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..
Have you tried loose leaf green tea? Fermented and aged tea like pu'er has very complex flavors. The caffeine content can be quite low so its safe to drink in the evening. Found it to be even more fun and interesting than tasting e.g. wine.
I’ve stopped drinking several times for longer stretches and I can feel a difference after a couple months in overall energy levels and sleep. It seems to have some pretty long tail effects that are subtle, but noticeable. If anyone hasn’t tried cutting it out for 3+ months, I would recommend running a little experiment.
My bloodwork improved a lot as well. I had actually completely forgot I stopped drinking when I had it done, so when the doctor asked what I did to see such an improvement, I had no idea. I had gained weight during this period as well, so the alcohol had a bigger negative impact than the weight… though neither is ideal.
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.
How/what are you basing your "sweets/desert impacts my sleep more than a drink or two" on?
I was waking up an hour or more before the alarm (so waking up <=6AM with 7AM alarm). And I thought my sleep was good - after all Fitbit sleep score was 80-85.
Then after stopping alcohol I started sleeping longer. Specifically waking up later, at least for the first few weeks.
Seemingly alcohol was causing earlier waking due to spiking cortisol too early.
While waking-up time took a few weeks to recalibrate. Already 2-3 days after stopping alcohol - Fitbit was showing clear improvements in actual sleep quality metrics - HRV was increasing and RHR/BR were decreasing.
And now my "bad nights" have Fitbit sleep score of ~85, and it's regularly 90+.
Lab results are night and day - e.g. CRP was 20 (>5 signals inflammation), just few weeks after stopping alcohol it was ~10 while I was having cold/fever, and now it's <1.
The biggest/hardest problem for me was that after stopping alcohol, my sweets intake increased, especially in the evening. I was doing almost no carbs during the day, and then in the evening ... I guess brain was lacking some easy dopamine that it would previously get from alcohol... I would crave sweets, ice cream ...etc.
It took almost 3 months to be able to stick with strict keto diet. I'm finally doing <=20 gram of carbs because from past experience - any higher and I have a hard time limiting carbs to say just 50 (which would still be low carb/keto).
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.
Haha! I'm ~4 years 'sober' and I can say the same!
However I have a rather large confound: Kids.
I'm sure that if I was drinking regularly still that I would feel much worse than I do today. But the effects of children are powerful enough to my system that they overrule any positive effects of this forced sobriety.
(To be clear: I'll have a drink every blue moon or so, but it's quite rare I get enough time off to enjoy anything like a buzz these days)
When I stopped drinking I almost immediately lost like 15 lbs. It just fell off without doing anything else different over a few weeks. It was just the extra calories from both the drinks themselves and the snacks I would usually eat with or after drinks. It stayed off too.
Based from my experience, stopping drinking didn't have noticeable effects as well. However, whenever I would drink once in a blue moon socially, it feels even worse than what I remember. I think it just felt normal before.
But I bet whenever (if?) you do have a beer or two again, you’ll notice how it affects your sleep and probably just makes you feel kinda meh.
I say that as an occasional drinker. Some of my family loves to drink, nearly every evening. But I join them occasionally and just feel kinda bloated and bad, especially if it’s been a few weeks. Makes it harder to make other healthy choices
But yeah love the taste of beer so it is all about tradeoffs!
Tbf, if you're not drinking much (eg only once per week or month) a moderate amount - so not enough to get drunk... Then your body is able to handle that.
Statistically you're still more likely to get cancer etc, but that's still a pretty low likelihood, hence... Complete abstinence may be healthiest, but is also unnecessary.
That's kind of what I did. I initially stopped for a month for some health reasons. That became another month. And another one. And now it's a bit more than 4 years.
The interesting thing is, when I quit smoking (almost 20 years ago), I knew I must never touch a cigarette again. I think with alcohol, I could have some wine or beer occassionaly, I just don't feel the need for it anymore.
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.
To me it's the opposite: I can go weeks without drinking. The moment there's a social event, I feel the urge to drink. It's like I can't enjoy it without alcohol. I've been trying to figure out why this happens, but I haven't had the strength to try and not drink in one a social gathering.
For me it is social anxiety / being on edge around more than 4-5 people (apply from 1 person upwards if they are strangers) and having sensory overload because it is a bar / pub / whatever.
A lifetime of masking leaves its mark on a nervous system, i.e.
And alcohol down regulates / takes the edge off
You might look into neurodiversity / trauma in your life (if you haven't done so already)
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.
I looked up the risk factors for Colorectal cancer and it is influenced by various lifestyle and genetic factors, including: Diet (high in red and processed meats), Obesity, Smoking, and Lack of physical activity.
In my mid 30s (I'm older now) I got breast cancer I drank so much, which was after I got pancreatitis because I'm too fucking stupid to learn my lesson. I am a biological male now one nipple shy of a set.
