Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?

I have always looked at alcoholism as a behavior problem. After all, the alcoholic drinks and (usually) nobody is forcing them. I have seen the destruction it causes first hand. Some say that it takes will power to not drink, but will is required to drink as well. If you cannot control what you put into your body, then you should probably be declared a danger to yourself and locked up for a while.

I agree with this. One aspect of alcohol addiction that isn't as widely known as it could be is that there are some shared opiate addiction effects, related to the body's built-in endorphin system:

> "Alcohol exerts numerous pharmacological effects through its interaction with various neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Among the latter, the endogenous opioids play a key role in the rewarding (addictive) properties of ethanol."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9040115/

Hence, being addicted to alcohol is comparable to being addicted to opiates (to some degree) and that seems to explain why withdrawal symptoms are fairly similar.

Psychologically, I think it helps one quit if you think of alcohol as comparable to laudanum use and old-school opium addiction. Junkie or alcoholic, it's not that great of a life.

Pejorative for '(North) American'

I wanted to undergo a medical treatment but it required me to stay off alcohol for the treatment duration. I wasn't sure if I could do it so I deferred it for a long time. Eventually I worked up the courage and did it for ~10 months.

I started buying 0 calorie fizzy water (Bubly) as my go-to replacement for alcohol. Opening up a can fulfilled part of my prior habit. Swapping one habit for a more healthy variant is one tip.

I was also held accountable by my doctor reviewing my monthly blood test. If I drank alcohol I assumed they would catch it. There are other people that you can ask to hold you accountable like this.

I'm not sure how to get over the self-hatred after a binge. In one respect I think it's healthy in a small dose. But if it's so large that you don't want to restart your sobriety then it's a problem.

I stopped drinking around 6 weeks ago. Due to my indolent WFH lifestyle and drinking heavily after work to "relax", I gradually developed back pain which eventually made it impossible to get to sleep.

Drinking myself into a stupor made it all to easy to sit, for hours on end, in front of a tv or computer, endlessly consuming while shirking my responsibilities to myself, not least of all exercise. I always knew that it was leading to a bad place, but it got to the point where I could not physically continue. That, and reducing inflammation were my primary motivators.

Being continuously sober for an extended period of time has revealed to me that there are likely other reasons for my misuse of alcohol, I think I've been dealing with low-level anxiety and procrastination, making it difficult to quiet my mind, go to bed on time, etc. Part of this is probably due to the effects of abruptly quitting a crutch I've leaned on for a long time, but my conscience is telling me that there's more beneath the surface which needs to be addressed.

I would say that the single biggest factor in keeping my roll going is this: I have admitted to myself that I do have a problem with alcohol, and that some people are just not capable of enjoying alcohol responsibly, and I am probably one of them.

The inner voice telling me "go on, it's normal to have one or two at the weekend, everyone does it" has been quieted, because I know that I am not one of those people who stop at one or two. And that is fine by me.