to what extent does your life revolve around alcohol?

Or the causation that's in the correlation is that the clever ones tend to drink more

In 2012 I spent a couple of months in the "automatic purchase and consumption of vodka" zone, until I happened (there were no decisions at this point in my life, stuff just *happened*) to drop some powdered shroom capsules at the onset of the daily blackout. The next morning, the urge to drink was gone. And without that urge, physical withdrawal symptoms are nothing more than a mild gastroenteritis, so I managed to quit easily.

I also wrecked my place and shat in the sink that night but overall my life has improved I think.

I only drink once a week now, 4-5 drinks total. Alcohol seems to massively exacerbate my depression as I've gotten older (along with a hangover at any more than 2 beers), the not-fun of coming home and reading depressive stuff and listening to sad music and the next day started to outweigh what fun there was the night-of.

I'd quit completely if not for the social component - not that any of my friends would care if I didn't drink but I can't fathom how any couple has sex for the first time dead sober and weed doesn't have that conversational glow of a group of people in the 2-4 drinks range.

Quitting completely also feels like it cuts off a part of life I enjoy, I don't want to shut the door on those (now rare) nights of just talking drunk shit at the bar with strangers.

I started binge drinking at 12 and have drank heavily for 21 years since then. At the moment I'm really happy with my consumption, at last. I get shittered sometimes, I get drunk during the week every once in a while. I drink a decent amount most weekends but sometimes not that much, or only on one or two nights.

This contrasts with say my mid/late 20s when I was living alone and probably drunk at least 4 nights a week and often would go on 3 or 4 day drunks (facilitated by working a 6 days on, 4 days off work schedule). That was too much.

I have a decent not spectacular whiskey shelf, now drink wine with meals if out, quarterly sessions with work or w/e might see me drunk but nothing major these days

When I was younger I used to drink more, but almost always in relative moderation. I have never been able to go above 5 pints without becoming drunk and often ill. Three pints used to be my typical consumption. Nowadays I drink only 2 pints (sometimes only 1), as I like the effect up to that point but not the negative effects when I drink more than that. I only drink at weekends, so 1 or two pints on Saturday, the same on Sunday, as I am scared of the risk to my health of drinking more frequently. But recently I have thought it might be nice to become one of those people who is a more regular fixture at the pub. I do enjoy the lift to my mood that 1 or 2 pints give me, and I dislike being bored and gloomy all the time during the week.

I'm lucky with alcohol; don't normally get much of a hangover & somehow I've never felt any real craving for it while sober. I don't monitor or think about my intake and it varies a lot but probably averages about twice a week, normally a couple of beers with some weeknight venture. never really got into drinking at home. I've still indulged in plenty of reckless and self-destructive drunk behaviour mind, and that triumphant feeling you get when you're a bit drunk is such a seductive high, but I've got other vices to fall back on

I unapologetically love drinking. Alcoholic beverages are tasty, they pair nicely with food, and they enhance camaraderie. They provide a little layer of insulation from the harshness of world, which is, in moderation, quite a nice feeling. Bar culture is rich and evocative; wine and beer and spirits have interesting histories and social roles.

So I drink often, but not a huge amount at a time. That is, I will generally have two or three drinks almost every evening, and at pretty much every restaurant meal. What I've never been a fan of is the big weekendy college-type binge. The 8, 9, 10-drink spree that you don't remember much about and isn't much fun and feels terrible in the morning.

So even though I drink almost every day, it's been many years since I've felt solidly drunk. Not least because drinking steadily for 30 years leads to formidable tolerance. If I undertook to get really drunk, it would take a LOT.

I haven't ever come across much information about how steady-yet-modest drinking (spread throughout the week) compares with the same amount consumed all on Friday night, in terms of how much it's wrecking my body. In any case, I periodically take a week or two off every now and then, whether to demonstrate that I can, or to push the reset button on my bloodstream just a little.

