I quit drinking for a year

tim-tday

Good start. I quit drinking for six years. My only regret is that I didn’t do it twenty years earlier.

fallat

Nice! I'm doing the same. 9 months in. Everything you said is on the frickin' money. Every. single. word. Canada Dry Zero is my new "thing". That "thing" by the way, is the dopamine reward.

tayo42

>went to a restaurant, I thought, “Should I have a drink?” Usually I decided not to. But making that decision required effort. Every restaurant shoves alcohol menu in your face and your always being asked if you want a drink. Idk why I felt weird just having water for so long. I think the only I miss about drinking is mostly being 20. Alcohol is a little painful now hangovers and heartburn and bloated feeling.

pton_xd

> But gradually I noticed that I didn’t really want a drink, I just wanted a thing. ... It could be alcohol, but I found dessert worked just as well. Whoa! That's not healthy at all... ;) I've found non-alcoholic beers are actually pretty tasty these days, moreso the longer its been since having a real beer. They definitely scratch the itch to "have something" while out socializing. I don't miss the alcohol at all.

anarazel

I stopped drinking a few years back, after some (unrelated) health stuff. I don't miss wine, beer, that stopped - like for the author - after a relatively short amount of time. But interestingly I still really miss the feeling of a good scotch after a long day. Not being buzzed, but the sharpness mixed with interesting tastes. My sleep has gotten so much better. I really didn't realize that alcohol didn't affect just the night after I had a drink, but even the next one or two nights..

loveparade

I haven't had a drink in 6 months or so. Not because I wanted to stop, I just have not had the desire to drink recently. Now I would love to tell you about all the amazing magical healthy benefits that have come with that, but unfortunately there are none. I feel no difference at all.

2Gkashmiri

I have been trying to ask people this but its havent gotten a satisfactory answer. Sure alcohol is ingrained in society, sure Americans tried prohibition and all that but its not gloom and doom. Muslims who are about 2 billion choose not to consume alcohol and go about their lives without it. They just do fine without it. How does that work for them? ? I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable? Isnt tobabbo going down in consumption because it is being taxed shit out of? Why can't you voluntarily try to influence your alcohol consumption by paying a "alcohol tax"? There are benefits of not consuming alcohol, there are problems associated with alcohol, and people who try to convince alcohol is good for you are generally lying to themselves.

budududuroiu

I didn't drink for 8 months in 2025, then I went to friends' weddings in Eastern Europe where it's expected to drink. After about 2 months of binging, I'm back on the no-drinking train. I think what made it stick for me this time is cycling. If I want to be up and hit the road, even one drink the night before will totally derail that, so the calculation completely shifted. Drinking is really fun, being up to no good until 7am on a bender is really fun, but I much prefer my early mornings with a coffee and cycling nowadays.

charles_f

This is inspiring, you might have convinced me to do the same, if only for the sleep part. One thing that I'd miss is the taste though, I don't drink soda or sugary drinks, and I can't think of a replacement for the taste of good wine, beer or spirits. (there's good dealcoolized beers nowadays but it feels like cheating). Not that I guess one absolutely needs it, but is still part of the culinary experience. It's probably because I never looked though, is there anything non alcoholic that "grown ups" drink?

dhruvkar

For 12 years, I did one year ON, one year OFF (2012 - 2024). On my ON years, I felt compelled to drink, every night I had at least a beer, if for no reason other than, I wanted to make the "most of it". On my OFF years, I didn't feel the need to drink, and generally slept better, lost weight and was more focused. Stopped drinking completely after that.

chrysoprace

I've found that nowadays I largely like it for the taste (which often surprises non-beer drinkers) and so I'm quite pleased that non-alcoholic options are becoming more widespread. My main wish is for non-alcoholic craft beer to become much more widespread and cheaper. In Australia alcohol is taxed at a ludicrous rate, but non-alcoholic drinks are not, however they often attract the same price - which is disappointing.

browningstreet

I remember a bar acquaintance who stopped drinking for a year. I saw him when that year was up and I asked him how it went. “I didn’t notice any changes, so I’m quitting for another year.”

littlexsparkee

I love lagers too much to give up beer but I only have 1-2 at a time, quite rarely - but doing without spirits, wine, etc is no problem. The latter I forget exist unless someone else offers me something. With n/a beer, you're not going to find less common types like helles, marzen, kellerbier so it's not a true replacement for aficionados imo.

aussieguy1234

I don't drink regularly at all, never have. This means that at most, I tend to consume no more than 1-2 drinks per year, usually if I'm curious about how a particular beverage tastes and there's no alternative drinks available to have with my meal.

not_a_bot_4sho

Don't drink. Or if you must, drink less. Who am I to tell you what to do? No one important. But I did recently discover I have colon cancer, perhaps related to my great fondness for beer. And now I'm awkwardly figuring out my final exit strategy. 0/5 stars not recommended. Oh, and schedule that colonoscopy you've been putting off. Better to catch it early when more treatment options are on the table.

HerbManic

Maybe it is just me but I had never had any major issues in regulating consumption of stuff like this? Alcohol is all well a good but it never became a habit or diet if you will. Even when I found out I had a dairy allergy, dropping all milks/cheese and whatnot was just a case of remembering to do it, no lasting desire for it. But Caffeine... oh man that is a tough one.

iuffxguy

It is very common for people who quit drinking to then develop sugar addictions.

zeroq

It's easy to stop drinking when you do it socially. There are many people who would consciously love to stop drinking but can't find alternative to stop the storm in their heads. This could be caused by many things, from trauma to ADHD. The best quote I heard about addiction is: "I only have control over my first drink". The worst part is that alcohol and drugs have a strong stigma, but for people who are suffering anything that can turn their mind off is viable, gambling, binge watching tv or playing video games. The latter are often overlooked and ignored by relatives.

bkjelden

Interesting, over the last 18 months or so I've dabbled with both quitting/aggressively cutting back on drinking as well as aggressively cutting back on sweets (some periods where I've been super dedicated and others where I'm not). Counter to OP's experience, I've actually found sweets to be more impactful than alcohol. That is to say eating dessert after dinner will impact my sleep more than a drink or two, and the periods where I lost weight have been more closely correlated with the periods where I was eating very few sweets. Of course with both, the delta between low/moderate consumption and a baseline of zero consumption is low - it's the excessive consumption that causes trouble. Like OP I found the daily ritual to be pretty easy after a couple weeks, but like OP I also missed the social aspect (and this is why I've sort of settled on the opinion that giving up drinking completely is not worth it, at least for me). If I felt like I was experiencing a step function improvement in life quality I'd keep it up... but for me it just hasn't been the silver bullet it's made out to be. I'm not really one to label one food ingredient as the cause of all health problems, but if I had to choose one I would choose refined sugar long before alcohol.

friggeri

I stopped drinking 8 or 9 years ago, and I haven’t missed it. Not that it ever was a problem, I enjoyed a glass of wine or a cocktail every now and then, but I was training for an ultra marathon and figured I’d stay dry while I trained for a couple of months. Had a glass of wine a few days after the race and felt completely hammered, at which point I realized if I wanted to drink again I’d have to “train” my body for it, and thought that was totally backwards. I haven’t found any situation where an alcoholic drink can’t be replaced by a glass of water, an NA beer or a mocktail. I’m also very lucky to be married to a wonderful woman who arrived to more or less the same conclusion and we enjoy being the boring ones who don’t drink (but never get a hangover).