Imagine discovering that the thing you’ve been turning to for comfort is actually what’s been standing in your way this whole time. That’s what Nisha found herself facing after 25 years with alcohol. When she lost a parent at 24, alcohol became her companion through grief. It was there for the celebrations, the breakups, the lonely Friday nights, the stressful work days. She thought she had it under control with her careful “two drink” rule, but deep down, something felt off. The headaches were getting worse. Her fitness goals stayed out of reach. And she couldn’t shake this feeling that alcohol holds you back from something better. Here’s how Nisha went from that place of internal struggle to six months of feeling better than she has in decades—and what she discovered about herself along the way.
How It All Started
Alcohol and I go way back—almost 25 years. I started drinking in my early twenties, and honestly? I loved it. The taste, the feeling, the freedom of it all. When you’re 25 and at a bar with friends, nobody’s questioning it. It’s just what you do, right? I grew up in a traditional Indian household where drinking wasn’t part of our culture. I’d sneak a glass of wine here and there at my parents’ parties, but it wasn’t something I was supposed to be doing.
When I left home for business school, drinking felt like this whole new world opening up. But I was also dealing with losing a parent at the exact same time. So alcohol became this weird combination of grieving and trying to be the fun 25-year-old everyone expected me to be. Pre-drinking before the bar, cocktails with the girls, wine after every breakup—it all just felt so normal. Looking back, I can see how it became the answer to everything. Happy? Let’s celebrate with wine. Sad? Wine will help. Stressed? Definitely wine. It became such a part of my social life that I couldn’t imagine doing anything without it.
When Everything Started to Shift
As I got older and life got more complicated, my relationship with alcohol changed too. I wasn’t hitting the clubs anymore. Instead, I was spending more time alone, dealing with real life stuff—loneliness, depression, stress, all of it. And alcohol was right there, like it always had been. Friday and Saturday nights at home alone turned into Friday and Saturday nights with a bottle of wine. Bad day at work? I’d order wine delivered right to my door. It was so easy. I kept telling myself it was fine because I moderated—two big glasses was my number.
But moderation doesn’t mean the habit isn’t there, you know? Every single weekend, I needed that bottle. Every time I went out, I couldn’t imagine not having at least two drinks. The thought of sitting in a restaurant without ordering alcohol? Impossible. My body started really feeling it as I got into my forties and early fifties. The recovery time got longer. The brain fog got worse. I even threw up in my office once after drinking, which was a low point. I was working with a trainer, trying to get in the best shape of my life, but I couldn’t hit my goals no matter what I did. The shame was building, and I was in this constant tug of war with myself.
The Moment Everything Changed
Last Christmas, I was sitting in a bar with a friend. She ordered a Perrier. Just water. We were chatting, and I still couldn’t do that—I needed my two beers. She’d just gone through The Alcohol Experiment and was struggling with similar things in her own way. She said, “Why don’t you just try it? Just see.” Something in me said okay, even though I was terrified. How was I going to not drink for a whole month when I was used to drinking every single week? There was no way I could even imagine it. But something made me say, “Just try it, Nisha.” I wasn’t feeling great physically. When I drank, I felt like crap. I was making bad food choices. There was all this emotional stuff happening in my head.
So I started The Alcohol Experiment. What I loved from the start was that it made me really think about why I was drinking in the first place. It asked me to make a list—why do you drink? Why are you even considering doing this? My answers were all the usual ones: it makes me feel good, it relaxes me, it relieves stress. Then I watched one of the videos, I think it was day two, about what alcohol actually does in your body physically. When I realized it was releasing cortisol and all that stuff, something just snapped in me. I got up from my couch and went and threw out all my wine glassware. I said out loud, “I’m so done with this.”
Take The First Step Toward Freedom
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The Alcohol Experiment is a free 30-day program, and it genuinely changed my life. It’s not about willpower or white-knuckling through cravings—it’s about understanding why you drink and what’s really happening in your body when you do. Every day, there’s a short video and some journaling prompts that help you reflect.
For me, that Day 2 video about cortisol was the game-changer, but everyone has their own moment. There’s no pressure, no judgment, just really helpful information and support. You can start whenever you’re ready and go at your own pace. Join The Alcohol Experiment and see what becomes possible when you give yourself this gift.
What Happened Next
I continued through the rest of the 30 days, but honestly, after throwing out those glasses, I never had any desire to drink. I started feeling better almost immediately. My brain fog cleared up. I dropped eight pounds in a month without even trying. My cravings just went away. I think the mental and emotional hold it had on me was so strong that when I finally broke free, it was this huge relief. I finished the experiment without any issues, and I’ve been alcohol-free for almost six months now. Haven’t had a drop, have no desire to have a drop. I call myself alcohol-free instead of sober because that word has a different connotation to me.
I’ve been alcohol-free since January 1st—that’s just how the timing worked out. The shocking part? I haven’t really changed how I live my life. I still sit on patios. Last night I was out on the patio with my pup, actually. I enjoy non-alcoholic options. Where I am, I can get some kind of non-alcoholic drink about 95% of the time. Flavored water, non-alcoholic beer like the zero percent ones. I don’t even do low alcohol—I go completely alcohol-free. There are so many options out there now, and it’s way more acceptable than I thought it would be. Non-alcoholic sangria is a thing! Mocktails in wine glasses are a thing! I still enjoy the ritual of having something in my hand. I just don’t have the booze anymore, and I’m really happy about that.
