June 30, 2023 at 8:57 am

People Get Real About Why They Don’t Drink Alcohol Anymore

by Matthew Gilligan

RedditAvoidAlcohol People Get Real About Why They Don’t Drink Alcohol Anymore

Everything in moderation, right?

Those are words I try to live by and that definitely pertains to drinking booze.

Sometimes it’s fun, but you gotta take it easy on that stuff and not do it consistently or else you’re gonna have some problems.

And these AskReddit users talked about why they don’t drink at all.

Take a look.

Time to quit.

“I drank every day (except when pregnant) for 15 years bc I had such bad depression & anxiety.

Quit drinking cold turkey 19 months ago and my issues I thought I couldn’t handle went away.

It’s quite humbling to realize you’ve been lying to yourself & the cause of your own problems. Best 1.5 years of my life.”

Taking it too far.

“I have control issues. Never ever threaten me with a good time, I always take it too far.

I have always h**ed how al**hol feels going down so if I was going to do it, I was going to make it worthwhile. If I wasn’t going to black out, why drink at all?

I lost enough nights to realize that maybe drinking wasn’t for me. I am still in awe of people who can just stop drinking after a few, you guys are my heroes.”

Binging.

“I am a binge drinker. I’m so jealous of normal drinkers. I’m an al**holic, so if I have a little, it is off to the races.

I work hard to abstain and avoid situations that might be too encouraging of my addiction. It sucks.I’ve done so much AA and therapy, but my brain is just broken when it comes to alcohol. Crazy thing is, it is the only thing I like to a**se.

I quit so many things after college. But al**hol is a horrible weakness for me. I have to start my day by telling myself, I’m not going to drink today. Every day. I wish I never started.

One solution for me is to offer to be the sober driver to things that are risky for me. That way, I have no choice.”

Feeling like s**t.

“I dont like feeling out of control, I get acid reflux, and I h**e being around d**nk people.”

Family history.

“History of al**holism in my family and I don’t really enjoy it.

I can tell in myself that I get addicted to stuff really easy and I don’t want al**hol being one of those addictions.”

Got sick of it.

“I drank for years and had great fun but I got sick of the hangovers, embarrassing behaviour and literally pi**ing so much of my money up the wall.

My social life’s nowhere near as fun now that I don’t drink, but my health and bank balance are way better. Totally worth it.

And I don’t miss drinking at all and find d**nk people super annoying now.

Not fun anymore.

“I simply do not enjoy it.

I find I feel worse after drinking so I just stopped.”

Simple as that.

“I don’t want to.

A) I think it tastes really gross

B) I like my own brain the way it is, and feeling fucked up is not something I enjoy

C) I grew up in a household with two alco**lic parents and that wasn’t super fun for me as a kid and definitely not something I wanted to put my kids through

D) I don’t see any upsides: Acting like a dummy, spending too much money, pointless waste of calories, potential to do damage to my body…for what?

So. I don’t wanna. It’s the simplest way to boil all that into one quick sentence.”

Lessons from Mom.

“My mom was an al**holic when I was a kid. I didn’t know it at that time however.

I thought it was normal for a mom to be gone all day long and all night long. I thought it was normal for a mom to have a massive liquor cabinet in the house that she drank out of every day. I thought it was normal for moms to sometimes have to go to jail for a night.

When I was 10 years old I noticed my mom had added a new bottle to her liquor cabinet. It was Strawberry Smirnoff, 90 proof. I thought it must be delicious since it said Strawberry on it and it had a cool red label.

I’ll never forget the moment I poured into my mouth. It literally felt like I was swallowing fire. I felt like it was burning up my insides and started gagging.

It’s been 30 years since then and I’ve never touched al**hol since. Thirty years later, I can still feel that taste of fire going down my throat.

Thank you mom for helping me become everything you were not. Thank you for preventing me from becoming just like you.”

Done with it.

“I’d either not drink at all or drink until I passed out. There was no in-between, no sensible drinking.

I could never have just one. It’s better for me to never drink al**hol at all.”

So many people are stopping drinking these days, don’t you think?