Alcohol, death and enjoying life
Like most Australian’s I loved a good drink. Drinking is a huge part of our culture and you are hard pressed to go to any social setting from your teenage years until you die where drinking isn’t a big part of whatever it is your doing. Throughout my mid to late twenties however, I found myself drinking more and more as my mental state deteriorated as a result of a lack of sleep from my work at the time, and probably some underlying issues which we won’t get into. The job was great and I loved the work, but I would be sleeping a few hours a night and then going to work at midnight or 2am, working a full day, then getting another few hours sleep. It’s a complete clusterfuck for your mental health, and I did this for years, drinking heavily trying to block out the depression from the sleep deprivation caused by my work.
One Friday night, June 25th 2022 to be exact, after a particularly draining few weeks of work and little sleep, I went to the pub to have a few beers and play some pool to blow off some steam. Well one beer turned to ten and ten turned to twenty and the rest of the night is a bit of a blur. I remember being taken home by one of the guys I was drinking with, and then getting on my motorcycle at some stage. I remember flying through the night, the single cylinder thumper engine roaring in my ears as I flew down the dirt driveway, ecstatic at the freedom and the feeling. Then nothing, all of a sudden the road beneath me disappears and I’m flying through the darkness. I was knocked unconscious on impact, not wearing a helmet, probably only surviving because I’ve gone through an electric fence, missing the steel star pickets and landing in long grass in one of our farm paddocks. I don’t know how long I laid unconscious in that paddock, but when I came to I was so inebriated I couldn’t even feel how badly I was hurt, and my first thought was that I had tried to walk home from the pub and fallen asleep. That’s until I saw the mangled mess of my bike laying 10 or so metres away, dim light’s still running. I drunkenly tried to start the motorbike, flooded the engine because it was still in gear and I was too drunk to realize (fortunately it’s an old school kick start style) so I discarded it on the side of the driveway and stumbled home. I looked in the mirror, covered in blood and dirt, went upstairs and promptly passed out.
The next day, I awoke in more pain than I have ever experienced in my life. My face was numb, my whole body ached and screamed in protest every time I tried to move. These 24 hours haunt me to this day. As I lay there basically unable to move, I came to terms with how close I was to killing myself or becoming a paraplegic, braindead or something of the like. I could have easily broken my neck or back, unable to move or walk, and nobody would have found me for days. I had no phone, on a rural property where I lived by myself, laying helpless in a paddock. It’s a parents nightmare, and that was the part that hurt the most. I had come so close to throwing all of the amazing thing’s in life away, all because alcohol had given me some brief relief of the mental torment that I was going through at the time. The thought of how close I was to making my parents having to bury one of their sons broke my heart, so I made a promise to myself laying in bed that day, which in hindsight was probably the lowest point in my life, that I would never drink again. I was convinced I was given a second chance at life for a reason, and I’m not someone to look a gift horse in the mouth.
It was about two weeks before I could eat solid food again because of the impact to my teeth. My once perfectly straight pegs thanks to braces in my teenage years are now a little bit crooked again. My front teeth started going black and I was worried I would lose them but thankfully they have come white again. I had broken my nose, I damaged my right knee so severely that it would be 4 months before I could fully bend it again, and I couldn’t rotate my neck more than a few degrees. Amazingly, apart from my nose, I had no major bone breaks, however my neck and back and knee are still problematic and I will probably live with the consequences for the rest of my life.
It’s been nearly 6 months since that night and my last drink, but the beneficial changes I have experienced are so drastic, that while I would never want to live through that experience again, I wish I found out how much alcohol was holding me back at a much younger age. Hopefully by reading this article I can give someone else the nudge I wish I was given to make a change without having to come so close to death.
Sleep
Almost immediately you will notice that you sleep better. Alcohol may help you initially fall asleep as it’s basically a sedative, but I often found that even with a few drinks I would always have a broken or poor overall sleep. As soon as I stopped drinking I noticed that I would often go the entire night without waking, and as such wake up much more rested with better energy levels. Alcohol is a diuretic, which basically means your body creates more urine than the amount of liquid you consume which ends up dehydrating you. No longer do I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee because I’ve had a couple of beers, resulting in a better, longer and deeper sleep. It might seem silly but when it’s -20 outside leaving bed is a pretty hard task!
Happiness
The second immediate thing I noticed was how much happier I was in general. This one wasn’t immediately significant, as it took me a few weeks to realise that I hadn’t had “one of those days”, but now that I know how big of a part alcohol was playing in my depressive and dark moods, it’s definitely one of the biggest factors in why I think stopping drinking is a massive step forward for a lot of people to find happiness. I never really got angry as I was always pretty level headed even when drunk, but I could sometimes get frustrated or irritated easily the next day after a few drinks. This is no longer the case, I find that my patience is seemingly endless, and I find I enjoy pretty much everything I do so much more.
