In this article, respected clinical psychologist and former heavy drinker, Jordan Peterson, explains why it is so important to reduce your alcohol intake. 

1. Alcohol is dangerously attractive as it can reduce anxiety, improve social interactions and provide a cocaine-like high.

Peterson believes that “alcohol is an extraordinarily pernicious drug, and if you’re inclined towards it, you can be inclined towards it because you’re sensitive to its anxiety-reducing properties, or you can be sensitive to it because it enhances social communication, or because it produces a cycle motor high like cocaine, or all of those at once. And if you’re particularly predisposed to alcoholism, you can experience all three at once.”

Here Peterson is saying that if you are someone who has a desire to drink then it can be very attractive due to its resulting positive feelings, the way it can reduce anxiety and social skills along with the fact that it can give people massive hights similar to cocaine in some instances. Should alcohol give you all of the above then it is understandable why some people can become reliant on it or even gradually addicted.

It is very important then not to become reliant on alcohol over time to fulfil these needs. Instead, work on healthy ways to reduce anxiety, improve social skills and get more natural highs through things like exercise, hobbies and success.

2. Alcohol can lead to dangerous, regretful and criminal behaviour

Peterson believes that alcohol is a seriously dangerous drug when it comes to criminal and antisocial behaviour saying “Alcohol is a really bad drug. 50% of murders take place in an alcohol-fueled environment, either the victim or the perpetrator or both is drunk. It’s almost the sole cause of domestic abuse, and it’s almost the sole cause of so-called date rape. If you dig into criminal behavior deeply enough you don’t have to dig much at all before you find alcohol.”

This is a severe warning about the dangers of alcohol use and it is everyone’s responsibility to know the risks of what might happen when you are drinking excessively. 

Peterson points out that alcohol can make up more aggressive than we normally might me saying: “It’s also the only drug we know that actually makes people more aggressive, and not merely because they don’t know what they’re doing. We did experiments at McGill showing that if you took drunk people and put them in a competitive environment where they could be aggressive and had them keep track of their aggression so they were actually conscious of it, they became more aggressive, even rather than less so.”

Therefore alcohol can actually change the way we behave and make us more aggressive than usual which can lead to a whole host of regretful and damaging behaviours.

3. Alcohol can lead to stupid impulsive behaviours which most people regret the day after when they get the fear.

Drinking too much over time can lead us to make some serious mistakes in social and work situations as well as in our romantic relationships. He states: “Alcohol is bad news, and it can turn perfectly good people into quite impulsive and dim-witted monsters. So, if you give people that massive boost and then suppress their inhibitions, yeah, that’s gonna happen.”

How many times do we drink too much and regret some of the things we have done the following day? This can lead to the loss of friendships, relationships and even a decline in our own self-worth. Think before you act when you are drinking. If you struggle to manage your impulsive behaviours while drinking then it might be time to get some professional help before it is too late.

4. Just because you control your alcohol for a while, it does not mean that you can take up excessive drinking again safely and without consequences.

Once we manage to get our drinking under control, it is very important not to slip back into our old ways with the belief that we can now drink excessively since we have had it under control for so long.

Peterson says that he made that mistake himself saying: “I quit the drinking when I was 27. Albertan culture was pretty hard-drinking culture, like most northern places. And a lot of the people that I was in high school with and in college with were extremely hard drinkers, and I drank quite a lot till I was 27. Then I found that I couldn’t as first of all, my life was taking a pretty professional turn, and second, I found that there was no bloody way I could write seriously and think seriously on an ongoing basis if I was hungover. So, I got married, and I was going to have kids, and I thought, “Yeah, enough of this.”

Peterson added: “I thought when I was 50 that I might be able to drink again socially, and I toyed with it for about a year and found out that I was probably just as stupid at 50 as I had been like 25 and decided to dispense with that. I’ve watched too as I’ve gone around the world. I’ve met very, very many people at many, many social occasions, and because I don’t drink anything at all now if I go out and watch people drinking, it makes everybody stupid and fuzzy-minded.

Basically, excessive drinking can make us look foolish to others reducing the respect people have for us and lead us towards poor decision-making as well as gradually eroding our self-respect and social standing. 

Try going to a social event without drinking one evening and observe the changes in those around you who are drinking steadily through the night. Look at how they act, what they say and what you think about them as they get increasingly intoxicated.

Try going out in future with a plan of how much you will drink and how fast you are going to consume your alcohol. You can still have a good time whilst drinking and, with some control and boundaries, not worry about what you may have said and done. Imagine that.

Conclusion

Cutting down on your drinking can vastly improve your life and, more importantly, reduce the risks of making grave mistakes and behaving in a way that will leave you ashamed and crippled with regret.