Giving up alcohol

ANTONISH
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Joined: 26 Mar 2009, 9:49am

Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by ANTONISH »

briansnail wrote: 10 Jan 2023, 4:17pm Initially there were big moans but in Qatar they showed one can skip the booze. Non alcoholic booze? any good
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I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage
I had a non alcoholic bottle of Heineken after an audax a couple of years ago - it was quite refreshing.
I was driving home so it suited the purpose.
parmos
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Joined: 19 Aug 2020, 11:28am

Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by parmos »

i'm 48 and drank in all my adult years not a lot though in my late teens but got smashed more or less every weekend in my 20s & 30s now in my late 40s i'm what you call a binge drinker i work away a lot (10-12 day stints) so sometimes don't bother when i'm away as i'm either out on the bike or the gym on the nights so tend to stay off the booze but when i'm home on the weekend i'll have a skinful for most of the weekend my tolerance is very good.

i got a DVT a few year ago and stayed off the booze due out my treatment which lasted 7 months didn't bother me in the end my 1st day back drinking i had a good session and woke up for work the next day still rather refreshed :shock:
borisface
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by borisface »

parmos wrote: 9 Jun 2023, 11:38am i'm 48 and drank in all my adult years not a lot though in my late teens but got smashed more or less every weekend in my 20s & 30s now in my late 40s i'm what you call a binge drinker i work away a lot (10-12 day stints) so sometimes don't bother when i'm away as i'm either out on the bike or the gym on the nights so tend to stay off the booze but when i'm home on the weekend i'll have a skinful for most of the weekend my tolerance is very good.

i got a DVT a few year ago and stayed off the booze due out my treatment which lasted 7 months didn't bother me in the end my 1st day back drinking i had a good session and woke up for work the next day still rather refreshed :shock:
Similar story to me. Always enjoyed a drink 2-3 glasses of wine or beer most days, sometimes more, then over lockdown weight and drinking increased and I also got a DVT. I gave up drinking for the duration of my treatment which was around 18 months and lost 3 stone . Now I drink only sporadically, occasionally to excess, but balanced by plenty of alcohol-free days. Whereas before I'd drink most days with maybe 1 or 2 alcohol-free days, now that is reversed - 1 or 2 days with alcohol, 5-6 alcohol-free. Feel better for it and weight has stayed off.
briansnail
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by briansnail »

Everything in .......................moderation.
djnotts
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by djnotts »

20 years, 2 months and 1 week tomorrow. Just back from holiday in Portugal. Still difficult to resist as temp hits 30C and lots of exotic spirits on display. But I did.
Jdsk
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by Jdsk »

Well done.

Jonathan
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simonineaston
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by simonineaston »

The older I get, the more I realise I don't really like drinking alcohol.
I look back at my drinking life and have to recognize it was a mistake and mostly a waste of time, money and dignity! Stiil, on the plus side, most of the folk I shared all this with were pretty much in the same boat. And in fairness, some good laughs were had a long the way, I suppose... but by & large I wish I'd had the moral fortitiude to have said no much more frequently than I did.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
arnsider
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Location: Carnforth, Lancashire

Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by arnsider »

I'm with you on almost all of what you say. I think that because of the addictive nature of alcohol if you are not very careful, the disease becomes the cure.
The real price of a pint has soared over the years and I just could not afford to drink as regularly as I used to. I actually begrudge paying the ridiculous prices that are now the norm.
I have a circle of friends who have drank in the same quaint country pub for most of their adult lives. The landlord is not really a drinker and serves a pretty awful pint and he's utterly impervious to criticism. I don't miss the booze at all.
PH
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by PH »

I've hardly drank alcohol since lockdown, I'd already given up drinking at home some twenty years ago when it had become a bit too much of a habit, I'd still happily enjoy a drink on social occasions, though not enough to get really drunk for many years. Then COVID and the lockdowns and I don't think I drank at all for a couple of years. A couple of times since I've sipped a glass of wine with a meal, but could just as easily not and have declined a second when previously I was always up for finishing the bottle. Then a couple of weeks ago, the first time I'd set foot in a pub for a long time, couldn't finish my pint, didn't like the taste.
No bad thing and I haven't missed it, though I'm now wondering if I should make it a permeant choice.
Ginge_126
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Joined: 7 Aug 2022, 11:35am

Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by Ginge_126 »

I'm 48 now and have been drinking since my teens, I began at about 17 in earnest while in the army in the early 90's. I drank most weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun), and some week nights until I was smashed... It was encouraged and many were like it.
This carried on until I was about 21, then tailed off drastically when regular girlfriends came.