I feel instinctively that something that lightens your mood and makes you feel less stressed and more relaxed is quite likely somewhat beneficial to your health. Also, there's the whole antioxidants, glass-of-red-wine-a-day, Mediterranean diet thing, but that could be spurious and maybe it's the stress relief and alteration of mood that's important. On the other side of the coin, the liver, and body generally, do have to keep getting rid of it, so there's the question of how much intake (and how frequent, as you say) before physical damage cancels out any benefits.

going to pub for a few drinks >>>>>>>>>> drinking >>>>>>>>>> going to pub

one of my local boozers was the scene of a recent vehicular homicide in the car-park, and is not the most friendly type of place. The other was recently the scene of a paedo-hunter type citizens arrest, and is a shithole with a ropey landlord. So I'd put supping in the garden>>> going to the pub!

But the banter, the crack, the warmth and bonhomie.

Irish privilege but I can't imagine having only one world class local. Even at home you've your choice of five or six spots each of which is a classic

I've got one, but it's not really world class tbh. However there were no pubs where I grew up, I blame that John Calvin.

i have something of a problem

but pub bonhomie is the only life i know

any "efforts" i've made to cut down have always felt like they resulted in failure. i dunno, there was a time in my life where i did e every week and i used to think "how will i give up" and then i just got older and did it less often.

similarly with alcohol i reckon, although i binge drink a lot, my consumption is dropping a little. i stay in one day out of thurs/friday/saturday/sunday more often than ever, a small decrease, but the trend is there to see.

i don't really drink monday/tuesday/wednesday - occasionally a glass of wine but i'm fairly disciplined. my friendship group makes it difficult to cut down sometimes, not for a second that it's not my choice or whatever, just if i hang out with my friends there'll be drinking, and equally if i am thinking of staying in there can be a lot of pressure, text messages etc, to come out and get wasted. everyone is away this weekend and i'm p excited about how easy it'll be to stay home and do healthy things.

problem for me is i have a chronic illness, alcohol frees me from its effects, temporarily, even though it prob makes them worse, slowly, over time. it's a v hard thing to battle - if i stay in when i feel bad i'm just staying in feeling bad, if i go out i can completely forget the physical symptoms for a time.

Ye Mad Puffin otm.

Alcohol forms an integral part of my life. II mix cocktails a couple times a week. Wine with dinner is like water; it's impossible NOT to have it, usually a couple glasses. When I eat out for lunch on Saturdays, I'll have wine with the food or a cocktail. For dinner out, forget it: cocktails and wine. Aging has fucked with my metabolism enough that I know when I've had enough and as a result hangovers are rare.

I'm too much a creature of routine, too besotted with self-control to pass a limit. I told a friend last week that these days when I drink with lunch and smoke a cigarette, I get sad – I have nothing to look forward to later in the day!

OTM on my losing the inability to binge drink for pool parties and all day activities. I just returned from a six-day beach vacation and, barring two glasses of white wine, I drank no alcohol during the day – again, if I'm drunk at 2 p.m. what is there to look forward to?

what sometimes scares me is i reckon i'm getting even better at the longer sessions, like out at 2pm and then it's 4am and you're sat quietly discussing something trying to find somewhere else to go.

once you're drunk looking forwards ceases to be an issue in my experience :)

not claiming to be sober in those situations, just the illusory sobriety that comes

xpost

yeah that

satori or somethink

I get sad – I have nothing to look forward to later in the day!

That's exactly how I feel when walking home from the pub on a Sunday night. Nothing to look forward to until Friday (I don't go to the pub on a Friday, but I do go out for a meal).

I went out quite recently with some friends and got absolutely blasted, 20s-style and the hangover the next day reminded me of how long it had been since I did something like that. I think it's the same with a lot of behaviour from when you're younger, you just find yourself doing things less and less until you realise you've stopped.

I'm not sure I even drink less than I used to (although on balance probably), but the mode of drinking has changed quite a lot. Probably a side-effect of being married and therefore going out involves drinking wine/cocktails more than it used to (and a whisky before bed is still one of the greatest pleasures) but being properly drunk or having an extended session happens less and less as I get older. My life doesn't revolve around alcohol, but my social life probably still does - as it does for most people I suspect.

Still, the idea of being on holiday and not drinking every single evening is just weird to me.

