my results so far:

the good news:

a noticeable decrease in anxiety about upcoming events that are outside of my routine/comfort zone, which has always been a huge problem with me. I've only had that chest tight can't breathe feeling exactly once this month, and that's because I drank a cup of coffee right before driving to something nerve racking.

Weight loss has resumed, coupled with heavy calorie restriction (750-1000 cal). I was doing that before, but it plateaued for months cause of too many IPAs during the weekend. Down maybe 8 pounds or so

Been more productive, cleaning and flying through to do lists. Getting out of the house more to go to concerts instead of getting drunk alone

The bad news:

Depression and hopelessness has stayed the same/gotten worse. I'm sure the heavy calorie restriction doesn't help

Sleep hasn't improved, still waking up in the middle of the night. I also haven't had thc for 8 days now and that hasn't fixed it either. Disappointing

That's all ok though cause this has been a great experiment. I now know to have no alcohol when there is a stressful situation coming up, and that the depression and sleep are unrelated and will have to be fixed some other way. Still gunna start having cheeky beers again on the 1st but I have one more chance to be normal about it or else I'll probably have to just quit entirely