Dry January - 2022

[rob]

I'm not going to say I had a massive problem and friends and colleagues from around that time said I was never really that bad but I chose not to drink any more as I could see things heading in the wrong direction.   There are others, as documented on here, that struggled more.

Being dismissive about the effort required is really bad form.

[Geriatricdolan]

I just wanted to give a different, maybe refreshing view, that it can be done and can be done without it being an herculean struggle.

In truth, I don't get the point of dry January... if you have identified alcohol as a problem, then why going through the most difficult part (the first few weeks) to then go back to square one? Why not setting yourself a more ambitious target? After a few weeks it's all downhill, especially during a pandemic, when there is no social pressure to drink!

On the other hand, if you think you are going to go back to it after January, why bother at all? Surely 4 weeks without alcohol won't make a great deal of difference long term... it sounds a bit like those time limited diets, that are doomed to fail in the absence of a change in lifestyle

[Regulator]

Mr R and I are doing it.  He recommends the TryDry app: https://alcoholchange.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/dry-january/get-involved/the-dry-january-app

[L CC]

Why bother?

Short term abstinence improves the health of the liver and other organs.

Does giving up for a month leads to longer term reductions in drinking? It might.

I use the Dry days app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zanec.dryjanuary

There's lots of evidence that tracking improves compliance, and that community support can help with habit change.

I'm more curious as to why someone would bother trolling on a thread where they have nothing positive to add, a thread on something which can be really helpful to some people and is detrimental to no one.

[rob]

When I researched this the recommendations I found were to test for 50 days with a month generally considered to be not really quite enough.

I did 50 days from 1st Nov 2008 through to 20th Dec 2008.   I then was straight back on it for 10 days before stopping completely just before midnight on New Years Eve.

ETA - I can't find any of this on-line any more.   I did try some herbal product from H&B that was supposed to reduce cravings but I'm not sure that it was that effective.

[Geriatricdolan]

I always found it odd that various bodies support dry January, but nobody has ever supported giving up Heroin for a month or even just giving up smoking for a month.
It seems alcohol has always received a special treatment, almost as if the lobby that is behind it had more funds... despite all the evidence pointing towards no safe amount of units, they have come up with the 15 units guideline, which helps a bit, but also helps a bit the alcohol industry.

Now, the technology is there to de-alcoholise drinks, alcohol free beer is pretty much as good as the other, by all accounts, it's getting better... cider could easily do the same... possibly wine? Never tried... admittedly alcohol free whisky could be a problem... but the point is, there is room for the industry not to go bust if people gave up alcohol and this is the right moment to make the switch... you'll never have a better opportunity to redesign a alcohol free society, just like a tobacco free was achieved.

On an individual level, there has never been a better time to give up alcohol altogether... pubs won't reopen until April at the earliest, by then you'll be weened off... they will adapt to your new choices and thrive, without the booze

[Lightning Phil]

I just wanted to give a different, maybe refreshing view, that it can be done and can be done without it being an herculean struggle.

I think by definition, anyone posting about their intention in a dry January thread, is unlikely to be doing so, if they find it easy.

[Lightning Phil]

My wife told me she was doing a dry January just the other day.  She started yesterday. Good luck everyone.

[sojournermike]

I always found it odd that various bodies support dry January, but nobody has ever supported giving up Heroin for a month or even just giving up smoking for a month.
It seems alcohol has always received a special treatment, almost as if the lobby that is behind it had more funds... despite all the evidence pointing towards no safe amount of units, they have come up with the 15 units guideline, which helps a bit, but also helps a bit the alcohol industry.

Now, the technology is there to de-alcoholise drinks, alcohol free beer is pretty much as good as the other, by all accounts, it's getting better... cider could easily do the same... possibly wine? Never tried... admittedly alcohol free whisky could be a problem... but the point is, there is room for the industry not to go bust if people gave up alcohol and this is the right moment to make the switch... you'll never have a better opportunity to redesign a alcohol free society, just like a tobacco free was achieved.

On an individual level, there has never been a better time to give up alcohol altogether... pubs won't reopen until April at the earliest, by then you'll be weened off... they will adapt to your new choices and thrive, without the booze

We don’t have a tobacco free society, but we have displaced quite a lot of tobacco with vapourised perfumes.

Some very significant players in the alcohol industry are already diversifying away from alcohol, but into cannabis - not really sure that’s progress, but they like their addictions

Pubs will go bust - that was happening long before Covid. Any midweek evening ride around the countryside could tell you that.

[Regulator]

I always found it odd that various bodies support dry January, but nobody has ever supported giving up Heroin for a month or even just giving up smoking for a month.

Stoptober...  been around for years.

[PaulF]

I'm in as well. Started on the second as there was a bottle of beer and a glass of wine remaining and I wanted to remove temptation.

[Chris S]

ETA - I can't find any of this on-line any more.   I did try some herbal product from H&B that was supposed to reduce cravings but I'm not sure that it was that effective.

Wellbutrin/Zyban maybe? It/they used to be OTC but are now script only I think. Wellbutrin was an option for me when I quit smoking, before I decided to do that cold-turkey.

My GPs have always liked to use the word "dependent" in my notes, which is why I'll never get life-insurance ever again, but I'm much more of a ritual/habitual drinker. I'm happy to drink alone, at home (pubs are largely irrelevant to me from a drinking point of view - they're more of a socialising context) but again, mostly out of habit. Other than disturbed sleep, I don't really have any of the effects I'd associate with dependency when I'm not drinking; it's much more a FOMO thing.

[Pedal Castro]

I managed all of 1st Jan, then Mrs PC thought a she might as well drink the last of the wine stock before starting properly to take away the temptation...

