Looking back, I was definitely depressed last summer. I’m a feminist and a progressive; it hurt to watch the news—and yet I gorged on it. If Twitter were a cocktail, I would have drunk myself to death before the primaries were even over. As the existence of facts became a subject of partisan debate, I’d grown distrustful of any filter between myself and reality. Alcohol seemed like a gauzy scrim, distorting the edges of my perception, making me sleepy (and messing up my actual sleep). I needed to keep myself sharp, in fighting shape.

Alcohol addiction is a puzzle…Don’t wait until it’s too late to fill in the missing pieces.

After alcohol is swallowed, it is absorbed primarily from the small intestine into the veins that collect alcohol sucks blood from the stomach and bowels and from the portal vein, which leads to the liver. It was only when I started working on the beliefs I held that were limiting me in life that I realized how much damage and how much impact they were having on me. So, I want to share with you 10 amazing things that happened when I stopped drinking alcohol. After all of this, there is STILL light at the end of the tunnel.

What Does Alcohol Do to Your Body? 9 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health

I have since learned I am not alone in experiencing this phenomenon. 65% of all those in recovery gain weight, and if you struggle with an alcohol problem, there’s a strong chance you may also be fighting anxiety, depression, mood swings or compulsive behavior. These unanticipated obstacles to wellbeing have the capacity to derail an otherwise smooth sailing recovery. I am very happy and grateful to be two years sober, but I wish I’d known then, what I know now. McKowen believed “alcohol made everything more, and brought me closer to whatever I was experiencing.” But when she gave up alcohol, she realized the opposite was true. “It was squashing and interfering with my experience. And it created a numbness around me and inside of me—even when I wasn’t drinking.”

• Dr. Sengupta shares some of the not-so-obvious effects that alcohol has on your body.
• For me, this wasn’t the first time I’d considered breaking up with booze.
• Those little pouches of Emergen-C are perfect for this.
• Personally, I had to have a spiritual experience to really understand I couldn’t ever drink again safely.

Why I Finally Decided to Break Up With Wine

I have an inner Bela Karolyi, but more abusive. As one researcher explained to me years ago, alcohol was a drug—and a powerful one at that. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ Moderate drinkers took the correct dose—one that eased their stress and increased their heart health.

How To Increase Your Drinking Tolerance (So You Don’t Make an Ass of Yourself at a Holiday Party)

• Bunny was always all, “Work harder, stop complaining.
• It was like a switch had been flipped.
• There’s a fine line between “life of the party” and “obnoxious idiot.” Don’t get into some kind of alcoholic pissing-contest with your coworkers or relatives—that is a lose-lose situation.
• Without the option of neutralizing my day-to-day stress with a glass of Chardonnay, I was forced to address the root causes of my distress.
• Even drinking a little too much (binge drinking) on occasion can set off a chain reaction that affects your well-being.

I would tell my wife that something wasn’t right and stop drinking for a month or two. I even had one stretch of sobriety that lasted 14 months; I felt I’d taken care of the problem. But when I drank after that, even though I would swear to myself that I would only have one or two, I would end up having 12 to 24 alcoholic drinks a night in secret. By the time I was 34 years old, I was getting up every day and drinking alcohol. I knew where I could buy the cheapest hard liquor with the highest percentage of alcohol and no matter where I went, I usually had a mini bottle or two of liquor in my pocket. “The good news is that earlier stages of steatotic liver disease are usually completely reversible in about four to six weeks if you abstain from drinking alcohol,” Dr. Sengupta assures.

A reminder why alcohol sucks big time

Though we’d been told we weren’t allowed to leave our seats once the program started, Tara and I braved the looks of disapproval. We got frozen yogurt and sat in my car and talked. I checked out a dawn yoga dance party called Daybreaker with my old drinking buddy Katie. The ticket takers at the event were aggressively peppy and Oxford House made us hug them upon entry.

) I want to live a life that I can endure soberly

Even if no one else is proud of me, I am certainly proud of the strides and the progress that I have made. I’m just here to tell you that I GET IT, and YOU GOT THIS. It was a dark and stormy night for the next month or so. But I found wine didn’t work like it used to. I didn’t feel relaxed and content with a glass in my hand. I felt like I wanted to smash every window in my house and howl with grief into the quiet streets of my neighborhood.