Giving up for Mental Health

[chittyshittyohffs]

Has anyone given up alcohol for the sake of their mental health? Has it helped?

That wasn’t why I stopped, but the improvement in my mental health when I did was remarkable. I came off my ADs and my anxiety levels have plummeted.

Same as above. It wasn’t explicitly the reason I gave up. I’m an alcoholic so I had to stop or I was going to die eventually. But my mental health was in tatters too. It’s made a massive difference. I will stress that the first few months are tough. If you’ve been using alcohol to cope with your feelings, no longer drinking means you actually need to feel your feelings. It was a lot at first! But I am in such a better place now as a result.

The truth is though, no matter why you decide to stop, no one’s mental health ever got worse by stopping drinking.

100% agree with you guys above it made a huge difference to me. Plus the lovely real proper deep sleep that you just don't get when you're drinking.

After a few months of no drinking, waking up with a clear head, a perfect memory of the night before and no fear in the pit of my stomach it just brings your baseline back to normal.

I'm with you @mindutopia about feeling the feelings. But there are good ones too that came back like long lost friends. Looking forward to several little things in the day ahead. Happens every day now. Didn't realise how much I had missed it.

Definitely give it a go @chittyshittyohffs x

I work with people who have alcohol dependence and usually the improvement in sleep, ability to manage stress, and mood, with abstinence, is really dramatic. It’s so wonderful to see.

As @mindutopia says the first couple of months can be tough - it isn’t just getting used to emotions previously smothered by intoxication, alcohol also affects your HPA axis (cortisol and so forth) and the calming neurotransmitters in your brain and it takes a while for all that to come back to normal.

good luck!

Thank you, this is encouraging.

I've had a month or 6 weeks off here and there and have always found an improvement in my MH. But now going through peri and with other life stresses my MH is deteriorating and I need to take some action. Day 4 today but not feeling much better yet - did completely overdo it over festive period (and beforehand as well).

After loosing my mother approximately two months ago I found myself drinking far too much than usual.

After being incredibly ill during Christmas because of it I decided alcohol really wasn’t serving me. I haven’t drank now for about 2-4 weeks and I’m able to manage my grief much better hence my mental health and capacity for dealing with my current situation has improved.

I really think alcohol will never help your mental health but removing it will

Hello! Mental wellbeing is definitely one of the reasons I am currently on day 15 (after numerous attempts to stop before.....!) I'm autistic and have ADHD and alcohol MASSIVELY exacerbates my natural impulsive tendencies, argumentitiveness and also definitely increases risk of severe meltdowns.....not to mention general background anxiety! I always knew on some level that this was the case, but because I'm naturally quite overwhelmed by everyday life it has always been so tempting, especially in social situations..... I didn't drink daily but would binge at the end of the work week and in stressful social situations which I otherwise felt I wouldn't have coped with (all the small talk etc.). Early days so far but I'm definitely seeing improvements in things like stress levels.....fingers crossed for more improvements as time goes on!