Oh and a DUI. Sleeping in a running car. I’m a jackass and an idiot.
I'm done drinking. Ideally my feet will be less numb and painful, my shoulder might stop hurting, the outer two fingers on my left hand might become un-numb, might even gain some weight.
My family is a bunch of alcoholics, "functional" if you believe in that sort of thing. I realized if nothing else, I need to break that cycle for my kids.
I'm so sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. I was (and am) terrified that I took ~20 years off my life up to this point, and it could be over any year now.
Alcoholism is no joke. I just wrote up a 17k letter to myself (with my spouse as the audience, not sure I'll ever show her, she hates me right now) about how I got to where I am. Reading it back and editing it has had me bawling for hours. I can't believe this thread popped up.
On a related note, “sequential analysis” is the keyword in stats for experimental designs that allow for stopping the experiment early in the face of clear results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_analysis#
Consistency is king I suppose. I was just thinking this morning about how if every drink I had at a bar over the last 20 years had gone into the stock market I’d probably be a million dollars richer. I was putting nothing into the stock market in my twenties because I “couldn’t afford it” but somehow I could afford to go out and spend a hundred bucks a night on booze.
Then there’s the hangovers, pretty sure every bad hangover made me permanently stupider.
If I could go back in time and kick myself I would.
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.
One thing that annoys me is that non-alcoholic beer is subject to age checks in the US. I assume it's because the programmers didn't create a separate group for them, so they ring up with the rest of the liquor, triggering a check? Maybe there's a good reason ('coz that's not one).
I bought hops-flavored sparkling water from a grocery store's beer cooler on a lark and, despite my attempt to explain the logic to the poor cashier, we both bent to the whims of the computer system and scanned my ID to complete the purchase.
There are other drinks that have trace amounts of alcohol, such as kombucha which is regulated to stay under the 0.5% threshold. Fruit juices will also likely contain upwards of the same amount, depending on how much they're processed.
Coming from a family of alcoholics (half of my aunts and uncles, my father, and my sister), I have seen the social and physical damage that alcohol does. My father was a role model to me of what not to become. I do drink, but nothing stronger than wine, and not very often.
It may have been easy for the author to quit, but it's a different story for the people who are addicted. The ones who are trying to quit are at least aware that they've got a problem. Many never even make it that far.
> I did find not drinking to have one clear downside: It’s just not that much fun to hang out with people who are drinking if you are not drinking yours
This is the big one. Alcohol is the lubricant that makes many social activities function, for better or worse. I've reduced my alcohol intake to 2 drinks per session with about a drink per hour intake rate (slower as ABV increases). One big plus to doing this is that staying out super late isn't nearly as appealing.
Regardless, this article reads like the year I quit drinking caffineated coffee. A roaster here in Houston had an award winning decaf bean that was incredible enough for me to make that decision on the spot. It turns out that they won the WBC on that bean for a reason! It is outstandingly hard to get a good decaf pourover, assuming that the shop even does that. Most times, you're stuck with old espresso or nothing, more often than not.
I've introduced it back into my diet but have decaf days throughout the week so that caffeiene continues to "work" when I need it.
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?
Second coffee and tea. I'm nearing a year and have enjoyed tasting and learning about origins and processing methods of tea in a similar way one might for do craft beer. Just as fulfilling with less downside.
Also, I wouldn't consider NA beer cheating! For me, the ritual of social drinking was just as important as the taste. Drinking good NA beers with friends is a 95% solution.
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.
> 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.
I do two weeks dry a quarter (versus dry January, which became silly once I moved to a ski town). My otherwise non-existent sweet tooth revs into first gear in the second week.
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).
Heavy drinker from 20 to 40 now after some dry January years I only drink a beer or a couple of wine glass in the weekends (no exception) my overall energy and sleep increased by an order of magnitude. I will quit as a target next year. After quit smoking one of my best health decision so far
I stopped mostly after Claude Code.
1. Too many interesting things to do
2. I asked it to rate my diet and maintain a streak - which now I don’t want to lose
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.
This comments section is bizarre in general. Very few comments from people who don't seem to have an issue with control over their alcohol consumption where they can enjoy a glass without it becoming a problem.
Naturally it's good that people who do have a problem can recognize it and stop it from affecting their life, but I feel like there has to be more people who are perfectly OK with irregular consumption of light amounts of alcohol as part of a social activity.
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.
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.
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.
I quit for 9 years and went back to drinking. I do it once every few months now, just to have a beer or three with old friends. But I didn't get dragged back in, in fact, it's been 2 months since I drank again. Just had to learn to live my life without it.
Just quit it and stop counting the years. You won't miss it after the first two years of abstinence. I don't miss it. I get joy from music and a bit of outdoor running instead. And avoid alcoholics.
