My wife used to make fun of the supplements.
I took 25 of them a day for four to five months. Milk thistle. NAC. Electrolytes. Whatever a forum post said would undo the night before.
I told her they were for things like inflammation. I told myself the same thing. I knew the real cause was the drinking.
Every weekend
For years my gut was wrecked every Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I knew why. I researched supplements instead of skipping the second bottle of wine.
December
For a stretch of years, my in-laws came out from North Dakota every December and stayed a month. My father-in-law liked a cocktail every night, so I had one too.
My office was a shed in the backyard. More than once that month, I walked out to it with my heart pounding so hard I thought I might be having a heart attack. It happened more than one December.
I never got it checked. I kept drinking.
Always a reason
Just this weekend. Just while they’re in town. Just until the holidays are over.
I built a whole supplement routine around a problem I wasn’t ready to deal with. Smart people are good at that. We can build a business case for almost anything we want badly enough.
The date
What changed it wasn’t a supplement. Surgery in April 2025 set the date. I was told to stop drinking two weeks before it.
I was fine with it, and I didn’t fully understand why. Looking back, I’d been preparing since 2019.
In the framework, that’s Stage 4, Decision Point. The thing you’ve been avoiding finally gets said out loud, even if a doctor is the one who says it.
I retired from alcohol on April 16, 2025. I haven’t taken a supplement routine like that since.
Do you have your own version of the 25 supplements, a stack of fixes for a problem you haven’t dealt with yet? Open to talking it through? Book a complimentary call, or start on your own time with Reserve.
If your heart pounds or races like that, see a doctor. Don’t wait. If you drink every day and feel shaky, sweaty or sick when you go without, talk to a doctor before you stop.
Colin Casillas founded Prepared Sobriety to help men and women in every line of work retire from alcohol on their own terms. He retired on April 16, 2025, after 30 years of regular drinking. Four months later his LDL was down 33% and he’d lost 14 lbs. Within ten months he was off two medications. You can work with Colin one-on-one or on your own time.
