Dry November: Day 19
Tonight I saw Jonathan Haidt speak at intelligence². Although I quite liked the book he wrote with Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind, the discussion was a bit disjointed and did not come to any conclusive answers. I'll write about it at greater length tomorrow.
My partner said I should write about what's been different in the absence of alcohol, as most of my posts seem to indicate that the answer is “not much.” That is partially true. My sleep has changed little; it's always around six hours, with or without an alarm clock. If anything, I've slept less without drinking: this past week I averaged 5 hours 44 minutes, though the first week of November I had a rather indolent average of 6 hours 17 minutes. I'm no less grumpy during the day, and I'm less social, as I remarked on day one. I get a flash of social anxiety without it when I first meet people, maybe purely pavlovian, but as I've also described, this goes away as soon as real conversation starts.
So what's different? She says I'm more lucid when I get home from a night out, and I think I take less time to get going on an average morning. I am more productive, but how much more remains to be seen; I may try to do an analysis at the end of this month, as I do track what I do each day, and I could compare it to last month.
But the biggest difference is that I'm happier. I routinely measure my happiness, or rather unhappiness, with the Beck Depression Inventory (AKA BDI-II), having had periods of depression and low mood throughout most of my adult life, though lately I've more or less cured myself of this malady. (How would be a much longer post, but ask me if you're interested.) This week I scored as low a score as I ever have, falling into the range for non-depressed normals. This number does seem to vary with alcohol consumption, and for longer than you might think; a heavy night can (mildly) affect the number for up to a few weeks.