<story><title>Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?</title><text>I enjoy the act of drinking - literally having a drink, or the feeling right after a drink. I hate how I feel an hour later, the foggy head feeling. I have a hard time saying no to a drink if everyone else is having a drink, I have done it before and am not afraid of what they think, more so, I enjoy having a drink, but I really don’t want to any more. I think it is something I would be better off without, completely but just can’t seem to get there.&lt;p&gt;I don’t buy it for weeks at a time, then cave and have a 12 pack in a weekend and feel like garbage most of the time.&lt;p&gt;Any tips on cutting out something completely and how to get out of just hating yourself when you fail?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>cassonmars</author><text>I used to put away a liter of vodka a night. I kept it up for years, accumulating a solid decade of heavy drinking. I was miserable. It was souring my relationship. The stress from work, personal life, and declining mental state of course made me feel even more compelled to drink. I was becoming a shell of my former self, and my dreams were becoming strictly that.&lt;p&gt;I had a confluence of events that changed my course:&lt;p&gt;1. I attended a tech conference where someone I personally knew who had went through rehab was hosting and speaking, and he was filled with a vivacity I hadn’t seen from him before.&lt;p&gt;2. My spouse gave me an ultimatum to quit or he’d be out the door. It wasn’t the first time he had said this, but I had a feeling it was probably going to be the last.&lt;p&gt;3. My progression in life was stalling. I couldn’t keep up commitments anymore, and I was starting to feel like I had already passed my peak.&lt;p&gt;So I quit. Cold Turkey. It was a dangerous, stupid thing to do, but I knew if I tried to taper off, I’d just slide back. The withdrawals were nightmarish, and I was lucky I didn’t die from it. But I pulled through, and then started to do some heavy soul searching for why I ever picked up the bottle — what was I escaping from? And I found those answers, and got to work — A real kind of personal work that most people will never have to put into themselves.&lt;p&gt;Since then, I have been a cofounder, jumped multiple levels in my career, and have been working towards several academic publications, on top of drastically improving my personal life. It’s been nearly five years since I put down the bottle. And every day I choose to never pick it up again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>poirot2</author><text>Glad this worked out for you, well done.&lt;p&gt;For anyone else who’s drinking at this level (a litre a day of vodka) please don’t quit cold turkey without seeing a doctor. It genuinely can be lethal. There are temporary medications that dramatically mitigate that risk.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?</title><text>I enjoy the act of drinking - literally having a drink, or the feeling right after a drink. I hate how I feel an hour later, the foggy head feeling. I have a hard time saying no to a drink if everyone else is having a drink, I have done it before and am not afraid of what they think, more so, I enjoy having a drink, but I really don’t want to any more. I think it is something I would be better off without, completely but just can’t seem to get there.&lt;p&gt;I don’t buy it for weeks at a time, then cave and have a 12 pack in a weekend and feel like garbage most of the time.&lt;p&gt;Any tips on cutting out something completely and how to get out of just hating yourself when you fail?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>cassonmars</author><text>I used to put away a liter of vodka a night. I kept it up for years, accumulating a solid decade of heavy drinking. I was miserable. It was souring my relationship. The stress from work, personal life, and declining mental state of course made me feel even more compelled to drink. I was becoming a shell of my former self, and my dreams were becoming strictly that.&lt;p&gt;I had a confluence of events that changed my course:&lt;p&gt;1. I attended a tech conference where someone I personally knew who had went through rehab was hosting and speaking, and he was filled with a vivacity I hadn’t seen from him before.&lt;p&gt;2. My spouse gave me an ultimatum to quit or he’d be out the door. It wasn’t the first time he had said this, but I had a feeling it was probably going to be the last.&lt;p&gt;3. My progression in life was stalling. I couldn’t keep up commitments anymore, and I was starting to feel like I had already passed my peak.&lt;p&gt;So I quit. Cold Turkey. It was a dangerous, stupid thing to do, but I knew if I tried to taper off, I’d just slide back. The withdrawals were nightmarish, and I was lucky I didn’t die from it. But I pulled through, and then started to do some heavy soul searching for why I ever picked up the bottle — what was I escaping from? And I found those answers, and got to work — A real kind of personal work that most people will never have to put into themselves.&lt;p&gt;Since then, I have been a cofounder, jumped multiple levels in my career, and have been working towards several academic publications, on top of drastically improving my personal life. It’s been nearly five years since I put down the bottle. And every day I choose to never pick it up again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ffwacom</author><text>Amazing.&lt;p&gt;I’m coming up on my second year sobriety anniversary, if it’s not too personal could you talk more about this:&lt;p&gt;“A real kind of personal work that most people will never have to put into themselves”?</text></comment>