Like we now have what is essentially a fully-stocked cocktail cabinet in the front room and most of it never gets touched.

the joyous logic of booze is that once you've drunk yrself into isolation what else is there to do but carry on?

read Kingsley Amis' writing on drinking?

Still, the idea of being on holiday and not drinking every single evening is just weird to me.

alas, I haven't had a holiday in 6 years now, but probably the rising price of booze might save me from oblivion :p

Still, the idea of being on holiday and not drinking every single evening is just weird to me.

oh for sure. holidays are lethal.

read Kingsley Amis' writing on drinking?

great book.

used to be a daily drinker to a greater or lesser degree but i barely drink at all now

the anti-depressants i'm taking at the moment make drinking a lot less fun - if regular drinking feels like putting the output of your senses through a fuzz pedal and playing a glorious windmilling pete townshend power-chord, then drinking on anti-depressants feels like fumbling a jazz chord and getting drenched in pints of piss hurled by an angry audience

I didn't start drinking with any regularity until much later in life, some time in my early 30s. In fact, I do recall actually thinking at some point, "hmm, I really should be drinking more." (I blame the kids, but I also embraced it as a hobby, especially as collecting CDs/DVDs became pointless). So I set about learning all I could about beers and spirits (still more or less in the dark about wine), learning personal limits (I've never been drunk to excess, and rarely to the point of discomfort - I wonder if this is part and parcel with starting older?) and how to mix great cocktails for enthusiastic friends. Of my core group of friends, I don't think any of them has or ever had a drinking problem, though they drank plenty growing up and at least one has problems in the family and another, who owns restaurants/bars/clubs, has seen the worst of everything and knows how to take it easy. Still, just as I was getting up to speed many of them started to cut back. The women, as part of fitness regiments, and the men, too, to some extent, because their spouses were drinking less. So now several of them follow the mostly/only-the-weekends model, or only on vacation model. Me, I'll have a beer or two most/many nights, shifting to wine/cocktails/spirits in the colder months. Since I have no problems in the family or among friends, since I'm healthy and don't drink to excess, I can always justify drinking. But I can also go several days without a drink just fine, though what's the point of that?

My fave drinking story came from Frank Sinatra (not directly, and I'm paraphrasing massively). Someone went up to Sinatra and said, Frank, you are a legendary drinker, people are always buying you drinks, how do you hold your liquor? And he explained in response: I go to a party and someone says Frank, let me buy you a drink. So I get a drink, take a few sips, set it down. Then a few minutes later someone sees me with no drink and says Frank, let me buy you a drink! So I get another drink, take a few sips, and set it down. People always see me with a drink in hand, but they don't realize I'm only taking a couple of sips of each drink.

In my case I like playing bartender. I'll sip on a couple of beers while I mix drinks, which keeps me too busy to drink too much. By the end of the night I'm nicely buzzed but not too beyond the pale to neaten up.

My fave drinking story came from Frank Sinatra (not directly, and I'm paraphrasing massively). Someone went up to Sinatra and said, Frank, you are a legendary drinker, people are always buying you drinks, how do you hold your liquor? And he explained in response: I go to a party and someone says Frank, let me buy you a drink. So I get a drink, take a few sips, set it down. Then a few minutes later someone sees me with no drink and says Frank, let me buy you a drink! So I get another drink, take a few sips, and set it down. People always see me with a drink in hand, but they don't realize I'm only taking a couple of sips of each drink.

not to troll your story but this reads a bit like something on clickhole. it makes it sound like he deliberately hides the first drink so that he's offered another, just so he can get bought drinks by everyone, drinks he revels in leaving unfinished.

That would be funny, too!

i guess so - maybe he wanted people to get the satisfaction of buying him a drink? or perhaps he was just a sociopath.

He's in cahoots with the bartender.

I mean, I'm sure he was a functioning alcoholic. It reminds me of a time I interviewed Paul Westerberg, and he sort of defensively claimed the Replacements would start out a set drunk and sloppy, but by the end of the night they'd sweated off most of the alcohol and were often pretty solid, but by then everyone had left. Maaaaayve, but they still drank a shit ton to excess.

I first read that Sinatra story in The Way You Wear Your Hat about twenty years ago. It sounds true, just like I also believe he was carried out of many a bar often.