Life is short, do drugs. I quit all substances for three months, didn't do jack shit. I'm planning to see a psychiatrist in autumn for my chronic exhaustion and sleep problems, and just in case I get prescribed something that doesn't combine with substances, this summer I'm binging on weed and acid because fuck being sober.
> It seems like it should be possible to reproduce this effect without alcohol.
It's a skill you have to train. Usually when you have one person in a group who sets the mood, and the rest see that person as a leader, they will follow. Observe how drunk people behave and replicate this whenever you meet your friends. I'm mostly friends with my coworkers so during lunch we talk about fun stuff while two tables over the CEO is giving a lecture about AI.
> If anyone gives me chocolate, I immediately eat all of it and then text the giver, “Thanks for the chocolate, I ate it instead of dinner, it’s all gone, this is what will always happen if you give me chocolate.”
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.
These aren't great "well formed" questions, maybe work on sharpening them up.
> I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?
Well, there are many societies across the planet and as a general rule their behaviours and norms are not predicated upon your personal choices and decisions.
eg: Australian society is largely indifferent to the fact that my father, a decorated service veteran, is and has been a lifelong teetotaller for 90 years.
> Isn't tobacco usage going down in consumption because it is being taxed shit out of?
Yes / no / not really - it's more complex than that. The Australian experience is that public health education policy promoting health, the downsides of tobacco, and requiring cigarette packs to display graphic images of diseased organs coupled with increased tobacco consumption taxes worked together to reduce tobacco use ... But ..
eventually, as tobacco taxes continued to increase (probably a bad idea IMHO) the incentives for criminal sidestepping and black market tobacco increased and Australia now has a new class of criminals that are considerably more violent than before. Hand in hand with that vaping has somehow sidestepped being associated with ciggies, and younger people are back to seeing these 'forbidden' things as desirable.
> Why can't you voluntarily try to influence your alcohol consumption by paying a "alcohol tax"?
Assuming by "you" you mean a country influencing it's population, I guess?
There are alcohol taxes in many countries, also penalties for drink driving, business restrictions on being drunk at work, etc.
Australians as a whole consume less alcohol than many non Australians imagine - sure there are people that drink a lot, but not as many (per capita) as once were, nor as much volume wise per person as they used to, and they do enjoy playing up myths about Australia.
The Muslim world has plenty of alcohol drinking. On one hand you have countries that are majority Muslim but alcohol is legally sold and widely consumed, like the Balkans, Central Asia or parts of West Africa. On the other hand you have countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran where illegal homebrewing and distribution (of often very foul stuff) is rife but society does a very good job of keeping it under wraps.
A lot of states do tax alcohol. Alcohol is dropping in popularity, but I think that is mostly due to legalized Marijuana and THC. Actually, there are more DUI for THC now than Alcohol.
People have been drinking for thousands of years, and all that time there have been people who think its a bad idea.
For me personally I can't drink successfully, so I quit entirely about 17 years ago. The only thing I really miss is the occasional drink with co-workers, especially at long dinners. A long dinner at a restaurant - sober - with co-workers who are all drinking is a special kind of hell.
note that many (most?) THC DUIs have very little evidence. thc stays in your system for at least a month, so it's very hard to tell how many of these are actual DUIs vs cops deciding to pull over a (usually black) person and make up some signs to justify an arrest+drug test
> so it's very hard to tell how many of these are actual DUIs vs cops deciding to pull over a (usually black)
It's easier if you look at (say) Australian road traffic enforcement statistics; they have different rules than the US, have the "right" to check for DUI without having to make up a reason, and operate by funnelled road blocks that check everybody (or every second car, etc, depending on flow rates and breath check speeds).
They also 'verify' in the sense that any driver can challenge and get a "better than road side" test back at the station under supervision (blood tests with saved samples for court challenges, etc).
> They also 'verify' in the sense that any driver can challenge and get a "better than road side" test back at the station under supervision (blood tests with saved samples for court challenges, etc).
DUI (in Australia) refers to "Driving under influence" and focuses on threshold detection rather than degree of impairment (although relying upon other studies that allege to correlate the two).
In the case of drug impairment, "better than roadside swabs" evidence for court challenges includes samples of urine, breath, hair, saliva or sweat.
Blood samples, rather than breath tests, are typically for alcohol.
Independent of roadside pass / fail on swabs for drug / alcohol levels Australian RTA can still ask drivers to complete an impairment test; assessing balance, coordination, and overall behaviour.
On challenge, this is something that can also be further assessed for court evidence; eg: are their perceptions of impairment because (various) medical conditions that cause slurred words, etc.
> sure Americans tried prohibition and all that but its not gloom and doom
> Why can't you voluntarily try to influence your alcohol consumption by paying a "alcohol tax"?
