I’ve just been doing a little experiment: I’ve spent the last ten days not having anything alcoholic to drink. It’s not that I’m against people drinking (unless of course you are one of those people who cannot handle alcohol, in which case it is essentially poison). It’s more that I was curious what the effect would be on my mood, my sleep patterns, and my general feeling of well being.
A bit to my surprise, the result has been dramatic. I’ve been sleeping better, feeling more calm and relaxed, and generally in better spirits all through the day.
I was visiting friends this weekend where there was magnificent scotch to be had, and as part of my experiment I demurred. I love the taste of a good scotch, but my reasoning is that I can always indulge after my experiment has ended, and it’s not as though good scotch is vanishing from the planet any time soon.
But the real surprise was what happened when somebody offered me some perfectly good white wine. My immediate feeling upon seeing the wine was something in my gut pulling away. It was as though my body remembers the negative effects of drinking white wine, but not the positive ones.
I suspect that the next time I drink, whenever that is, the rush from all that alcohol metabolizing into blood sugar will reset some primordial switches, and I will again feel the familiar pull. But at least for now, my mind and body are having a lovely and quite enjoyable vacation.
Isn’t it great to make all the subtle addictions come to the surface? And scary how little awareness you had of them. the same is true of most industrial foodstuffs and even a homegrown, ripe green apple.
Body rules mind much more often than I think.
Mmm. I should try to go off coffee. I think I’ve convinced myself that I drink it purely for the taste and that that’s probably, uh, not true
Interesting. I stopped drinking ages ago and don’t miss it. Mostly because D had a thing where he couldn’t drink for awhile and I stopped out of solidarity. Then neither of us had any desire to pick it up again.
Funny you used the phrase “in better spirits”… heh.
I definitely drink coffee for the caffeine. Got to have something to feel guilty about. 😉
Yes, it is interesting how the “desire” part works. It seems that as long as I don’t take an alcoholic drink, I don’t want an alcoholic drink.
I used to smoke cigarettes and drink heavily. Three years ago, I came to my senses and quit both nasty habits and decided to take up marathon running as a replacement addiction. I know exactly the revulsion you feel. When I see someone smoking and drinking, I often marvel how I could ever have done that to myself. It’s not unlike the revulsion I felt when as a 5 year old told towards my 2-year-old sister who was still soiling her diapers.
Hey, please keep the discussion civil.
Making decisions for yourself is great. But you cross a line when you say insulting things about other people.
Sorry. I didn’t even realize that what I had written could have been construed as insulting but I see it now. Thank you for pointing that out.
No worries. Text is an imperfect means of communication. 🙂