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

It seems that there is a tendency to simply suggest that anyone who does drinks to excess sometimes is an alcoholic and therefore is a special case who cannot drink.

What I observe is that most (not only a special few) people who drink have times where they over-do it and it usually has significant negative consequences in those cases.

In my opinion people want to blame the individual because they love alcohol and don't want to admit that it could be a problem in itself.

I think there is a basic thing working against everyone who intends to moderate their alcohol consumption which is that alcohol reduces your ability to make good decisions. So on a bad day or circumstance with a reduced cognitive capacity, anyone can make a wrong decision about whether to have another drink.

So personally I think the answer is just to find other activities that are fun that don't require alcohol. Also this idea that anyone who runs into problems is an alcoholic is false and effectively stigmatizes people who decide to quit because it has the suggestion that they are an alcoholic and something is wrong with them.

If you sometimes run into problems with alcohol it's not you. It's the chemical. Don't let people try to blame you for it.

To me the answer for social lubrication is just to have some kind of structure for group activities, in other words a game. It works fine. You don't see kids walking around depressed because they couldn't go drinking with their buddies. Kids have activities and play games and have fun. There is nothing about being an adult that makes it so you can no longer have fun without alcohol.