How to Quit Drinking Alcohol
Glen / 
14 Comments / 
July 24th, 2008 / 
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Personally, I could never have imagined I would be writing a blog post like this. I love going out with my friends and getting drunk on the weekends (and occasionally during the week). Drinking is great for allowing you to feel confident and relaxed enough to have a good time on a night out but there are definitely some side affects.
I’m going to run you through my situation then take a look at how you can follow my lead and deal with the social consequences that drinking brings.
My Situation
I always like to be able to get personal with an author so you will probably see this section in most of the blog posts on this site. Currently, If I’m completely honest, I do drink. However, in the last 3 weeks that I have started following this plan, I have been out 4 nights in a row and drank only red bull.
The benefits:
- I was able to drive me and my friends home safely
- I felt great the next morning
- I’m able to push myself to become more confident and social without needing alcohol
- I knew what I was doing on a night out, and didn’t get involved in anything risky
There have been times in these 3 weeks where I’ll just have one or two drinks, but never a time that I’ve been hammered like usual, and I’ve felt so much better for it.
I think the best way for people to quit is of course to want to quit, I understand the benefits and I want to push myself to do something that I didn’t think would be very possible. First and foremost, do it for yourself, not to make others proud or have something to brag about if you don’t feel like you’ve accomplished much.
I also don’t agree with going cold-turkey i.e. if you quit you quit, and that is it, no “off nights” where you have a couple of drinks. I’m doing this steadily to gradually get myself out of the habit until there becomes a time when I feel like there is no need to continue to drink. Others may disagree with me on this and have their own thoughts but I guess what matters is what the best solution for you entails.
Why People Drink
Allow me to ask you a quick question; if that alco-pop or that beer was non alcoholic, would you still drink it? I’m pretty certain the answer would be no. When it comes down to it, alcoholic drinks don’t really taste that great, that’s why coke, sprite and fanta are much more popular then people drinking cans of non-alcoholic beer or non alcoholic vodka and juice.
The reason most people drink alcohol is to allow them to feel confident, relaxed and it also allows us to enjoy ourselves more in a certain situation that may otherwise have not been that exciting. During the course of this blog I’m going to look at ways in which you can get these feelings without needing to be drunk.
Dealing with the Social Pressure
Although deciding to stop drinking alcohol has a lot of health and social benefits, theres also a negative side in that to most people it is not normal and it might make certain social situations difficult. Following, I’m going to outline some of the best ways to deal with the social pressure from others:
1. Be the Driver
Nobody argues with someone that is driving and isn’t drinking, even if you aren’t that confident in your situation you can say to the random people you meet on a night out that you are the driver and they probably won’t think anything of it.
Of course, this is a sign that you are not fully calibrated with your non-drinking decision but when you are just starting out this can work well.
2. Be Confident in Your Decision
If you have the will-power to quit drinking in the first place, then I think that you are probably able to hold your own when your buddies are insulting you for not drinking (this really happens if you’ve never experienced it).
Be confident in your decision, don’t make excuses for yourself; you will be surprised how normal and friendly people can act when you are assertive and confident about your actions.
3. Buy an ‘Alcoholic looking drink’
One of my personal favourites is brandy and coke, I could simply buy a coke and my buddies would be none the wiser about the liquid in my glass.
If you want to stop and aren’t really confident enough to tell people, you might want to buy a drink that looks like it could be mixed with vodka / rum / brandy. Another thing I like to do is get a red bull or similar energy drink, people will often think it is mixed with vodka and it can help give you the energy to last late into the night.
In Summary
If you don’t want to quit drinking then don’t, I hold nothing against people who like to drink alcohol. However, I would suggest that you don’t make it difficult for those who choose to lead a healthier life.
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Yeah I totally know what you mean.
I never drank until I was 15, and then slowly started having a drink at parties.
I never did get drunk until about 18 and then still not heavily.
I have never cared about the social pressure, of course being subjected to it all the time.
Guys would be getting wasted at parties and try to tune me why I wasnt drinking.
I can imagine that it must be hard not to give in to that.
I always just tell people its not my preference…if there are some drunk morons trying to cause problems Ill usually just tell them how cool they really are…make it sound like a compliment while im actually mocking them. Actually people respect someone who isnt shy to stand up for what they want even if theyre being ridiculed by others.
Anyways…the point being alcohol is bad for the body, and excessive amounts (being very drunk) creats lots of problems.
Think about…what if youre in a club…totally drunk, you cant drive because youre a hazard…if someone picks a fight with you you are in NO condition to even react.
I like a drink or two but in a controlled environment, at a friends place.
You are obviously free to do what you want, just consider what Glen has said and what ive commented.
All the best!
