The Top 11 Benefits Of Quitting Alcohol
When you make a decision to quit drinking alcohol and recover from your addiction, you are a step away towards experiencing its long list of benefits.
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Below are the things you will gain as you start living in sobriety:
You will feel better
Alcohol isn’t healthy. Period. There may be studies out there extolling the positive benefits of alcohol, however, binge and chronic drinking are dangerous.
Your liver works double or triple time to process the drug within your system when you drink beyond the moderate levels. Your brain numbs. Your heart and lungs work abnormally.
In contrast, those who don’t drink are a lot healthier. Since their bodies are not pre-occupied with getting rid of the deadly toxins, they can use their energies for other important tasks. When this happens, the mind and the body work together at optimum levels.
When you drink moderate amounts, it can help relieve stress. However, in excess amounts, it can cause you to make choices you will later regret.
Short-term side effects of excessive drinking are slurred speech, altered emotions, sleepiness and disruption in sleeping patterns, and lower core body temperature.
The long-term effects of consuming too much alcohol include disruption of the brain’s normal development, cancer, liver disease, cardiovascular diseases, nerve damage, respiratory infections, ulcers, and lowered sperm production,
Each person is different in how long it will take to feel better. The good thing about alcohol is, it doesn’t stay in your body for too long. Even if you’re a long-term alcoholic, you can detox in about a week or so, providing you eat well and exercise.
Admittedly, too much alcohol can take a toll on your emotions. You may even experience a co-occurring disorder such as anxiety. However, the elimination of alcohol can help you feel more mentally and emotionally stable.
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You will look younger and healthier
You must keep in mind that alcohol is a diuretic. This means that it will dehydrate your body, and elasticity is reduced as well. This results in you looking older than your actual age.
Your body’s tissues also become inflamed when you consume alcohol. A person’s face is sometimes noticeably flushed after having a few drinks. The inflammation of the skin is what causes the red flushness. Of course, the redness will disappear as the substance leaves your body. However, the frequent inflammation to your skin will eventually damage it.
According to the National Institutes of Health, skin changes are one of the initial clinical signs of substance use disorder. The abuse of alcohol can present with hyperpigmentation, jaundice, psoriasis, and other skin disorders.
Those who are not healthy enough may suffer from decreased collagen levels, or worse, jaundice or the yellowing of the skin and eyes. This is a serious medical condition that should not be taken lightly because the liver is no longer able to process the toxins entering the system.
Moreover, when the protein level inside the body is affected, collagen suffers. This is the structural protein responsible for making the skin look healthy and glowing. The lack of it can cause the sagging of the skin.
So, if you want to have good, flawless skin, just avoid alcohol in all its forms.
You will improve your financial standing
Ask anyone who has quit consuming alcohol and they will tell you that making that decision was life-changing in so many ways. It’s because the benefits not only have positive effects on your body; it will also do you wonders – financially.
A study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), reports that excessive alcohol use is causing a severe drain in the US economy, primarily due to money spent and losses in terms of workplace productivity.
This study should serve as a wake-up call to those who spend more on drinks than on other more important needs or financial obligations. Kick the habit and observe how your savings start to increase.
Moreover, the alcohol spending calculator by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism can give you an overview of how much you have been spending for this substance.
For example, if you have been drinking two servings of your favorite alcohol beverage per drinking session at $5 each in a period of three days per week, your cost is pegged at $130 monthly. Therefore, you could have been saving $1,560 each year if you did not drink alcohol.
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You will start to experience social stability
Alcoholism could have a huge impact on your social stability. It may affect you negatively as it could cause you to become isolated.
An addiction to drinking can cause you to feel ashamed, guilty, and alone. Alcohol may be a way to avoid painful emotions. You can forget that a lot of people around you love and want to spend time with you.
Going to a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous will help you feel compassion from the other members of the group. They will listen and connect with you while helping you live in sobriety. You develop a friendship with them and gain a new lease on life.
You will start losing weight
Alcohol is actually very high in calories. This is aggravated by the fact that alcohol has empty calories, which means the body processes and stores the substance as sugar and is subsequently converted to fat.
There are people, however, who have very fast metabolisms and whose bodies are not affected by their alcohol intake. But again, there are some beverages which have relatively high sugar content and may create health problems later on with some people, especially with heavy drinkers.
So if you belong to this category, it might be a good idea to give up the drinking habit. You will notice that once you trade the beer or wine bottle for a healthier beverage, your weight will start to go down. This is because your desire for carbohydrates also lessens.
