Seven years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life: I stopped drinking alcohol.
I don’t think I had a serious problem with drinking — I wasn’t hitting rock bottom — but I could feel it weighing me down physically, mentally, and financially. The cost began to outweigh the benefits. So I stopped.
At first, I was nervous that quitting would change my social life — that my friends would stop inviting me out, or that I’d become the buzzkill in the corner sipping soda water. I genuinely thought I’d get a lot of crap for not drinking.
But here’s the surprise: that didn’t really happen. In fact, nobody cared — and some even complimented me on my decision. It might’ve even given others permission to skip a drink now and then, especiallywhen they didn’t really feel like it.
For a long time, I believed alcohol was the fun — not the people, not the experience, just the booze. But making that mental shift was a game-changer. Because let’s be honest: when we’re drinking, it’s usually at weddings, dinners, nights out, celebrations — situations that are already joyful. Odds are, we’d be having fun either way.
Take a wedding, for example. You’re surrounded by people you love, dancing, laughing, celebrating. That’s already a 9 out of 10 experience. Sure, alcohol might bump it to a 9.5, maybe even a 10 — but not always. Sometimes, depending on your mood, it might crash the vibe completely. I’ve seen it take that same experience from a 9 to a 4 real quick.
Alcohol amplifies emotion. If you’re already in a fragile state, it can spiral you even lower. So I asked myself the question:
“Is it worth compromising my physical and mental health for days… just to possibly make a good time slightly better?”
The answer was a clear no.
On top of that, quitting drinking has been a blessing for my bank account. My friends and I sometimes joke about how many drinks we accidentally spilled in bars and what we could buy with that money.
Now, I know what some people are thinking:
“But I have social anxiety. Alcohol helps me loosen up.”
I hear you. I really do. I had intense social anxiety for the first 35 years of my life. I leaned on alcohol for over a decade just to feel semi-normal in social situations. And yes, it worked — temporarily.
But here’s the truth: if you always drink in social situations, you never get the chance to grow past that anxiety. You never give your nervous system the chance to learn that it’s safe to be sober and social. The first time I skipped the booze was at a friends wedding and I had an amazing time.
If giving up alcohol feels like too big of a leap, that’s okay. I’d still encourage you to regularly skip the drink and lean into the discomfort. Show up to those events. Let the anxiety come. Breathe through it. Feel it and stay.
It won’t be easy at first — but it gets easier. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find that you no longer need the alcohol. You might even feel called to let it go completely.
I hope you do.
