This is why quitting alcohol sucks (i can't take it anymore)

For close to 10 years I struggled to stop drinking alcohol , yet for the past five and a half years that I haven't drank , it's been easy . I've been around alcohol countless times and I have no desire to drink . There has been a dramatic shift and as a result of the decision to not drink alcohol , every single thing in my life has got better .

But the title of this video isn't particularly positive and in this video I'm going to tell you why quitting alcohol sucks . I'm not going to sugarcoat anything in this video , but don't worry , we'll do our best to end on a positive note .

So whenever I've scrolled through YouTube and I've seen a few videos about this person not drinking for 30 days , this person not drinking for 90 days 20 benefits here , 30 benefits there it's almost like the world is split in two , and we've got people on this side that are always talking about the good things that happen when you stop drinking .

They'll talk to you about the great clarity , the great health , the great relationships , all the great things that will and do happen . And I have experienced all of those benefits . When I stopped drinking five and a half years ago , you know , I immediately lost weight . I immediately got back to the gym .

I literally probably quadrupled my income in three months because I went from working a job into having a business almost instantly . I just went into massive action mode and changed my life in every single way . So I'm not gonna discredit these people and in fact , if you go on my channel , you're gonna see me talking about the very same stuff .

But if it was all positive and it was all like rainbows and happiness and positivity , then nobody would ever fail to stop drinking because they'd just see all these benefits , they'd see all the negatives of alcohol and then that would be it , they'd move on with their life . But that's not reality . And today , in this video , I want to share reality .

I want to share what actually happens to you when you stop drinking for a prolonged period of time . See , when you stop drinking for 90 days , 30 days , six months , like the other YouTubers like to talk about , what happens is you have this point of contrast , you have somebody that was really you know .

They were down low , they had no energy , they were tired , they were lethargic , they had low self-confidence . They were overweight ? Well , maybe not , but you get the point right . Alcohol took them to a place where they could see negatives . So , of course , when they remove the negative thing of alcohol , of course all those things start disappearing .

They feel better , they wake up earlier , they have a better quality night of sleep , they save a bit of extra money , they're working a little bit harder and they just start stacking these wins .

So then , when they make a video about not drinking , they have this severe point of contrast of how life was when they drank and then they're comparing it to how they feel 30 , 90 days , a year later . But I don't see a great many deal of people talking about being five and a half years without a drink . I mean , they're out there .

But quite often we get these motivational videos of how I stopped drinking for 30 days , 90 days , six months . And listen , all those things are going to happen . I am definitely not disagreeing in any way with those individuals . I've had the same message and I have the same message .

It will change your life forever , but eventually you will reach a place where your baseline of your life has just improved . You'll reach a place where not waking up hungover is just the norm . You'll reach a place where being fit and healthy is just the norm . Having a great night of sleep is just the norm .

Now , one time in my personal life when I reached that place where it was now the norm , where making X amount of money was the norm and being healthy was the norm and having a good relationship was the norm , that's when a voice in my head kind of started peeking up like hey , leo , life's good . Now you can have one or two .

As you know , if you've watched my channel for a while , you'll know that in the past I've had that thought . I did end up drinking one or two and then nine months later destroyed everything back at ground zero . Here we go again . But why am I talking to you about this ?

Well , I'm going to be 100% transparent with you right now , but earlier on this year I had a very stressful period . I had around two to four weeks of high , high pressure and high stress .

Firstly , there was a major family issue that I can't share the ins and outs of it , right , but it was causing a tremendous amount of emotional pain and I felt under extreme pressure and stress . Then me and Orr , my girlfriend , we'd been traveling , we'd moved around , we moved here , we moved there and then work started piling up slowly , slowly .

Slowly I had pressure because I had to film more YouTube videos . And now my business , soberclearcom , where we help business owners and professionals stop drinking . It's certified by something called LegitScript and LegitScript basically goes and looks at claims that you make and how you portray things , and then they go and fact check everything .

So I then received an email from LegitScript saying Leon , please can you provide factual evidence and statistics why you use this language on your website , why you say stopping drinking is easy , why you say you've got a 92% success rate , and I can easily get all that data .

