Your life would be better sober.

Here's why:

Think of the financial cost.

Alcohol is expensive!

I used to spend more than $600 a month on alcohol. When I was in college, that would have paid my rent and then some. Last year, that paid off 24% of my student loan. Now, that means I can invest $7200 per year.

Even if your health isn't a concern you could save so much with one decision.

Then think of your health & fitness.

Alcohol is poison.

Regardless of whether you are concerned about your immediate health or not, there is no question that alcohol is harmful to your body. You will sleep better without alcohol. You will be leaner without the calories from alcohol. Your exercise will work better.

Alcohol just makes living healthy harder.

Think of your mental health.

Alcohol is a depressant.

Whether you drink to forget about your social anxiety or drink to feel nothing at all, you're achieving the same result. Alcohol shuts down the functioning of the forebrain, our self. It causes uninhibition the same way it causes obliteration. At the moment it feels good, but each time we wake up feeling a little worse than before.

After the first three weeks, each day you wake up sober you feel a little better than before.

Ending a cycle of shame.

Like a content flywheel, but totally evil.

Something that leads to shame leads to drinking. Leads to temporary relief. Followed by a steep blowback of depression, which leads to more drinking.

When addicted to alcohol, we often drink to suppress a sense of shame, but we can't begin to heal until we stop the monster's flywheel.

Alcohol didn't give me anything.

I don’t say I “gave up” alcohol anymore because there was nothing that it gave me.

At the time, I certainly thought that it did. I drank because it made me feel like I could do anything. Or rather, it made me careless and impulsive enough to do anything. I drank because it eased my social anxiety — and yet, I never seemed to form lasting relationships as a result. I drank because it made me more confident—and yet I lost confidence in my skills, my mind, and myself with each passing year.

Once I stopped drinking, I realized what I thought I gained was nothing.

But the relief and healing that followed sobriety was something worthwhile.