Why I Quit Alcohol

Alcohol Archetypes

If you’ve watched enough movies, you’ve seen the classic archetype: a man who can barely stand up wearing a ripped “wife-beater” (horrible name for a shirt by the way) with the surrounding environment fully devoid of any color. If the average person hears that someone has quit alcohol, what goes through most peoples minds is that archetype. They neglected their job, spouse, family, relationships and all of it fell apart because of their addiction.

A few other archetypes worth mentioning that I have seen:

• The Project X-style party where a bunch of kids throw this giant “rager” with alcohol being spewed everywhere
• The local hangout “bar” type place where everyone goes. One guy will have a few too many, start a fight and so on and so forth.
• The endless amount of Country songs about drinking “cold beer”

The Occasional Beer Guy

While a lot of those archetypes ring true for a lot of people and their relationship with alcohol, my journey to quitting was more pragmatic. Prior to quitting, I was the “occasional beer guy”. I’d have a beer or two on a Friday or Saturday at a restaurant somewhere or at a concert/event if I was out. Drinking for me was never really a problem. Sure, I had had a few times during my college days where I had too much and behaved poorly but really since around 2022, I hadn’t really gotten “sloppy” drunk.

First Signs Of Wanting To Quit

I want to say around 2024 is where I first had “signals” about quitting. I had gone out and had my “occasional” beer(s) and the next morning my stomach would just feel awful. I’d also wake up fairly groggy and not able to function knowledge wise. Now luckily, most of these were timed on Sundays so that by Monday I’d be “back” but I eventually started wading down from the “occasional” beer to the “holiday” or “rare” beer.

My algorithm on X also started recommending me a bunch of “I quit alcohol” content and was also heavily inspired by a few people who actively encouraged people to quit.

I began to ponder on it while tapering down my usage of alcohol entirely but ultimately the decision came down to my last show as MACKY on NYE 2025.

My Final Drink

My last beer was ironically during the last EDM event I played. It was a New Years event, I was on a support slot for FREAKY. We started talking earlier in the night and I had offered him a beer and he verbatim told me “I actually quit drinking a while back. I found that it’s not worth it between the shows and at clubs and technically this is work for me.” That response was an immediate signal to me that it was time to be done and go to Zero alcohol. I started January 1st of 2025 and haven’t had a sip of alcohol in 494 days.

The Downstream Effects Of Quitting Alcohol

Removing alcohol at the very beginning of 2025 was the major kick off point that I needed to drastically change my health. Since then, I have stacked other wins such as removing carbonated sodas, artificial sugars, and the majority of most fast food from my diet. I have dropped over 50+ lbs and don’t have as much brain fog. I am able to function at a high level on a daily basis. I will NEVER go back. It is just not worth it to me.

What Should You Do?

Frankly, I am not here to tell you what to do. If alcohol fits into your equation and works for you, than keep at it. I don’t want to take a “high and mighty” stance or think that I am better than anybody because I don’t drink. A lot of people I still surround myself with still drink and a lot of them have a balanced relationship with alcohol. That calculus may work for them but it just doesn’t work for me. If you are on the fence or want a fancy science explanation for quitting alcohol, Andrew Huberman’s YouTube content has a lot of great information. I found it highly useful.

Whatever you decide, just make sure it’s actually your decision and not something you never thought to question.

Overall

I am glad that I quit and that alcohol has been removed from my life in it’s entirety. I don’t ever see myself going back. I’ll stick to the “boring” arrangement of black/green teas and coffee thank you very much haha.