But it's again another piece of stress , which , by the way , in the end , they're totally fine with the language that I use on my website . They verified it , they fact-checked it , so that ended up being quite a good thing that happened , but it's a high pressure thing . That just landed in my inbox and there was around 10 things like this .

Now I'm not going to go and name every single one of them . But these were things that I couldn't just sit down and fix them in like an hour here , an hour there , an hour here . Some of these things were going to take a couple of weeks to resolve and it all seemed to happen all at once .

It was like you know the same when you're waiting for a bus , then five always come at once . Well , it felt a little bit like that .

And listen , I was waking up and the moment that I'd opened my eyes , I'd be like , oh right , the stress would hit and I'd go through my day , I'd do everything that I had in my power to do , but the problems were still there , they still existed . So the stress just didn't magically disappear .

And I really wanted to share this with you today because I want to be honest , I want to be real about what it's actually like to not drink alcohol , to not resort to this drug , and about what it's actually like to not drink alcohol , to not resort to this drug . And this is why quitting alcohol sucks .

Listen , when you've got that point of contrast , quitting alcohol is amazing . You'll feel so good . But I promise you one , two , three years down the line it will be normal , no-transcript . But life is still going to throw problems at you . We could get an email from XYZ with this bad news and that bad news .

And just because you don't drink doesn't mean that you're not going to have to deal with BS . You might get this person wanting your time , this thing that you did in the past . Somebody wants this , somebody wants that , and sometimes not doing these things can have tremendous consequences .

So it increases the pressure , increases the stress , and you've got to deal with it . So when you've got these people that are saying , yeah , stopping drinking , better sleep , better energy , it's true , but it's not the be all and end all of living your life as a non-drinker .

And when I say a non-drinker I mean somebody that doesn't want to go back to drinking .

Because , if you think about it , if I hadn't changed my perception of alcohol , if I hadn't ref own personal strength , if I was to ever face a difficult situation like this , with pressure , with stakes , with stress but I still think that alcohol is good at stress relief is good at helping me relax what do you think is going to happen ?

I'm not going to look at those situations and think , yeah , I'm going to be fine , I can deal with this , you know , I can get it done . I've done this kind of stuff in the past . I can do it again . I'm just going to want to escape the emotion . I'm not going to want to even take that stress on board and I don't want to be negative .

I want to be realistic . I want to kind of not necessarily warn you , but kind of share what happens , because I know a lot of people that watch this . They're struggling to stop drinking and those motivational videos will help . But I know there's a lot of people on this channel that are a few months into it , a year into it .

But I'll tell you one thing and I will promise you one thing when I've been dealing with these problems , I'm equipped to deal with them . Stress isn't necessarily a bad thing . And using alcohol as a stress reliever to escape the problems and give you a moment of silence , of escapism , of relief , of peace , what happens the next day ?

You wake up , you're lethargic , you're tired , you can't really think straight . Do you think the problems have gone away ? Do you think the stress-causing things have disappeared ?

No , what happens is you wake up the next day and you're not at 100% , and then you struggle to even deal with them , and then you've just built this reference experience of feeling stress , having a difficult situation to deal with and escaping , and , because I've not drank for five and a half years , I have built reference experience after experience after experience

of feeling stressed and coping coping naturally coping with it and dealing with the

issue . Now , I'm not saying that from a place of I'm better than anybody , or anything like that . What I am trying to say , though , is that you need to stick on this path , and when the hard things come , when the challenges come , when the stressful situations come , you are just going to be 1000 times stronger .

You'll be equipped , you'll be mentally prepared and you'll be ready to deal with those situations one by one , and every time you do that , you'll get a little bit stronger , a little bit more self-belief , a little bit more self-confidence , and if you keep sticking with your decision and you keep not drinking and you don't resort to that drug , in three years time

you could go back to the city you grew up in , and people won't even recognize you Like who's that . They look healthy , they look happy , they're smiling , they're standing up straight , they look confident , they're looking me in the eye , they're making eye contact . Who is this person you know ?

Look at this person with their family around them and look how their kids admire them . These are the kind of things that happen when you stick to that decision to not drink alcohol , and that's exactly what I want to happen . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear If you want to learn more about how we work with people .