I gave up booze in Dec 2019 as a (temporary?) experiment so lockdown has been helpful for me as I don’t have to not drink with friends in bars. But I know lots of people miss it and I hate seeing business owners in trouble.
I'm drinking more since the lockdown. Not excessive by any means but about a bottle (.5l) of beer every day and sometimes a small glass of scotch.
It makes it easier to draw a line between work and leisure time. The alcohol signals to me and my brain that now it's time for some relaxed activities ... well, youtube, netflix, mubi, reading (hacker)news.
Think I've drank almost every day, probably the least amount was maybe the odd week where I drank like 3 days.
Work wise I'm probably working on the most important project of my life there's nowhere to offload that stress. Can't meet any friends not even allowed to meet outside, everyone stopped doing virtual meet ups months ago and just became introverted instead so what else is there.
I found exactly the same in our lockdown; by not having the physical act of leaving the workplace, you need something to replace that, and a beer fits that pretty well. Too easy to continue that habit though
While I didn't give up booze I introduced a rule that I won't drink during work week unless I'm in company and pretty much stuck to it.
That was before the whole mess started. But this, and sticking to a rigid daily work schedule (rigid in terms of time, in which I really fully work) helped me a lot to cope with it all.
Alcohol (and other drugs) may help to keep boredom away, but it comes with a heavy cost.
never really understood this severance. You can drink without getting drunk.
I like to drink good beverages, but I don't like being drunk, so I just take a few glasses.
No shit. The problem is that when you get into the habit of drinking 2-3 drinks every night you’re bordering substance abuse. Also, “a few glasses” is enough to be arrested for drunk driving, so you might not be the caricature of a drunk but you’re drunk nonetheless.
Severance is a great way to understand your relationship with alcohol. The only reason it even seems weird is because the shit is so deeply embedded in our society. If you give up caffein, nobody gives a shit. Give up alcohol and suddenly people express incredulity at the very notion!
> The problem is that when you get into the habit of drinking 2-3 drinks every night you’re bordering substance abuse
If you're drinking 3 bottles of beer a night, 7 days a week, you're likely consuming 6 units of alcohol a day, or 42 a week.
The NHS (UK health service) recommends less than 14 units a week, spread across at least 3 days (so less than 5 units a day, 3 days a week, tops).[0]
Drinking 3 beers a day 7 days a week results in you drinking more than 3 times the maximum weekly recommended allowance.
I think we're largely in agreement about how one can drink, but 2-3 drinks a day is not 'bordering' on substance abuse from a health perspective. Societally we've normalised drinking to this level, but it's not healthly, and is absolutely substance abuse.
It took me tracking my alcohol consumption daily before I realised that my 1-2 beers a weekday / 4-6 beers a weekendday was so far beyond what is healthy, that I stopped entirely for 6 months. I've since backslid back into 1-2 beers a day. I know it's wrong, but most of life is right now anyway that it doesn't seem like that big a deal anymore.
Agree, except when I gave up coffee all my coworkers were extremely incredulous and unsupportive. Caffeine is also super ingrained in culture but arguably less dangerous.
What I meant was that you should appreciate the quality and forget about quantity. At 2-3 glasses every night, I bet that you just drink the same thing over and over, so yes I agree with you that you are bordering abuse.
I used to do this with whisky, but nice bottles are pricey so I drank cheap whisky and quickly got bored. Now I buy expensive bottles and appreciate it from time to time.
Alcohol is embedded in our society because it is the traditional way for people to let off steam.
> Alcohol is embedded in our society because it is the traditional way for people to let off steam.
You have those backwards. It’s only the “traditional way” because we pretend it’s not just “getting high” like every other drug and we push it everywhere (on flights, in restaurants, on trains, during dress/suit fittings, at sporting events, etc etc etc).
I suggest you should try to have a soft in a situation where you would have a drink. See if you're missing something, is it the taste ? the lack of alcool ? It really puts the relationship with the substance in the light, moderation doesn't mean you have total control, even if it does the trick for the body health.
I haven't given up but I have cut down a lot. There are some pretty tasty alcohol free beers now. Not all of them, by any means, but there are some good ones.
