So I’ve decided to quit alcohol for a year. Should be simple enough, right?
So I’ve decided to quit alcohol for a year. Should be simple enough, right?
“Why?” Everyone asks me this when I tell them I’m quitting alcohol for 2026. Most ask it with a hint of disbelief or disapproval. Either they don’t think I can do it, or they feel condemned in their own habits by my decision to quit. Very few seem to understand, and most don’t seem to even comprehend why anyone would attempt this to begin with.
I’ve tried explaining it several ways. I’m tired of the hangovers and the disruptions alcohol creates in my regular day-to-day. It’s basically a poison that wrecks my routines, habits, interrupts my commitments and goes against my goal of living a healthy and long life.
I become another person when drinking it. Over the years I’ve noticed that when under the influence, I say hurtful things or act in hurtful ways, and it’s starting to repel people around me – or maybe repel me from people. It’s too big a price to pay in a life where aging seems to shrink your friend circle naturally to begin with. No need to speed that along by drinking something that turns me into an asshole.
All of these reasons feel good enough to me, but they are not quite satisfactory to the people trying to reason with me. It seems you have to be a borderline alcoholic for others to take quitting seriously. I don’t see myself as an alcoholic, but I also think that’s a gross simplification of what alcohol abuse can look like. It can take many forms, and many of them don’t include living on the streets or anything similar to that. The other forms can be just as disruptive to your health and wellbeing, or at least they are to me.
This is my journal of the journey from 0 to 365 days of not drinking alcohol. I don’t know what life will look like on day 366, and I don’t judge what my life looked like before day 0. For now, my only focus is quitting alcohol on Jan. 1, 2026, and documenting what my body and mind go through during the full four seasons of a year, with all that entails: parties, birthdays, celebrations, dating life, alone time, and so forth. I was planning to keep a journal all along, but recently decided to make it public, as I figured maybe there were one or two out there on the great information highway who could either find it interesting or maybe summon the courage to embark on a similar journey themselves.
I’ve committed to updating this once a week. This means 52 updates logging my personal journey to an alcohol-free life. Feel free to engage or comment on any of these, or shoot me an email if you’d like to reach out.