I stopped alcohol 570 days ago using the Scott Adams reframe of "alcohol is poison". I quit because my son was abusing alcohol and I wanted to set a better example, and show him that you can still have a good time without alcohol. I definitely sleep better than I did when I would drink socially.
bn-l · 28m ago
> I quit because my son was abusing alcohol and I wanted to set a better example
This is a major motivator for me for vices in general. When you say one thing then do another you shouldn’t be surprised when you don’t get any compliance.
eawgewag · 1h ago
> I have a theory, based on many years of research and practice with Anki, that true healing from any kind of psychic illness only starts to set in place when you start to genuinely forget what it was ever like to be ill at all.
I found this line thoughtprovoking.
From 5-20 I was severely depressed. Now it's been 10 years, and I'm not depressed anymore. In fact, those years feel like a factual moment in my life, not something whose emotional state I can really recall and bring in my present life -- unlike, for example, the grief of losing any pet in my life. That still comes back with raw power.
surprisetalk · 3h ago
I'm currently ~150 weeks into 1000 Weeks Without Drinking! Highly recommended.
After reading the post: Yes, you get where I'm coming from exactly. I'm so glad there's someone else out there who recognizes the critical role of memory here, both as a catalyst and as something which needs to fall back into the soil.
matt-attack · 2h ago
I’m a casual drinker. Enjoy nice wine with a nice meal, am repulsed by beer, fix myself cocktails maybe a few times a week. Never drink to being drunk but certainly get buzzed off of two glasses of cab.
Anyone know if I have a risk of becoming an alcoholic? I’m 50 and never really started drinking until my late 20s.
What should one look out for?
eawgewag · 1h ago
Maybe try not drinking for a week and seeing what happens? It's hard to say. I think a lot of people hover in this inbetween of frequent casual drinking that for some people becomes pathological and others it's truly optional. IMO you'll know best if you attempt to choose to stop.
ndbsbsb · 1h ago
Fixing cocktails multiple times a week is a red flag.
Not wanting to be an alarmist, but if you fear about your consumption being problematic, it probably is.
Talk to AA instead of strangers online
more_corn · 3h ago
I quit five years ago. I lost track of the day count. I wish I’d quit in college or never started. I’m pretty sure every catastrophic hangover caused permanent reductions in my recall ability. I’d probably be a lot smarter if I hadn’t done myself all that damage.
collinvandyck76 · 3h ago
My story is similar to yours, and I feel what you're saying. I would just be a different person today if I had avoided it altogether. Internally I have resolved to just keep looking forward, and only very occasionally, backwards.
hiAndrewQuinn · 3h ago
I often think about the neurological damage I did, too. It would sure be nice to have those neurons back. Live and learn, though.
bn-l · 21m ago
Is this how it works though? Do become permanently less smart? I find that hard to believe.
hiAndrewQuinn · 5m ago
I suspect so. Evidence from multiple scientific and medical sources indicates a clear association between chronic alcoholism and a decline in IQ. Obviously correlation is not causation, and it's hard to argue we should do an RCT for drinking with any medical ethics board. But in the case of a small molecule neurotoxin like alcohol that so easily weaves its way into and through brain tissue, and with relatively easy-to-understand molecular interactions, it seems likely to be causal.
Alcohol and its metabolites directly harm and kill nerve cells, contributing to a reduction in brain volume. Here it's particularly important to remember that neurons, if they grow back at all, don't do so anywhere near the rate of, say, your skin cells. But it's also true that alcohol use can damage blood vessels, including in the brain. It's not hard to suspect that causes less efficient neural activity over time even if no actual neurons are killed.
dnel · 4h ago
welcome to the 4 digit club! I'm on day 1,360 and still today gaining new insights into my drinking habits and learning more about myself without it.
immibis · 4h ago
I am extremely concerned about the page behind the hyperlink "suspect I was the kind of alcoholic who gave alcohol a bad name". The logic on that page leads to giving death sentences for minor crimes, as a deterrent so there will be no crimes. And the author calls himself a libertarian...
hiAndrewQuinn · 3h ago
You have confused someone being able to convincingly walk down a certain line of logic for that person actually believing that line of logic. The author states one of many reasons right afterwards why he thinks that is a really bad idea:
>Why, though, shouldn’t we just double-down on orthodox prohibitionist remedies? Because you wind up punishing a vastly larger number of innocent people, that’s why. [...] When you ban intoxicants, you conceivably reduce abuse, but you definitely end up punishing an enormous number of innocent hobbyists - as well as the professionals who supply them.
