This naked mind
Aims to help alcoholics change their relationship with drinking, showing the psychological and cultural aspects of alcoholism.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
17mentions
15people
2017–2022years
88% recommend12% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I stopped drinking about 7 months ago. I will second the author’s recommendation for “This Naked Mind” by Annie Grace.
- May I suggest the book "This Naked Mind" by Annie Grace? I learned about it here on HN [1]. I have no alcohol issues, but there are some eye-opening ideas in that book that should appeal to everyone (unless you already are on zero alcohol)
"Alcohol is the only drug on earth you have to justify not taking."
- I haven't had a drink in 27 days, which is the longest I've gone in a while. Left to my own devices, I tend to settle into a pattern of 2-4 drinks per night, 5-6 nights a week (I actually tracked this for a while with a spreadsheet).
It's not like, ruin my life, wake up in a gutter type situation, but it leads to just feeling somewhat crappy all the time, and I didn't like it, so I wanted to stop.
Some things that helped / are helping:
I have an app Habit Tracker. It's a pretty simple app with a list of habits you want do do, you can set on some schedule. When you do them, you tick them off and it keeps track of how many times, so you build up a streak. I made a "don't drink" habit, and check it off in the morning if I didn't drink the day before. It also shows a notification bubble on the app if you don't check it off and I hate that. It's like this little negative reinforcement that I have to live with that bubble all day if I drank the day before. It's silly, but it helped.
Reading the book This Naked Mind and listening to The Huberman Lab podcast episode about alcohol (#86) also helped. Alcohol messes up your body in a lot of ways, even at what's considered "moderate" or "normal" levels of drinking.
/r/stopdrinking on Reddit
Alcohol is an addictive drug and when you stop after using it regularly, you're going to feel cravings. It's not a moral failing, it's physiology. They do get less intense and less frequent after the first two weeks or so.
- We wanted to. That's step 1. Sounds like you're there.
What we did: Read This Naked Mind by Annie Grace [2], listen to Andrew Huberman's "What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain & Health" [1] The point is to wade through the material and let it brainwash you.
It's all about how it's bad and a tiny bit neuroscience on why you struggle. Also pointing out over and over how going sober is actually more relaxing, less stressful and how attractive the new habits in the same situations are. Alcohol just wasn't doing me any favours.
[1]: https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain...
- I quit drinking over four years ago and it's sincerely been one of the best things I've done for myself. The book, "This Naked Mind" helped me a lot.
https://thisnakedmind.com/this-naked-mind/
The author does a very analytical, scientific breakdown of the physiological and psychological factors at play with alcohol. For me, it helped a ton to understand that there were very real forces at play that were compelling me to drink, it wasn't necessarily a personal failing or weakness.
Best of luck to you! I am brutally aware of how tough it can be, but I can tell you the other side is pretty great.
- I listened to Annie Graces This Naked Mind and it helped me make a rational argument for why I shouldnt drink. I wanted to stop when I started the book mostly because hangovers started getting bad and I was spending too much on booze.
I told myself I was going to quit for 90 days. That turned into 6 months. Which turned into about 2 years now. At this point I dont get urges anymore. The first 90 days were the worst. The following 6 months were kinda bad. After a year it got a lot easier.
A HUGE help is having supportive people in your life. My wife still drinks but she was never a big drinker. My friends still drink but they are also really into doing things that drinking doesnt help, like sports where drinking doesnt really fly, or outdoor activities where drinking doesnt need to be involved.
I was pretty much drinking every night when I quit and it was my main social outing. The hardest part was retraining my brain to do things I liked without drinking. A big one for me was drinking while watching movies or tv. I could get drunk and watch shitty lifetime movies because when youre hammered enough those shits are fun. But without booze even great movies were boring for a while. It just takes time. It does get easier.
Check that book out. It helped a lot with building up enough arguments that I couldnt easily break them down when I wanted a drink.
