep for a long time and quitting alcohol was no silver bullet in this regard. It's hard to argue however that sleep is not effected at all on nights after having one too many. And eliminating that would obviously improve sleep health.
Gut Biom
This one is kind of funny. Starting after about a week and a half of zero beer, I started noticing a change in the 'ol digestive system. I'll just say it. Farts. Lots of 'em. Beer contains all kinds of goodies that the gut biom thrives on. And when regular delivery ceased, there must have been some kind of major disruption down there because the effects were noticeable. It went away toward end of the month.
What did I miss?
I definitely missed the buzz. That seems to be the entire reason for drinking in the first place. I miss that magical moment when the buzz hits and your mind is quiet. All the depression and anxiety is gone. If only for a moment, the buzz brings happiness. I do actually like the taste of a good IPA, but let’s not fool ourselves, I’m drinking it for the buzz. That is what I miss.
If you need booze to feel a moment of happiness, there are probably deeper problems you need to deal with, and quitting alcohol is just one thing on a whole laundry list of pathologies.
Conclusion
Bottom line… my suggestion. Assuming you don’t have a history of alcoholism or something (a topic I will not be getting into), quit but don’t identify with quitting. And don’t expect it to fix you. Remain open to having a drink on occasion and enjoying a lack of inhibition with the people around you. Alcohol is Lindy. It has remained a cultural fixture over the centuries for a reason. It quiets the critical mind and opens you up, if only for a brief window, to experiences your mind wouldn’t otherwise have been open to. And this is its role in culture. Other substances can achieve the same effect, and I don’t have any grand theories why booze is our culture’s drug of choice other than perhaps its built-in rate limiting (where you feel like shit in the morning and inevitably vow never to drink again). In the end, the result of this experiment is unsatisfying in that the truth always lands somewhere in the middle and can be summed up with a cliche. Practice moderation.
