What I Learned About My Relationship With Alcohol When I Quit It

Source: Klaus Vedfelt / Getty

Around the time I turned 30, alcohol and I just didn’t seem to agree anymore. Just one cocktail would leave me groggy, depressed, and nauseous the next day. It started making my acid reflux act up and irritated my stomach issues. I couldn’t even really stay awake more than 90 minutes after having alcohol, so having drinks out with friends, hoping for a long night out, just wasn’t an option. I’d need to be in bed by the time we were all just lining up to go into a club. I certainly never had an issue with alcohol. I was never a heavy drinker and could go weeks without touching the stuff without even realizing it. But, I liked to have a drink most weeknights, and a few drinks on the weekends. So, when I was finally fed up with the way alcohol made me feel and decided to quit it, I didn’t really think I’d notice much of a difference. But I actually learned a lot about my relationship with alcohol that I hadn’t previously seen, once I walked away from it.

via GIPHY

It’s how some friendships worked

I realized some of my friendships survived solely on the basis of alcohol. There were some friends I only spent time with while imbibing, and when I finally hung out with them and didn’t drink I realized that…we didn’t really have much to talk about. There wasn’t actually the chemistry there that I thought there was.