I Quit Alcohol for 1000 Days - my reasons & results

I was unsure whether to make this video I nearly didn't because it could come across pretentious or preachy or insert negative word here but here I am and I'm making it on the basis that it could be helpful for someone else I stopped drinking alcohol 1,000 days ago and before I tell you why I stopped and what's happened as a result I'll share my previous relationship with alcohol and with the title of this video I want to make it clear that I've never had an alcohol disorder on alcohol problem I started drinking alcohol at the age of 15 going to nightclubs underage wearing satin mini skirts and a matching crop top my mom wasn't best pleased about the clubbing underage bit but well back then at parties i' chug White Lightning cider from one of those massive plastic bottles and then in nightclubs I'd drink alcohol Pops I seem to remember reef and blue Wicked on smof being some of my favorites I drank alcohol to get drunk really drunk because I suppose that was the thing to do back then and that's what me and my friends did and I continued to do this drink alcohol most weekends trend from the age of 15 to about 32 and me and my friends we had some really good times in my Prime I'd go out on a Thursday Friday and Saturday night and I'd give it large and then there were the four Summers that I work worked in Malia ferak and magalo well what can I say I was a vodka jelly shot girl and every night was a weekend I could give you a list of scenarios where I got totally and UT but I was SP a lot of the details just because I don't think it's particularly valuable and I expect quite a lot of people have been in a very drunken State fortunately nothing bad ever happened to me when I was drunk just things like my mom coming downstairs is to find me asleep on the kitchen worktop with my head in the kitchen sink covered in my own and then I hairline fractured my left kneecap during a drunk Hood competition when I was about 20 and my knee still isn't the same which is a stark reminder of how absolutely rot and drunk I was that night there have been many nights where I've had memory loss and a few where I've blacked out from drinking so much and it didn't seem to bother me back then but when I think about it now it it doesn't make me feel great my last alcoholic drink was on Christmas Day 2021 so it's actually 1,27 days but I just decided to round it down to 1,000 and my reasons for stopping were pretty simple I've had depression on and off since I was 24 and drinking alcohol made it worse I'd have fun on a night out drinking it but the days following were miserable not only did I get bad hangovers but the low mood and the Dark Cloud over my head would feel heavier than usual so it was a pretty easy decision for me to stop drinking alcohol and then of course there's the obvious things when stopping alcohol like sleeping better no hangovers as I got older my hangovers were getting worse and they would last for about 3 days which would then affect my all of my life as in I'd sleep in and miss the gym I'd miss a full day of getting out and doing good stuff because I would just be on the sofa watching TV hung over and then it would affect my work in the early part of the week which then affected my mood and the way I felt so in some cases a night of drinking alcohol would then lead to me losing maybe half a week of a quality of life I make fewer bad decisions now I don't drink alcohol with things such as food men my behavior social interactions that kind of thing and the poor food choices was often cheesy chips late at night and then pizza and chili Heatwave Doritos were my favorite hangover foods and alcohol also made me really liry and loud and I'd often get up to mischief and get into some trouble which felt fun at the time and then there's the basic things like like drinking less calories spending less money because alcohol is expensive and over the last 2 years I've been investing a lot of time and energy into my physical and mental health and I felt like I was taking 10 steps forward with all of that kind of stuff and then five steps back when I drank alcohol and then I recently learned that alcohol destroys brain cells that never grow back and as someone who I feel as though my brain construct a bit at times and it can malfunction more so than other people I don't know if that's true or not but for that reason I feel quite protective about my brain cells as I was growing older my body was changing as were my values and alcohol no longer aligned with those values and for all of those reasons mainly the depression and the brain health it was quite an easy decision for me to stop drinking alcohol I've learned something interesting recently a bit of a fun fact how people react differently to alcohol on a physiological basis something to do with genetics and biology that kind of stuff and I'm not entirely sure how it works it's got something to do with Gaba and glutamate in the brain and also our levels of dopamine and endorphines and here's an example I've got two friends one female and one male both are around the same age as me and both had have similar Lifestyles both of them don't know each other which actually isn't relevant but I thought I'd tell you that bit and both friends are healthy and have a healthy relationship with alcohol and they love drinking it in Social settings and they seem to react great with it they enjoy the taste and it causes them to become energized and alert and excited which then lasts for hours they're actually the life and soul of the party and the more alcohol they drink within ra the more energy they get and then me on the other hand the first alcoholic drink I have it feels quite nice I'm relaxed I'm happy I'm getting those kind of Vibes getting in the swing of things but that feeling only lasts for about 30 to 60 minutes then I start to get tired I feel dizzy and a bit nauseous and in the past I used to chase that relaxed and happy feeling with more alcohol which sometimes worked and other times didn't and even though my friends get hangovers they say that the fun that they have with alcohol far out ways The Hangover so they're willing to put up with the hangover for the great time that they have on a night out which is definitely not the case for me and there's part of me that's a bit envious of my friends in the sense that they can go out drink alcohol and have a great time with it but now I realize that different people have different biology which causes us to real react differently also my friends don't have depression which I think is a huge contributing factor here as well as a result of stopping alcohol I do feel better not completely better but better my depression is still about but the main thing is is I'm not making it worse by drinking alcohol there was a clear and obvious link between the two and now I'm finding ways to manage the depression and get to the root of the problem rather than masking it with things that are said to be fun which ult ultimately makes me feel