People Share The Lesser-Known Downsides Of Alcohol

You're out with friends, drinking you're seventh gin and tonic, when suddenly your stomach starts to do "that" dance. You think you know what's about to happen.

You have no idea.

Killing You Inside

"In my alcoholism I woke up one day puking massive amounts of bright red blood. I was also sh-tting it. I had so much blood loss I almost passed out and had to call an ambulance. Turns out the combination of drinking a handle of vodka a day and throwing up caused my esophagus to split open. Blood had been constantly draining into my stomach, as I understand it. They said the puking was the main reason it went so far overboard. I didn't even quit drinking until a few months after. F-ck that. I'm 60 days sober tomorrow, feeling good, and in a cool recovery house. Physical dependence to alcohol is f-cking horrific."

meetmeinthebthrm

Physically Keeping You From Recovering

"For me, it really disrupts my ability to regulate my temperature when I’m trying to sleep. Anything more than one or two beers, I’ll either struggle to nod off or I’ll wake up four hours later overheating."

Ilovecheesenwine

Burning In The Chest

"Acid reflux"

Rare_Spot_8294

"When I was younger I had pretty much constant acid reflux from drinking, to the point that I always taking pills for it. Now that I don't drink nearly as much, it's much more rare (usually if I drink a few days in a row+eat acidic or greasy food). However, one trick I learned and still use when needed is to sleep on your left side."

"Basically, when sleeping on your back or right, you're opening your esophagus up to your stomach acid. On the left, it prevents this from happening somehow. I always remember it by 'right is wrong, left is best.'"

Aureliansh-tlist

Do All My Friends Hate Me Or Do I Just Need To Go To Sleep?

"Didn’t start happening until my late 20s/ early 30s. SEVERE panic attacks and anxiety after a heavy night of drinking"

mayorpaco

"Hangxiety."

"Alcohol is a GABA agonist. When you drink, it makes you relaxed because alcohol is a depressant and crosses the blood brain barrier. This reduces the amount of GABA your brain makes. When you sober up there is not nearly as much GABA in your brain as you need, leading to awful feelings of anxiety and that uncomfortable jumpy feeling."

C-ntdracula19

Rushing To The Bathroom

"Early morning emergency dump"

Disastrous-Brush620

"Beer sh-ts are among the worst type of sh-ts."

VXNBC

This Is A New One

"If you’re histamine intolerant or histamine sensitive, alcohol will trigger it and cause things like:"

1. Sneezing/allergy symptoms
2. Severe menstrual symptoms
3. Horrible mood/feelings of depression for the few days after drinking (even without a hangover)

Making You Slow To Everything

"150 days sober here: the “playing from behind” feeling the next morning. It would take way more effort to get the same result: waking up, getting a clear head from depressed or bizarre thoughts, guilty feelings, or strange thought patterns or actions. Body taking a beating that feels sore throughout the day. Always low water-wise. Never “regular” digestion."

"Finally getting better about 11am-2pm (I was an excellent employee despite all this; imagine what I could’ve done with a clear head/body/mind) just to look forward to doing it all over again bc that whole experience was overcame and then there’s just everyday work stress (I was a middle school teacher) that you feel like you need a reward for defeating. I left the job to take care of a family member and sobered up and have lost a bunch of weight. But waking up without basically this inhibitor spell on you for most of the day before you can feel regular again was the worst."

GMane2G

And then there's the other consequences of drinking, the ones that don't hit you physically in the way you expect or the method they affect your wallet.

Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down

"My personal one... as someone who drinks too much (not an alcoholic I don't think.. but more than I probably should.)"

"For me I've had a few struggles with depression and boy does alcohol make you feel better."

"But the day after it's much much worse. Booze dampens those pesky inner demons and gives you your confidence back but when you take it away again they're back and they're back hard."

"I can see how easy it would be to become a full blown alcoholic, the high feels worth chasing but the lows are unpleasant. Keep drinking and the lows never quite make their way through but that's a very very unhealthy way to live."

HueyLewisAndTheShoes

Keeps Adding On And On

"Calories. Alcohol has a lot of calories and you're not really avoiding that problem by drinking Michelob Ultra or vodka, though some seem to think they are."

Nyctanolis

"While that’s true, there’s a significant difference between say a vodka seltzer which is around 100 calories vs a “normal” beer at 150 or so for a 12oz vs a fruity ipa at 200 calories vs a rum and coke which could be closer to 250 calories."

"If you’re having multiple drinks that obviously gets compounded, so if you have a 6 pack of fruity beers like tangerine express ipa you’re looking at 1200 calories vs 6 vodka seltzers at 600 calories."

MastleMash

Ever Spend $15 On A Bud Light In Vegas?

"It’s expensive especially if you go out. I spent thousands and thousands of dollars going out in the past. I did the math once and it was wild. I don’t think a lot of people truly grasp the full amount."

EstusSoup

"My husband has an app that tracks how much money he's saved by quitting drinking. He plugged what his spending was when he quit 3ish years ago and it's tracked what he would have spent ever since. We have a hefty lifesavings now because of it. Now granted, we lived in LA and went to bars a lot so his spending was probably above average but it's still amazing how much more well off we are just from that."

rachface636

Drink responsibly. Isn't that what they say?

What are some of the downsides of drinking alcohol people may not consider? Tell us about it in the comments.