Gujarat in India is a dry state. UP has an alcohol tax of 69%. Hasn't stopped people at all, in fact such rules have backfired - loopholes, alcohol tourism, illicit production causing all sorts of havoc.
> I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?
Neither have I. But the problem lies exactly where you're heading. I've had a ton more pressure to drink in India where teetotalism is considered ideal, than in the western world where drinking is considered a lot more acceptable. Funnily enough, the more "taboo" or "socially less acceptable" something is, the more the people who partake also force you to do it.
> I have been trying to ask people this but its havent gotten a satisfactory answer.
> I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?
I’m not sure it will be possible for you to receive an answer that would satisfy, given that latter statement.
I’ll say as someone that rarely drinks for the past 15 years that I enjoy two things about it: the flavor (I like beers, wine, scotch, bourbon, gin, tequila and various liqueurs) and the sense of profundity you get when slightly inebriated: conversations with friends, live music, many things become enhanced.
Of course it’s only an altered state of perception but all of life is perception, so it’s no less real than any other mental state.
However it comes with a lot of downsides and many people get taken in way too far by it, to the point that what little enjoyment it might have given them at one time is long gone.
I simply couldn’t deal with the slightest hangover any more, I’d have things I’d want to do after getting home from a party or dinner with wine, or the next morning, and wanted a clear head. So I stopped.
Now, on the rare occasion I want a beer, about 50% of the time it’s a nonalcoholic one, which still has a small amount of alcohol, and I still feel slightly inebriated. Or if I have a real beer and want another to sip on, I’ll follow it up with nonalcoholic ones.
Muslims drink like camels. Many Christian denominations don't drink either (I had never been anywhere near an alcoholic drink until adulthood!) but there are always going to be plenty of people in the congregation who quietly partake in a few drinks at home.
Many Muslims drink anyway. A lot of those in Iran brew wine/beer in their house.
Tobacco in Australia has been taxed to the point we have a huge black market for it now. You would have thought people would have learnt from prohibition.
Is it really fair to say that Muslim society is "doing just fine?"
Like what amount of reasonable people from a moderately developed non-muslim country would ever want to live in a Muslim country?
Are people that come to western nations from Muslim countries able to succeed and function as well as people from other, even worse off countries?
Wikipedia offers a list of counties by alcohol consumption. Given the opportunity to roll the dice for a new home would you rather the list of choices be made from the Top 50 or the Bottom 50?
> What amount of reasonable people from a moderately developed non-muslim country would ever want to live in a Muslim country?
UAE and Oman famously have massive expat populations, many of whom rate development and quality of life higher than their "moderately developed [or more]" home country.
We pay extra tax on alcohol. It doesn't matter. People pay it and consume. Same with gasoline. Doesn't seem to matter how expensive it gets. Rate of complaining goes up, but road trips continue.
Alcohol is especially harmful for some people, but for others it almost always leads to a more enjoyable experience. I don't think those people would try to say it's good for them but they will say they like it, it's important to their social life, and it's no worse than junk food.
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..
Have you tried loose leaf green tea? Fermented and aged tea like pu'er has very complex flavors. The caffeine content can be quite low so its safe to drink in the evening. Found it to be even more fun and interesting than tasting e.g. wine.
and for even lower caffeine content one could try hojicha (high temperature roasted bancha or sencha), higher grades have interesting taste.
I’ve stopped drinking several times for longer stretches and I can feel a difference after a couple months in overall energy levels and sleep. It seems to have some pretty long tail effects that are subtle, but noticeable. If anyone hasn’t tried cutting it out for 3+ months, I would recommend running a little experiment.
My bloodwork improved a lot as well. I had actually completely forgot I stopped drinking when I had it done, so when the doctor asked what I did to see such an improvement, I had no idea. I had gained weight during this period as well, so the alcohol had a bigger negative impact than the weight… though neither is ideal.
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.
How/what are you basing your "sweets/desert impacts my sleep more than a drink or two" on?
I was waking up an hour or more before the alarm (so waking up <=6AM with 7AM alarm). And I thought my sleep was good - after all Fitbit sleep score was 80-85.
Then after stopping alcohol I started sleeping longer. Specifically waking up later, at least for the first few weeks.
Seemingly alcohol was causing earlier waking due to spiking cortisol too early.
While waking-up time took a few weeks to recalibrate. Already 2-3 days after stopping alcohol - Fitbit was showing clear improvements in actual sleep quality metrics - HRV was increasing and RHR/BR were decreasing.
And now my "bad nights" have Fitbit sleep score of ~85, and it's regularly 90+.
Lab results are night and day - e.g. CRP was 20 (>5 signals inflammation), just few weeks after stopping alcohol it was ~10 while I was having cold/fever, and now it's <1.