I've been off the sauce completely since mid-March and at this point I really can't see going back. I had fallen into a Homer Simpson-esque existence of pounding back a few after work/during dinner/before bed. Every once in a while I'd let myself dry out for a few weeks, but would soon fall back into the same pattern.

My main reasons for quitting:

1.) I had just started going through physical therapy and I realized that I still smelled of booze at my 7:30 a.m. appointments. Additionally, alcohol in the system made me less motivated to do my daily exercises.
2.) My kids got one bout of cold/flu after the other this winter. After a couple months of this, I had lost the energy to take care of my sick kids while drinking as well.
3.) I've been stuck at about 70 lbs overweight for the entire 2010s. Booze was a huge part of my caloric intake and usually led to me binging on junk food as well. Without the booze, it's been easier to reign those other impulses in. I'm still fat but I'm beginning to see results.

As for beer – I've almost completely lost my taste for it. Even on this beach trip I mentioned a few posts ago I said I'm having a beer because it's hot and It's What You Do and was so bloated after half a pint that I poured it down the drain.

beautiful metaphors gazzarra xxxxp

16 or 17 to 29, revolved bigly; 30 to today, less than zero. The incompatibility of hangovers and a career change was the deciding factor; it was pretty clear immediately you couldn't be running out of a classroom every 10 minutes, so the decision made it itself. That, and I'd lost interest in going to clubs to see bands. Stopping was easy.

Mozeltov hows life

Another angle is that my entire life p much pivoted around relationships - personal and professional- that were to a large extent sealed or advanced to the critical point of intimacy or w/e under the shared influence and experience of alcohol.

Teetotality is well and good but the odds of me being a destitute virgin skyrocket tbph NB I'm Irish YMMV

I've never really had hangovers except after a really big night, and never got headaches in any case, so there never much deterrent there. But the thing that basically killed weeknight drinking for me, even moderately, was when I started waking up four hours into the night and not being able to get back to sleep. I wasn't going to voluntarily put myself through that for anything.

same thing used to happen to me! 4am on the dot, suddenly wide awake, feeling godawful and unable to get back to sleep

yeah I'd noticed that too as I got older. used to be able to sleep 'til football came on, now it's like three solid hours of blackout + a series of 30 minute naps

alcohol is a regular part of my life but no more than coffee or weed (cf booze --- coffee --- weed). it is much easier to skip the end-of-the-day drink than it is to skip a coffee in the morning.

i'll have a drink every night when i get home. i'll open a beer while i'm cooking or getting my boys ready for bed and then finish it with dinner. if i have guests over or if it's a weekend i might have 2-3 over the course of an evening. if weed is involved, i find it much, much easier to limit my alcohol intake to just a couple drinks. i have a regular friday night meetup w/ some close friends and we'll cook food and pass a few joints throughout the night but only share one or two 750ml bottles of beer between us.

tbh as much as i love alcohol if i just had a tasty effervescent drink w/o alcohol that would be just fine. having kombucha around i could easily skip alcohol or just keep it to one drink a day.

I told a friend last week that these days when I drink with lunch and smoke a cigarette, I get sad – I have nothing to look forward to later in the day!

OTM on my losing the inability to binge drink for pool parties and all day activities. I just returned from a six-day beach vacation and, barring two glasses of white wine, I drank no alcohol during the day – again, if I'm drunk at 2 p.m. what is there to look forward to?

Exactly. Wine/smoking/novel has unfortunately become my daily relaxation routine, and that plus normal tiredness is what sends me to sleep every night. I usually don't start the process until 8-9, sometimes even 10-11pm depending on work events.

I think I've forgotten how to drink socially though. Drinking at bars just reminds me that it's cheaper and more comfortable at home. Along with several of my neighbors I've perfected the stoop hang, in which ppl sit outside and chat with whomever walks by, and everyone stays out as long (or as little) as they want. It's so perfect that it's spoiled me for anything else.

Bringing a book to a bar in the middle of the day to have lunch + chatting with the bartender = one of my favorite things

However, customers and some bartenders are inclined to give me suspicious glances when I read. As if staring and thumbing your phone wasn't weird!