Subclinical Alcoholism

It’s been over a year now since I’ve had a drink and here’s what I have to say about it. 

I’m grateful to be healthy. 

But also I’m concerned that there are a lot of people out there who are negatively affected by alcohol use. I’m not talking about clinical alcoholism in this post, though that is incredibly difficult and can be life threatening.

I’m talking about what I’ll call Subclinical Alcoholism which seems pretty common and has gotten more common during COVID.

People who are not “alcoholics” and might not meet the diagnostic criteria of Alcohol Use Disorder. People who haven't lost a job or a house or a partner. Where it’s not an acute situation where lives are being destroyed today or physical health is at risk.

Nah, I’m talking more about the insidious slow burn thing.

Subclinical Alcoholism sneaks up on you. It’s framed as having fun with friends and is culturally acceptable, even encouraged. It’s built into how you socialize. It’s glamorized by advertisers.

When you're in your 20s and even 30s the effects are minimal and mitigated by youth. But this is where habits get formed, where it begins shifting from drinking mostly for fun and parties to drinking to cope maladaptively with anxiety and stress.

It's behavioral and then habitual and then the damages begin sneaking up on you as you age.

You find yourself locked into a pattern where you’re gaining weight, sleeping less restfully, and losing energy.

Your relationships suffer. You process emotions less constructively.

Yet it’s all culturally acceptable - even encouraged or cool.

Maybe you were in great shape once but can’t seem to recapture even a portion of that. Maybe in the back of your head somewhere you kind of know drinking is catching up with you but shit is practically automatic.

I was there and I see it around more and more, especially in men, and how it exacerbates with age.

If this is not you - great.

If this is you in this post and you recognize it, here are a few things you can do.

1. Stop drinking. Sounds dumb and obvious but some people do that. They just hit the off switch.

2. Find people you know and trust that don’t drink or who have been in recovery and get with them.

3. Get with your doctor and have that conversation.

4. Narrow your drinking window. Some people drink one night a week and function just fine with that.

5. Hit me up. If you reply to this email, I will get it in my inbox and will reply to you the best I can.

6. If it's clinical, in other words, if you think you may be an alcoholic and shit is really hitting the fan, please get with your doctor or call 1-800-662-HELP.

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