The biggest/hardest problem for me was that after stopping alcohol, my sweets intake increased, especially in the evening. I was doing almost no carbs during the day, and then in the evening ... I guess brain was lacking some easy dopamine that it would previously get from alcohol... I would crave sweets, ice cream ...etc.
It took almost 3 months to be able to stick with strict keto diet. I'm finally doing <=20 gram of carbs because from past experience - any higher and I have a hard time limiting carbs to say just 50 (which would still be low carb/keto).
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.
Haha! I'm ~4 years 'sober' and I can say the same!
However I have a rather large confound: Kids.
I'm sure that if I was drinking regularly still that I would feel much worse than I do today. But the effects of children are powerful enough to my system that they overrule any positive effects of this forced sobriety.
(To be clear: I'll have a drink every blue moon or so, but it's quite rare I get enough time off to enjoy anything like a buzz these days)
When I stopped drinking I almost immediately lost like 15 lbs. It just fell off without doing anything else different over a few weeks. It was just the extra calories from both the drinks themselves and the snacks I would usually eat with or after drinks. It stayed off too.
Based from my experience, stopping drinking didn't have noticeable effects as well. However, whenever I would drink once in a blue moon socially, it feels even worse than what I remember. I think it just felt normal before.
Yeah, I did the same for roughly 6 months and I don't think that I felt better .. I just never felt SHIT.
Sleeping better? Clearer skin? Lost fat? Biological age < calendar age?
You should not be touting magical health benefits on a sample size of one either way.
There are already plenty of studies available to be found.
But I bet whenever (if?) you do have a beer or two again, you’ll notice how it affects your sleep and probably just makes you feel kinda meh.
I say that as an occasional drinker. Some of my family loves to drink, nearly every evening. But I join them occasionally and just feel kinda bloated and bad, especially if it’s been a few weeks. Makes it harder to make other healthy choices
But yeah love the taste of beer so it is all about tradeoffs!
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.”
Tbf, if you're not drinking much (eg only once per week or month) a moderate amount - so not enough to get drunk... Then your body is able to handle that.
Statistically you're still more likely to get cancer etc, but that's still a pretty low likelihood, hence... Complete abstinence may be healthiest, but is also unnecessary.
That's kind of what I did. I initially stopped for a month for some health reasons. That became another month. And another one. And now it's a bit more than 4 years.
The interesting thing is, when I quit smoking (almost 20 years ago), I knew I must never touch a cigarette again. I think with alcohol, I could have some wine or beer occassionaly, I just don't feel the need for it anymore.
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.
To me it's the opposite: I can go weeks without drinking. The moment there's a social event, I feel the urge to drink. It's like I can't enjoy it without alcohol. I've been trying to figure out why this happens, but I haven't had the strength to try and not drink in one a social gathering.
For me it is social anxiety / being on edge around more than 4-5 people (apply from 1 person upwards if they are strangers) and having sensory overload because it is a bar / pub / whatever.
A lifetime of masking leaves its mark on a nervous system, i.e.
And alcohol down regulates / takes the edge off
You might look into neurodiversity / trauma in your life (if you haven't done so already)
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.
I looked up the risk factors for Colorectal cancer and it is influenced by various lifestyle and genetic factors, including: Diet (high in red and processed meats), Obesity, Smoking, and Lack of physical activity.
I also noted that rates are appear to actually be decreasing. At least according to the National Cancer Institute. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/colorect.html
Yes, people are smoking less.
I will second the early testing, it caught my mothers cancer in the early stages. That was 10 years ago and she is going strong in her mid 70's.
As for the final exit strategy, do what works for you and don't worry about others thinking you are being "selfish". You are the final arbiter.
Be well.
In my mid 30s (I'm older now) I got breast cancer I drank so much, which was after I got pancreatitis because I'm too fucking stupid to learn my lesson. I am a biological male now one nipple shy of a set.
Oh and a DUI. Sleeping in a running car. I’m a jackass and an idiot.
I'm done drinking. Ideally my feet will be less numb and painful, my shoulder might stop hurting, the outer two fingers on my left hand might become un-numb, might even gain some weight.
My family is a bunch of alcoholics, "functional" if you believe in that sort of thing. I realized if nothing else, I need to break that cycle for my kids.
I'm so sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. I was (and am) terrified that I took ~20 years off my life up to this point, and it could be over any year now.
Alcoholism is no joke. I just wrote up a 17k letter to myself (with my spouse as the audience, not sure I'll ever show her, she hates me right now) about how I got to where I am. Reading it back and editing it has had me bawling for hours. I can't believe this thread popped up.
On the numbness - if you want it back, lift weights. Consistently. Like 2/3 of days consistently.
> the outer two fingers on my left hand might become un-numb
Care to share more how this happened?
could an ADHD test be opportune here?
