Not sure about grabbing that beer? You’re not alone. Americans are reaching for alcohol at record lows, according to a new Gallup survey.
The survey, out Aug. 20, found the number of Americans who say they drink alcohol sits at 54% for the second consecutive year − and health concerns appear to be a major factor.
“Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults now believe drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day is bad for one’s health,” the survey results noted. “The figure is essentially unchanged from last year’s record-high 53%.”
In 2001, only 27% considered moderate drinking bad for one’s health, according to Gallup.
I like wine with dinner, maybe a nice homemade cocktail on weekends. All this talk of prohibition makes me uneasy. Ban alcohol today, what will you ban tomorrow?
I never had any interest in drinking alcohol, the smell is horrible and while you can supposedly push through and acclimate to it fairly easily and there are mixes that will mask that harsh scent/taste I never really saw a reason to do that since there were very clear examples around me of people screwing up their entire lives with alcohol.
If you find it hard to reduce, check out the Sinclair method to cut down or quit over time, with a medication an hour before a drink. Understand the chemistry of our brains and how to use for good. Lots of NA options now too that can help but watch out for replacement drinks with added sugars that hurt the liver too. Look up which treatment options work best based on the data and which might work for you.
If you want to join a group, look for ones that use researched-based what helps people with addictions the most and avoid conditional belonging with forced words/thought. Look for groups and people in life that use Sagan’s baloney detection kit to analyze problems and possible solutions based on verifiable data, not supernatural threats or promises of rewards later for suffering now, which high-control systems use to hijack the brain.
I had to make a choice about 5 or 6 years ago, keep drinking and die, or stop drinking and live.
Trump had just been voted out.
I wish I hadn’t quit.
IT’S FUCKING EXPENSIVE AND LETTUCE MAKES YOU SHIT TO DEATH NOW.
Ah, well. At least they can’t tax the air.
Polluted areas will have cheaper rent and cleaner areas we will be priced out of. So many dystopian tropes about this and I truly believe it will come to pass.
If alcohol came out today, it would be illegal. It kills more people than all drugs combined. It’s terrible for you and 10% of drinkers account for 90% of all alcohol sales. I just wish I could stop.
You can do it, dawg!! It’s not something that can be done easily, but it can be done.
Yes alcohol, sugar and automobiles are the big killers that we seem to just accept in an “oh well” kind of way. We came a long way on smoking so I’m optimistic about alcohol. “Record lows” doesn’t impress me as a phrase because I know how high the historic highs actually were 🤣
Keep wanting to quit, I think that’s the most important thing, keep the desire to quit alive. Especially when you stop. I’d put money on you pulling through brother!
I’ve met a lot of wonderful people through this organization that has helped me immensely:
I tried SMART meetings. I felt as if the people there had significantly worse trauma and alcoholism than me and it made me feel like since I wasn’t as bad as them that I should still be able to keep drinking. When I have stopped drinking in the past, focusing on what’s wrong with me doesn’t help me focus on the positives and moving forward. Everyone is different though.
I initially got a similar feeling at meetings that others had it significantly worse, but that just made me feel better that I was getting some help before reaching that point. Nobody ever makes me feel that I didn’t belong, though. The journey really is different for everyone.
I prefer SMART to guilt-based programs like AA since it focuses more on progress with a basis in science.
Try GLP-1s or ketamine treatment
Maybe I will
You can stop right now.
Edit: You guys are right. It’s better to resign yourself to doom and give up. I guess my case was miraculous. Self control wasn’t a factor. No one has ever quit drinking successfully.
You think if I could, that I just wouldn’t? No. I have been trying for years and can’t. I may not get withdrawal symptoms, but the societal pressures and habits drive me back to it.
Only reason I still use Reddit is because of R/stopdrinking… my virtual little AA meeting whenever I want/need it.
I was a daily drinker for 10 years, and the last few were… well if I kept it to a fifth of cheap canadian whisky a day, I was “doing well.” 🙄 , I didn’t do well most days.
Anyway, I was sittin on the couch one day, thinking about string theory. about how our decisions create little offshoots of different realities, and I thought about the string where I kept drinking, and where it
mightwould lead.Went into the kitchen, poured out the handle I had in the freezer. I remember looking into the sky… it was so blue.
From then on I only used weed and shrooms. Shrooms for figuring out big stuff, going through traumatic shit from my past. Weed sometimes did that too. Have you heard of EMDR? it’s where you just sit and follow a light bouncing from side to side. Well I’d get real high, sit on my Marcy recumbent stationary bike, and play Mariokart on my old Nintendo 64. And shit, I swear that acted as a perfect EMDR machine. I’d be on there dissociating, thinking about shit, making major breakthroughs.
Anyway, this year I finally found the courage to face the trauma from my past, confronting my past abuser, then confronting my parents that ignored it… and you know what? went from smoking weed almost everyday to… not. Like at all. I just don’t feel the need anymore. It’s crazy. My life isn’t perfect, but it’s so much better it’s nuts.
I dunno. just my own story. Hope you get there someday, brother. I promise it’s worth it.
I wish you the absolute best moving forwards.
The other horrible thing about alcohol compared to most other drugs is that quitting when addicted can kill you. In many cases special care is needed to ween, which is kinda a thing alcoholism doesn’t facilitate.
I drank hard liquor pretty much daily for a few years up until I started having health problems. while at work one day I felt nauseous and delirious, and could only lay on the floor of the bathroom for a while in order to barely function the rest of the day. That day, valentines day 2024 I swore off the stuff for good.
From what I understand what i went through was just considered a long hangover or something, but it was the worst I’d felt in a long time and I didn’t want to feel that way again.
That sounds like withdrawal
Might have been that, yeah
That’s just because I can’t afford it, and I want other things more. I’d love an occasional wine with an anticipated good meal, or some coke and rum in the evening.
Most beer tastes like garbage to me so it’s easy to not buy it.
Next, Trump will lift all restrictions on alcohol advertising.
Product placements coming to Bluey.
Lost two family members to alcohol related causes, and a third had major health complications that were compounded by booze. I just see no need to get back into it.
One of the very very best decisions in my recent life was reducing alcohol to every other month, and then very little of it. I just don’t want to do it anymore, you know? I used to drink a lot and couldn’t have imagined it, but alcohol fucks you up in so many ways, and life is just that much better without it.
I have like maybe one drink every six months. Maybe
How is the concussion doing? Hopefully you feel better!
Hey! It’s doing a lot better. I still have a headache but that’s to be expected. My neurologist called in some meds to help expedite recovery. I probably shouldn’t be on lemmy, but the boredom was making me anxious and I decided that I needed a lil screentime to distract myself
Glad to hear you are recovering! Being bored and wanting to go on Lemmy is so real. I do the whole “close Lemmy then re-open it in autopilot 2 minutes later” often 😭
Honestly I love beer, but I have a chronic condition now that stops me from drinking. So technically now I get to be part of that record low.
And I also get to hate that THC drinks are going away in a few months…
I’d be interested to see a breakdown of this trend by states where marijuana is legalized vs. where it isn’t.
