Is Quitting Drinking Hard? Yes—But Drinking Is Harder

Is Quitting Drinking Hard? Yes—But Drinking Is Harder

by | Apr 15, 2025 | Alcohol Free, Blog, Early Sobriety, Expectations, Helpful Tips

Is Quitting Drinking Hard? Yes—But Drinking Is Harder

When faced with the question, “Is quitting drinking hard?” the honest answer is—yes, it can be. But if you have a problematic relationship with alcohol, the challenges of quitting pale in comparison to the difficulties of continuing down the path of self-destruction that drinking often leads to.

In this post, we’ll explore why quitting drinking can feel hard and why it’s even harder to keep drinking. Stick around to discover the brighter side of sobriety and the immense rewards that come with it.

Why Quitting Drinking Can Be Hard

  1. Physical Detox
    When you stop drinking, your body needs to detoxify from alcohol. This process can be physically uncomfortable, especially in the first 72 hours. Symptoms like night sweats, brain fog, and stomach issues are common. In severe cases, quitting alcohol cold turkey can even be life-threatening. If you’re concerned, consult a healthcare provider before quitting.
  2. Breaking Old Habits
    Alcohol is often deeply ingrained in daily routines. Letting go of these patterns and forming new habits takes effort and time. For example, if your typical “witching hour” is 5–6 PM, you might need to find a new activity, like hitting the gym or joining a pickleball league.
  3. Lack of a Support System
    Starting an alcohol-free journey can feel isolating, especially if your social circle revolves around drinking. Online sobriety communities and peer support groups can help you build essential connections for long-term success.
  4. A World Built Around Alcohol
    From social events to advertisements, alcohol is everywhere. Living in a “drunk world” makes it harder to escape its influence, especially in the early days of sobriety.
  5. Facing Boredom
    Many of us have been conditioned to avoid boredom at all costs. However, boredom is a natural and even healthy state. Learning to sit with it instead of escaping into drinking can be an adjustment.

Why Continuing to Drink Is Even Harder

While quitting drinking has its challenges, continuing to drink when you have a problem is exponentially harder. Here’s why:

  1. Alcoholism Progresses
    Alcohol problems don’t resolve themselves; they get worse over time. Continuing to drink leads to physical, emotional, and relational destruction. This is what some call a “slow suicide.”
  2. Emotional and Physical Toll
    The stress of trying to manage drinking—apologizing for drunken behavior, covering up mistakes, and dealing with hangovers—is exhausting. Living with addiction means carrying a heavier burden each day.
  3. Impact on Loved Ones
    Drinking doesn’t just affect you; it affects everyone around you. Addiction erodes relationships and can create lasting pain for those you care about.

Why Sobriety Is Worth It

Here’s the good news: once you move past the initial hurdles, sobriety brings rewards that far outweigh the challenges.

  1. Physical and Mental Clarity
    After 14–21 days, the fog begins to lift. You’ll feel more energized and present, as if waking up after years of sleepwalking.
  2. Self-Care at Its Best
    Quitting drinking is an act of radical self-love. It feels good to prioritize your well-being and treat yourself with kindness.
  3. A Calmer, More Stable Life
    No more waking up to check embarrassing texts or struggling through work with a hangover. Your mornings become brighter, your finances improve, and life feels more manageable.
  4. Rebalanced Dopamine Levels
    Alcohol creates an unhealthy dopamine imbalance, giving short bursts of pleasure followed by long stretches of discomfort. Sobriety allows your brain to rebalance naturally, leading to sustainable happiness without the harsh trade-offs.
  5. Living Life at Face Value
    Without alcohol, you experience life as it is—raw, real, and beautiful. This authenticity allows you to build a life that doesn’t require escape or numbing.

Final Thoughts

Yes, quitting drinking can be hard. But continuing to drink when alcohol has become a problem is far harder. Sobriety offers a chance to reclaim your life, find lasting joy, and be the best version of yourself—for you and those around you.

The journey to an alcohol-free life is worth every step. The question is: Which hard will you choose?

Are you ready to paddle downstream and embrace the magic of sobriety? Let us know in the comments!

🎧 For more on this topic, check out Episode 476 of the Recovery Elevator podcast, hosted by Paul Churchill.

What Recovery Pathway is Right for Me?

What Recovery Pathway is Right for Me?

by | Jul 11, 2023 | Alcohol Free, Blog, Early Sobriety, Helpful Tips

 

In our Dry January course, REstore, Paul teaches a class covering the different recovery modalities.  The good news is that In 2023, there are more ways to ditch the booze than ever before. Even just 10 years ago recovery took place in church basements with bad coffee and shitty donuts, but today the landscape is much different. 

