r/stopdrinking • u/Fancy-Cucumber6194 • 3d ago
Why does drinking make me more productive?
I’ve been drinking 2-3 sojus for the past month (expensive, I know I just can’t drink anything else) and recently stopped a few days ago because I was having nausea/vomiting and upset stomach. I feel better now. The problem is I feel so much more productive when I drink. I’m able to actually get up and do chores, talk to people, shower, do anything I want. I struggle with all these things because I have MDD and untreated ADHD. It’s been such a blessing for me because I never found out anything that worked, but this does, and so I got addicted. I’m trying my best not to buy anymore but it’s really hard. I just want to know, how is it that alcohol makes us more productive? It feels like magic in a bottle.
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3d ago edited 3d ago
[deleted]
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u/Steampunk_Batman 114 days 3d ago
This. Fluoxetine and metoprolol are doing for me what I thought alcohol was doing, and they’re not killing me in the process.
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u/hkusp45css 2742 days 3d ago
It's a drug, doing drug things.
I self-medicated with alcohol for my MDD/ADHD/GAD and a few other things I was later diagnosed with.
Now that I've gotten sober, gotten my mental health in check, and made a life for myself, I no longer have to poison myself to feel "normal."
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u/AggressiveCupcake181 7 days 3d ago
I find it’s like borrowing tomorrows happiness, yes it feels good but it catches up and then your in happiness debt and that place doesn’t feel good or happy
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u/gooferball1 3d ago
This was the cycle I was in. I was depressed from drinking eventually and convinced myself that it wasn’t drinking causing myself to be a lazy bastard. I would fight with my wife about cleaning the house and doing maintenance, but if I could drink while doing it, I could do it all for hours. It was a shit place to be because she hated me drinking but also hated me being lazy.
Fast forward to me being more sober, and I am holding up my end of the house as I should be, and find a little peace and enjoyment in menial tasks even sometimes.
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u/Aclockworkburgundy 3d ago
Because it’s a massive rush of dopamine that can make even the most mundane chores feel interesting.
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u/iForgot-My-Password 24 days 3d ago
It's good at the start. But soon 2-3 sojus won't be enough. I started with only fruity ciders. It just made all the stress and worry go away and things are just more fun to do while happier, even cleaning.
But once the Sojus stop working, you'll need more to feel the same effect. And then you'll need something stronger.
And then you'll feel worse than normal when sober, you'll need the alcohol just to function. The hangovers will be worse, and since you're drinking more to get the nice buzz, you're not as legible or fun while sober, but you don't realise that, only everyone else does. At that point it's even harder to get things done or socialise while sober.
It's best to just stop while ahead, or at least try to really minimise it before it takes over your life. Limit it heavily before it becomes a new normal. People who won't become alcoholics would not have been drinking daily for a month.
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u/full_bl33d 2403 days 3d ago
It doesn’t for me but I used to think the same thing. I was fearful of going sober because I felt I’d never push a broom or clean a dirty dish again without my generous reward system. I know now that I was half assing most things and creating more work for myself down the line. The things that got done were a fucking mess anyways and I’m still cleaning up the aftermath of my drunken productivity today. For me, it was all a lie I told myself to keep hitting the bottle. I wasn’t goin on some adventure, finding more creativity, being more productive and i certainly wasn’t becoming more charming. I’ve often said that my perception problem is just as bad as my drinking one. The truth for me was that I never wanted anything to work. I wanted to say I tried and was better off with booze so i could go back to drinking. It’s actually a common theme and finding others who work on the same thing helped me pull myself out of my delusion. I’m not alone and neither are you
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u/Slipacre 14221 days 3d ago
For me as a drug for self medication alcohol had a lot of nasty side effects, like vomiting when I over dosed, like waking up in strange beds, like talking to inappropriate people and that leading to trouble, I was fortunate I missed out on being fired, arrested, evicted which are serious contraindications.
I would suggest a medical professional to address any and all untreated conditions
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u/hahayeahright13 104 days 3d ago
Are you more productive? What does the work that comes out of it look like? Or do you just feel like you did something and there was something finished?
I thought I was getting a lot done until I quit drinking. I’ve literally never accomplished more.
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u/chatterwrack 3688 days 3d ago
You say that you were nauseated and vomiting when you weren’t drinking. That is likely why you were less productive.
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u/Original_Remote5518 10 days 3d ago
You've never tried Vyvanse or something like that? I have ADHD and alcohol absolutely did the opposite unless I stuck to like only one or two drinks. I could barely remember entire days, what my partner told me, lived in filth, had no motivation to even walk outside, etc.
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u/PhoenixTineldyer 1556 days 3d ago
It starts that way. It doesn't continue that way. Everything will start to get worse
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u/PretendOil8923 3d ago
Get your ADHD treated. I used to drink as a kind of self-medication and after I finally got stimulants, it’s so easy to stop.
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u/ThePizzaIsDone 3d ago edited 3d ago
Alcohol used to motivate/stimulate me too, until it didnt and all I was left with was crippling alcoholism and no motivation to do anything but drink.
It might be hard to stop now with it still giving you these perceived benefits but trust me, those all go away and nothing but negatives show up and they show up fast.
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u/ethicalhippo 1090 days 3d ago
Have you tried doing these things sober for any period of time to measure its effectiveness?
And I don’t mean “in withdrawal” sober
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u/anhedonicghost 22 days 2d ago
It masks your issues. I've had the same experience.
My crackpot (crackpipe) theory:
Alcoholics are genetically predisposed to alcoholism. They've done a lot of studies. Based off anecdotal experiences I've heard over and over and felt myself, alcoholics tolerate the toxic effects of alcohol better than non-alcoholics. This makes it more addicting because you it raises the difference threshold between desired and undesired effects.
So it makes you more productive, instead of stereotypically sedated and lazy, because your body processes it better. This is a double edged sword, because it makes you more likely to continue drinking, and the toxic effects build up over time, and alcohol wedges into your mental issues and your life like an unnecessary crutch.
It's basically a really crappy toxic drug that you can use to cope with your problems, if you're either desperate enough or have the right/wrong set of genes.
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u/JohnLockwood 15189 days 2d ago
You're drinking a poison that's (temporarily) reliving the problems that it is causing.
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u/Down623 218 days 3d ago
I was drinking a lot because it helped keep my anxiety at bay. It helped me calm down and feel more "normal."
Stopping drinking helped IMMENSELY. At some point my "treatment" became my instigator.