JaseUK

Hello Boys and Girls!
So I decided to make a list of the positive things about alcohol versus the negative. I suppose I should point out this is me and so some might not apply to you but I'm sure most will. Also I think there *are* some positives to alcohol but only if taken in moderation. Also as you can see there are many more negatives than positives.

So the questions you and I have to ask is 1. Can I/you moderate? 2. If you/I can moderate then do the benefits outweigh the negatives?

If you answered no to either... Then I think being sober is the way forward.

[Btw I copied this from my iPad but had to edited number 23 slightly lol]

Alcohol and Me

Positive effects of alcohol in my life
1/ Relaxes me temporarily when stressed.

2/ Gives me more confidence and I become 'chatty'.

3/ I like the taste of some alcoholic drinks.


Negative effects:
1/ When drunk I'm reckless and upset people.

2/ Gives me a beer belly as alcohol is high in ('empty') calories.

3/ Makes breath smell.

4/ Dehydrates.

5/ Causes interrupted sleep and I wake up without feeling refreshed.

6/ Is addictive so I end up feeling I need to keep having it.

7/ Gives me heart burn and probably caused the duodenum ulcer I had.

8/ Causes tolerance so you need to have more for the same effect with regular use.

9/ Expensive.

10/ Hang overs the next day. Headaches, feeling sick, food tastes horrible, lethargic etc.

11/ Possible legal (and mental health) consequences. I'm sure I must have driven over the legal alcohol limit sometimes.

12/ Social issues - embarrassment when told of what I did when drunk when I have no recollection of it.

13/ Putting myself in dangerous situations by being drunk (could easily be mugged etc).

14/ When used excessively as I have is know to causes many nasty diseases such as cancers and liver damage.

15/ Gives me night sweats sometimes.

16/ Prevents me from doing things I enjoy - exercising, playing chess etc. You can't do those properly when drunk.

17/ Time aspects. Having to go to different stores to buy alcohol on a regular basis. Different stores as don't want to be recognised as a local drunk.

18/ Spending time taking empty cans and bottles etc to the recycling as don't want the recycling at home to be full of empty booze stuff.

19/ The stress it causes when I think of the damage being done to my health.

20/ Worrying about always having alcohol in the house 'in case I need it'.

21/ Causes me to go to crappy pubs just because they have cheap beer. Full of dodgy people!

22/ I don't like the taste of the strong alcoholic drinks I buy just because they are the cheapest in terms of money for alcohol content.

23/ Sexual problems. Erm, how can I put this?! .... 'Brewer's Droop'!

Dee74

I think when you’re thinking of ‘positives’ you need to tease them out a little more. I know I had to, or my few positives ran the risk of staying with me, while I’d rationalise away the bad stuff..’this time will be different’

This is my experience anyway

1. Any relaxation for me was nullified by the fact I wasn’t sipping genteelly on one drink...I was drinking to get wasted and often for days once I started. The stress of dealing with the aftermath of *that* often meant more drinking...

I think there are better less destructive ways to relax.

2. I became more chatty for sure but more often that not the things I had to say were boorish, offensive or embarrassing, delivered in a loud and obnoxious way. I cringe at the memory of ‘chatty’ Dee.

3. I liked the taste of beer sure, but I’d drink anything. I more than once drank beer with cigarette butts in it cos I needed more...I also drank disgusting and very cheap cask wine if it was the only thing I could afford.

D

dustyfox

Several people here have said ' You never regret NOT drinking' - and in my case all the embarrassing, stupid, harmful, risky things I have done have never been when I was sober. Maybe I am more 'chatty, funny, outgoing' when drunk, I imagine most of us believe or used to believe that. But I wonder what a film of you or me when drunk and loud and laughing would look like - I know I would be cringing!

I think if any of us had been 'moderate drinkers' we wouldn't be here - I can only speak for myself but I know I can not moderate.

It's tough thinking about a life without alcohol - or seems it - but really it isn't - it's freedom from all the pointless agonising and worry that you are killing yourself and wrecking your life! Anyway that's my 'two penneth' as my Dear Dad would say!

Scd619x

I would take a much closer look at the Pros because denial will not be of any help to you at all and keeping saying alcohol is bad is no good either. There are usually very powerful pros for people with an alcohol use disorder that far outweigh the cons hence why we keep drinking even when our life falls apart, it certainly is not the physiological side of disorder that keeps us drinking UNLESS we are physically alcohol dependent, which very few actually are!

If i could offer you a life of drinking alcohol without consequence odds are you would bite my hand off! If you can use this sober time to figure out why that is then you will be in a good position to do something about it.

Don't get me wrong, i've been in AA for years and seen people with decades of sobriety that have never figured that out but are too scared enough to go back to drinking but i would heartedly recommend what i have suggested if you want to be free of it in the future.

