| A few years ago my friend stayed with me for two weeks and he was doing “no alcohol August” just to see how he felt, and I joined him. I realized that I felt way better most of the time. I wasn’t drinking much before that, but even one IPA with dinner would make me feel super foggy the next day and sometimes anxious. Otherwise I’m similar to you - I love the taste of beer and cocktails. So I basically said after that I’d only have a drink if I really, really wanted one. At first, maybe this was once a week. Slowly, as I got better at saying no and listening to my body and realizing I could go without and still have a good time, I started having it less and less. A few years later, I have maybe one drink every three to six months and usually will drink it so slowly that it barely has an effect. If it starts to feel like a downer, I stop drinking it - doesn’t matter that I spent the money on it. For what it’s worth I’ve found the “only when I really want it” strategy helpful for stopping other habits too - that’s how I slowly became vegetarian, for example. I think a huge part of this too is that it gets around “hating yourself when you fail”, because there isn’t really failure with this way of thinking. It’s typical to have all or nothing thinking around this kind of thing - “oh, I had one drink, now I’m off the wagon”, or “I had one pastry, might as well give up on my diet”. But there is no wagon! That’s something you make up. There’s just the choice you have in front if you. If you have alcohol one night, it doesn’t mean you failed, or got off the wagon - it just means you had alcohol one night. That has nothing to do with whether you’ll have alcohol again the next night. On a more practical alcohol specific note, I loved finding out that craft nonalcoholic beers like ones from Athletic Brewing Company, Untitled Arts, and Rescue Club are actually quite good and can hit the spot of having a beer for me! If I’m at a bar, I’ll sometimes order a seltzer with a splash of bitters if I want something that looks and tastes a little like a cocktail to avoid questions but I don’t really care about getting asked questions anymore. And then again a big aspect is the social piece - hopefully you have supportive friends who don’t care that you don’t drink. It does take some getting used to in social situations to just explain “Yeah, drinking just made me feel shitty so I slowly stopped and now I rarely drink.” Over time I’ve learned to have a lot of fun sober though - even to dance comfortably. But I’ve also learned that what my dad used to tell me back in high school is actually kind of true - that if something is only fun because you’re drinking, it’s probably not worth doing! Best of luck with your adventures! Let me know if you have any questions. |