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

Davina McCall (who has had her own issues with alcohol over the years) has a podcast. Today's episode is titled "Alcohol: The Unseen Damage" with the founder of One Year No Beer.

Maybe take a listen of that and/or check out the website: One Year No Beer | Transform Your Relationship With Alcohol - One Year No Beer

https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/alcohol-the-unseen-damage-this-is-the-real/id1773104705?i=1000683273582

They are 18 and 19 years old. and unlike me when i was there age i smoked and drank. but look at my kids, they won't touch a cig or drink! and i am proud

Living with an alcoholic, anorexic mother who would rather die young than address her lifestyle has probably put them off addictive substances for life. I suppose that's one good thing to come out of this, poor things.

If you're not swayed by the health side, I'll appeal to your vanity. The calories you are consuming in beer that stops you being hungry and keeps you thin, will pretty soon start to keep you thin in the wrong places. As you get older any weight you do have will be all round your middle, so you will be a round apple on skinny legs. No waist. You will also have far worse skin than someone who has drunk less so will look more tired and generally older and less well. This is because you will have starved yourself of the nutrients you need and taken in all your calories from sugar.

This thread reminds me of the one with the dad dying of heart failure but unwilling to seek treatment. You can take a horse to water but can’t make it drink.

You are an alcoholic and have an eating disorder, OP.

You actually sound like you need to go to rehab.

You will kill yourself if you continue like this.

It's 9th January.

Give it 6 months, not 8 days. Then come back and tell us how it's going.

If you've given up after 8 days it means you're completely alcohol dependent and in denial about your state of health.

My father died of liver cirrhosis. In the last year of his life he was a wreck. He couldn't eat or get up of bed. He died a horrendous death, vomitting blood. He was in denial, too. Sure you want this?

I think, if you’re still reading OP, you will have gathered that every reply is telling you that you are shortening your life, malnourished and alcohol dependent.

You can rationalise it in your own head, you can justify what you’re doing, but it looks like the road to self destruction to everyone else.

My mum was a functioning alcoholic for years and years, she went to work everyday but straight away when she got in she would have a glass of wine, growing up I have so many memories of her being drunk but me and my sister never spoke about it, it was just the norm. Even as adults we didn't talk to her but we knew she had a problem everyone did, she was always hungover and you could smell the booze on her in the mornings, it was a running joke about her always wearing sunglasses in the morning. Eventually she went to AA and managed to stop, by that time she was in her 60's and looked haggard, thin and had so many health problems, she passed away in 2018. So from a child of an alcoholic your children will be well aware of your drinking and it will effect them for the rest of there lives, please stop for there sake.

The thing is it is not just your liver. Your cognitive function will be at risk from long term drinking as will your mobility (ataxia).

I presume you've never had your liver function checked to see how much it's damaged by your alcoholism ? Maybe start with that before you tell us there are mo advantages to stopping alcohol.

You are an alcoholic with an eating disorder and you'll need very specific help to over come these 2 diseases. Wish you all the best OP.

All change takes time. You are scared. Try and be kind to yourself. You deserve a happy and healthy life.

Someone who drinks this amount cannot just stop, it is even more dangerous to your health to try and just cut it out completely, it has to be stopped slowly in less and less amounts.

Yes I agree with this. It can be incredibly dangerous to go cold turkey when you’ve had years of consuming this amount of alcohol. The OP needs professional help with it and should go to her GP.

@Gem2J Try drinking 4 pints of water instead of 4 pints of beer on your off nights. Sparkling water if you want. It will probably have the same "benefit" that you think the beer is giving you with none of the side effects.

I find I can get by on a bottle of vodka (occasionally with orange) and a chip per day. I sometimes have a gin and tonic for variety.
With a slice of lemon in the gin and ketchup on the chip, you get your 5 a day.

Not to mention that brains are around 60% fat, and chronic anorexia therefore shrinks the brain and affects cognitive function.

Also, I wonder if this “weight gain” on chicken and vegetables is simply the body’s response to receiving adequate nutrition? Possibly water weight? I can imagine four pints of beer a night is a very effective diuretic.

Your writing style is very familiar to the person who posted recently about kicking off after an all night bender (and the partner had to take their 3 year old to a neighbours' house for safety).
🤔

Your body will do all kinds of weird shit when you give up, to try and detox and go back to some kind of normality, 4 days is nothing, you need to give it a good try. You will end up looking like a potato yourself with a massive swollen red nose if you don't quit. Sorry, but it's true, since you are so focused on looks maybe this will scare you. Maybe you should look up some photos of alcoholics or something.

You seem to want to do something to fix your life, so go see your GP. I can't help but feel disgusted at the sight of you lay on the sofa with your potato and your 4 pints, and so are your kids. Good luck, I hope you get help.

This is so sad to read, the denial from the OP that they're not alcohol dependent. Surely you realise you're getting empty calories from alcohol. Putting on 2lb and using that as an excuse for stopping drinking is just...well I have no words. You have children. Put them first. They don't want to see their parent die of alcohol related illness. Saying you'd rather die young and slim is one of the most shallow, selfish things I've read in a long time. I hate to sound harsh as you need support, but I think you need to hear it without sugar coating it.

I was alcohol dependent but gave up 2 years ago and it was really hard. Yes, I put on weight but the benefits still outweigh that. I have the rest of my (longer) life to lose weight.

You need to give up completely- not every other day. Try it for one month and you will definitely see benefits. 4 pints is a lot of calories!

I hope you know how ridiculous you sound. No benefits are not drinking every other day after just one week. You can’t be serious?!

Realistically, you are not nourishing your body correctly. Beer and potatoes are pure carbs - carbs are important but as part of a balanced diet. When you were feeding your body well with chicken and veg, it probably went into overdrive putting on weight as it was actually getting correct nourishment. Our bodies are designed to do this in times of plenty so that we have reserves in times of famine.

When you say you are slim, can I ask what your BMI is? I wonder if you are actually underweight. It is healthy for bodies to carry a little (but not too much) fat.

Please do pop into visit your GP to discuss your mental and physical health - I think you would benefit from it

Because you're malnourished on what you are currently eating and your body was wondering what the fuck it is doing with the actual food coming and is clinging into it incase, as just has happened, it doesn't get any more.

You gave it a week rather after years of alcohol damage and not eating what you need to fuel your body. No wonder the weight came on in such a tiny amount of time.

Please, please seek help now. This was me 20yrs ago. I am now drinking from morning to night. About to lose everything. You have a window of opportunity - go to AA