Tips for moderating your alcohol intake<\/a><\/p>\nA recent poll shows 44 per cent of Australians who drink alcohol want to drink less or stop altogether. There are strategies to help.<\/p>\n
Some readers found quitting alcohol easier on their social lives than others.<\/p>\n
“I stopped drinking alcohol almost two years ago, and I feel great.<\/p>\n
“Every time I’m out at a social event, I grab a glass of orange juice instead, which I enjoy. I can honestly remember the event, my conversations, and driving home safely.<\/p>\n
“It’s also helped me save money [by not spending] on alcohol and Uber!” \u2014 Sri<\/p>\n
“When my partner had to give up alcohol for medical reasons, I kept drinking for a while, but eventually gave up too.<\/p>\n
“Now, about eight years down the track, I can confidently say that I don’t drink at all and I’m happy to tell people that when out socially.<\/p>\n
“I am always pleased to feel in control.” \u2014 Jenny<\/p>\n
“I was never a big drinker, but drinking was a ubiquitous part of my social fabric. I had my last drink about six months ago and haven’t really looked back. I’m not noticeably fitter or healthier, but I don’t have the subtle negative mental health impacts for the two or three days after having a few drinks.<\/p>\n
“A few short years ago, the idea of it being ‘normal’ for a middle-aged, middle- class guy in Australia to not drink seemed preposterous, yet now more and more of my mates have quit drinking entirely.<\/p>\n
“Cheers to that, I say!” \u2014 Rob<\/p>\n
![\"Glass](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9343e21aa2094dcae889a19fded03670.jpeg\")
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Readers say they’ve made a habit of ordering juice, soda water or soft drink instead. (Pexels: Towfiqu Barbhuiya)<\/p>\n
‘One did matter’<\/p>\n
For other readers, alcohol is something they still miss, but it’s simply not worth it.<\/p>\n
“I gave up drinking alcohol the day after Anzac Day in 2023.<\/p>\n
“At the time, I owned and operated a wedding reception venue. Drinking alcohol was just par for the course, except it wasn’t. COVID-19 had been a proverbial nightmare, and my consumption was getting progressively worse. I had a fully stocked bar and no supervision.<\/p>\n
“After that Anzac Day, I felt truly awful. I decided that morning, enough was enough.<\/p>\n
The main issue for me was that I didn’t just consume wine; I studied it, and I loved the whole wine-making process. It was a huge part of my life.<\/p>\n
“My friends would forever say ‘have a glass, one won’t hurt’, but I had come to the sad realisation that one did matter.<\/p>\n
“I have lost friends as I’m no longer the instigator of long lunches or inviting them over to share ‘a little jewel I’ve found’.<\/p>\n
“I felt part of what was me had gone. Three years later, when asked if I miss ‘it’, I say, ‘only between the hours of 7am and 11pm. The rest of the time, no’.” \u2014 Miles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever wondered what your life would look like without alcohol? Natalie Jones recently wrote about how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[337730,64,63,337726,337731,337727,134,337728,337729,1625,337725,127591,171375,144205],"class_list":["post-692153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alcohol-free-drinking","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-drinking-less","tag-drinking-without-alcohol","tag-dry-july","tag-entertainment","tag-giving-up-alcohol","tag-how-to-stop-drinking","tag-lifestyle","tag-non-alcoholic","tag-quitting-alcohol","tag-sober","tag-sobriety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}