The reasons why I stopped drinking are mostly quite simple, though there is some complexity anptd darkness behind my story too. I'm going to mostly stick the former in online spaces and public.
Simply put, alcohol is bad for you. I had already been cutting back more and more as I got older. Short term negative effects like hangovers or disrupted circadian rhythms and poor sleep always outweighed whatever benefits I thought I was enjoying by drinking. Sleep is always important, but getting older and post-pandemic burnout have made it crucial.
Besides sleep, I think about cancer a lot. I'm already a (malignant melanoma) cancer survivor, and most of my relatives have succumbed to one form of the disease or another when they passed. Keeping cancer out of me is a priority.
I don't sweat heart disease much, but knowing I'm helping myself on that front is valuable to me too. Liver damage is a bigger concern than I would have thought when I was younger. It doesn't have to be a full on liver failure, but simply seeing the aged deal with edema and swollen feet was enough to drive me off somewhat.
Last but not least, I figure I need every brain cell I can keep, so not killing them on purpose might be a good idea. Cutting back was a good idea, but I reached a point where I asked myself if it might be simpler to avoid decision fatigue on when a drink is or isn't appropriate and make ultimate abstention a way of life. I've drank, I've tasted plenty of forms of alcohol, and experienced all of booze I need to.
I hope to use this publication to share what I've observed about being a non-drinker. I don't like the term 'sober' which applies that you're drunk the rest of the time, which I certainly wasn't. 'Tea-totaller' sounds dorky, and I don't drink tea that much anyway. I like 'non-drinker' as a label because it states the truth - no more, no less.