The habit of drinking may be harder the break than the need for the buzz of alcohol. Try weaning yourself off the drink first and the act of drinking second. Meaning try to not have an alcoholic beverage, while still having A beverage at the same places, with the same people. Leave out the last ones first then only take every second one with alcohol, then only drink non-alcoholic. You can break the habit of needing a drink in hand later.
Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
341–350 of 600 posts
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#342I've found it easy to stop a great deal of such behaviors by examining not what they promise to deliver, but what they actually brought. I.e. don't look forward, look backward when making decisions. Alcohol promises a great time. Alcohol delivers a hangover and regrets. Junk food promises a great time. Junk food delivers poor health and regrets. Going to the gym promises hardship and struggle. It delivers health. I'v…
>Alcohol promises a great time. Alcohol delivers a hangover and regrets. The level of simplicity being applied here suggests to me you've never been an alcoholic nor spent much time with alcoholics. This advice is at the same level of "just think positively" when addressing depression; it's almost laughably out of touch and unhelpful. It's great that you find it easy to exhibit such control over your behaviors, but i…
I've quit addictions.
It's important to understand that resolve is something you need to practice, it's like a muscle. Every time you give in to a temptation, your resolve weakens. Every time you resist, it gets stronger.
Practicing like this quite literally rewires your brain. Strengthens the ability of the amygdala to regulate behavior. If you give in to every impulse, you teach your brain to exercise less impulse control.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#343Magic Mushrooms during an Amsterdam visit. I was drinking heavily, half a liter whiskey per evening every day for a few years. I also didnt think couldnt stop, the urge to drink, and the inability to stop once i started seemed to be just too strong. And that despite me despising how stupid i got while drunk. It really wasnt a fun addiction and realistically i was on my way to drink myself to death. After the trip the…
This is an interesting approach that seems to (finally) be getting more attention from a research perspective as well. When you mention mushrooms during an Amsterdam visit, it makes it sound like it was a one time experience. Is that correct? Have you been regularly taking mushrooms during that 4 year period? Or did you simply never need to drink after one mushroom dose? If it's the latter...that is truly remarkable…
I know plenty of people, myself included, with similar anecdotes. For me it was LSD.
I've been sober for five years, starting the year I was finishing at university. At this point, I was taking prescription stimulants, smoking weed, and drinking every single day, and never had a moment sober. It had been that way my entire university experience, and I was slowly exiled from every social circle I attempted to join, and had various near scrapes with devastating consequences, but nothing stuck.
The summer before my final semester, I took LSD with my girlfriend. It was during that trip when I realized I needed to stop, or I was going to continue to be miserable. It took about another three or four months for me to realize the thought I had was the truth, but I quit, and have not relapsed in over five years now. That also means I haven't taken acid since that trip. I don't think I'd need to in order to stay sober now, it has just become the way I live my life.
I wound up getting heavily involved in 12-step recovery programs, which I admit, are not for everyone, but saved my skin, and gave me a group of sober people to call and add to my social network. I still go to meetings, but I think my experience with LSD made me realize that was the path I needed to take.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#344I stopped drinking because when I was a teen, I was into hardcore music a lot. And one of my favorite bands was Earth Crisis that preached straight edge lifestyle. That was how I quit drinking.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you actually had problems with addiction? This sounds like someone who just liked drinking once in a while, and then decided not to. Actual addiction is much more pernicious, your long-term reasoning faculties are suspended and short-term takes over. "I know this hurts me long term, but one drink isn't that big a deal". I wish addiction could be kicked with "I thought about it and decided it wasn't good for me,…
I've quit a multi-year smoking habit. I'm not saying it is easy, but re-programming your thinking by interrogating your assumptions is very much possible (and essentially the core mechanic in cognitive behavioral therapy). It's also important to note that if I examine how you think, that basically does nothing. You need to do it yourself, earnestly, if it's to have an effect.
Hmm, I think there's more to it than you mention, then. It sounded in the first comment a bit like "I thought about it and I quit", but I guess there's more intention/reflection (and more often) than that?
Can you go into the details a bit more? It sounds interesting.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#346I've found it easy to stop a great deal of such behaviors by examining not what they promise to deliver, but what they actually brought. I.e. don't look forward, look backward when making decisions. Alcohol promises a great time. Alcohol delivers a hangover and regrets. Junk food promises a great time. Junk food delivers poor health and regrets. Going to the gym promises hardship and struggle. It delivers health. I'v…
>Alcohol promises a great time. Alcohol delivers a hangover and regrets. The level of simplicity being applied here suggests to me you've never been an alcoholic nor spent much time with alcoholics. This advice is at the same level of "just think positively" when addressing depression; it's almost laughably out of touch and unhelpful. It's great that you find it easy to exhibit such control over your behaviors, but i…
what the comment describes is actually a central point of the "Easy Way" book mentioned many other places in this thread.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#347I do as Kant: do only as you would if you had to do it continuously and perpetually.
Would you drink water continuously and perpetually? Would you drink whiskey continuously and perpetually? There’s your answer.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#348I'm not an alcoholic or even close to it. Why would I stop drinking alcohol?
This is a you problem, why is this relevant to HN?
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#349The Sinclair Method (TSM), 78% success rate.
Re: Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?
#350I stopped attending afterwork drinks. Horrible culture here in the UK