The big question you might ask yourself: Are there any benefits to alcohol anyways?

I crawled through my mind to find arguments that speak against or in favor of drinking alcohol.

Since I decided to stop drinking, let me start with a contra list:

• causes hangovers
• depresses
• expensive
• disables you to drive or use heavy machinery
• makes you aggressive
• is bad for your digestive tract
• causes a lot of cancers
• destroys your liver
• destroys your social life
• destroys your family
• controlled drinking is a myth
• cellular toxin
• makes you ineffectíve
• you’ll get addicted
• is likely to make you unemployed

That’s just 15 arguments I could think of that popped into my mind directly. There are more if you dive deeper into the subject.

How about pro arguments?

…

I find it hard to find positive arguments at all. And if I find any, they can all be dismantled by fact checking.

Why the effort to make a list anyways? It helped me to get clear about my determination that I never want to give in to cravings or triggers or fight my life to maintain sobriety (we all know the stories of the 50-something guy that has been sober for I-don’t-know how many years and who ist stating that every day is a fight for surviving the day without a drink; a stereotype widely heard about when it comes to AA meetings.

If you find arguments in favor of alcohol, let me know. I’d be surprised, tho.

Until then: Keep up the faith in yourself and take one step at a time!