 

**Side note, Paul still goes to an AA meeting, in a church basement with bad coffee. He’s not dawging that way of recovery, he loves his Tuesday night AA meeting, but there are so many more methods, programs, techniques…you name it…available today.  

 

So which pathway is right for you?

 

A couple caveats before we begin.

Caveat 1. If you are READY then ANY pathway is going to work for you. If you’re truly sick and tired of being sick and tired, then any of these programs will work. In addition, you HAVE to give them a solid try. 

Caveat 2 – There is no right or wrong way to quit drinking. We’re going to give some recommendations, but it’s up to you to figure out what works best for you.

When building your recovery portfolio you want this work to be 50% external  –  50% internal. At first, the internal work may be too big of an ask, but as your nervous system settles down, you want to aim for a balanced split. 

 

Here are some quick examples of what external vs internal is:

External

  • Driving to an AA meeting, or hopping on a Café RE zoom chat
  • Phoning a sober friend
  • Working with a sponsor

Internal

  • Meditation
  • Journaling
  • Reading quit lit

 

When building out your recovery pathway Paul recommends this 5 tiered approach. .

5 Tiered Approach

  1. Community
  2. Action/Movement
  3. Inner Peace
  4. Knowledge
  5. Universe

 

  1. Community – Let’s talk programs that are community focused.

A.A., Smart Recovery, Dharma Recovery, Life Ring, Women for Recovery, Café RE, The Lucky Club, Meetup.com, online sober communities, Reddit, talkingsober.com, our sober Ukulele Course, Dry January and Photo courses, phoning a sober friend, 1:1 Interaction within another person in recovery. Meeting with a counselor or therapist falls under this community approach.

All of these tiers are important but this one is a BIG ONE. In order for you to get the most out of this, you have to first burn the ships, with yourself, then with your community. Burning the ships = Accountability which then = Community.

  1. Action/Movement 

Yoga, dance, music, ecstatic dance, hiking, stretching, running, swimming, drumming on your desk. Your body is meant to move. Chemicals of wellbeing, endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin are released when we move. 3x a week, for 20 min is a good starting point.

  1. Inner Peace/Creation 

Meditation, breathwork, sunrises, sunsets, time spent in nature, time spent with animals, float tank, relaxing, chanting, journaling, inner child work, singing, playing music, painting, writing poetry. This is where you create your new life that no longer requires alcohol. One reason why pen to paper is so effective is you can’t write as fast as the mind can think, so it slows down the thinking mind.

About animals – their nervous systems are much more intact, or less frenzied than ours. Animals live life from the hearts opposed to their human counterparts who live mostly in thought. A recent study shows that similar amount of oxytocin is released when we hug a dog compared to when we hug a human. And flip side to that, oxytocin, or the love molecule is released in dogs, when we pet them. If you’re feeling fraught, visit a petting zoo or kick it with a pet. Human nervous systems can attune themselves to more stable nervous systems, even those of animals.

  1. Knowledge

This is learning. This is empowering yourself with information. Podcasts, quit lit books, audiobooks, learn about healthy diets, learn about how the mind works. No you cannot read or listen yourself out of an addiction, but this is an important tier. Under this umbrella includes medicines both from the east and west. Perhaps Naltrexone, or the Sinclair method is something you may want to try. Naltrexone is a medication that blocks the euphoria response when we drink alcohol.  Perhaps more shamanic approaches with medicines such as ayahuasca, psilocybin, San Pedro or Ibogaine may be right for you.

  1. The Universe

Lets get clear, this is not religion, but it is the spirituality component of recovery. One of the beautiful purposes of an addiction is it can flex the layers of the ego so much that they eventually snap…letting in what some will call their higher power.  

When you say lines to yourself like,  “I can’t live like this anymore.” The Universe is right there with you saying, “no problem, let me show you the way.”  

Now go slow with the universe. This was the last of the five tiers to implement itself in Paul’s sobriety journey. This one most likely is on the universe’s clock and not yours. But be open, pay attention to the breadcrumbs of life and don’t be afraid to ask for assistance or guidance from the universe at any time. 

There’s a well remixed line that has been floating around for several thousand years. Ask and you shall receive.

 

To recap, 50% internal, 50% external and hit a couple things from the five tiers ,and you’ll be just fine. 

