It´s just so nice when you don´t need to THINK about drinking at all. That was always harder and more disturbing than the actual drinking. "What to drink,when to drink how much,red or white…?
Same with tobacco. “Should I smoke now? Or after ten minutes? Do I have enough filters for tomorrow? How many packs for the weekend…?”
All that pondering drives you crazy and actually takes over your life.
I’m in the stage of early sobriety (2 months tomorrow) that I don’t know what to do with all the free space in my head without booze. Days feel longer without time spent on the cycle of craving, consumption and regret. I’ve started walking and reading a lot, but I’m not ready to try socialising around alcohol yet so I feel quite socially isolated.
Alcohol messed up my heart too. I was at two or three bottles of wine or half a litre of tequila every day at my worst, but I started to get heart palpitations in the mornings whenever i started withdrawing,and by the time I quit even one.drink set.off palpitations and racing heart the next day. My body was telling me it was a poison so I stopped.
I think it’s difficult to view alcohol objectively because it’s so culturally linked to socialising, and we are conditioned to rely on the relaxation effects and crave an altered state of mind and it’s one of the few legal substances. But ultimately it is a neurotoxin and poison, and causes systemic damage when consumed at excessive levels. I know drinking me would want to punch me in the face for trying to take my external relaxation and escape in a cup away. It takes much more work to find that state of relaxation and connection without it and I do wonder if it’s beneficial effects come from those effects. Drinking copius amounts and blacking out is neither relaxing or connecting in addition to being a poison so no wonder it does us no good.
I know we can’t guarantee we won’t get cancer, but i definitely feel more relaxed about my health being sober compared to when i was dependent on alcohol. It still sounds scary to think that based on these study results, 3-5 more people out of a hundred would get cancer if they drink even a little. I’m grateful I don’t take that risk anymore.
@CatHairInMyEyes What powerful post. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Hearty kudos to you for turning yourself around like this. 
I gave up alcohol around 18 months ago and did find it odd at social occasions to start with. However, I adjusted and am very grateful not to have paid a fortune on nights out and to avoid hangovers.
I hope you find it easier as time goes on, I don’t regret giving it up for a second.
Anything in access is bad for our bodies. Even if it is good for our bodies in small amounts. I am 77, I will drink a beer a few times a week or drink a glass of wine. I never drink and drive not even a single small glass of wine or a single beer.
I have never been hospitalized or had an illness worse than the flu. My advice is use common sense when it comes to anything and everything in life.
The only thing that I can be accused of is questioning everything that I am told and making my own decisions.