to what extent does your life revolve around alcohol?

xpost

I was indoctrinated early on into the alcohol-is-poison mindset by a stoner friend who I was in a band with. "Which one makes you feel worse in the morning?" was his refrain, in re booze vs. weed. I agreed he had a point. The recent studies have hammered it home, but I've always thought of alcohol as basically a mild toxin with longterm cumulative effects.

(And obv taken in sufficient quantities it can have very bad short-term effects too)

I found this a few years ago and think it's pretty darn good.. non-judgemental, non-dogmatic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbKbq2IytC4

yup that is the struggle now, once you've had Drink #4 you're in a good spot and it's really hard not to think "ooh a 5th would make me feel even better" and at that point you just don't have the willpower to say no. worse this is when someone will bring up shots and you just go oh hell yeah

and yeah I identify with that KM quote too, always helps to take breaks here and there. the sense of euphoria is a lot more pronounced after a few days off

― frogbs, Thursday, February 2, 2023

At the point of the fourth drink I wonder, "Is this party breaking up soon? Please?" Exhaustion is as much the killer these days.

my mindset re: alcohol is that it's probably okay and maybe even mentally healthy to have one or two vices so long as you don't overdo it. when I started drinking my resolution was to give up soda. now that I'm older I think of it as a trade off for exercising and cutting out some unhealthy foods. not really sure where weed fits into all this.

I haven't tasted a soda of any kind in at least 15 years and avoid breads and sugar and carbs generally as much as I can; the nightly Negroni or martini is the reward.

I figure (most) everything fine in moderation, because really, you have to draw the line somewhere. Caffeine? Sugar? Alcohol? Fats? All the while we're getting older, you can't stop that, and while some get older than others, your body often has other plans for you no matter how you live your life. So might as well, you know, live a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kisr3daNRx0

I used to drink a twelve pack of soda a week. Sometimes, when eating a pizza, I'd finish one can and pop open another immediately. I've reduced it to one on the weekends as a treat (LaCroix helped a lot) and it's nice how the lack of it reinforces the habit of not drinking it more--now if I have a 16oz bottle of soda, I can only finish half, and save the rest for the following day.

I'm not even really tempted by soda, outside of an occasional Squirt at a taqueria, or a hangover Coke. But my teeth show the ravages of a soda childhood, I look like Jaws from the Bond films

lol yes soda is much more a forbidden vice for me than alcohol. I enjoy a fountain Coke in the right situation (diner, grilled cheese sandwich, fries) and allow myself a gas station Dr. Pepper on road trips, but we have it in the house only as mixers (ginger beer, mostly).

i gave up caffeine 20 years ago.
full on sweats/headaches/fever for a week.
one of the worst weeks of my life.

*Squirt is the soda that goes with any spirit, btw

Tequila in particular.

Joys of being an Aussie, the only soda I like (Dr. pepper) is ridiculously expensive. Really helps with the moderation (two cans a month?)

I drink soda water and lime like it’s going out of style.

:-o i'm glad that some of that resonated. i read it and it seems right, but also it's a perspective that i struggle to follow, myself. i have a problem with knowing what i should do, or having an idea of it, but then not following my own advice. so it's useful and very kind to hear that others think that it rings true; it helps to reinforce it.

i am also giving financial advice to a friend at this very moment, and it's good financial advice, and it's just funny and sad that with both drugs and money i feel like i can step back and i know what is a decent idea, but i have such a tough time carrying through with it. with money, i have drawn almost all of my retirement account over the last 2 years while PAINTING! while also being high as fuck 90% of the time (until the last month)! i feel like a guy with an oozing bullet hole wound giving advice about how to avoid getting shot, lol. but still, stepping back and trying to be a little more positive, it's good to know that somewhere in my head there are workable ideas

had my first real drinking escapade in weeks last night, I was just stressed out and moody and at a show and went hard, but I noticed my hangover is mild compared to usual.

I'm guessing when you stop getting ripped all the time, maybe the body has time to recover and then it's not so hard to rebound if you do it...every once in a while. that and getting in (better) shape

The road to excess, etc.

my brain wants to party like it's 2004, my body reminds me I'm 42

the latter usually wins!

