A lot of people performing the calculus of "eh, what's five to ten years off the end of my life as long as I'm enjoying it now" seem to think it works neatly like that-- they'll die earlier from cancer or a heart attack, and that's it. I'm struck by how often they are surprised and upset by the fact that instead of that, they're living the last 30 years of their lives with irreversible heart, lung, liver, and vascular issues that leave them unable to do the things they've enjoyed outside of smoking and drinking. Just a thought.
This becomes even more important as you age. Someone who starts smoking heavily in their 60s is far more likely to get a blood clot than someone in their 20s
Alcohol does not improve confidence, it reduces inhibitions. Inhibitions are essential for being rational and making good decisions. See: people who have a drink and then injure themselves or get into fights.
I wonder if this is part of the reason high IQ individuals are more likely to binge drink and get drunk - to be less rational.
The same with smoking. I was viscously addicted to smoking and quitting was a living hell. But I've know people who were occasional smokers who decided to stop one day and had no problem doing so.
It's enjoyable on multiple levels, just like gaming, commenting on HN, reading interesting articles, going for bike rides, eating good food and many other things.
I understand for people who have negative consequences for something would like to stop (when they're addicted), but if the negative consequences are small compared to the enjoyability, what's the point of stopping something?
You're making strong claims, and I'm just asking you to back those up without forcing people to buy a book that you say supports those claims. Otherwise there isn't much value in you making your claims here.
I'm sure (or rather, I hope) the book helps many who face addiction with those things and there isn't much to lose by helping more people finding the book if they are looking for help, so thanks for sharing it anyway.
To give generalised responses to the three main reasons that people give:
- Do you enjoy the taste?
- Alcohol is ultimately a foul-tasting poison. No one ever liked their first taste of beer. We start with highly-flavoured drinks like alcopops and after a while our body says "well you must have a damn good reason for imbibing this poison, so I'll stop warning you as much".
- Alcohol dulls your senses. I'd consider relaxing to be a sensation, and so in this respect it can't help you relax. On a deeper level, generally to relax you need to fix the thing that would stop you from relaxing - you have a headache and you take aspirin. Alcohol is not the solution to any stressor.
- Think about children at a party. They turn up very shy and within 30 mins are bouncing off the walls. No alcohol needed. Adults are the same. And we all have multiple memories of social events that have been ruined by alcohol.The key difference between these and alcohol is that we know none of them are actually harmful (yes I know that coffee is harmful in large quantities).
This is quite different to drinking ethanol, a literal poison that sends the liver into panic stations the instant it detects it.
I don't think it's necessary (for me). I am in social situations with and without alcohol often enough and it's easy to see I on average enjoy myself more when drinking in those.
Especially the one about taste.
Someone says they enjoy the taste and the rationalization is essentially "you're wrong, it tastes bad, you just think it tastes good". Okay well if I think it tastes good, then it tastes good. What's the point here?
I suppose if I wanted to avoid drinking, I could seek out something like this to help give me a framework for thinking about it in a different way. It might help. A program like AA might help as well, and I might seek that out if I wanted to stop drinking. But just as going to AA if you're not trying to stop drinking would be pretty unusual and maybe even silly, these attempts at rationalization seem pretty silly, over complicated, faulty, and unnecessary to me.
- I guess the author can consider relaxing to be a sensation, but I don't think I'd be convinced by his argument to that effect.
- When I was a child I was not "bouncing off the walls" within 30 minutes of turning up at a party. If I didn't know people there, I was much more likely to try to find a quiet place to read.
There's nothing wrong with choosing not to drink, but society has made a decision that drinking in certain situations is acceptable despite knowing that it can have a negative impact on your health.
So aspirin for a headache helps you relax but alcohol for an introvert’s social setting anxiety does not help you relax? What a strange line to draw between “stressors” that are acceptable to solve with drugs.
I agree with you that the book might not be right for you if you don't want to stop. On the other hand, I didn't think I wanted to stop drinking, until I did want to stop, and then suddenly I wished I hadn't spent the last 10 years drinking. It ultimately didn't enhance my life at all. But I wouldn't have heard that message until I was ready.