I linked that page because, when I was an alcoholic, I was also an asshole to the people around me. I mooched off my parents, deeply worried my brothers, and refused to pull my own weight even a little bit in the household economy.
But there are plenty of people who drink alcohol who are not assholes because of it. They should not be thrown under the bus because I personally become an asshole when exposed to the substance.
os2warpman · 2h ago
>And the author calls himself a libertarian...
If libertarianism was all of the world's beaches, a thimbleful of sand would be those who actually care about liberty.
No comments yet
TimorousBestie · 3h ago
I’ve noticed that people who resort to absolutism to repair their addictions (zero carbs, zero fat, zero alcohol, no smoking cold turkey, never gambling, no sex, no fap, no porn, no credit cards, etc.) tend to think everyone would benefit from their one easy trick.
That this approach doesn’t scale seems to be lost on them.
hiAndrewQuinn · 2h ago
I've noticed people who leave comments like this tend not to actually read the links they wish to pass judgment on. If you did you'd know nowhere in my post do I claim quitting was easy.
The linked post implies that most drinkers should continue drinking, and maybe even drink more precisely because they aren't the kinds of drinkers that give alcohol a bad name. If you feel like being edgy, try taking that as your soapbox instead. Much more interesting than saying "the optimal amount of X'ing is nonzero" given a large enough group of people X'ing.
TimorousBestie · 2h ago
I understand having a knee-jerk personal reaction to this comment, but it wasn’t about you or your blog post. Both the parent comment and I are discussing the linked post, which has very little to do with your situation in any case.
Sorry for the confusion.
hiAndrewQuinn · 2h ago
But... you were wrong about the linked post, too. If you had actually read that one, you'd have realized it claims basically the exact opposite of what both you and the parent comment said.
Sorry, TB. I can't give you a magic pass on being wrong just because you are also an asshole. That wouldn't be fair to all the correct assholes out there who suffer for their art.
TimorousBestie · 2h ago
The discussion was quite civil until you took all of it personally.
hiAndrewQuinn · 1h ago
I apologize for taking you incorrectly, then. Indignation took hold of me, and I got caught up in my own interpretation of the facts. I'm sorry.
This is a major motivator for me for vices in general. When you say one thing then do another you shouldn’t be surprised when you don’t get any compliance.
I found this line thoughtprovoking.
From 5-20 I was severely depressed. Now it's been 10 years, and I'm not depressed anymore. In fact, those years feel like a factual moment in my life, not something whose emotional state I can really recall and bring in my present life -- unlike, for example, the grief of losing any pet in my life. That still comes back with raw power.
[0] https://taylor.town/1000-weekends
After reading the post: Yes, you get where I'm coming from exactly. I'm so glad there's someone else out there who recognizes the critical role of memory here, both as a catalyst and as something which needs to fall back into the soil.
Anyone know if I have a risk of becoming an alcoholic? I’m 50 and never really started drinking until my late 20s.
What should one look out for?
Not wanting to be an alarmist, but if you fear about your consumption being problematic, it probably is.
Talk to AA instead of strangers online
Alcohol and its metabolites directly harm and kill nerve cells, contributing to a reduction in brain volume. Here it's particularly important to remember that neurons, if they grow back at all, don't do so anywhere near the rate of, say, your skin cells. But it's also true that alcohol use can damage blood vessels, including in the brain. It's not hard to suspect that causes less efficient neural activity over time even if no actual neurons are killed.
>Why, though, shouldn’t we just double-down on orthodox prohibitionist remedies? Because you wind up punishing a vastly larger number of innocent people, that’s why. [...] When you ban intoxicants, you conceivably reduce abuse, but you definitely end up punishing an enormous number of innocent hobbyists - as well as the professionals who supply them.
I linked that page because, when I was an alcoholic, I was also an asshole to the people around me. I mooched off my parents, deeply worried my brothers, and refused to pull my own weight even a little bit in the household economy.
But there are plenty of people who drink alcohol who are not assholes because of it. They should not be thrown under the bus because I personally become an asshole when exposed to the substance.
If libertarianism was all of the world's beaches, a thimbleful of sand would be those who actually care about liberty.
No comments yet
That this approach doesn’t scale seems to be lost on them.
The linked post implies that most drinkers should continue drinking, and maybe even drink more precisely because they aren't the kinds of drinkers that give alcohol a bad name. If you feel like being edgy, try taking that as your soapbox instead. Much more interesting than saying "the optimal amount of X'ing is nonzero" given a large enough group of people X'ing.
Sorry for the confusion.
Sorry, TB. I can't give you a magic pass on being wrong just because you are also an asshole. That wouldn't be fair to all the correct assholes out there who suffer for their art.