Day 335 - Cognitive dissonance

Drinking alcohol repeatedly over time is for a large portion of the population a bad idea. It’s a floating scale but way more people that consider they have a problem have it. I read somewhere that everyone eventually will drink unhealthy, the question is just how long it takes to gradually raise the bar to an unhealthy level. For some people it might take 150 years so they won’t notice before dying of something else but when we start to fiddle with our natural endorphins and dopamine levels we will degrade if ever so slowly.


I would say it’s a collective , cognitive dissonance that alcohol is such a big part of our culture. Even though most people know it’s bad for them, no one really wants to know EXACTLY how bad it is. We avoid articles describing the long term effects of alcohol. We don’t want to talk about it. We come up with strange reasons why statistics does not apply to us specifically. We even blatantly conclude that we really don’t want to know the truth. But the dissonance is there all the time, making us laugh nervously or shut out hard thoughts. 


On a personal level this is also what I felt almost a year ago: a cognitive dissonance. I felt like living a lie and I hated that I continued to do it even though I knew it. I knew that I could be so much better and still diverted from the path my heart knew was right.


I always thought that it was the better sleep

and lack of hangovers that gave me the energy but I’ve come to the conclusion that what has given me the most energy is that I have removed all unnecessary thinking stemming from that cognitive dissonance. The peace of mind of not having to battle my reasoning is the real reward.



https://medium.com/ainyf-alcohol-is-not-your-friend/the-science-of-why-you-should-quit-bb4f21e41c9c

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