Ask HN: What are your tips to reduce drinking alcohol?

You take an opioid antagonist, like naltrexone, 1 hour prior to drinking. Since drinking produces endorphins, which are blocked by the antagonist, the brain stops associating drinking with pleasure, which results in a lower desire to drink.

The downside being that if you drink without the antagonist, your brain returns to its old patterns.

Anecdotally, my personal experience was after trying the method was that I no longer wanted to drink, and when I did, with or without the naltrexone, my problematic drinking behaviors mostly went away. I mostly abstain now.

I know people who drink three drinks and they are gone. I also know people who drink 6 drinks a day, don't black out, get home safe and are fully(seemingly, not sure) functional and productive the next day.

Reducing to 'normal' or some level has to be backed up by meaning i think. And that meaning of normal is what I am trying to discover.

Do not keep alcohol in your house - inconvenience is a friend of sobriety.

Remember the old saw about alcoholism : first you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink. A little bit of a runaway process may not be in your control.

OP does not mention dependence issues, his drinking is not even habitual and the effects on his social life or personal health are minor. All the advice about 12 step programs, lifestyle changes with exercising and teetotaling is going overboard b/c that is clearly not what OP asked about.

Op wanted tips on how to drink "sustainably", I find that drinking light alcoholic beverages is harder to control than hard liquor both for physical and social reasons (more social pressure to drink "light drinks", more stigma on "liquor")