That comment about noticing how prevalent alcohol consumption is after you stop drinking is so true. I remember going to Denver and just being amazed at how many bars there were. Growing up in TN...
Exemplary
That comment about noticing how prevalent alcohol consumption is after you stop drinking is so true. I remember going to Denver and just being amazed at how many bars there were. Growing up in TN and VA, I was so used to liqour being sold at liquor stores while grocery stores were reserved for beer and more recently in TN, wine. I'm in CA now and it's astonishing the amount of space that's reserved for liquor at Safeway.
Then I come to work and hear about small quips of everyone getting drunk on the weekends, or my coworker telling me they were hungover.
Drinking is just a huge part of our culture that when you aren't a part of it anymore, it just becomes so clear how prevalent it is. It reminds me of how when people are fixated on being a certain way (happy, beautiful, smart), you become hyperaware of the things that don't make you that way.
I can also relate to that awkwardness when someone brings up drinking and you say you don't drink. That awkward pause my boss gave me after I said u don't drink when he talked about relaxing at the end of the day. The follow-up questions wondering if it's a religious thing. The stare when you can feel people looking at you like an alcoholic.
But at this point I just tell people why I don't drink. It makes me unhappy. It made me realize that being drunk doesn't end with a hangover but rather with depression. I could see that one or two beers at the end of a workday had a noticeable depressive effect on my mood for 1-2 weeks.
I quit because that lingering feeling was divorcing me from reality and forgetting the positive ways to cope with emotions. Too often I would feel like I needed to drink to relax. Or to have fun. Or to play video games. Or to get over being sad. Being sober, I can recognize my feelings more and yeah, when I'm mad or sad or bored or stressed, I don't have a quick release valve that temporariky removes them, but it makes the good things in my life that much sweeter when they come back in my focus.
I'm coming up to my 2nd year. For my 60th birthday, I gave myself a present: stop all alcohol intake. (I used to make wine in Napa.) I do make an exception for alcohol if it is in a dessert, e.g....
I'm coming up to my 2nd year. For my 60th birthday, I gave myself a present: stop all alcohol intake. (I used to make wine in Napa.) I do make an exception for alcohol if it is in a dessert, e.g. English Trifle, or flaming pudding or if I make a French 75 [mm. cannon] punch. I found I was not as productive and missed feeling accomplished and alcohol just made me too relaxed and I dare not play piano or work with woodworking equipment after a drink. Waking up in the middle of the night was also a problem, but that has not been assuaged -- it seems tension (especially when in litigation) plays a part in that. I also was having acid reflux and that has diminished, my father died of esophageal cancer in his 80s and had digestive disruptions which I always believed was triggered by alcohol.
That comment about noticing how prevalent alcohol consumption is after you stop drinking is so true. I remember going to Denver and just being amazed at how many bars there were. Growing up in TN and VA, I was so used to liqour being sold at liquor stores while grocery stores were reserved for beer and more recently in TN, wine. I'm in CA now and it's astonishing the amount of space that's reserved for liquor at Safeway.
Then I come to work and hear about small quips of everyone getting drunk on the weekends, or my coworker telling me they were hungover.
Drinking is just a huge part of our culture that when you aren't a part of it anymore, it just becomes so clear how prevalent it is. It reminds me of how when people are fixated on being a certain way (happy, beautiful, smart), you become hyperaware of the things that don't make you that way.
I can also relate to that awkwardness when someone brings up drinking and you say you don't drink. That awkward pause my boss gave me after I said u don't drink when he talked about relaxing at the end of the day. The follow-up questions wondering if it's a religious thing. The stare when you can feel people looking at you like an alcoholic.
But at this point I just tell people why I don't drink. It makes me unhappy. It made me realize that being drunk doesn't end with a hangover but rather with depression. I could see that one or two beers at the end of a workday had a noticeable depressive effect on my mood for 1-2 weeks.
I quit because that lingering feeling was divorcing me from reality and forgetting the positive ways to cope with emotions. Too often I would feel like I needed to drink to relax. Or to have fun. Or to play video games. Or to get over being sad. Being sober, I can recognize my feelings more and yeah, when I'm mad or sad or bored or stressed, I don't have a quick release valve that temporariky removes them, but it makes the good things in my life that much sweeter when they come back in my focus.
I'm coming up to my 2nd year. For my 60th birthday, I gave myself a present: stop all alcohol intake. (I used to make wine in Napa.) I do make an exception for alcohol if it is in a dessert, e.g. English Trifle, or flaming pudding or if I make a French 75 [mm. cannon] punch. I found I was not as productive and missed feeling accomplished and alcohol just made me too relaxed and I dare not play piano or work with woodworking equipment after a drink. Waking up in the middle of the night was also a problem, but that has not been assuaged -- it seems tension (especially when in litigation) plays a part in that. I also was having acid reflux and that has diminished, my father died of esophageal cancer in his 80s and had digestive disruptions which I always believed was triggered by alcohol.