 

Remember, your recovery is always changing, because you are. It should change. What you’re doing now should look different than what you were doing a month or year ago. 

 

***Taken from Recovery Elevator Podcast, Episode 425, host Paul Churchill***

 

Do I have a Drinking Problem? 

Do I have a Drinking Problem? 

by | May 15, 2023 | Alcohol Free, Blog, Helpful Tips, Resources

Today is the day! Today is the day we are going to find out if you have a drinking problem…or not. Are you ready?

For Paul, when it finally sunk in that he did indeed have a drinking problem (and a good one at that!) two things happened. 

First…he was like, “Oh F&#K!”  

Then…immediately after, as this truth spread into his body, to his bones, to his conscious, his unconscious, to the heart, to the liver, something neat happened. An incredible amount of energy was instantly liberated. 

For two reasons. 

  1. The stigma or label of an alcoholic didn’t change who he was. He was still alive. 
  2. But more importantly…all the energy, the incessant thinking he had of…
  • Do I drink, or not? 
  • Do I have a problem, or not? 
  • How am I going to control my next session of drinking?
  • How am I going to hide it?
  • Let’s do our best not to black out before 8 pm.
  • Do I have enough shitty box wine back home?
  • Let’s not let people know we’ve already had 9 drinks before meeting up at the bar.

 

ALL of that went away instantly. 

In fact the worst place a person can be with a drinking problem is in limbo. The do I or don’t I phase.  (Paul covers this in Episode 417).

 

So for this diagnostic, we are going to use the test listed in the DSM 5, or the diagnostically statical manual which is what most psychologists and/or therapists have somewhere on their shelves. 

 

There’s 11 YES or NO questions.  If you answer YES to 2 of the questions, if you meet 2 of the 11 criteria, within the past 12 months, they call it an Alcohol Use Disorder.

THE TEST
  1. Do you sometimes have difficulty controlling how much you drink or for how long you drink alcohol?
  2. Have you made unsuccessful attempts to cut down your drinking?
  3. Do you sometimes spend a significant amount of time drinking or recovering from drinking?
  4. Has your alcohol use had any negative consequences at home, school, or work? (Have you ever lost time off work because of your drinking?)
  5. Has your alcohol use had any negative consequences to your relationships or social life? (Have you ever concealed how much you drink? Has anyone ever commented on your drinking?)
  6. Have you continued to use despite any negative consequences?
  7. Have you put off things or neglected to do things because of your alcohol use? (Have you ever disappointed your family or friends? Have you ever missed a family event?)
  8. Do you occasionally have strong cravings for alcohol?
  9. Has your tolerance for alcohol increased? Are you able to drink more than you did before?
  10. Have you experienced withdrawal symptoms the next day after drinking? (Have you ever been shaky or sweaty that evening or the next day?)
  11. Has your alcohol use led to any dangerous situations? (Have you ever been charged with impaired driving?)

 

Paul has always strived to be a good student, and was “happy” to report a score of 100%. 11/11. For shits and giggles, let’s’ cover what it means if you didn’t ace this like he did.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS

The presence of at least two of these symptoms means you have an AUD. If you have two to three symptoms, it’s considered mild; four to five symptoms is considered moderate; six or more symptoms is considered severe. (If you don’t fall into the severe category, a mild diagnosis can still warrant concern, as it may be the start of a larger problem.)

 

A couple things before we wrap this up.  If you have a drinking problem, life isn’t over…in fact, it’s just beginning. 

Some of you may have just learned you have a drinking problem. If this is devastating to you, go to Episode 411 where Paul talks about the grateful alcoholic. 

 

Paul had one more bit of info in his notes from Episode 428  If you find yourself listening to a sobriety podcast (or reading this blog), and you’re not a therapist, a doctor, or listening so that you can  support a loved one, then YOU have a drinking problem. If you question whether or not  you have a drinking problem, you just answered that question.  The bigger question is…what are you going to do about it?

***Taken from Recovery Elevator Podcast, Episode 428, host Paul Churchill***

 

Dopamine

Dopamine

by | Mar 15, 2023 | Alcohol Free, Helpful Tips, Science and alcohol

Let’s talk about dopamine!

 

If we are to properly discuss alcohol addiction we will soon come to the molecule dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter commonly coined as the pleasure molecule, but that’s not entirely correct. Dopamine is more accurately described as the learning molecule. However, it’s definitely a combination of both. Dopamine is the molecule that has kept us alive for thousands of years. It’s the chemical that drives us to eat, to find warmth, shelter, to find a mate, and puts a smile on our faces when we high five or hug another human being. 

