Quit Quitting Quitting Booze

21 Reasons Not To Drink Booze and Why You Shouldn’t Care

Love booze? Maybe a little too much sometimes? Learning how someone succeeded at quitting a habit can be useful, interesting, and inspirational. It can also be a counter-productive mode of procrastination, especially when quitting that habit is not your priority.

For a long time I thought I should quit booze.
I tried to quit booze.
But I liked booze.
I accepted that I wasn’t good at quitting booze.

Now I know that it just wasn’t my priority.

Until it was.
And then it was easy.

I recommend you stop reading and get back to whatever it is that is your priority.

Unless you’re Dennis.

Brian: You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals!
Followers: Yes, we’re all individuals!
Brian: You’re all different
Followers: Yes, we are all different!
Dennis: I’m not.

Binge drinking is a UK cultural tradition I grew into. My friends and I used to drink a bottle of wine each before we went out. I ordered a quintuple Baileys when all-you-can-drink was still legal in England. As a chalet girl in the French alps, we drank beers after skiing then filled up on dirty chalet wine (included in the guests’ price) before going to the bar. One of the first words many foreigners learn in Japan is nomihodai, which buys you an open bar for a set time. 2-hours is common and extendable; an all-you-can-drink, all-you-can-sing all-night private karaoke room costs about $50. Puking up the day after was symptomatic of alcohol poisoning. It was only when an American friend pointed out that it was common for UK university students to get hospitalised that I realised stomach pumping wasn’t normal.

Drinking was exciting, messy, liberating, dangerous, fun, and reckless. Taking off the edge; sometimes I couldn’t keep count of the drinks I’d had. Being honest; sometimes became violent shouting matches. Lowering inhibitions; too young I had a total lack of self-respect. Did I abuse alcohol? Did I just piss away my twenties?

The only reason I ever drank alone was because no one was with me at the time.

To prove to myself that I was in control of boozing, I challenged myself to one day of booze per week in 2018. But since ‘313-days no drinking in a year’ sounded odd, I rounded it down to 310. I saved money becoming a cheaper drunk on the one drinking day. How many drinks is a binge anyway? Three? Five? Sometimes I enjoyed fancier more expensive drinks on my day off. I carefully tracked my days of consumption and was on target to succeed…. until I landed in Poland. Home of home-made vodka, it’s part of my family heritage.

Polish Great Uncle (to my brother): You like some wine with lunch?
Mum: He can’t drink, he’s driving.
Polish Great Uncle: Wine isn’t alcohol.

I settled for about 300 booze-free days in 2018 and celebrated precious time in England with family and friends over the festive period with a fair few hangovers. With no plan for 2019, I drank how and when I wanted, but sweat compounds the pain of hangovers in tropical climates. In May I wrote…

21 Reasons Why My Life Is Better When I Don’t Consume Alcohol

1. I am better able to be aware of my self.
2. I fully experience my joy and suffering which better motivates the learning experience.
3. Money saved which I can use to service myself and others!
4. No hangovers.
5. If I create that space, maybe some weed will come my way.
6. Non-drinking Nathan, Yoshi, Cami, Jenny, Yuuki inspire me deeply.
7. Less empty calories consumed.
8. I want friends who help me be a better me, not people who think I’m faulty for not conforming.
9. Deep chats happen through experiencing shared vulnerability.
10. Less sugar consumed.
11. Helps me grow confidence in my true self.
12. Less waste created.
13. Discipline with self is attractive.
14. It’s a simple way to be different!
15. Promotes healthier alternatives for stress relief, eg. boxing.
16. Alcohol consumption is a domino to other poor choices, such as junk food.
17. I’d rather read, dance, learn, play, write, be.
18. Because I don’t know the sustainability profile of booze companies.
19. Because… I’m still too ashamed to write it publicly, 20 years later.
20. Because I’d like to lead with healthy habits.
21. Because I rock. Naturally.

Aiming for a no-booze year, I knew that a no-booze week and no-booze month came first but kept failing to reach those milestones. I quit drinking, quit quitting, quit drinking and quit quitting once again. I love a long island ice tea, home-made pina coladas I’ll sing the song out the window, champagne breakfast celebrations in style, boozy hot chocolate and hot wine at snowy Christmas markets. Returning from a mini-Christmas break in Slovenia in 2019, I quit booze, again. I decided to get the difficult bit — Christmas — out of the way first. Why wait til January to start a year? My no booze year started December 13th 2019.

And you know what?

This time it worked!
Something clicked.
Suddenly it was easy — the answer was No!

What would you like to drink?
A soda water in a champagne glass with a slice of lemon.

A sip to taste a friend’s craft beer, a not quite zero ‘alcohol-free beer’ at the cricket field one summer’s day, I made it one year no-booze by Christmas 2020 and felt no inclination to return.
Except that whisky.

You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals!

What works for one person won’t necessarily work for you. After one year without booze, the single best reason my life is better without consuming alcohol is the amount of decisions no longer filling brain space…. Will I drink today? What will I drink? How many is ok? This did not even feature on the 21 reasons I wrote and may well be what stops me from drinking again. I don’t know if I’ve given up booze permanently but it continues to feel right for now and I have high risk aversion to hangovers.

You don’t have to be all-or-nothing — unless you do.
You can quit for a year and then return — unless you can’t.

Whatever you’re priority, you’ve got to think for yourself.

Unless you’re Dennis.