This is a test reply for you, Dicky.
first of all, nice site design, I found it because you started following me on twitter (@undefined)
Interesting article, I really *want* to quit drinking, for a variety of reasons:
1. Health. Im a fat git as some would say, and it doesn’t help me trying to lose weight and generally have a better life style
2. Money. I don’t drink every day and in some cases ill go a couple of weeks without one. But when I do drink..i _drink_… Ill come home with £100 - £150 less in my pocket… for what? oh.. the ten pints of urine in me… (yeh, most nights I’ll do 10 pints)
3. You lose a couple of days. I don’t really suffer hangovers but when I go out, I go out in London and for me to have a good night out I have to stay out all night and get the first, 6:30am train home. So usually I’ve been up since 6am, go out drinking all night, get home at around 10am, go to bed lunchtime and wake up at 11pm..
My problem is, its my only real outlet with friends to let off steam, I work stupidly long hours, travel a stupidly long distance and its the only real “fun” I get.
I’m meant to be off out Tuesday and I have no money but I know it will end in tears…
Thanks for the kind words Adam, twitter is one of the strategies to network with others in the niche and help grow traffic. 10 pints is crazy, I couldn’t even handle that so know I wouldn’t be spending that much money, not sure how it is costing you so much money though.
Maybe you should be looking closer to home to help with your issues i.e. job / travel. You might enjoy the book ‘fourhourworkweek’ by Tim Ferriss if you have not already read it.
Cheers for the comment,
Glen
I used to do a little bar trick where I would buy a bottled beer and then for the rest of the night refill the bottle with water, so I appeared to be partying on with everyone else but in fact was quite legally sober.
One of the things that happened though, was that that I realized that if you are not drunk, drunk people are not that entertaining.
I do still drink - wine with meals almost always - but I never ever ever get drunk anymore. It’s just too silly.
Nice idea Jeannie, i can’t quite picture how water in a beer bottle would look like beer though?
I have to agree, getting drunk (overly) just seems silly to me these days, no point in it.
I’m particularly proud of myself when I’ve spent a night drinking red bull and my friends wake up with terrible hangovers
For me its a combination of the increased social confidence, forgetting your worries for an evening and the increased enjoyment of an otherwise probably fairly boring night out. I really enjoy getting ridiculously drunk at the weekends, I nearly always regret it, and as has been mentioned its very expensive (taking food and taxis and club entrance fees into account). I also feel that on some level it seems wrong to poison yourself so that you can enjoy life - better to try and sort yourself out so you enjoy things without the drunken haze - thats why I want to quit.
The biggest barrier for me is the fact that all my friends enjoy getting excessively drunk. They hate it when somebody isn’t drinking. I’m no different, for some reason you always want your sober friends to be as wasted as you. I think it makes you feel better about what you are doing to yourself and you feel you might be judged negatively later on by their superior sober mind. I think its important not to take the moral high ground if you don’t drink on a night out and your friends are feeling rough and embarrassed the next day.
I generally experience bordom and alienation when being in a bar when everyone is drunk, and I am not. Quitting drinking in a society where excessive drinking is the norm comes with huge social costs, but I think for me the costs of drinking are starting to outweigh those of being a ‘boring sober bastard’.
Thanks for writing about this topic, you raise the issue and possible solutions very clearly, I’m gonna try out some of the solutions you’ve suggested.
I’ve been struggling with this lately. I absolutely flounder when people ask why I don’t drink, and then I have a hard time being relaxed until my confidence is in the shitter. It’s a vicious cycle.
Anyway, I found this article really very helpful, and just wanted to say thank you!
Dan I totally hear you on the alienation thing. I’m really outgoing normally, but as people around me get drunk, they get looser and I start to feel uptight. Weird!
Jeannie, I like that idea w/ the beer bottle and might try it. Presumably you have to finish the beer first though, so wondering if I could sneakily pour it out somewhere instead, haha!
Any other suggestions for “Alcohol-looking” drinks?
I feel encouraged… Thanks guys.
Thanks for the great comment Sarah.
For some alcoholic looking drinks you could try:
- Red bull (could be vokda red bull if people ask)
- Coke (can never tell what is mixed with it)
If you don’t mind the barman knowing, just ask for some red / purple fruit juice in a wine glass
Glenn - a dark brown bottle in a dark bar looks like a dark brown bottle with something in it. And no one is really examining it very closely, honestly.
Sarah, yeah, I did drink the beer first. Between that post and now I’ve very nearly stopped drinking alcohol altogether though, because of this article which I just happened on doing fitness research (http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm). I’ve been on a quest to get my body fat to lean mass ratio to an optimal point and I had no idea that alcohol has such a bad effect on that beyond the calories involved. (Having said that, last night I had sake with sushi. But now when I do that I write off a 24 hour period for that larger goal.)
Any soda in a bar looks like a mixed drink, but I don’t drink soda. Now I don’t mind just telling people I’d rather have water.
I agree. I used to drink with our friends to celebrate weekends. Time passed and we grew up, graduated, got jobs, married, but the weekends were the same. Then we decided to have children. Pregnant, I wouldn’t drink, but since we gathered at each others houses, I still came along.
Drunk people are not as charming when you’re not drinking also.
That combined with the ill effects (hangovers), possible links to cancer and high cost have kept me far from alcohol ever since. It’s a good thing. I like the change.