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.
I applaud your commitment to statistical rigor.
On a related note, “sequential analysis” is the keyword in stats for experimental designs that allow for stopping the experiment early in the face of clear results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_analysis#
haha... I'm slow..needed the dozen years of data.
Good start. I quit drinking for six years. My only regret is that I didn’t do it twenty years earlier.
You missed[1][2] one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47752798
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47753306
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47706723
Consistency is king I suppose. I was just thinking this morning about how if every drink I had at a bar over the last 20 years had gone into the stock market I’d probably be a million dollars richer. I was putting nothing into the stock market in my twenties because I “couldn’t afford it” but somehow I could afford to go out and spend a hundred bucks a night on booze. Then there’s the hangovers, pretty sure every bad hangover made me permanently stupider. If I could go back in time and kick myself I would.
$100/night in 2006? Wow.. NYC? That is a lot of income that could be disposed of elsewhere.
Is it to late to go back to the stock market?
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.
Id be ok with that if wine had the same taste. No alcohol free wine tastes even close, and none of them are good in their own right.
Some of the non-alcoholic beers are pretty good though and I am happy to drink them.
i cannot wait for an actually drinkable NA wine of any vintage. the last one i had was horrible.
same with the NA whiskey i had.
phony negroni, however, is pretty solid.
One thing that annoys me is that non-alcoholic beer is subject to age checks in the US. I assume it's because the programmers didn't create a separate group for them, so they ring up with the rest of the liquor, triggering a check? Maybe there's a good reason ('coz that's not one).
Most likely because even non-alcoholic beer still contains like 0.5% of alcohol.
Unless it's a "0.0%" alcohol-free beer, and even then it might still contain a bit...
I bought hops-flavored sparkling water from a grocery store's beer cooler on a lark and, despite my attempt to explain the logic to the poor cashier, we both bent to the whims of the computer system and scanned my ID to complete the purchase.
There are other drinks that have trace amounts of alcohol, such as kombucha which is regulated to stay under the 0.5% threshold. Fruit juices will also likely contain upwards of the same amount, depending on how much they're processed.
I think orange juice can be up to 0.5% alcohol, and they don't check ID for that.
Weird since kombucha has 0.5% and they don't age check that.
Probably just a legacy thing. Might as well have a vanilla cake trigger an age check for all the good it'll do.
Coming from a family of alcoholics (half of my aunts and uncles, my father, and my sister), I have seen the social and physical damage that alcohol does. My father was a role model to me of what not to become. I do drink, but nothing stronger than wine, and not very often.
It may have been easy for the author to quit, but it's a different story for the people who are addicted. The ones who are trying to quit are at least aware that they've got a problem. Many never even make it that far.
> I did find not drinking to have one clear downside: It’s just not that much fun to hang out with people who are drinking if you are not drinking yours
This is the big one. Alcohol is the lubricant that makes many social activities function, for better or worse. I've reduced my alcohol intake to 2 drinks per session with about a drink per hour intake rate (slower as ABV increases). One big plus to doing this is that staying out super late isn't nearly as appealing.
Regardless, this article reads like the year I quit drinking caffineated coffee. A roaster here in Houston had an award winning decaf bean that was incredible enough for me to make that decision on the spot. It turns out that they won the WBC on that bean for a reason! It is outstandingly hard to get a good decaf pourover, assuming that the shop even does that. Most times, you're stuck with old espresso or nothing, more often than not.
I've introduced it back into my diet but have decaf days throughout the week so that caffeiene continues to "work" when I need it.
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?
Second coffee and tea. I'm nearing a year and have enjoyed tasting and learning about origins and processing methods of tea in a similar way one might for do craft beer. Just as fulfilling with less downside.
Also, I wouldn't consider NA beer cheating! For me, the ritual of social drinking was just as important as the taste. Drinking good NA beers with friends is a 95% solution.
Coffee and tea! Chamomile is nice in the evening, always makes me feel cozy
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.
> 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.
I agree, I actually prefer them now because there’s no ill effects AND they’re generally lower calorie, too.
> That's not healthy at all
I do two weeks dry a quarter (versus dry January, which became silly once I moved to a ski town). My otherwise non-existent sweet tooth revs into first gear in the second week.
Wow that is a good way to describe it. For me it's constant coffee, or chocolate, or chips.
Which one do you like?
The author had 2-3 drinks per week, that really doesn’t sound like “drinking”. Maybe I’m the one who should give it up.
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).
Heavy drinker from 20 to 40 now after some dry January years I only drink a beer or a couple of wine glass in the weekends (no exception) my overall energy and sleep increased by an order of magnitude. I will quit as a target next year. After quit smoking one of my best health decision so far
I stopped mostly after Claude Code. 1. Too many interesting things to do 2. I asked it to rate my diet and maintain a streak - which now I don’t want to lose
Why must every discussion involve AI?