 

Another neat fact about dopamine is once we take action towards a goal, we get a little blast of dopamine. The human dopamine system is like a see-saw, as a dopamine hit brings about pleasure, and then is quickly followed by pain or a lack of dopamine. What goes up, must come down. This is to keep us motivated and it worked great when we were hunters and gatherers and we had to constantly search for our basic needs – food, water, and shelter.

 

But, in the modern world we live in a world of abundance rather than scarcity, and our brains have not evolved for the “fire hose of dopamine” of sugar, social media, TV, sex, drugs, ALCOHOL, or any number of dopamine-triggering stimuli so easily available. 

 

In short, it could be said that in the modern era, we are all addicts running from fix to fix, which is a reason why on average people open their smartphones around 100 times per day averaging 2,600 swipes, taps, or touches. 

 

Many of us reached a phase in our drinking when we no longer drank to feel good, instead we drank to feel “normal”.   I know there are some heads nodding right now.  

 

This is 100% tied to dopamine.

 

 

When we drink we open the flood gates to the dopamine system, and then the dopamine system tries to reset itself by creating a deficit the next day, or next couple of days. We then are even more motivated to reach for that drink to offset the treacherous feelings of the dopamine deficit. Think merry-go-round.  ?

 

When people do cold plunges, or ice baths, it has the same effect on the dopamine system..but backwards. You experience the pain of the cold water first, then you get a rush of feel good dopamine.  Cold plungers are chasing dopamine just like alcoholics.

 

Countless books have been written on what addition is and its causes. Most would agree it isn’t any one thing, but many things. One reason why some are more susceptible for addiction is based on the makeup of their dopamine system. We have nearly 8 billion humans on the planet and there are 8 billion different dopamine systems. We don’t all experience pleasure and pain the same. When we put our hands in front of a fire, we don’t all feel the warmth equally

 

It’s quite possible that those who struggle with addiction have enhanced dopamine receptors.  Does everyone have the same experience when they take their first drink?  Absolutely not.   But one commonality that Paul has noticed after interviewing hundreds on the Recovery Elevator podcast is that when those of us that struggle with alcohol take our first drink there’s a light show going off in our dopamine system. 

 

On the flip side, Paul has asked many normal drinkers what their first drink was like, and the common response was eh, it was okay. 

 

This lends truth to the idea that those with enhanced dopamine receptors are more prone to addiction.

 

Let’s get real. We need that dopamine hit. As human beings after all, it’s what keeps us going, it’s what keeps us alive. 

 

So what are healthy, or healthier, ways to get that dopamine hit?  What is the best form of dopamine? Or perhaps the safest? 

 

Well here’s a couple of ideas…

 

Intimate connection with other human beings. “We know that when we make intimate human connections, oxytocin binds dopamine, releasing neurons in the reward pathway and dopamine is released and it feels really good.” 

 

The opposite of addiction is connection.

 

Radical honesty – Dopamine is released when we are radically honest with ourselves and others. Studies show that when we are honest about who we are, what we can and can’t control, a healthy amount of dopamine is released. (To be fair, dopamine is also released when we are dishonest.)  

 

Here’s another thing to remember with dopamine. Neurologically, neurons that fire together wire together. When we drink we reinforce dopamine pathways related to alcohol making it harder for us to release dopamine in healthier ways.

If you’re looking for more info on Dopamine, I highly recommend the book Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke.

 

***Taken from Recovery Elevator Podcast, episode 415, host Paul Churchill***

 

A Message to Big Alcohol

A Message to Big Alcohol

by | Jan 14, 2023 | Alcohol Free, Big Alcohol, Early Sobriety, Expectations, Resources

406 episodes of the Recovery Elevator Podcast were released before there was an intro with the main message being addressed to Big Alcohol.  Why do you think that is?  That’s a lot of Mondays to not tell Big Alcohol what we think, (or where to stick it ?).  Why wasn’t this addressed before episode 407: A Message to Big Alcohol…?

Well, like Paul said…we have limited time together and it feels like a better use of our time discussing how to build a new life that no longer requires alcohol, instead of fighting Big Alcohol, or fighting the past. 

In fact, although you may not feel like it right now…if you keep moving forward, if you don’t quit quitting, and you keep doing the next right thing, one day at a time…you may just find yourself thanking Big Alcohol for giving you the life you have today. Crazy to imagine, right?  I know it was for me.  But it absolutely is true today.  I am thankful for where my struggle with Big Alcohol has led me.  

