If you have given up alcohol, do you feel better?

[MeltingWax]

I am thinking about giving up alcohol altogether as I find just cutting down too difficult.

Over the last 20 years I have had 2 alcohol-free pregnancies and have done dry January twice but other than that no long periods without booze. I have started to get to the point where I think a proper break would probably be good for me for both mental and physical reasons.

I think am also probably peri menopausal with the associated mild anxiety which accompanies that.

So, I have been 10 days alcohol free now which yes, I know is not much. But I was kind of expecting to be feeling, I don't know, different somehow by now. Maybe am expecting too much. On good weeks previously I would drink the recommended weekly number of units but many many weeks it would be, um, significantly more than that.

So, anyone who has gone permanently alcohol free was there some tipping point when you suddenly felt much better?

God, yes, being newly sober has made me realise people are weird if you’re not drinking. I went to a function with a free drink and the people I was with badgered me until I picked up a glass. I sort of stood there holding it like a lemon for 10 minutes and then quietly tipped it into their glasses. I am going to have to come up with a strategy, I think!

prune yes! I’ve heard it described as ‘free botox’ and I bloody hope it happens soon!

BitofFun - that's interesting re Thiamine. I might get some to go with my load of rubbish tea .

Another benefit I have noticed is that people who don't drink have much more sparkling eyes.

Alcohol use seems to deaden them.

I'm like Carrie74 in that I've not given up but I rarely drink now. I don't want to give up completely as I don't have an alcohol problem and I don't want to restrict myself to that "rule" (I think it can cause us to crave what we can't have), but I've lost the taste for it over the last few years since hitting middle age. I also hate the after effects. Had a boozy evening with a friend recently and almost a bottle of wine later I felt pissed, which at one time I would've thought fun but now I just dread the hangover. I slept really badly so I woke up knackered, my nose was blocked, my skin was blotchy, and I felt lethargic and trembly. The next day was largely written off as I was tired and under the weather, and I hate that it makes me feel that way.

One positive thing about rarely drinking these days, apart from the lack of occassional hangovers, is that I've lost weight. OK, I've really upped the exercise recently so that will have helped, but I think I put the weight on in the first place largely because of my 1-2 bottles of wine a week habit. Cutting that out has reduced my calorie intake without even having to think about it.

I have been alcohol free for 6 months - best decision I have made ! I recommend reading the unexpected joy of being sober !
I have lost weight but only recently, I have bag of energy, I'm time efficient, I have more patience, I sleep better, no time wasted with hangover ! I was a regular drinker but in the end the hangover were really bad and I was not happy !

I don’t feel ‘better’ but I would definitely feel ‘worse’ if I was drinking.

I gave it up years ago when I had children, and as I got older I would absolutely die of a hangover, so I didn’t touch it for years. I have a drink sometimes now but it has a terrible affect on me the next day and I just could not live like that. We all deserve better than that, it would be a half life.