Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?

Be careful with cutting alcohol cold-turkey. Beyond a certain point it is very much a physical dependency, and as it affects the full nervous system (it passes through the blood/brain barrier quite easily) cutting it off directly can cause physical withdrawal symptoms starting with shakes and in extreme cases possibly even stroke. This is one of the reasons the rich check themselves into clinics for rehab: having medical staff around to monitor and manage any such reactions makes the process significantly safer.

At times I drank a lot. Vodka most nights, sometimes at least 250ml each night and often litres of the stuff over Fri/Sat/Sun. This was at its worse in the year or so before being diagnosed bipolar (turns out that I was self-medicating, which had worked for a while but hit a spiral that make things much worse). I cut down a fair amount after that, but was still a fairly heavy drinker.

Cut to a decade or so later, there were a number of close calls with regard to health (including a couple of heart issues) amongst friends and family, and with a history of heart issues in both sides of my family tree I decided to do something about my condition (knocking on for 18 stone, and hellish unfit). It helps that my social life had taken a turn for the better around then, and I'd decided this Dave fellow wasn't someone I didn't mind letting rot (my main pension plan to that point was to not live long enough to need a pension, hence my significant “investments” in alcohol).

As I started losing weight I deliberately cut back as alcohol==calories and sometimes it was a choice between drink and chocolate/icecream/ete, and part way through that process I started exercising partly to burn more calories (so I didn't need to cut back on consuming them as much) and partly to get what was left of me into a better shape. I discovered I enjoyed running (I'd have never guessed!) and set myself some goals. This was the point I really cut back as it sometimes became a choice of keeping to those goals or having more to drink. The fact I've reverted to eating and drinking more while recuperating over recent months (long covid, grumble grumble moan moan) might support the suggestion that I reduced those additions in favour of another!

I never cut it out completely, which might not work if what you have is a true addition rather than a dependency, or might if cutting out completely doesn't work for your social circumstances. I just don't drink often, though I can and do occasionally drink a lot in one day/night.

ADHD treatment isn’t for everyone.

Untreated ADHD is a little-known root cause for alcohol abuse.

(I am not your doctor, this is not medical advice.)

I told myself I was going to quit for 90 days. That turned into 6 months. Which turned into about 2 years now. At this point I dont get urges anymore. The first 90 days were the worst. The following 6 months were kinda bad. After a year it got a lot easier.

A HUGE help is having supportive people in your life. My wife still drinks but she was never a big drinker. My friends still drink but they are also really into doing things that drinking doesnt help, like sports where drinking doesnt really fly, or outdoor activities where drinking doesnt need to be involved.

I was pretty much drinking every night when I quit and it was my main social outing. The hardest part was retraining my brain to do things I liked without drinking. A big one for me was drinking while watching movies or tv. I could get drunk and watch shitty lifetime movies because when youre hammered enough those shits are fun. But without booze even great movies were boring for a while. It just takes time. It does get easier.

Check that book out. It helped a lot with building up enough arguments that I couldnt easily break them down when I wanted a drink.