Ugh, I used to drink every day to unwind, but then it got out of control. "Just have one" (that's no rationalization, it's how your brain gets you) always turned into two, three, four. Hell, I could say I was an alcoholic, except it didn't really affect my work.

Quitting was pretty hard, too, I could go a week or two without any alcohol, then I just needed to take some.

Somehow, I got the willpower to buy a bottle of wine or beer, then just empty it out slowly in the sink - that was a very strong motivator to let my body know "I don't need this". It took several of these events over the course of two months and I was free of alcohol cravings.

Nowadays, I do still drink occasionally, but never more than twice a month, just in case.

I managed a bar for three years when I was in my 20s. Obviously, I got to know a lot of serious alcoholics. If you're any good at your job as a bartender, you learn to manage them and keep them from getting completely out of control. Though they're still going to get sloshed.

Anyway, we had one guy that came in 4 or 5 nights a week and drank gin and tonics til he was quite drunk. He could not drink moderately, he was an alcoholic.

Until one night, he stopped. He'd almost been fired from his job because the drinking was still affecting him the next day. He saw where his life was going, and it wasn't where he wanted to go.

He enjoyed the social life of the bar, so he still came in 4 or 5 nights a week, but now he'd just drink tonic water. We never charged him, of course, and he got preferential service because we all admired the hell out him, sitting there sipping his tonic while everyone drank around him.

Still remember that guy well, I was so proud of him.

Interesting. I've used the same trick with food. Buy a box of little debbie snacks or whatever, and instead of eating half the box, eat one and smash the rest into the trash.

Next time don't even eat one--or just take a single bite and then smash the box. It feels strangely powerful.

Yeah, I assume you are in your late twenties. I've talked privately with lots of people in the Toronto tech scene about daily drinking. I was doing it when I was 27 during a stressful period when the acquisition of a company I started began to fall apart (I only ended up making 9 months of the 4 year vesting).

I was told that it either lasts until you have kids, turn thirty, or turn into a full blown alcoholic. I took the easier way out and just quit my position.

Wow. I turned 27 last week. It wasn't always about drinking because of stress (I happen to really like trying different craft brews), but lately it has been. My wife is going through some serious medical issues and depression, which invariably puts a strain on finances also.

If there is anything I can do, I'd be happy to help not just you, but anyone in your situation that is reading this.

Medical issues are horrible, especially when then happen to a SO because it puts an unsolvable problem between two people that know they love each other but slowly slide into a distance that only exacerbates the problem.

Not that I could ever properly understand what you are going through, but I've found that being patient, and actively choosing to be patient, even when you don't want to be, and being kind, even when you don't want to be, really, really help a relationship because the other person usually senses that you are choosing to do something for them.

Sometimes it is just this concious choice that gives them validation that they are cared for and the other person can pull themselves up a notch. Sometimes not, but even in those times, the funk they are in is slighly less funky.

I don't know if it is linked but a recent study found that 29 years old get hte worst hangover : http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/31/hangovers-hit-the-hardest-at-t...

> 49 per cent of Britons saying they are still sozzled on a Monday morning

I don't know WTF sozzled means but I'm guessing it means hungover. Can that possibly be correct? 49% of Brits are hungover on any given Monday morning???

Drunk. They're still drunk by Monday morning? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sozzled

Indeed. Sunday night is quite a popular night to have "a few" over here.

Never understood it myself - Monday mornings are hard enough!

I had a kid when I was 29 and my drinking went from 2 or 3 a night to 1 or 2 a week. A year later I turned 30 and it went to 1 or 2 a year.

Have you tried breaking up any of your usual patterns? It may be hard to do with schedules and workload, but just exercising 2 or 3 times a week can make a huge difference. I've found that 90 minutes of exercise per session is its own drug.

Yea, I exercise. Probably less than I should. In 2011 I was running about 30 miles a month but that dried up around the same time my diet went to crap and I started drinking more.

I'm trying to get back into it anyway.

Yup. I found that drinking was holding back my fitness progress. It was much easier to say no to the nightly few beers when I knew that it would affect my performance.

I even got to the point where I'm exercising 5 days a week and so I go out binge drinking on the weekends much, much less.

There was some interesting research about moderate drinking (2-4 per day for a man). http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/AlcoholAndHealth.html

>a few beers will cause me problems with dehydration

Aside from lots of water, add add a electrolyte powder. The kind from the pharmacy intended for dehydration, not the "electrolyte" marketing crap energy drink companies use.

But they have what a body craves.

Here's how I handle the siren song of the customary evening glass of wine, or single malt.

I don't drink at all while at home during the work week. I'm not anal retentive about it, I drink socially when I'm out with friends and chose not to be out with friends on an every evening basis in order to circumvent that "limitation".

I was surprised how much energy is actually drained of you from drinking and how much more productive you can be during those evening hours.

As an added bonus I sleep - and awake much better.

I don't tend to compensate by drinking more on weekends. If there's a difference at all I probably drink less.

For me such a schematic approach works quite well. It may not be for everybody.

I don't want to "enable" you to drink even more or to drink more, comfortably, but regarding the dehydration. . .interspersing water with the alcohol helps with that. . .at least for me, for social drinking.

Good luck, jere! Try reversing it by replacing the habit with exercise. Not only do you cut the alcohol, but you stay hydrated, lose weight, and sleep better!