worse I'm not going to say that I'll never drink alcohol again but it's likely that I won't especially now I've learned about what it does to the body and brain there are occasions where I do Mis drinking alcohol holidays for example I used to love a sunset cocktail and I do daydream about having a boyfriend doing a city break and having a lunch in a cute spot enjoying a cocktail together well you never know as I'm editing this video I've had a couple of thoughts and they might be some people watching this thinking well why can't I have just one or two alcoholic drinks but the problem with that is that that makes me feel rough even with that small amount and I still get a hangover so it's just easier for me to have nothing at all and completely separate from that I also really enjoy music and activity Festival and usually in those settings I really go to town I drink alcohol caffeine and sugar all in one drink and it helps keep me up with the people around me that are doing other stuff and I don't do other stuff because I know that it would make me feel bad so I haven't been to a festival so yet and I wonder what that experience is going to be like I'll talk about my transition to being alcohol free and share some tips that made it easier for me and of course it can be a challenging thing to do to stop drinking alcohol not necessarily because we don't want to but because others don't want us to and it can be difficult to not get fomo which is fear of missing out or another term that I just learned about is foma fear of missing alcohol and I did use to get fer thinking about my friends that they would have more fun than me and I wouldn't be in the club if I wasn't drinking alcohol with them and sometimes that was the case my friends did have more fun on a night out but then I wasn't the one hung over the next day and feeling terrible it was also interesting transitioning over to becoming alcohol-free and getting other people's reactions things like go on have a drink or relax and have fun what about don't be boring just have a few drinks with us it's like Chris Williamson says alcohol is the only drug where if you don't do it people assume you have a problem and in response to that I go hold on alcohol a drug isn't that a bit steep isn't alcohol just alcohol and then I learn that it is a drug because it affects our cognition emotions and perception and it kind of does my hiding that drinking alcohol has been shortened to the word drink but I could rant a bit about that despite the alcohol-free Trend becoming more popular there still seems to be a societal pressure associated with alcohol and I've even got a bizarre observation about drinking alcohol-free drinks too which I'll share in a minute fortunately I've always found it easy to shut down the conversations with those who are trying to persuade me to drink alcohol a strong n and a look of determination often does the trick but in the early stages for those that didn't get the message my favorite sentence was and it still is I don't drink alcohol because it doesn't make me feel good which is the truth and anyone who keeps on pushing beyond that response why would someone Force you or me to do something that doesn't make us feel good and a quick side note about 90 days into my alcohol-free life I went on a group Adventure and heard someone in the group say I'm G to get Laura drunk tonight which I thought was really odd given that I'd shared that I don't drink alcohol I'd say the first few months could be the hardest this is the stage where it's not only you who's trying to change your habits but it's other people getting used to your new habits too here are a few things that I found helpful to get me started when going alcohol free ordering the first drink was often the hardest part other people ordering their alcoholic drinks and then I'd go alcohol free and once I'd resisted that first alcoholic drink and resisted the persuading comments coming from others I do the first cheers and then that set the scene with not only myself but also the others around me and that on that particular occasion I wasn't going to be drinking alcohol and after that first drink it was much easier for me to keep the momentum and the thing is is that alcohol often creates a desire for more alcohol so I just found it easy to just not start that process sometimes I will order a non-alcoholic drink and ask for it in a fancy glass like a wine glass cocktail glass or one of those nice Crystal Tumblr things not only does that make my experience of being out in a social setting and enjoying drinks with others a bit more say special or it celebrates the occasion but it can also stop the constant nagging from others because they just think it's an alcoholic drink and this is the bit where it gets interesting because the non-alcoholic drinks Market is growing fast and there's so many options there's alcohol-free beer gin fancy cordials and extortionately priced mocktails I'm not really into drinks like that because I don't drink juices cordials or fizzy drinks just because I never have I don't particularly enjoy them so the alcohol-free drinks section is often too sweet for me I much prefer a sparkling water with loads of fresh lime but what's interesting here I don't I don't know why I'm laughing it is quite funny but also very bizarre is that now I'm experiencing some pressure from other people to have these special nonalcoholic drinks like they'll keep on asking don't you want a non-alcoholic drink Jin don't you want on how could it be like they'll just keep going they can't seem to get their head around the fact that I'm quite happy with my sparkling water and fresh lime and it's like their evening won't be the same unless I'm drinking something similar to them it's so weird and when I politely decline sometimes I'll get the response of oh come on don't be boring okay fire so at the this stage if you've got any tips for going alcohol free or you would like to share your experience of not drinking alcohol then please add it to the comments because I know other people head down there looking for motivation and inspiration in my experience the longer you go alcohol free the easier it gets and if you're thinking about quitting alcohol even for just a short while to see what it's like I think the term is being sober curious then I know this sounds a bit bit dramatic for me to say but prepare yourself often the thing here is the social pressure that is attached with alcohol the people that have known us for years it's often harder for them to get their head round us not drinking alcohol than it is for us use the strong no thank you it doesn't make me feel good to encourage yourself and others about your decision and once you've got used to not drinking alcohol then I expect other people soon get used to it too thanks for watching and hopefully you found this video useful

Channel: Laura Try

Views: 31,743

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Id: Wp78P6WROLU

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2024