This honestly sounds like one of the posts from /r/LinkedInLunatics
I was waiting for someone to inject GLP discussion into this, but honestly the parent comment is so much more unhinged
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.
This comments section is bizarre in general. Very few comments from people who don't seem to have an issue with control over their alcohol consumption where they can enjoy a glass without it becoming a problem.
Naturally it's good that people who do have a problem can recognize it and stop it from affecting their life, but I feel like there has to be more people who are perfectly OK with irregular consumption of light amounts of alcohol as part of a social activity.
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.
Wait, people do damp januaries?
I have been doing no-soda januaries and septembers for 15 years now, as a way to avoid kidney stones, something my family has a number of cases of.
Everyone told this to reacted as if it was a novel concept and thought of doing it for smoking or coffee. I never heard of damp januaries before.
I recommend therapy in addition to not drinking for anyone who thinks eating a chocolate is drinking.
It is very common for people who quit drinking to then develop sugar addictions.
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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.
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.
I quit for 9 years and went back to drinking. I do it once every few months now, just to have a beer or three with old friends. But I didn't get dragged back in, in fact, it's been 2 months since I drank again. Just had to learn to live my life without it.
I quit drinking three years ago and they have been the best years of my adult life.
Just quit it and stop counting the years. You won't miss it after the first two years of abstinence. I don't miss it. I get joy from music and a bit of outdoor running instead. And avoid alcoholics.
>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.
... cheers to that! ;-)
Life is short, do drugs. I quit all substances for three months, didn't do jack shit. I'm planning to see a psychiatrist in autumn for my chronic exhaustion and sleep problems, and just in case I get prescribed something that doesn't combine with substances, this summer I'm binging on weed and acid because fuck being sober.
> It seems like it should be possible to reproduce this effect without alcohol.
It's a skill you have to train. Usually when you have one person in a group who sets the mood, and the rest see that person as a leader, they will follow. Observe how drunk people behave and replicate this whenever you meet your friends. I'm mostly friends with my coworkers so during lunch we talk about fun stuff while two tables over the CEO is giving a lecture about AI.
> If anyone gives me chocolate, I immediately eat all of it and then text the giver, “Thanks for the chocolate, I ate it instead of dinner, it’s all gone, this is what will always happen if you give me chocolate.”
Problem is with you and not with alcohol, bud.
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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.
These aren't great "well formed" questions, maybe work on sharpening them up.
> I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?
Well, there are many societies across the planet and as a general rule their behaviours and norms are not predicated upon your personal choices and decisions.
eg: Australian society is largely indifferent to the fact that my father, a decorated service veteran, is and has been a lifelong teetotaller for 90 years.
> Isn't tobacco usage going down in consumption because it is being taxed shit out of?
Yes / no / not really - it's more complex than that. The Australian experience is that public health education policy promoting health, the downsides of tobacco, and requiring cigarette packs to display graphic images of diseased organs coupled with increased tobacco consumption taxes worked together to reduce tobacco use ... But ..
eventually, as tobacco taxes continued to increase (probably a bad idea IMHO) the incentives for criminal sidestepping and black market tobacco increased and Australia now has a new class of criminals that are considerably more violent than before. Hand in hand with that vaping has somehow sidestepped being associated with ciggies, and younger people are back to seeing these 'forbidden' things as desirable.
> Why can't you voluntarily try to influence your alcohol consumption by paying a "alcohol tax"?
Assuming by "you" you mean a country influencing it's population, I guess?
There are alcohol taxes in many countries, also penalties for drink driving, business restrictions on being drunk at work, etc.
Australians as a whole consume less alcohol than many non Australians imagine - sure there are people that drink a lot, but not as many (per capita) as once were, nor as much volume wise per person as they used to, and they do enjoy playing up myths about Australia.
The Muslim world has plenty of alcohol drinking. On one hand you have countries that are majority Muslim but alcohol is legally sold and widely consumed, like the Balkans, Central Asia or parts of West Africa. On the other hand you have countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran where illegal homebrewing and distribution (of often very foul stuff) is rife but society does a very good job of keeping it under wraps.
A lot of states do tax alcohol. Alcohol is dropping in popularity, but I think that is mostly due to legalized Marijuana and THC. Actually, there are more DUI for THC now than Alcohol.
People have been drinking for thousands of years, and all that time there have been people who think its a bad idea.