When the kids came along in early 2000's it turned to the odd few beers at home and binge drinking every now and then, this continued into the mid/late 2000's.

A couple of mates gave up, hardly any of my close family drink now.
Even a pint now disagrees with me, still I persevered though, regularly having 1 ale most evenings or 1 lge whisky. I'd wake up at 4am and remain awake. I take desmopressin for a pituitary condition, I believe this conflicts with the effects of alcohol in my body, I was both literally and metaphorically getting tired of it all.

Fast forward and I've had about 12 drinks during April and May and nothing since. I've been out with my old mates in pubs (the same from 90's), although they didn't get trollied, they were well oiled and I felt great! I enjoyed the nights being 'present' and still had a laugh. Not drinking with meals has been great, I don't wake at 4am now.

Alcohol has affected mamy family members, their quality of life and the life of those around them a good number were functioning alcoholics.

I don't want another drink and feel I'm a good place not drinking. I've deliberately carried on with social events to tackle the anxiety of not drinking, each occasion has been nothing I should have bothered about, no one has tried to egg me on and most are very supportive.

I don't push my choices about it on anyone, but will happily talk about it with enthusiasm if asked. It hasn't been a breeze to pack it up and I'll never say never. Just not today.

This group helped too. It just wasn't doing me any favours.
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Audax67
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by Audax67 »

I may have posted this already upthread but if so I've forgotten and I'm not going to peruse 18 pp to find out. Anyway...

I stopped in February 1995, a week after a dearly-loved dog died. I was already a 3rd-generation diabetic and the doc had been telling me for a few years that the meds would work far better unopposed, but like many I liked the taste and the effects too much to stop. The dog dying gave me quite an emotional kick, especially when I looked out of the window and saw her paw-prints still in the snow: I began to feel revulsion for what I was doing to my health and my life, and simply dropped alcohol from one day to the next. I've never felt inclined to drink since, and when I see others getting blotto at a club dinner or such I feel much the same as I feel when I see teenagers smoking: what a waste of life. I never say anything, though I might get a bit narky when the drinkers help themselves from my litre of fizzy water, as if I had ordered it for the table rather than just for me.

I had tried to stop drinking before, but generally to lose weight, and weight once lost I'd reward myself with a beer and off we'd go again. When Bonnie died, though, it stuck, and I'm glad.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
Rock bus
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Joined: 22 Mar 2016, 10:46pm

Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by Rock bus »

Interesting to see how this thread has developed since my original post…from other’s experiences of giving up to pub recommendations!

From my perspective, I gave it up for a couple of months and if I’m honest didn’t notice any improvements in my health or mental well being. Xmas came around so started again.

Now back where I was with regular but not excessive drinking at home and the occasional blow out with friends.

Recently put a highlights reel on my phone and was quite taken aback how nearly every good time picture involved me with a drink in my hand. Not sure if i want to give up completely but definitely want to get more mindful of my drinking
briansnail
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Joined: 1 Sep 2019, 3:07pm

Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by briansnail »

Your life....keep a diary to monitor your exact consumption and tell your mates you have a daily limit on health grounds.
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I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage
The Path Racer
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by The Path Racer »

I gave up just over two years ago after going on a very lengthy bonkers two week binge after lockdown ended (I hardly ever drank at home).
Things came to a head when my liver started to produce it's own alcohol :shock: I knew my drinking days were over. . . . and I loved pub life.
Strange but I found giving up fairly easy unlike when I gave up the fags (over 10 years ago) - which I found incredibly difficult. We don't all respond in the same way though. I'm also towards the older end so things come into sharper focus.
I hadn't ridden a bike since I was about 10 years old! Buying a bike was a great decision although I had been toying with the idea for some 10 years. I'm afraid some of the youthful car speed merchants put me off for a mighty long time. That may be the secret. When you give something up it's probably a good idea to replace it with something else, hopefully something healthy.
If you can keep it to moderate drinking then all is well and good. Unfortunately I couldn't.
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Pinhead
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Re: Giving up alcohol

Post by Pinhead »

I have never had an alcohol, gambling or any addiction problem and the strongest drugs I have taken are paracetamol, I used to smoke and gave that up over night when my first son was expected.

I do enjoy a drink, if in a hotel or don't have to drive, I will occasionally have a few, but I have never after growing up from my 20s seen it as a need, I do gamble, once a week on the lottery, I would rather have a new car every few years or give my sons money that throw it away on drink etc.

And NO I am not strong willed
AUTISTIC and proud
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