Feel like this is being framed as a good thing but I want to give another perspective. Depression rates are at an all time high. Loneliness is creeping back up to 2020-era levels. People are goddamn miserable. I think about the only person I know whose life has improved since the 2010s is my sister. Even having small talk with like waitresses, cashiers in stores, you get a sense that everyone is just miserable and trying to hang on.

I stopped smoking weed and drinking in 2016 when my anxiety just became too much to bear. Those things are often portrayed as substances that take the edge off, but my experience was the complete opposite. My anxiety would just get worse. I wonder if other people are having similar experiences here and it explains the drop. Because idk when I remember the time that I used to smoke like a chimney and binge drink every weekend, it was a time when I was so much happier. Stopping doing those things was not something I did because I really wanted to, and it’s been linked to a period where I’m just increasingly miserable. Anxious and depressed. So I wonder if others have stopped drinking because of similar reasons of being miserable. Because interestingly my sister has started drinking since the 2010s. Giving support to my anecdotal hypothesis.