 

So here we are…let’s call out a couple of things regarding Big Alcohol, and maybe, there is a way we can work together.

 

First off, let’s get real for a second Big Alcohol. We both know your business model doesn’t survive off normal drinkers. Your lights are on, your doors are open, salaries are paid because of problematic drinkers…aka: alcoholics. 

 

This is called the 80/20 rule in business and for Big Alcohol, it’s probably a 90/10 rule. This means that 90% of revenues are coming from 10% customers. 

 

Let’s take a normal drinker. This is someone who buys a six pack of Coors Light, drinks 2-3 beers, and the remaining 3-4 cans sit in the refrigerator in the garage for the next couple weeks or months. 

 

That is one type of customer. 

 

Then take the alcoholic.  This is someone who buys a 12, 18, 24, or 30 pack of Coors Light… daily. Where do you think your revenue is coming from? This question is rhetorical because they already know this. 

 

 

Big Alcohol, we bring this up because there needs to be accountability on your part…and here’s some reasons why:

 

◾️Yes, it’s the individual who is drinking excessively, but the data and science support that alcohol is the most dangerous and addictive drug on the planet.

It kills more people each year than every other drug combined. An estimated 40-75% of occupied hospital beds have underpinnings to alcohol. In 2010, a Doctor named Dr. David Nutt, hired by the British government, was tasked to put a harm score on the world’s 20 most addictive drugs. Alcohol came in at #1. In 1958 the American Medical Association classified alcoholism as a disease. 

 

◾️No amount of alcohol consumed is beneficial to the consumer.

This a myth that you, Big Alcohol, tries to perpetuate. In the Mid 2010’s the government funded agency the NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) performed a study to see if alcohol consumption was good for you.

The answer was…YES.  Say whattttt??  ?  However, it then became known the study was funded by Big Alcohol. No surprise the answer was yes!  ?

In reality, no quantity of ethanol is good for you. The Huberman Lab Podcast has a fantastic episode about the effects of alcohol on your mind and body. The Stanford University Neuroscientists confirmed that no amount of alcohol is good for you.

 

◾️And let’s talk trash, garbage or waste.

A couple months ago Paul had new brakes installed on his vehicle and he rode his bike home from the mechanic after dropping off his truck. He took a scenic county road home for about 7 miles. While hugging the side of the road he was astonished by the amount of empty alcohol containers that littered the shoulder.

Keep in mind, this was in the part of the grass that had been maintained.  Paul said he guessed there was triple or quadruple the amount of empty bottles and cans in the taller grass. (Now to be fair, he did see empty gatorade bottles, and trash that was not related to alcohol, but he said if he had to guess it was a 10/1 ratio.). Paul estimated there was an empty alcohol container every 100 feet (and that’s a safe estimate). With some easy math that put 52 bottles, or cans, every mile totaling over 350 pieces of trash on his 7 mile bike ride. That figure would be way higher if one were to walk through the taller grass.

This past October Paul did a retreat in Peru. One of their tasks was to pick up trash around a sacred temple about 20 miles outside of Cusco, which once was the capital of the Inca Empire. They filled about 4 trash bags, and again about a 10/1 ratio of alcohol containers to other trash. 

 

Big Alcohol’s footprint is all over the globe; societal wreckage, physical disease, and in the form of excessive trash.

 

As human beings there is a goal that many of us share. That is to make this world a better place. ??
Big Alcohol, let me ask you this question, are you making the world a better place?

 

What impact are you having on society? On the fabric of family systems? Are you adding or subtracting to this world? Are you a net benefit? Or a net drain? What do you stand for Big Alcohol? Are you okay with your customers discarding your product waste into nature? Into my backyard? Into your backyard? Big Alcohol, your name, your brand, your message is on these containers that end up in our streams, rivers, and oceans. By all concerns you are still tied to the product, but you are not shouldering the burden after the monetary transaction has taken place. 

This.  Needs. To.  Change.   

 

As we all work on cleaning up our internal wreckage and chaos it’s time that you, Big Alcohol, start doing the same.

 

We here at Recovery Elevator are calling you out, Big Alcohol, to lean up your mess. A disproportionate amount of trash in nature is yours. It’s the RIGHT thing to do – to pick it up. We have a yearly service project at Recovery Elevator, and we’d love your help. Maybe take 1/2 a percentage of your marketing budget and help us out. 

 

Big Alcohol, if you want to work with us, we’re open to it.  Our email address is info@recoveryelevator.com.