Like the brewers droop one, i have slept with dozens more women than i have actually slept with in my life, if you get my meaning.

ciowa

The positives are typically very short in duration when compared to the long term consequences of the negatives

least

After being sober and happy for over 11 yrs, I can't find anything positive about drinking. Nothing. The negatives can be so bad, we risk so much when we're drinking. All it would take would be one accident, one life-altering accident that you can't take back.

The nephew of someone I know is serving 8 yrs in prison because the last time he went out drinking, he hit and killed a woman on her way home. He doesn't even remember it.

The risks are too great for me to ever drink again.

ScottFromWI

There are no positives related to alcohol for me either. Any attempt at “moderation” always turned into all day/every day drinking in short order. There was no buzz, no relaxation at all, it was basically a balancing act between withdrawals and just enough BAC to keep my heart rate down under 100bpm.

Delilah1

I’m another one who doesn’t find the positives to be actual positives. I think you need need to look at the result of each.

What are you drinking to feel relaxed from? It is still going to be there when you are sober and you are now dealing with it with a fuzzy brain. I have found exercise is a better way to work through whatever issue is currently stressing me out, and I’ll often problem solve things while walking.

The fake confidence is another one. What can you do to become more chatty and comfortable in day to day situations? How can you overcome whatever is preventing you from doing this so it comes more naturally to you? Developing those skills will help you socially and at work.

The taste of the drinks, there are delicious non alcoholic drinks, and you won’t spend nearly as much money on them.

Just my thoughts as someone who tested the moderation theory repeatedly and ended with the same result, it didn’t work for me. I have five and a half years sober, and do not miss drinking at all.

Lpg

My only positive to alcohol (escapism) turned out to be my biggest negative!

Aellyce

SMART Recovery has a tool like this, when you list all pros and cons you can come up with, they call it Cost Benefit Analysis. We often did them with the groups when I attended meetings. There, the goal was not to dissect all the "positives" to find out they were not true, but to realize there are way more negative effects, and also that many of the negatives tend to become long-term, while the pros are pretty much all very temporary. The task is for us to remember that the costs of heavy drinking always outweigh any perceived benefits, and that pretty much all the benefits can be achieved by other means, even if it takes a bit more effort.

TheSoberNord

Any positive for me were fleeting moments. I do miss how I could be at a insurance seminar and would be able to somehow enjoy myself but the price I had to pay the next day wasn't worth it.
Whenever I'm having a bad day I can forget why I bothered to get sober in the first place but when I have my good days it far outweighs any good day drunk.

Libby06

Sounds like you are still trying to beat the game by weighing it out. If you are a problem drinker, it can spiral into addiction. The fact that you have come to a recovery community to put down the drink implies that you know it is a problem.

Why even go there Jase? Zero pros. It will turn on you.

bubbapug1985

From my personal experience and a long history of alcoholism, there were NO benefits, just perceived ones.

All alcohol did was make me STUPID and its a POISON.

Amongst the tons of reasons, the below things only got worse over time.

1) Doesnt reduce stress
2) Doesnt reduce anxiety
3) Doesnt make me more confident
4) Doesnt make me less lonely
5) Effects your health only in negative ways
6) Costs way too much money
7) Doesnt help with sleep at all
8) Destroys relationships
9) Stop caring for what truely matters
10) All your 'social' experiences specifically rely on if 'alcohol' is there

comewhatmay

The cons outweigh the pros. In the end, it costs you dearly. Every time you drink you might as well play Russian roulette because you don’t know where you will end up. The negative consequences are very well explained in the other answers here. Don't go there! It's never worth it.

JaseUK

Hi Guys
Dont forget for the 3 positives I put I said:
I can't speak for everyone oc but for me alcohol did help me to chill. But as mentioned in my cons it's only temporary and you end up needing more and more to achieve the same effect which ends up costing you dearly in more ways than one!

So for me the small temporary benefits don't outweigh the many long term negative aspects.

feldknocker

The biggest positive for me is it gave me a huge security to look forward to. What I mean is anticipating drinking made me feel happy, safe, comfortable and very often euphoric. That's before I even took a sip. That is a very powerful association in my brain and one that has never gone away completely. Sure, at one time, I enjoyed the feeling of being buzzed and all that came with it. But the powerfulness of anticipating the ritual of drinking was the strongest draw for me.

Gottalife

My pros and cons boiled down to a simple choice in the end:

1) Learn to live on a spiritual basis.

2) Face an alcoholic death

I chose number one. My mother chose number two only to find that an alcoholic death isn't always quick. She had to endure 40 years of misery before her wish was granted.

msl999

I found that to quit effectively, I had to accept saying goodbye to the Pros as well as the Cons of drinking.

least

I just can't find one single thing good about it. All I got from it was misery and self loathing. Never going back there!

Boondock

There's a myriad of cons and I can't think of one pro....