I’ve sworn off alcohol for good. Have I gone too far? — I quit drinking five and a half years ago, and I don’t ever want to have another alcoholic drink again in my entire life. Have I gone too far? Should I try to drink in moderation instead? Is sobriety too extreme? I was a heavy drinker throughout my twenties. I…

How I lost weight and kept it off for over four years. — Gaining Weight I was always the skinny one growing up, so it struck me by surprise when my weight began skyrocketing in my mid-twenties. At first, I was actually relieved. As I went from 150 pounds to 160, then to 170, I thought that I was finally “filling out.” At last, I’d…

Is this the key to sobriety? — Sobriety inspiration can come from the most unusual places. For the past couple of years, I’ve been teaching myself Spanish. It’s a fun hobby that has also led to me reading a lot about theories of second-language acquisition — in other words, how people learn foreign languages. One of the…

Are you making this mistake? — Let me jump straight to the chase: The most common misconception that I’ve seen about writing on Medium is that you have to pay to make money here. The reality is exactly the opposite: You do not need a paid Medium membership to earn money through Medium’s Partner Program. The…

And is there a way to make it more interesting? — “I’m bored!” It might sound likely a relatively minor complaint when compared with the harms of addiction, but the truth is that boredom is one of the single greatest threats to many people’s sobriety. When I quit drinking, back in December of 2016, I felt like my boredom was driving…

And if so, what should you do? — Sobriety and Depression Can sobriety cause depression? Unfortunately, the short answer is yes. The long answer is that the relationship between sobriety and depression is complicated, and varies from one person to the next. Depression and alcoholism frequently go hand-in-hand. Studies have shown that compared with the general population, people with depression are…