The apps look good, I might download both and encourage Mrs PC to do the same...

The most I've done was 6 weeks on doctors orders after my big crash and that wasn't pysiologically difficult but I do like beer.

[Regulator]

I'm in as well. Started on the second as there was a bottle of beer and a glass of wine remaining and I wanted to remove temptation.

We have 76 bottles of gin in various states of depletion, numerous (probably another 40+) bottles of other spirits, as well as 3-4 cases of various wines in the kitchen/scullery.  All sitting there tempting us...

[citoyen]

We have 76 bottles of gin in various states of depletion

That sounds more like a shopping problem than a drink problem.

[Regulator]

We have 76 bottles of gin in various states of depletion

That sounds more like a shopping problem than a drink problem.

A bit of both...  I can't resist trying a new gin if it takes my fancy.  And people keep buying it for me as well.

[Chris S]

And I live with the Purchasing Manager for one of the largest wine bottling facilities in the country  .

[PaulF]

I'm in as well. Started on the second as there was a bottle of beer and a glass of wine remaining and I wanted to remove temptation.

We have 76 bottles of gin in various states of depletion, numerous (probably another 40+) bottles of other spirits, as well as 3-4 cases of various wines in the kitchen/scullery.  All sitting there tempting us...

OK we'll let you have 10 days to remove your temptation and you can start on the 14th. But you'll have to continue until February 14th

[Cudzoziemiec]

I just wanted to give a different, maybe refreshing view, that it can be done and can be done without it being an herculean struggle.

I think by definition, anyone posting about their intention in a dry January thread, is unlikely to be doing so, if they find it easy.

This, really. Good luck to everyone who finds it tough.

[TimC]

I always found it odd that various bodies support dry January, but nobody has ever supported giving up Heroin for a month or even just giving up smoking for a month.
It seems alcohol has always received a special treatment, almost as if the lobby that is behind it had more funds... despite all the evidence pointing towards no safe amount of units, they have come up with the 15 units guideline, which helps a bit, but also helps a bit the alcohol industry.

Now, the technology is there to de-alcoholise drinks, alcohol free beer is pretty much as good as the other, by all accounts, it's getting better... cider could easily do the same... possibly wine? Never tried... admittedly alcohol free whisky could be a problem... but the point is, there is room for the industry not to go bust if people gave up alcohol and this is the right moment to make the switch... you'll never have a better opportunity to redesign a alcohol free society, just like a tobacco free was achieved.

On an individual level, there has never been a better time to give up alcohol altogether... pubs won't reopen until April at the earliest, by then you'll be weened off... they will adapt to your new choices and thrive, without the booze

You sound very prescriptive, almost prohibitionist.

Alcohol is a pleasure for many people. Like all things, it has health consequences if it's overdone and there are lots of people overdoing it. On the other hand, you're going to die of something, and a pleasure-free journey from birth to death in the name of temperance seems a bit too Puritan for me.

I will do dry January for my own reasons, and without preaching to anyone else. And if I decide not to at any point, that's my privilege.

[Wowbagger]

When my daughter worked for CRUK, she said that the chief reason that they didn't go for the alcohol industry was their sheer power. From what I can gather, there is plenty of evidence that booze is at least as big a cause of cancer as tobacco, but CRUK just didn't have the resources to open a second front.

[Geriatricdolan]

I always found it odd that various bodies support dry January, but nobody has ever supported giving up Heroin for a month or even just giving up smoking for a month.
It seems alcohol has always received a special treatment, almost as if the lobby that is behind it had more funds... despite all the evidence pointing towards no safe amount of units, they have come up with the 15 units guideline, which helps a bit, but also helps a bit the alcohol industry.

Now, the technology is there to de-alcoholise drinks, alcohol free beer is pretty much as good as the other, by all accounts, it's getting better... cider could easily do the same... possibly wine? Never tried... admittedly alcohol free whisky could be a problem... but the point is, there is room for the industry not to go bust if people gave up alcohol and this is the right moment to make the switch... you'll never have a better opportunity to redesign a alcohol free society, just like a tobacco free was achieved.

On an individual level, there has never been a better time to give up alcohol altogether... pubs won't reopen until April at the earliest, by then you'll be weened off... they will adapt to your new choices and thrive, without the booze

You sound very prescriptive, almost prohibitionist.

Alcohol is a pleasure for many people. Like all things, it has health consequences if it's overdone and there are lots of people overdoing it. On the other hand, you're going to die of something, and a pleasure-free journey from birth to death in the name of temperance seems a bit too Puritan for me.

I agree, that's why I think they should treat it as tobacco. Tax it heavier... when you go to the pub and you find the 0.1% beer is selling at 3 quid a pint and the 4% beer is selling at £ 10 a pint, how long will it take you before you make the switch?
I'm not saying stop selling it, but make it difficult to buy. It has worked brilliantly with cigarettes... you can buy them, but they're almost 50 p each... result, hardly anyone smokes and more to the point, you can't smoke in any public place, which means it is no longer a social thing to do. If you remove the social element from alcohol, then you are half way there.

Sometimes I look at communities that don't drink... they still go out, they still have fun, they still live fulfilling lives, so then I think it's just bollox that you have to poison yourself to have fun... it's just a bad habit that needs a kicking

[TimC]

Yep, prescriptive, as I said.

[Geriatricdolan]

Yep, prescriptive, as I said.

Would you disagree that the approach taken against tobacco has produced brilliant results?
Give me a single drawback... I can't see any

[citoyen]

it's just a bad habit that needs a kicking

Yeah, and fat people just need to eat less... 

There's room to discuss this aspect but this is NOT the thread for it. Please just give it a rest. I'm asking nicely.