Why cutting back first shows you what drinking costs

In his YouTube video essay I Quit Drinking Alcohol... But Did Not Expect This (March 2023, more than three million views), the author Mark Manson described the step before he quit. In 2020 he cut back from roughly 10 to 15 drinks a week to 3 to 5. In that video, he says the cut changed what he could see:

"you open up enough gaps of clarity in your day"

Mark Manson, YouTube, 2023

What he noticed

At 15 or 20 drinks a week, Manson says, he was nearly always either drunk or hungover, so he had nothing to compare against. Once he drank only a few times a week, the clear days gave him a baseline. Against it, he noticed how bad even one drink could make him feel, enough to spoil a weekend. He also noticed that for two or three days after drinking he was more emotional: crankier, more excited, more easily embarrassed.

That's one person's experience, and the numbers are his own estimates. He went on to stop completely, which is one choice among several. The useful part for anyone cutting down is the mechanism: you can't see the cost of a habit while you're inside it every day. A week with a few dry days gives you something to measure the other days against.

What the research says

The low, edgy day after drinking has been studied. A 2026 review of 22 studies, with about 6,000 people averaging 27 years old, found that hangovers went with more anxiety, stress and low mood (Rothman et al, 2026). That's a link, not proof of cause, and the samples were young.

Public guidance builds the comparison in. The UK's Chief Medical Officers say that if you want to cut down, a good way is to have several drink-free days each week (UK Chief Medical Officers, 2016). Those days are also Manson's gaps: the clear mornings you can hold up against the others.

If your body may have got used to alcohol, stopping or cutting down quickly can make you unwell, sometimes seriously. Don't stop suddenly: talk to a doctor or a local alcohol service first.

How this fits the Reduce your drinking program

The 1h Protocol to Reduce Your Drinking starts the same way Manson did, by seeing your real week: you count last week in your own country's drinks before anything else. In the paid chapters you pick changes for your pattern, such as drink-free days, and set a goal for two weeks next to your country's guidance, with a sheet to mark each day and four one-tap check-ins by email. You choose whether that goal is to drink less, take a break or stop. The first chapter is free.

Source: Mark Manson, I Quit Drinking Alcohol... But Did Not Expect This, YouTube, 30 Mar 2023 Research: Rothman et al, 2026 · UK Chief Medical Officers, 2016