The (short- or long-term) Teetotallers thread

Great thread and thanks for all your contributions. 

I'm a newb here (but I see KY Dave on another forum) so it's a familiar face/name nonetheless, so I hope you don't mind a few words from my side of things. 

It's been just over a year since I last had an alcoholic drink, which was largely down to some long term health issues flaring up, largely dealing with my acid reflux. Aside from alcohol, I can't really eat/drink acidic foods that involve lot of sugar, alcohol, meat/fish, fruit and other things too.  Back to alcohol, since stopping drinking, it's taken a while to appreciate that even if my dependency issues weren't as severe as some I have come across, I still had them at certain points in my life.

Since largely taking out the processed sugar from my diet, be it alcohol, chocolate, cakes, ice cream etc, I definitely noticed I'd been having withdrawal symptoms.  I'd stopped smoking about 6 years ago (replaced that vice with another - wet shaving, they said I'd save money...) and found my sugar withdrawals akin to those for nicotine in some ways. I sometimes think it's impact on our bodies is underestimated, I know I did for many, many years.

I don't really miss drinking as much as I'd think I would, but occasionally I miss some rituals and routines involved, but I'm missing them less and less as time goes on.  Sugary foods like ice cream and cake are another issue!

Sorry for rambling on, and good luck to everyone who's posted up.

Donnie, congratulations on the changes and most of all the benefits you are reaping !!

<snip>Sugary foods like ice cream and cake are another issue! <snip>

Well, you're not alone Donnie. Plants have evolved to make sure we would spread their seeds. They took advantage of a chink in our bodily makeup and it's worked great for them. I read somewhere that bananas have become 100% dependent on us to reproduce them.

According to a retired nurse I know, in a test on rats they would pass up opiates (they were addicted) to get the carbs. I know we're not rats, but carb addiction is just as powerful for us. It's very hard to break. I've been in ketosis for 3yrs 8months and I'll pass something in the supermarket and mention to the wife, "I miss _______________ (fill in the blank). ". But I can't eat it and I know it. She bought a huge cheese Danish yesterday and it sits on the countertop. If I wish I can smell it but that's as close as I can come to consuming it. It's safe from me no matter how much I might want a piece.

edit: I meant to also write that trading smoking for shaving is a pretty good trade. It's much better for you and is far less costly. Maybe not now, but eventually it can be.

Donnie, congratulations on the changes and most of all the benefits you are reaping !!

Thanks for the words of support Dave, I appreciate it.

edit: I meant to also write that trading smoking for shaving is a pretty good trade. It's much better for you and is far less costly. Maybe not now, but eventually it can be.

Thanks for the reply Brian and for your words of encouragement.

Apologies for the ignorances, but I was unaware of ketosis, but I wish you well with your ongoing dietary restrictions.

In addition to your observations for stopping smoking, I found the ritual of a 'traditional wet shave' a lot more enjoyable than I'd found smoking, which wasn't much fun towards the last few years of my 10-15 year addiction. Some days I find the ritual of a wet shave a little laborious, but several years down I'm enjoying the camaraderie of wet shavers' communities now more than ever.

Donnie, if you hadn't told me I wouldn't have known you didn't know. I've known nurses who confused it with ketoacidosis which sounds somewhat similar and can be fatal. So if they are clueless (not all are) it's nothing to apologize for. You've probably heard of it as "keto". Much easier to say and write. But after that nurse mistook ketosis for ketoacidosis I write it out to possibly prevent misunderstandings. FWIW, A number of folks on the forum are in ketosis.

<snip>Sugary foods like ice cream and cake are another issue! <snip>

According to a retired nurse I know, in a test on rats they would pass up opiates (they were addicted) to get the carbs. I know we're not rats, but carb addiction is just as powerful for us. It's very hard to break.

There's also research that shows carb cravings are a natural effect of depression as well. Carbs can help fuel certain hormones in the body that tend to be lacking or low when someone is dealing with depression. So it's not just the normal addiction cycle you're dealing with, it's often the body's way of trying to treat the effects of depression. It's pretty crazy how everything interconnects.

Great thread and thanks for all your contributions. 

I'm a newb here (but I see KY Dave on another forum) so it's a familiar face/name nonetheless, so I hope you don't mind a few words from my side of things. 

It's been just over a year since I last had an alcoholic drink, which was largely down to some long term health issues flaring up, largely dealing with my acid reflux. Aside from alcohol, I can't really eat/drink acidic foods that involve lot of sugar, alcohol, meat/fish, fruit and other things too.  Back to alcohol, since stopping drinking, it's taken a while to appreciate that even if my dependency issues weren't as severe as some I have come across, I still had them at certain points in my life.

Since largely taking out the processed sugar from my diet, be it alcohol, chocolate, cakes, ice cream etc, I definitely noticed I'd been having withdrawal symptoms.  I'd stopped smoking about 6 years ago (replaced that vice with another - wet shaving, they said I'd save money...) and found my sugar withdrawals akin to those for nicotine in some ways. I sometimes think it's impact on our bodies is underestimated, I know I did for many, many years.

I don't really miss drinking as much as I'd think I would, but occasionally I miss some rituals and routines involved, but I'm missing them less and less as time goes on.  Sugary foods like ice cream and cake are another issue!

Sorry for rambling on, and good luck to everyone who's posted up.

Acid reflux is a bummer - the doctor gave me a list of foods to avoid.  It was a long list.  I told him he could save time and paper by just telling me to avoid any food or drink that I enjoy even a little.  Sugar withdrawal is a thing, so is caffeine withdrawal.  That ones bad and bad enough if you know what's going on but a few years back I inadvertently bought decaf coffee beans and was drinking it without knowing for a week.  After two days I woke up in the middle of the night in serious discomfort. Pain in my legs and head.  I'd had some surgery a few months earlier and blood clot complications so I was thinking it might be related to that, maybe a stroke.  I got into the doc, did some ultrasounds but nothing.  I was suffering, thinking maybe I'm dying.  Then on the morning of the 6th day in I was making coffee and noticed those words "decaf" on the bag.  All subtle like.  I'm thinking man that kind of dangerous stuff should be in huge red letters.  I got some real coffee and all was good.  My wife had been drinking the coffee and going to work tired so she was getting a large coffee at work.  Interestingly caffeine withdrawal is recognized as a mental disorder in the DSM-5.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition

.....Interestingly caffeine withdrawal is recognized as a mental disorder in the DSM-5.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition

About a decade ago, I decided that I did not like having even a mild addiction to caffeine and decided to stop drinking any caffeinated drinks. Cold turkey!

I went through about a month of all sorts of aches and pains and mental fog. Eventually it cleared up, but I never was back to full alertness. The best part about it was that I never had to stop at the rest areas on long drives.

I could live with decaf coffee. They're not all good, but I was able to find a few that I liked. The real issue is that I am mostly a tea drinker, and decaffeinated tea is basically undrinkable. At least, everything I tried was. I'm back to drinking caffeinated tea now, but I decaf coffee is fine for me.