How Life Looks Now
I feel great. Physically, I feel so much better than I did. I can work out the way I want to. I make better food choices. No more cravings for greasy fries after two big glasses of red wine. My energy is better. The brain fog is gone. And my sleep—oh my God, my sleep! When I used to drink, even just two glasses of wine, I had to mentally prepare myself for what it was going to do to my sleep. Now? I sleep like a normal person. The physical changes are amazing, but what I’m most happy about is that alcohol doesn’t have a hold on me anymore. We think we need it, right? We think we need it to have fun, to socialize, to relax.
You’re surrounded by messaging about it all the time. That was one of my biggest fears when I started this—I panicked initially thinking, “How am I going to live? What am I going to do when I go to a restaurant?” But it’s actually way more acceptable now to not drink. I read somewhere, maybe in the experiment, that alcohol gives back what it takes. It took so much from me. My energy, my emotions, my time, my productivity. It numbed me, and I wanted to be numbed because I was so used to that feeling. I used alcohol to avoid dealing with my emotions and my problems. But I do a lot of personal development work—I’m a coach myself—and I can’t numb myself anymore.
The thing is, I don’t feel the need to anymore either. I think alcohol was actually making me more depressed. Chemically depressing me, you know? I’d feel bad about being lonely or whatever, and then Friday night I’d curl up on the couch with my two big glasses of red wine, and it would just dull everything. Now I don’t feel the need to do that at all. I just drink tea or make myself a cacao. It’s honestly very liberating.
What I Learned About Myself
I was so scared at first because we’re always afraid of the unknown. In my mind, I felt like alcohol had become part of my identity. When I went out, I was always the person who the first thing I did was look for the drink menu. So there was this fear—who am I without alcohol? How will people see me? Will they still want to spend time with me? Am I still going to be fun? Am I still going to be good enough? What I realized was that alcohol was just masking things. It was dulling my senses and not letting me be the person I actually wanted to be. It was physically making me feel terrible and creating this internal tug of war. But once I took it away and saw how much better I felt—emotionally, mentally, physically—I couldn’t ignore it.
The positives were just too obvious. I had more energy, I was more productive, I didn’t feel like crap all the time, I slept better. Why was I doing this to myself just to get a dopamine hit that lasted maybe five minutes? The fear went away almost immediately once I saw how much better life was without it. I realized I can still socialize, still sit on patios, still go to parties. I just order sparkling water or whatever. When you create space for something new, this whole new world opens up. I discovered I still like going out with friends for drinks—I’m just having a different kind of drink. I don’t need alcohol in my glass to enjoy myself. That was a huge realization.
Why It Actually Worked This Time
I’d never tried anything like this before. No Sober January, no Sober October, nothing. I could never do it. What I loved about The Alcohol Experiment was that it wasn’t just “don’t drink for a month and good luck.” It was the daily education component. Learning about what alcohol actually does in your body physically, making those lists and really thinking about why I drank in the first place. “It relaxes me. It makes me feel better. It’s always there. It de-stresses me.” The daily videos and reflection made me question all of that. Does it really make me happy? No, it doesn’t. Does it really make me feel better? Maybe for five minutes. The education plus the reflection plus actually experiencing the physical benefits of not drinking—better sleep, no headaches, not having to down tons of water before bed—it all worked together.
What I found different about this approach was that if you really participate in the process, it helps you understand what drives you to drink. It’s not just you against willpower. It’s you learning the truth about what alcohol actually does. For me, there was no pressure. It was really me against me. I’m a good student, so I watched all the videos. I think I was just so ready for something, but I’d been too afraid to even consider it because I didn’t know who I was without alcohol. I’d never tried. By the time you get to a point where you’re willing to try something like this, there’s probably a part of you that’s curious—can I do it? Is it going to be hard? I was just surprised at how easy it was once I understood the truth.
The Life I Have Now
I feel like alcohol was holding me back from so much. From my fitness goals, from my productivity, from really dealing with the things in my life I needed to deal with. It was masking emotions I needed to process. Now that I don’t consume alcohol, things have changed for the better in ways I didn’t expect. I’m able to focus on my other life goals because I’m not mildly hungover all the time or wanting to eat junk food after drinking. It changes who you spend your time with and how you spend your time, but for me, it’s all been positive changes.
I still network, I still host events where people are drinking, and I’m like, “Good for you.” I just knew for me it wasn’t going to get me where I wanted to go. It was really holding me back from living the way I want to live. If I could go back and tell my younger self something, it would be this: You have what you need within you to live your best life, and you are enough. You don’t need a numbing device. You really don’t.
I never thought I’d be somebody who could live life without alcohol. I thought I needed it to have fun, to socialize, to be myself. Then I realized I’m so much better without it. The energy I was giving to alcohol—thinking about it, planning around it, recovering from it—I started giving that energy to things I actually want to do with my life. And that’s made all the difference.
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