Sobriety startups shaking up the 12-step model

You're right when you say that the quantity is important.

The UK talks about "units" of alcohol. One unit is 10ml of pure alcohol. Drinks in the UK are labled with their Alcohol by Volume (ABV) percentage. To work out how many units are in a drink you multiply the serving size in litres by the ABV number. Current UK guidelines are no alcohol at all if you're pregnant, and less than 14 units a week with some days alcohol free and don't save up the units for a binge.

In the past wine used to be weaker and serving sizes were smaller. One unit of wine is one glass at 125ml at 8%. In the UK by law everywhere selling glass by the wine has to offer a 125ml serving. That doesn't have to be a prominent offer though, it could be a footnote to the menu. UK serving sizes tend to be 175ml (for a small) or 250ml (for a large). This means there's huge variation in the quantity that people drink when they describe "5 glasses a week".

Five glasses * 125ml * 8%ABV is 5 units.

Five glasses * 175ml * 12.5%ABV is 11 units.

Five glasses * 250ml *12.5%ABV is 15.5 units.

15 units a week isn't hugely worrying, but it's a big difference. I guess we'd want people drinking 15 units a week to unwind after work to take up some exercise or mindfulness instead.

There's some cultural variation too. When a middle class couple in the UK talk about "a glass of wine" that could mean "half a bottle", and "a few times a week" could mean "most days". I used to work in a factory and people spoke about "going for a beer" after work, and that never meant one beer, it meant a drinking session where two or three beers are drunk.

This is very interesting, but it's important to realize that it has only been since the late 1950's that alcoholism has been treated as a disease. It started with a program called PAR at the post office that evolved into EAP (Employee Assistance Program) available at most major employers today.

Prior to the 20th century it was generally safer to consume an alcoholic beverage than otherwise because, well, alcohol kills bacteria.

But modern advertising has transformed Alcohol and Pornography into something truly mutated from their initial purposes. I'm sorry, but tech industry workers are mostly to blame for this - downvote me all you want, but I drink all I want as long as it doesn't involve getting behind a wheel of a car or being around children.

I've been through the Silicon Valley "Microdosing" culture and I used marijuana pretty heavily most of my childhood & adult life. I can confidently say drinking, no matter the amount is generally a better bet societally with self-driving cars on their way soon.

Example: I was camping in the great north and drinking water straight out of the lake, I could have bought a kit to try and sanitize the water with chemicals - but shots of Everclear grain alcohol got the job done.

Hey all HNers that might be wanting to stop drinking, or have trouble staying sober even though you try!

The community in https://reddit.com/r/stopdrinking is amazing and keeps me and many others on a sober path.

I've soon been sober for a year, and I was on a very destructive path. Would never have kept at it without that sub.

Here's how it helped me:

1. In the beginning I was hurting and feeling really isolated - posting semi-regular helped me vent and people with more sobriety under their belt gave support directly.

2. When I've been to occasions (weddings, birthday parties) that include drinking, I've been able to jump into the chat and find instant support telling me to not have the first drink.

3. There's a daily check-in where you post to pledge today's sobriety. In the beginning I pledged each day.

4. I have a badge by my name that keeps track of each day I've been sober. Having to reset that to zero is more motivating than you might believe at first.

5. I now comment on other users posts, trying to keep their mood up and push them to not drink by giving them support.

Also, the community and mods are superb, kind people.

> Five glasses x 250ml x 12.5%ABV is 15.5 units.

I’ve always found it easier to visualize drink quantities relative to a standard bottle, 750ml for most wine and spirits.

So that 250ml serving is 1/3 of a bottle per glass.

I guess it depends what you define as "not ok". I mean, why is smoking 4-5 times a week not ok? Why is shooting up heroin 4-5 times a week not ok?

In the end, we're simply willfully poisoning ourselves. For some reason we, as a society, have decided that it's OK to poison ourselves with certain substances (caffeine, cigarette smoke) but not others (heroin, methamphetamines). We've made this socially acceptable. So if by "ok" you mean socially acceptable, thensure, it's ok.