The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Congratulations on the victory! I don't struggle with drinking myself, but I have a similar struggle with eating sweets so I get how hard it can be.
Just a word of caution here: minimizing one's behavior is itself a red flag for alcoholism. My brother in law was an alcoholic, to the point where he just died in December at only 38 years old. But the entire time he insisted that he didn't have a problem, and that he didn't drink as much as (insert example here of people who drank even more excessively than he did). So I would just encourage you to avoid the temptation to say "well my drinking is ok because X".
Regardless, well done on the progress! Keep going strong, brother!
+1. That sounds quite excessive to me.
See e.g. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohol-drinking-patterns which defines "heavy drinking" as >=5 drinks on ANY day, or >=15/week. You're at 35-56/week. If you drink it very slowly, it's a little less concerning, but I think you're way past the gray area. A doctor friend told me they start asking questions (but there may not be a problem) at 14 drinks/week.
Or, in calories, that's 100/shot = 3500-5600 calories/week = 1-1.6lb/week. If you're drinking beer or fruity cocktails, multiply by 1.5-3. I'd even be concerned about someone having that many calories of icecream per week. At the same weight, you could replace with healthier foods and your body would be running on much better fuel.
Or, in dollars, even if you're drinking fairly cheap booze at $1/shot, that's $35-56/week = $1820-$2912/year. Might or might not be a lot of money depending on your job, but that feels nontrivial even from a FAANG salary. Especially since, if you're anything like me, a dollar spent on booze often means several more spent on munchies.
More options
Context Copy link
Thank you. And you make a good point. I have also had early deaths in my family due to alcoholism, so I try to be very critical of my own rationalizations. Still an uphill battle though. I'll try to post about it again in a few weeks.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link