>Instead of drinking, all of these can be accomplished by taking a “spiritual retreat” for a weekend

That's like saying to someone "instead of kinky BDSM you could accomplish the same by making sweet tender love".

I don't think it works for everybody.

I think the point is that many of the advantages cited in the article don't actually depend on alcohol, and others are really dangerous. It's akin to the BDSM analogy if there was an article about BDSM where points were "you spend close time with another person" or "you get to feel another person's genitals".

I like getting drunk on my own once in a while, but I agree with the previous poster. The article is unconvincing. Nearly every point is something that doesn't need alcohol, something that is really questionable whether it's actually a good thing, or an opaque metaphor about a monkey. There are certainly advantages to drinking alone, but the article reads more like self-convincing rationalizations from an alcoholic, and fails to actually point out why alcohol is even necessary for most of this.

I had kind of spiritual retreat when I had to isolate for ten days with Covid. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to cut back on my alcohol usage, but it turns out I hardly drank at all. I poured myself a beer most nights but only drank a little bit of it. That really brought it in focus for me how much of my drinking is driven by self-medication for social anxiety and boredom.

Some people just like to get fucked up. Better not to judge

Majority of people like to get fucked up to escape reality, especially alcohol.

That's fine - but to suggest alcohol is a good way to understand yourself better is bs imo. There are far better ways/substances.

Get drunk when you want to by all means, but don't try and paint it as 'good for yourself'. There are far better substances if you want to do some instrospection!

>but to suggest alcohol is a good way to understand yourself better is bs imo.

That's not what I got from the article. It seemed to me to say that alcohol could be used to get to know one's self better. Truly getting to know one's self isn't always safe. Nothing risked, nothing gained.

If bringing a 12-pack to keep you company helps with the stated goal, by all means, bring one. :)

I have a prescription for benzos. I’ve used them a couple of times to help during a retreat. (And family gatherings…) But I found benzos to leave me much clearer-headed than alcohol and they don’t mess with my antidepressant.