For me personally I can't drink successfully, so I quit entirely about 17 years ago. The only thing I really miss is the occasional drink with co-workers, especially at long dinners. A long dinner at a restaurant - sober - with co-workers who are all drinking is a special kind of hell.
note that many (most?) THC DUIs have very little evidence. thc stays in your system for at least a month, so it's very hard to tell how many of these are actual DUIs vs cops deciding to pull over a (usually black) person and make up some signs to justify an arrest+drug test
> so it's very hard to tell how many of these are actual DUIs vs cops deciding to pull over a (usually black)
It's easier if you look at (say) Australian road traffic enforcement statistics; they have different rules than the US, have the "right" to check for DUI without having to make up a reason, and operate by funnelled road blocks that check everybody (or every second car, etc, depending on flow rates and breath check speeds).
They also 'verify' in the sense that any driver can challenge and get a "better than road side" test back at the station under supervision (blood tests with saved samples for court challenges, etc).
> They also 'verify' in the sense that any driver can challenge and get a "better than road side" test back at the station under supervision (blood tests with saved samples for court challenges, etc).
Blood tests can not determine THC intoxication.
I'm not seeing the part where I said that.
DUI (in Australia) refers to "Driving under influence" and focuses on threshold detection rather than degree of impairment (although relying upon other studies that allege to correlate the two).
In the case of drug impairment, "better than roadside swabs" evidence for court challenges includes samples of urine, breath, hair, saliva or sweat.
Blood samples, rather than breath tests, are typically for alcohol.
Independent of roadside pass / fail on swabs for drug / alcohol levels Australian RTA can still ask drivers to complete an impairment test; assessing balance, coordination, and overall behaviour.
On challenge, this is something that can also be further assessed for court evidence; eg: are their perceptions of impairment because (various) medical conditions that cause slurred words, etc.
> sure Americans tried prohibition and all that but its not gloom and doom
> Why can't you voluntarily try to influence your alcohol consumption by paying a "alcohol tax"?
Gujarat in India is a dry state. UP has an alcohol tax of 69%. Hasn't stopped people at all, in fact such rules have backfired - loopholes, alcohol tourism, illicit production causing all sorts of havoc.
> I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?
Neither have I. But the problem lies exactly where you're heading. I've had a ton more pressure to drink in India where teetotalism is considered ideal, than in the western world where drinking is considered a lot more acceptable. Funnily enough, the more "taboo" or "socially less acceptable" something is, the more the people who partake also force you to do it.
> I have been trying to ask people this but its havent gotten a satisfactory answer. > I mean I have never consumed and never will so why is it that your society finds it acceptable?
I’m not sure it will be possible for you to receive an answer that would satisfy, given that latter statement.
I’ll say as someone that rarely drinks for the past 15 years that I enjoy two things about it: the flavor (I like beers, wine, scotch, bourbon, gin, tequila and various liqueurs) and the sense of profundity you get when slightly inebriated: conversations with friends, live music, many things become enhanced.
Of course it’s only an altered state of perception but all of life is perception, so it’s no less real than any other mental state.
However it comes with a lot of downsides and many people get taken in way too far by it, to the point that what little enjoyment it might have given them at one time is long gone.
I simply couldn’t deal with the slightest hangover any more, I’d have things I’d want to do after getting home from a party or dinner with wine, or the next morning, and wanted a clear head. So I stopped.
Now, on the rare occasion I want a beer, about 50% of the time it’s a nonalcoholic one, which still has a small amount of alcohol, and I still feel slightly inebriated. Or if I have a real beer and want another to sip on, I’ll follow it up with nonalcoholic ones.
>Muslims ... choose not to consume alcohol
Muslims drink like camels. Many Christian denominations don't drink either (I had never been anywhere near an alcoholic drink until adulthood!) but there are always going to be plenty of people in the congregation who quietly partake in a few drinks at home.
Many Muslims drink anyway. A lot of those in Iran brew wine/beer in their house.
Tobacco in Australia has been taxed to the point we have a huge black market for it now. You would have thought people would have learnt from prohibition.
You cannot police morals.
Is it really fair to say that Muslim society is "doing just fine?"
Like what amount of reasonable people from a moderately developed non-muslim country would ever want to live in a Muslim country?
Are people that come to western nations from Muslim countries able to succeed and function as well as people from other, even worse off countries?
Wikipedia offers a list of counties by alcohol consumption. Given the opportunity to roll the dice for a new home would you rather the list of choices be made from the Top 50 or the Bottom 50?
> What amount of reasonable people from a moderately developed non-muslim country would ever want to live in a Muslim country?
UAE and Oman famously have massive expat populations, many of whom rate development and quality of life higher than their "moderately developed [or more]" home country.
We pay extra tax on alcohol. It doesn't matter. People pay it and consume. Same with gasoline. Doesn't seem to matter how expensive it gets. Rate of complaining goes up, but road trips continue.
Alcohol is especially harmful for some people, but for others it almost always leads to a more enjoyable experience. I don't think those people would try to say it's good for them but they will say they like it, it's important to their social life, and it's no worse than junk food.