No benefits when stopping alcohol

[Gem2J]

Hi Everyone
I hope you are all well.
For 5 years now i have drunk 4 pints of beer a night. I really don't want to do this and would prefer to stop drinking all together.
I am not as addicted as I thought I was, because my new years resolution was to slowly cut down. I have my four pints once every other day:) and I find it easy.
But now I have decided to go back to my 4 pints a night, because for me the benefits of drinking alcohol every night far outweigh the negatives.
And please don't read this if you are suffering from alcohol dependence, cause i do not want to encourage anyone, because alcohol is bad.
I am just writing this cause just want to make sense of it all, and get your thoughts?
I am very weight conscious. and work hard for my slim figure, and i am not willing to put on weight, no matter what the cost to my health. I have been overweight before and it ruined my life and self esteem.
So anyway you might think that if i cut down alcohol i will lose weight, but i have gained weight! And i am not eating pizzas and chocolate, on my days of not drinking alcohol i eat chicken, lots of veg and for desert I have an orange. But I eat until I am satisfied.
On my beer days i have 4 pints and a potato.
So really i can't cope with the weight gain and have decided to go back on the beer.
Also to buy all this healthy meals like chicken, veg and fruit it costs me double! and i am already on the verge of food bank and so it is cheaper to buy 4 pints of beer and a potato from Morrisons, and i would rather have that extra money to feed my kids.
I am never violent when I drink and it does not affect my day to day life, I work full time. But now after being made redundant I have found a new job that requires me to be awake at 5am for a 6am start. I suffer from insomnia and if i wasn't on the booze I don't go to sleep till 8am. And even if i take sleeping pills and drink no alcohol I still feel rough the next day.
Also i am a very LAZY person by nature. not working but at home. I have always been like this and on the days when I didn't drink alcohol well the house would be trash, alcohol enables me to keep on top of housework and pursue my online business dreams. If I stopped then i would be in bed 24/7 and a fat lazy slob
But I don't know how this is right, surely i should stop alcohol for my health? but I honestly don't see any benefits

Benefits of stopping alcohol:

Less anxiety
Save money
Better sleep
Better skin
No hangovers
Weight loss
Better moods

Four pints is a lot, it's way over what's recommended and you have children in the house who will be effected.

Eating a single potato is ridiculous.

28 pints of beer a week and 7 potatoes - what could possibly go wrong…?
Will cirrhosis or malnutrition get you first?

I am not as addicted as I thought I was, because my new years resolution was to slowly cut down. I have my four pints once every other day:) and I find it easy.
But now I have decided to go back to my 4 pints a night, because for me the benefits of drinking alcohol every night far outweigh the negatives.

So let me get this right, you NY resolution was to cut down your drinking to every other day, you tried this for EIGHT days, and have said Nah I'll go back to my usual amount.

And you said sorry to repeat but I am not as addicted as I thought I was

Sorry but yes you are, and all the reasons you have given for not actually bothering to quit wouldn't have been apparent within 8 days.

You need to go in hard, just stop completely. You don't get any benefit at all by cutting down.

Read Alan Carr's book or another book on Quitting drinking most of them are pretty good, even life changing.

Of course YABU and an alcoholic. Either you want to stop or you don’t mind possibility dying from alcohol related diseases. Up to you.

You know it would be better for your health. You know it would be better for your children if you were not drinking to excess daily. Ask for help from one of the agencies or charities because however high functioning you think you are eventually it will all come tumbling down.

🤣🤣🤣 this place is cracking me up tonight

Sorry but you sound very much in the grip of an alcohol addiction. 4 pints even every 2 days is a lot of alcohol add in your poor diet on those days and your in real trouble health-wise long term potentially. You may well end up with liver cirrhosis if you continue to drink like that.

Sugar cravings are very common when you stop drinking alcohol because alcohol is full of it so you will be eating differently and potentially more in the short term but that tends to stop quickly.

Please take a long hard look at your drinking. If you can't do it for you don't fit your kids.

Potato!

Do you cook the potato?

Four pints and a potato! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I'm also curious about the potato. Jacket? With butter? Sorry, not the point I know.

I had a lovely baked potato for my tea, loads of coleslaw, cheese and a BIG nob of butter 😋.

Good effort with your NY resolution though, 7 whole days 👏

Up to you how you live your life 🤷‍♂️

This reads like a dark comedy piece, but if it’s real, it’s bloody tragic.

You are deep in denial about your alcohol addiction. It is harming you and your children. What you have written is a load of excuses, none of which form a rational argument for daily heavy drinking. It’s absolutely transparent.

Not drinking for four days is not going to change a thing. In fact it just seems you have used it to “prove” that you can do without it, now you’re going straight back to daily drinking. Long term abstinence would be the best thing you can do for you and your family. It would be worth you seeking help for your eating disorder too.

Look up the term functioning alcoholic.

What else do you eat in the day, apart from 4 pints and a potato?

yeah i know guys! it's either alcohol or gaining weight. Sorry but being thin is better for me, rather die young. I possibly do have an eating disorder, but my niece has an eating disorder too (worse than me) she has tried counselling but has given up after 2 years as it is not working

live a good time not a long time! Seriously guys can't put on weight. Only 2 pounds gain cause I stopped alcohol, but it will increase all the time, and then i will be coming back on this forum saying that i cut out alcohol but now i am 20 stone! lol, not gonna happen

username299 you listed the benefits of stopping alcohol as

saving money
better sleep
weight loss

that's exactly what I said in my post!
for me giving up alcohol =
spending more money
loss of sleep
and putting on weight

seriously lack of sleep and putting on weight are the main reasons. Like i said I have to be up for my new job at 5am, can't have this palaver with my body deciding it will go to sleep at 8am. I have to work like everyone else

You haven't given up alcohol. You've skipped a few days then gone back to drinking pints and eating spuds.

So your addiction isn’t a physical one that means you’ll get the shakes, yours is a mental one that means you’ll convince yourself you need alcohol for a happy life.

You’ve spent years training your body to function with the alcohol, the very definition of a functioning alcoholic.

It would take strength on your part to retain it to sleep, eat, unwind, do housework, without it. It would undoubtedly be better for you to, because while you are functioning now the wheels will fall off soon and then you won’t recover. That’s a certainty.

You’re going to have to give it more than 8 days.

yeah, ok thanks for your advice

Why tf are you posting this in alcohol support? If you have no desire to change your drinking?

Your kids deserve better.

I thought beer makes people gain weight. So I'd imagine 4 pints a day doesn't help.
Switch to vodka and have half a glass day. If you take up smoking that's supposed to help keep the weight off. Not cheap but hey ho, maybe cut down on potatoes for a while.

Why are there so many weird made up threads to tonight?!

If it helps at all I would say that until last November I was drinking more than you on a weekly basis, but a mix of spirits/wine and cider.
I also gave up and didn’t experience any physical symptoms. I just stopped. And I came on here and made a very similar post to you about not seeing any benefits:

Your GP can sort you out with anxiety medication that will help you sleep.

It doesn’t take long to retain your body, but it will be longer than 4 days.