Relationships
I think this flows on from the previous benefit, as with me being a much happier person, I connect and have much better relationships with pretty much everyone I meet. I’ve always been laid back, but in the past 6 months I’ve found that my connections with people are much deeper and longer lasting, and I enjoy my relationships I have with people so much more. This has been doubly noticeable with travelling as I am constantly meeting new people from all over the world. I think people can sense that I am happy, and as such enjoy my company a lot more which in turn makes the relationship stronger.
No more hangovers!
It’s no joke that as you get older the hangovers get worse. When you’re in your late teens or early twenties you can somehow drink for days seemingly without consequence and I often did, but as I got closer to 30 I noticed I would get hungover easier and they would be much more intense. Not only this, but like many of you I got the dreaded Sunday scaries. A few too many drinks on a Saturday night would often lead to Sunday being my least favorite day of the week. Not only did a full week of work seemingly loom over me, the alcohol induced anxiety meant I would often waste the day wallowing in self pitty. This is also a major regret I have of my twenties, where I wasted many a day in some foreign hostel hungover and not out exploring the many wonders of whatever foreign land I was in. It’s true what they say about drinking and how it’s just borrowing happiness from tomorrow! There is always a debt to be repaid with interest!
Health
One of the longer taking side affects I have experienced. It took a couple of months for me to notice I was seemingly shedding excess fat without changing a single thing apart from stopping drinking. Upon closer inspection though, I had made some subtle changes. Cutting out the 2am kebabs, the next morning maccas runs, the too lazy to cook so order a pizza, has had made a huge difference in my physique. I’ve always been lean thanks to my work and natural build, but I am in the best shape of my life thanks all of the other factors mentioned above. I have more energy so I exercise more. I eat better because I don’t crave fast food. I cut out all of the calories I would have otherwise consumed from all the alcohol. The biggest difference has been in my face and stomach, where men often carry a lot of water weight. My face is leaner and more defined, giving me a much healthier look, and I no longer have that bloated belly feeling so abs have returned without even trying.
Money!
Now this is a financial independence blog so this is the one we will all love. I have saved a fortune by not drinking. Like holy shit it’s ridiculous how much money I have quite literally pissed up the wall in my lifetime. I could easily spend a $150-$200 AUD just on a night out with drinks, a meal and an uber. Now because I don’t drink I drive everywhere which cuts out the 2 ubers I would normally have to get. I get to give my mates a lift home which saves them money and also makes me feel good knowing they won’t be tempted to drive. I might have a few non alcohol beers or drinks which is a fraction of what it would cost to have alcoholic ones, and some of them are actually pretty good, here in Norway especially! Norwegians love Christmas (Jule) and seemingly everything gets its own special Christmas themed packaging. Here is a very merry non alcoholic beer I got from the supermarket which cost 28 NOK per six pack, or about $4.20 AUD. Compared to 180 NOK ($27) for an alcoholic beer six pack from the same shops or 100-150 NOK ($15-$22 AUD) per beer from a pub or bar! Drinking in Scandinavia especially isn’t for the frugal.
For the sake of my curiosity, I had a look at what not drinking might eventually compound to in my life time. These are extremely conservative numbers. Assuming I spend roughly $75 a week on alcohol and alcohol related expenses like ubers, drinks, fast food etc, compounded at 7% for 50 years (Hopefully I live to 80!), works out to nearly 2 million dollars. If I live to 100, this compounds to a ridiculous $7,630,548.93. Imagine the difference I can make to charity or my family when I die with that much money, and to think you couldn’t pay me to drink these days!
To sum it all up
It’s pretty easy to see that what little short lived pleasure I did get from drinking, is dwarfed by the incredible and life changing benefits I now enjoy from not consuming alcohol. I quite happily will not pick up the bottle again, and I hope that this article helps someone else either cut back or stop entirely too. If somebody told me before my crash I was an alcoholic I would have laughed at them. I often went a whole month doing dry July etc, but always would up drinking heavily again soon after. I came across someone who completely changed my perception of the word alcoholic. They said “an alcoholic is someone who’s life changes significantly for the better when they stop drinking”, rather than someone who simply can’t stop themselves from drinking. I definitely fell into this category, and unfortunately a lot of the people I know do too, but it’s too easy and too encouraged to drink in society these days that sadly the majority of them won’t get to experience how amazing and beautiful a life without alcohol is. It will be hard to say no, especially over festive seasons, but your waste, wallet and well being will love you for it!
