Interesting (and timely) discussion.
I've had a lifelong unreality relationship with booze.
I don't drink every day, I'm fine when I've needed to stop completely (during injury or illness recovery etc...) and I'll do occasional 'health kicks' whereby I give up for weeks at a time etc...
BUT...failing a good enough reason not to I repeatedly follow a familiar, tiring and increasingly damaging pattern of:
- having a few to unwind a few evenings per week which then leads to...
- having a few most/every evening per week and then...
- the few slowly creaps up from 1 or 2 to 3 or 4 and then 5 (with more at parties, BBQs etc...)
- I put on weight and eventually something gives (injury or illness) and I reign it all in and behave for a while until everything is ok and I go back to point one and begin again
I'm like Ton in that I LOVE craft beer, I'm a proper beer nerd and regularly plan 'beerpacking' trips which have craft beer pubs as the destination each night.
I'm currently at the tail-end of the cycle above and getting tired of finding any old excuse to crack open a beer and waking every morning with a fuzzy head after a crappy sleep and the health problems of putting on weight again etc...
I rarely get drunk drunk but in a way that's worse for me as I can defend myself and my actions by pointing out that I'm not hammered but the damage is still being done.
I've endured lots (and LOTS) of the "why not just not drink too much" conversations which I liken to suggesting that a depressed person simply 'pull their socks up' or a person with an eating disorder 'just eats in moderation' etc... highlighting what non-problematic behaviour looks like is of zero use to somebody who can't control an element of their lives.
For me a beer is a release from stress, a reward for being good, a way of cheering myself up when I've had a crappy day, a way to socialise and a much needed way to switch off my brain from overly dwelling on the lunacy of these fun times we're living in - all rolled into one.
Ultimately, almost anything is a reason to grab a beer.
I stopped drinking for 3 or 4 months early last year (nasty double herniated discs back injury) and felt absolutely great about it but soon slipped back into my old ways once the need to stop was removed.
What's the solution? Dunno really... I plan to work on the underlying causes/triggers as opposed to attempting to simply correct my behaviour.
I'll be starting another period of saintly restraint very soon but realistically I'll probably kick the arse out of it for a week or so more while the wife/kids are away and I'm able to go out and see buddies much more than usual (thus ensuring that things really will be in as bad a state as possible before I commit to making changes - yay!).
Does any of this sound familiar to folks???