Why I decided to stop drinking alcohol (and no… I wasn’t an alcoholic)

Now that the holidays are over and everybody is returning to their normal course of life, it feels like the right moment to reflect on the past year and think about your aims for the next. Normally, I am the kind of person who declares New Year’s resolutions nonsense and believes that you should find the motivation to optimise your life throughout the entire year. This time, however, I did feel the urge to decide on at least one resolution: to stop drinking alcohol.

There is no extreme tale to tell about how I came to that conclusion; I wasn’t an alcoholic, I don’t drastically change my behaviour after drinking, and I can perfectly stick to just one or two drinks. The reason for this resolution was purely rational, but I can already tell you that I have noticed significant benefits from it.

Why do people drink?

Alcohol is a drug that is ingrained in the history and habits of almost every culture. There are many historical reasons for this, such as the fact that beer used to be cleaner and safer to drink than water in some areas. Even in modern times, drinking still fulfils a social and almost symbolic role. It facilitates bonding, trust, and group belonging, and helps people relax when they are slightly nervous.

This is not merely a subjective feeling, but can largely be attributed to the processes in the body that alcohol alters after consumption: it increases dopamine release, reduces anxiety and stress and reinforces these effects through operant conditioning. This also explains why alcohol can be addictive, alongside the fact that repeated use alters brain circuits involved in self-control. There are also strong social reasons for drinking; as a result, in many people’s eyes it is more normal to drink than to abstain from alcohol altogether. Therefore, people who decide to stop drinking alcohol without any medical reason or reasons related to addiction used to be rare.

The toll alcohol takes

This normalisation of alcohol, however, prevents many people from truly thinking about what it means to drink. If alcohol did not have such deep historical and cultural significance and were a purely modern invention, some toxicologists like professor David Nutt argue that modern toxicity standards for food would only allow half a glass of wine to be considered “safe” for consumption per year. Yes, per year.

Much like what once happened to cigarette usage, there is still propaganda suggesting that there is a safe level of consumption or that certain alcohol, red wine for example, could be good for you. Unfortunately, this is simply not true. According to the World Health Organization, there is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for our health. Unlike cigarettes, however, this is a much tougher pill for many people to swallow, as alcohol is far more deeply integrated into our culture than cigarettes ever were. This means, this fact alone does not encourage people enough to stop drinking alcohol.

The harsh truth, however, is that even light drinking increases your risk of cancer and has subtle but temporary effects on your brain and sleep. In addition, not drinking alcohol is associated with the longest life expectancy and the highest overall quality of life, with no health trade-offs identified in modern scientific literature. Abstainers also often show better mental health, with lower rates of anxiety and depression, more stable mood regulation, and healthier coping mechanisms.

Change is in the air

These long-term effects are only one part of the puzzle explaining why younger generations are drinking less and less. Among this group, both the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption have been steadily declining over the past decades. Younger people tend to be more conscious of their health and of the negative effects alcohol has on it, both in the short and long term. In their view, the positive effects do not always outweigh these downsides.

In addition, the spaces and situations in which alcohol historically played a central role are ones they occupy less than previous generations. Their lives increasingly take place online, which shifts alcohol from being a standard part of a gathering to an individual choice. Fitness culture has also become far more popular, and this generation tends to prioritise sleep, sport, and cognitive performance over a night out. This new mindset pushes alcohol further down the priority list. While this change is only just beginning, abstaining from alcohol is becoming increasingly normal among young people, which in turn reshapes the societal norms and pressures surrounding drinking. You could see this as a positive reinforcing cycle.

The choice to make; stop drinking alcohol?

Of course, whether to drink or to stop drinking alcohol is entirely a personal choice. I am not an advocate against alcohol, and I genuinely believe this is a decision everyone must make for themselves. As the consequences of alcohol become increasingly clear, people are now faced with that choice. They can accept those consequences, ignore them, adapt only slightly, or decide to make a more drastic change.

So don’t misunderstand me: I am not suggesting that everyone should make the same choice I did. However, all the arguments outlined in this post led me to make this decision for myself. I simply weighed the positive effects of alcohol that I experienced against the negative effects it had on my body. The outcome of that calculation was that it was not worth it to me. It might be worth it to you, and that is completely fine as well. But let’s stop ignoring the fact that there is a choice to be made, and stop normalising drinking as an unquestioned part of everyday life.

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