Pro tip: electrolyte solution (like Pedialyte, not Gatorade) gets you hydrated and repaired faster than water

we actually have a bit of pedialyte for my dad since he's diabetic, I should just buy some for me as well

hahaha yep, when the kids were little we used to have it in the house all the time and it really does work

question is do you drink it before you go to bed or in the morning??? I know some people who swear by the "take 2 aspirin before bed" trick but I'm pretty sure that's really not good on your liver

I remember Lucozade being the UK equiv of pedialyte

Dunno about aspirin but I do know that Tylenol (acetominophen) is very bad for drunkards. Advil (ibuprofen) is okay.

I always try & remember to drink some dioralyte or similar before going to bed if I've been out and drunk lots. Definitely helps.

Our Dollar Tree down the street has something like generic pedialyte - never tried it, but it's a lot cheaper than the real deal

yea I mean when it comes to a hangover the main thing is dehydration right? the air has gotten incredibly dry this week and I'm waking up feeling hungover every day now

There was a place that opened in Hoboken offering intravenous rehydration as the ultimate hangover cure. It didn't last long, so I guess people aren't quite ready yet to get hooked up to an IV at some sketchy shop to cure a hangover, or maybe it was just bad timing because they opened right before Covid.

My 19 year old recently wrecked his car. I hope none of you get a call at 3:00 am like I did. It's a bit hazy, but I'm pretty sure he had a fair amount to drink. Oddly, the police seem not to have done a sobriety test. He's lucky to be alive, and I realized how lucky I was far more times than I deserved.

yeah, in there current, convenient era of Uber/Lyft just a phone tap away, I get annoyed by how many friends of mine still drive shithammered

Jesus I'm so sorry to hear that jimbeaux.

xpost I will be the first to admit that I was very very bad about driving when I shouldn't up until the time I almost got a DUI, and that even that incident didn't....completely solve the problem, so I solved it by making it impossible to drive home by Ubering to the venue if there's a remote chance of me having a lot to drink. if you can't trust yourself, take it out of the equation. but it's a hard lesson to learn.

did that last night, there was a time when I would have said "it's only 1 mile, what's potentially killing myself and other people"

It makes no sense, but then again, 19 year old males are not known for making sensible decisions.

If there's the slightest chance I'll drink more than two cocktails at night I Lyft/Uber home.

Yeah, I've found that if I just don't leave home with a vehicle, I won't be driving at all that night.. I'll either walk, take a bus, or get a ride home

(but I don't have a car, only honda motorbikes)

xpost some of the times I made bad decisions, I had a phone and could have Ubered home and didn't. intoxicated brain immediately says "ehh I can drive and no I don't want to pick up my car tomorrow" way too easily.

glad your son is ok and sorry that you had probably the scare of a lifetime.

It's not the first scare he's given me, and probably not the worst, but I am glad he's OK--more or less. He does have a broken left humerus.

when I was 17 a very dear friend of mine died when the drunk driver crashed the car into the side of a house, she was in the passenger seat and burned to death - the driver managed to get out and survived after he had a leg amputated. Also my best friend was killed by a drink driver when I was 8. That's one reason why I never got a driving license - I find it extremely easy to imagine what can go wrong.

Jesus Christ, calzino, that's horrible. I can see how you'd be scared off driving.

For all mirth made about self-driving cars.. once they perfect the technology, I think it'll be very good for society as a whole

We can ride around as fucked up as we please.

Problem is Elon's cars don't seem to always be sober

I like the idea of slow cars that are restricted to 15mph, reckon I could handle one of them.

I think Avalon on Catalina Island is golf-cart only

Peachtree City, south of Atlanta, is mostly if not exclusively golf carts. It's like a preserve for old white people.

old drunk white people

I once took my partner's mobility scooter for a very fun test drive, that was basically a mini golf cart - but one that you you are permitted to ride on the pavements. There was plenty of beer storage space on the back as well!

It's like a preserve for old white people.

Cryogenics iirc

our city just got those Bird scooters and on summer nights you can see plenty of clearly drunk people riding them all over the downtown. I saw one flip over a parked car but he seemed okay. only a matter of time before someone gets severely injured on one of those things. you're probably safer in your car.