About 4 years ago I was drinking a bit too much. I was 38 and had been drinking heavily and happily for about two decades. There wasn’t a problem per se but I knew I was overdoing it. My wife and I had our second son showing up soon and I knew the drinking was going to be hard to maintain with a new baby in the mix. I decided to use my critical/dev brain to take an honest look at all the arguments out there against drinking. I loved alcohol and never really allowed myself to take a hard look at all the real negative effects before. So I opened myself up to some resources. There are a ton out there of varying quality. I continued to drink regularly while reading these.
Some of the most helpful I found were:
Stop Drinking Sub-Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/top/?t=all
I made myself read a lot of the top posts. It was real helpful reading real-world stories of lives improved by removing alcohol.
Allen Carr's Easyway to Control Alcohol
https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easyway-Control-Alcohol/d...
This book appears gimmicky and generic but it was very helpful in changing some of my thinking. It is not flawless but it does a great job of going through all your excuses for drinking and why they are all bullshit. I read it twice, print and audio.
I had the advantage of a looming deadline with our new baby coming. This made it easier to pick a date to give not drinking a try. Our son turns 4 in two weeks. I haven't had a drink since he's been born. My life is much improved.
A caveat to these things is you have to actually want to stop drinking for any of this to work. It does not work if you do not open yourself up to the possibility. Finding your reasons is a personal journey you have to make yourself. These resources can help you find those reasons.
I used to use this tool to mess with my college computer class professor. Me and a buddy installed it on the teachers computer that she used to instruct the class. We did mostly innocent stuff like closing windows or messing with the browser a bit. Occasionally we would reboot her computer when it was close to the end of class and we didn’t want to start something new. We’re both still coders to this day.
Some of the most helpful I found were: Stop Drinking Sub-Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/top/?t=all I made myself read a lot of the top posts. It was real helpful reading real-world stories of lives improved by removing alcohol.
Allen Carr's Easyway to Control Alcohol https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easyway-Control-Alcohol/d... This book appears gimmicky and generic but it was very helpful in changing some of my thinking. It is not flawless but it does a great job of going through all your excuses for drinking and why they are all bullshit. I read it twice, print and audio.
This Naked Mind by Annie Grace https://www.amazon.com/This-Naked-Mind-Discover-Happiness/dp... A great follow up to the first book. A more modern perspective from a female author.
I had the advantage of a looming deadline with our new baby coming. This made it easier to pick a date to give not drinking a try. Our son turns 4 in two weeks. I haven't had a drink since he's been born. My life is much improved.
A caveat to these things is you have to actually want to stop drinking for any of this to work. It does not work if you do not open yourself up to the possibility. Finding your reasons is a personal journey you have to make yourself. These resources can help you find those reasons.