Mark Hansen wrote:For some people, moderation is not an option. Their choices are more like quitting, or drinking yourself into an early grave. I've known a couple who chose the first option. I wish they had chosen the 2nd option instead.

Whoa, that's harsh Mark! Care to elaborate?

Mazec wrote:Quitting anything completely is never a good idea. What you need is balance.
There's got to be a yang to the yin.

No, sometimes quitting something completely is a good idea.

Mazec wrote:Quitting anything completely is never a good idea. What you need is balance.

True that. I used to beat my wife with a brick, now I just use my bare hands. It made our relationship much better.

See, you've screwed it up by going from one extreme to another. You should have gone down in stages.

First you could have used a regular rock. Then a smaller pebble-sized rock. Then maybe a sack of oranges followed by the end of a belt and eventually work towards bare hands.

Boombats wrote:

Mark Hansen wrote:For some people, moderation is not an option. Their choices are more like quitting, or drinking yourself into an early grave. I've known a couple who chose the first option. I wish they had chosen the 1st option instead.

Whoa, that's harsh Mark! Care to elaborate?

Actually, it's three:

The mother of one of the guys who was in the Chicago band Rights of the Accused, who used to help a lot with putting on shows, being supportive to the band, all around a really nice person, died of cirrhosis.

A long time friend of mine, Phil, who I had lost touch with after he moved to Florida, who had Hepatitis C aggravated by heavy drinking, died after the liver transplant he had rejected.

The last one, a dear dear friend of mine, who was like the sister I never had, who had a gradually worsening alcohol problem for a while, died after drinking too much, passing out, and choking on her own vomit. I still think about her from time to time; I get choked up everytime I do.

I also knew one person, who I used to work with, who lost his job after going to rehab a few times. I ran into him once after he lost his job; he was living in a place near me at the time, but I didn't know that until the building he was in caught fire. My apartment, a block away, was filling up with smoke a bit, I went outside and ran into him. The next time I heard about him, I saw his name in the paper. He had had to much to drink one night during the winter, passed out outside, and froze to death.

So, as I said, for some people, moderation is not an option.
The decision to not drink at all, if you can't contain it to a moderate level, can certainly save their life, if they are starting to spin out of control.

Mark H, I think your wording is a bit off in your original post....

Quitting drinking is good.
It is not always easy not to drink but it is very rewarding.
I've been dry since the start of last June.
Don't expect to not change as a person though. Some stuff will fall away, as will some people, and some stuff may become important that you never expected. Some stuff will become unimportant that you never expected.
It's an ongoing curious adventure that's worth taking, especially if alcohol means trouble for you.

Good to see you John!

Hope everything is going well.

Up until a year or so ago, I too was drinking every day - usually to excess. This went on for pretty much every year between 16-22. Then I quit drinking by moving away from everyone I know. It was incredibly hard, I deliberately moved to the most rural location imaginable to reduce the temptation of drinking. I was ill for weeks as the alcohol left my system. I started adhering to a reasonable sleep schedule and started eating properly. I drank water and went for walks. Within four months I was basically reborn.

The thing about booze is, every time you binge drink your body doesn't recover properly for days to come. Consistent abuse means you don't recover full stop. This isn't something I've been told, it's something I learned the hard way. If you don't believe me, go buy a pot plant. Every time you have a drink give the plant a taste of the same. See what happens. The same thing is happening with your body. Not to mention your brain. A lot of drinkers I know (especially in the UK) started drinking at such an early age, they have never actually known what it is to be completely sober. Their mental self-image is synonymous with alcohol. Their personality is almost entirely dictated by their addiction. I'm certainly not the person I thought I was when I was drinking every day. Not even close.

My brother has been an alcoholic for about ten years now. Every time I answer the phone late at night, it always occurs to me that he might be dead. I've been waiting for it to happen for so long it doesn't even bother me that much. He made his choice just as I made mine. It seems heartless but you can only tell someone to quit about a thousand times before you give up. Now he's just an enormous financial and emotional burden on my family.

Obviously it's up to each person to decide whether or not they want to quit. I can only say that when I was drinking, I couldn't hold down a job or a relationship for longer than five minutes. I was always broke and bounced from one emotional extreme to the other. Now I have a house, a career and I've made dramatic mental progress over the last year or so. It allowed me to properly mature and make rational, measured decisions for the first time. Another bonus is I'm actually happy.

I've not had a drop (or a fag) since new years and am at the moment enjoying not having them.
I was drinking most days and do enjoy the booze though. I've not made any commitment to quit forever but I'm not finding it that tough at the moment.

Only problem is my relationships with most of my friends revolve around drink quite a lot. I've been out once and stuck to the fizzy water but to be honest it bored the piss out of me.

My main motivation is to lose some weight as the drink was the thing that consistently tripped me up with me lack luster attempts over the last couple of years. I also kept finding myself getting into arguments/debates which I then couldn't remember the end of, the next day.

These things are definitely not good aspects of booze.