Your heart will be healthier
You’ve often heard doctors say that alcohol is bad for the heart, especially for those who are highly susceptible to pulmonary diseases. According to a study by the NCBI, heart failure remains a serious health issue in the United States. In fact, an estimated 500,000 Americans per year are diagnosed with heart failure. The study found that alcohol was one of the leading causes of the disease.
The problem with consuming alcohol is that it raises the amount of fat in your body, specifically your triglyceride level. This, in turn, increases your cholesterol level.
The danger in having blood thickened by fat is its harmful affects the heart. In effect, the flow of your blood flow slows down, forcing your heart to work overtime. This can eventually lead to heart failure.
So, if you want to have a healthier heart, throw those beer bottles away and pick up a glass of milk or fruit juice. These will do wonders for your heart and overall health condition.
You will have time to find new hobbies and enjoy numerous activities when you avoid drinking alcohol
When you are drunk much of the time, you do not have time to find new exciting activities or do the things you love. Your body and mind feel so tired that you no longer have the energy to do different stuff.
By staying away from booze, you will have the stamina and drive to do a lot of things that make you happy. You can even choose to do them with your loved ones.
Furthermore, being busy with a hobby or finding a new activity that excites you will help you stay sober. You will be too preoccupied that drinking alcohol has no place in your life anymore.
You will save your liver from further damage if you decide to quit drinking alcohol now
Cirrhosis, hepatitis, and fatty liver are among the most common diseases that you could acquire as an alcoholic.
Based on the results of a study conducted by New Scientist, together with the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health at University College London Medical School, staying sober for a month can already help your liver recover. A decrease of 15{b340406b661c1e5732b86e4172a84f651d0df9d8967334cfa4a3aae0d4c8bfbd} in the amount of fat in the liver has been observed among the respondents.
This experiment only shows that if you decide to completely quit drinking alcohol, you have the chance to save your liver and live a healthier life.
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You will have the opportunity to correct your past mistakes when you are sober
Making up for your past mistakes can be easier if you are sober. While it is true that everybody has done wrong to certain people, a person under the influence of alcohol has higher chances of having committed the worse.
If you have realized that you have done wrong to some loved ones, it would be easier to extend an apology while sober.
Apologizing, though, is not yet the end of the reconciliation process. Making amends is the higher goal, which is the ninth step in the 12-step program.
A study revealed that self-blame, or recognizing your own shortcomings, will help you further the process of making amends with your loved ones, whom you have hurt while you were dependent on alcohol.
No more troubled sleep if you quit drinking alcohol
There is no truth to the claim that alcohol does not affect someone’s quality and amount of sleep. In fact, studies have proven that the substance use disorder has a negative impact on sleep patterns.No matter how sleepy you might feel when you are drunk, you still cannot enjoy a quality sleep because of your brain’s response to the substance.
The Sleep Foundation explained that two opposing activities happen inside the brain whenever you drink alcohol. The slow-wave “delta activity” works when you are in deep slumber. This helps you with learning and the formation of memory. Meanwhile, the “alpha activity” occurs when you are awake.
While they have different purposes and time of occurrence, both of these brain activities happen when there is alcohol in your system. Their contradicting functions trigger your inability to have a restorative sleep.
After quitting, do not expect that you can immediately experience a better sleep. There is even a chance that you would experience insomnia as a side effect of withdrawal. This may last for weeks or months.
In the meantime, it is also possible that anxiety and nervousness could be the culprit of the said condition. Your thoughts might have caused the sleepless nights. Your fear of the unknown or thinking about what the future might bring for someone who has not felt sobriety for a while could be what is stopping you from enjoying a deep sleep.
When alcohol is out of your system you have a focused perspective
Accomplishing your dreams could be one of your objectives right now. However, it takes sobriety to achieve your goal. Dealing with a hangover, exhaustion, and illness may limit your capacity to focus on your life goals.
Being under the influence of alcohol decreases your brain’s capacity to think. According to Washington and Lee University, this substance can impair your brain function. It can possibly affect how you think and respond to circumstances and opportunities.
No matter how simple or grand your goals are, it does not matter. By completely putting an end to your old habit of drinking alcohol, many doors will open for you that otherwise wouldn’t have been closed.
Do you need some help in achieving your ultimate aim of remaining sober? We are here for you!
Want more information about how Chapters Capistrano can help? Feel free to call 949-276-2886 and one of our addiction specialists will help get the information and help you need.
