Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you?

Plus "just do anything" can lead you to the abusive profit seeking sketchy "rehab" industry, and that's probably going to leave you worse off. I think the worst offenders have been shut down recently though thanks to exposés.

Most people are able to reduce alcohol consumption to less harmful levels on their own. That's not saying you shouldn't seek help if you need it, just you may not need it. Everyone is different. If you wish to reduce your alcohol consumption don't assume you are "powerless" just because AA says you are.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irr...

>The 12 steps are so deeply ingrained in the United States that many people, including doctors and therapists, believe attending meetings, earning one’s sobriety chips, and never taking another sip of alcohol is the only way to get better. Hospitals, outpatient clinics, and rehab centers use the 12 steps as the basis for treatment. But although few people seem to realize it, there are alternatives, including prescription drugs and therapies that aim to help patients learn to drink in moderation. Unlike Alcoholics Anonymous, these methods are based on modern science and have been proved, in randomized, controlled studies, to work. For J.G., it took years of trying to “work the program,” pulling himself back onto the wagon only to fall off again, before he finally realized that Alcoholics Anonymous was not his only, or even his best, hope for recovery. But in a sense, he was lucky: many others never make that discovery at all.

>Whereas AA teaches that alcoholism is a progressive disease that follows an inevitable trajectory, data from a federally funded survey called the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions show that nearly one-fifth of those who have had alcohol dependence go on to drink at low-risk levels with no symptoms of abuse. And a recent survey of nearly 140,000 adults by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nine out of 10 heavy drinkers are not dependent on alcohol and, with the help of a medical professional’s brief intervention, can change unhealthy habits.

>AA truisms have so infiltrated our culture that many people believe heavy drinkers cannot recover before they “hit bottom.” Researchers I’ve talked with say that’s akin to offering antidepressants only to those who have attempted suicide, or prescribing insulin only after a patient has lapsed into a diabetic coma. “You might as well tell a guy who weighs 250 pounds and has untreated hypertension and cholesterol of 300, ‘Don’t exercise, keep eating fast food, and we’ll give you a triple bypass when you have a heart attack,’ ” Mark Willenbring, a psychiatrist in St. Paul and a former director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told me. He threw up his hands. “Absurd.”

>But many in AA and the rehab industry insist the 12 steps are the only answer and frown on using the prescription drugs that have been shown to help people reduce their drinking.

>People with alcohol problems also suffer from higher-than-normal rates of mental-health issues, and research has shown that treating depression and anxiety with medication can reduce drinking. But AA is not equipped to address these issues—it is a support group whose leaders lack professional training—and some meetings are more accepting than others of the idea that members may need therapy and/or medication in addition to the group’s help

Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-X2zPMB5dk

I never drank aside from a few sips in past attempts to placate people bothering me about drinking. I used to be more annoyed by people who seem to really want to know why, but I've found that simply being firm about not drinking is usually enough to get people to drop the subject. I don't usually give a reason, as that seems to be an invitation for others to harass you. I also will refuse to even sip an alcoholic beverage for the same reason.

Some people seem to take the fact that you don't drink as personally offensive, as if you are judging others for drinking. But I really don't care that much about how much you drink any more than I care about how much ketchup you put on your fries. That is, I don't care much at all unless you're using obviously too much. The view that non-drinkers are judgmental seems to be caused by a combination of psychological projection and the drinker having mixed feelings about alcohol.

If I had to give a reason, it would be something like this: I never was convinced of any benefit from drinking, but I can see many risks. The main benefit to me is that many drinkers will socially exclude non-drinkers, but I think a better solution is to avoid people who don't like non-drinkers.

The reasons I've heard from people about why they drink or want to encourage me to drink vary a lot. One that comes to mind is "I want you to be happy", which don't find convincing because I am perfectly happy and don't think drinking would improve my happiness. The people who insist that I just haven't tried the right drink are getting tiring. If you didn't like ketchup and I said that you haven't tried the right ketchup and then insisted that you try small amounts of a half dozen ketchups, that would be considered fairly weird. But it happens to non-drinkers.

Do you happen to know if rs1229984 is linked to any particular group that could make this result problematic? I noticed that the paper mentions that "There was also some evidence for a difference in years of education, and, while the size of the effect was small, this requires further investigation." That sounds like a decent-sized red flag.