I've only drank alcohol 1 day out of the last 10. Here's what's changed
Now only drinking 1 day out of 10 isn't special to people who don't regularly drink but for some reason, mostly social ones, I started drinking quite heavily in college and this became part of my life for the next 20 years. I don't really feel as though drinking regularly, almost every night for the past 20 years, has had a terribly detrimental impact on my health or financial welfare, if anything it has helped the latter because all of the business stuff I had to do was done over drinks. That's just the way the business world that I was involved in operates.
In the past couple of months though I ran into a friend of mine that I have known for years and he was sucking on a soda water at a grand opening of a new pub here. I hadn't seen this guy in a while and I had a sit down with him and he told me about how he was off the sauce now, and how his life was a lot better because of it. He says he still goes out but he only drinks non-alcoholic drinks and generally speaking, his life was a lot better because of it.
I'm not sure exactly why, but this guy's words really hit me close to home and I took it to heart. It's probably because this guy was a lot of fun in the past and was still fun to talk to sober as well and therefore I respect him. He is also a global traveler and is successful in life, likely more successful than I am.
So it was at the moment that I decided that I was going to at least try to do the same thing and here we are 10 days later (it's actually 11) and I have only had beers on one of the days in that time.
src
Now for a "normal" person, this wouldn't be much of an accomplishment but let's put this into perspective. I moved to Vietnam in February of 2020 so that puts us at just over 3 years of me living here. In that time I have never taken a string of days off drinking in excess of two days. Those couple of times that I took 2 days off was considered a great victory by me because the bar is pretty low as far as not drinking is concerned in my life. Going out for a "few" was just something that I did every day and it was my social outlet. I didn't get smashed every time I went out but there was always a chance. I didn't have hangovers every day but a lot of that has to do with the fact that after 20+ years of drinking, I have a bit of a tolerance.
So for me to go more than 10 days without drinking (not in a row) is a wild accomplishment. Let me detail cons of quitting drinking in this one and I will go into the pros later
Con number 1: Realizing what your friends are really like
This says as much about me as it does about the people I am referring to but a couple of times I went to the local pub and just drank soda water or a diet Coke or something along those lines and my friends were supportive. They weren't giving me shit for not drinking and actually were a bit proud for me to be taking something like this on. The downside was that I got bored of sitting with them very quickly.
src
I think that alcohol provides the "social lubricant" to make the mundane interesting and since I didn't have any of it in my system, I became aware of the fact that I was not at all interested in what they were talking about, perhaps I never was. The conversations in the past would make me drink faster and next thing I know, I am involved in it because I had my buzz on. Now sober, I look around and listen around and realize that none of what they are speaking about interests me in the slightest. I don't stick around very long and now realize the only reason why I was there in the past was because of the booze.
It isn't fair for me to pin this "boredom" on them because I am well aware of the fact that it could be me that is boring, rather than them.
Con number 2: There's nothing to do
I'm reminded of the song by Fleetwood Mac called "Landslide" and the lyrics go like this. "I've been afraid of changing because I've built my life around you."
They are referring to a person of course but for me anyway, my entire adult life, especially past the age of 20 has been built around drinking. I've experience an immense amount of great times because of this boozy existence and almost all of the friends I have made, and these are great friendships by the way, completely revolve around drinking. It's really the only way I know how to meet people and it has always been at the center of all the good times I have had. Therefore, now that I am trying to stay off the sauce, I don't really know what to do. I end up spending a lot of time alone which isn't that bad because I'm not terribly needy when it comes to being social. But at the same time I have basically just been avoiding everyone I know because they are all a bunch of drunks as well. I don't want to leave them behind because they are good people but I don't think I am ready to face this temptation just yet.
Con number 3: I don't really feel that much better
I've read all these stories and heard a bunch from friends of mine as well that say that "you are going to feel so much better once you stop drinking!" and unfortunately that has not really been the case with me.
src
Now these are all wonderful things that I think all of us would like to have and perhaps I haven't given it enough time to experience it but from the things on there that you can actually manage like "improved memory" and especially" improved sleep" I haven't noticed any of that. As far as sleep is concerned I find it almost impossible to accomplish without alcohol. Therefore I have taken to sleeping pills and those carry with them an adverse effect in the morning that is very similar to getting drunk the night before.
I wake up feeling pretty awful no matter what I did the night before and maybe that is because of the fact that my body is just accustomed to having some level of hangover after 20 years of drinking almost daily.
I was kind of hoping that after 3 days or so of no booze that I would be jumping out of bed, ready to take on the world and then just have so much energy throughout the day. That has not been the case at all. I am groggy all day just like I was before. Maybe it takes a lot longer than 3 days. I dunno, and at this point I am afraid to ask a profession out of fear they are going to diagnose something terrible that I would be better off not knowing about.
All in all, I think that at least attempting to curb my drinking will be beneficial to me overall but there are a lot of downsides to it as well and I will just have to try to find a way past this. This isn't necessarily a lifestyle change but from my wallet's perspective it is almost certainly a very good thing. If I keep it up maybe I'll notice some weight loss and that would be a good thing as well because I am at that age where men, basically all men, start to develop a gut of sorts and I don't think anyone wants that.
I'll detail the pros of what I have been experiencing in the past couple of weeks in the next entry.