What are your opinions on alcohol? (Questions)

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It is a thing to cut down on, both me and my boyfriend drink a bit too much and so we are trying to reduce it, since we aren't getting any younger and we don't want to reach a point where we can never have a drink again due to our health because we like to drink but we have to cut it down to being a more occasional thing, we can't keep drinking like we're some sort of frat boys. We have to cut down on that and idk get more exercise and such and we'd probably both feel better if we did.

LIke if we didn't spend the weekends drinking, maybe we could instead use some of that money we'd spend on beer to idk try white water rafting or some kind of activity where it is better to not be drunk, but is still fun.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 08 Jul 2023, 2:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

1) I don't drink socially. I can be with people who are drinking for a couple of hours if they're nice people,. after which I tend to scoot.

2) I won a bottle of Southern Comfort at my school raffle, aged 15. Me and my friend drank it and he got really ill. Turns out he was taking histamine for hay fever. (When I say I'll I mean he got REALLY ill)

3) I will probably drink again but will try to avoid compulsive buying of alcohol. I have access to a lot of apples and apple juice so I might just brew up 40 liters of very mild cider this year. I'm against spending money on alcohol, it's money which can buy you stuff like pretty clothes or shiny things for your hobby.

seldom, and only the weakest alky. no hard stuff. and only sips. anything more will make me sick.

grew up with alcoholism in my family and all the consequences of alcoholism.

was exposed to it while in single digits.

no offense taken

Never really liked it. Not beer or wine anyway. I did develop a taste for bourbons and whiskeys.

I used to tell people that I was allergic to alcohol to avoid having to get into a discussion about it.

For a while in my early 20s I drank socially and it definitely helped me hang out with people more.

In the last 5 years I haven't touched a drink at all. I seem to have developed some weird reaction to it where my airways close up and I get extreme hay-fever-like symptoms. I don't like it enough to find out what that is or see how far I can push it. I'd rather just not bother.

I don't miss drinking at all. I've always preferred weed as a recreational drug.

Pretty much what Abraham Lincoln said:

"Which alcohol do you mean? If you mean the alcohol that causes public drunkeness, wife beating, and wrecks families, [today he wold have added "drunk driving"] then I am against THAT alcohol.

But if you mean the alcohol that helps support the grain farmers, grape farmers, supports wineries, gives jobs to brewers, shippers, and store keepers, and promotes hospitality and conviviality, then...I am FOR that alcohol."

Never met, nor ever heard of anyone in all of human history, who actually liked the "taste" of alcohol.

Alcoholics didnt get that way because they liked the 'taste' of it.

I didn't have any interest in drinking for most of my life. A few months ago I decided to start, solely for the self-destructiveness of it, but I only drank for about a month.

I wouldn't drink socially. For me personally there just isn't much point in it, and I certainly wouldn't want to be drunk in front of other people.

The reason I previously didn't want to drink or use any substances is because the thought of being out of control of my thoughts and actions is scary to me. That was what stopped me from drinking every time I considered it for a very long time. I actually didn't have too much of an issue with it once I did drink though. I felt more physical effects than anything else.

I don't think I'll drink again. I probably would end up addicted if I did start up again, and I'd like to avoid that. Too bad, because I had a lot of fun with it, but it's for the best.

I did my first experiments with alcohol completely alone. Never entered my head at the time that alcohol is a social thing.

Unlike most people in my area, I didn't have my first drink until I was in my mid-20s. I was socially forced into drinking by a "friend" who exploited my rigid behaviour. He knew that I would feel obligated to drink if he bought me a drink since it would be rude to not accept the gift, especially in front of a group of our peers.

I didn't like the taste of alcohol or the sensation of being intoxicated. But I recognized that other people enjoyed it and appreciated it when I drank, so I would drink socially.

When I started graduate school, my cohort was heavily into drinking after class and I followed suit. This was when I started to drink because it made me feel "normal" and made the people around me seem to tolerate me more.

So, I developed a drinking problem that lasted several years because drinking seemed to be the only way I could be "normal" around other people.

When the pandemic started, I stopped drinking cold turkey and never looked back. Probably one of the best decisions of my life as I surely increased my risk of alcohol-related cancers and other health complications due to the amount and frequency of my drinking.

Did you know that there is strong evidence that as little as one drink a week drastically increases your risk for heart disease and cancer?

i have digestive issues now due to excessive alcoholism in the past

im quick traunatised by it

but i was young and vulnerable and homeless in a no go area in london so alcohol and drugs was the only thing that kept me going but nothing to be proud of only that i survived

i cant stand alcohol now

I started drinking socially at the end of high school. People said it would help me loosen up. I got drunk a few times, but never got a hangover nor threw up from alcohol consumption. I probably never consumed alcohol on more than a dozen occasions in any calendar year before I gave it up entirely around age 30.

Things I found out over the course of that decade of casual and sporadic drinking:

1. It was very difficult for me to drink because I hate beer and wine. I only like a few mixed drinks and fruit drinks (and, randomly, Smirnoff Ice).

2. The problem with lowering inhibitions is what you are inhibiting yourself from doing. Alcohol just cranked up the volume of whatever mood I was in. Usually because I was with friends drinking just made me a little giddy. However, if I was in a bad mood it made me confrontational and thin-skinned; my tolerance for fools became almost non-existent.

3. I found out one time that if I consumed sufficiently high-proof alcohol it shut my brain down. I could talk coherently and wasn't falling over, but trying to string two thoughts together was basically impossible for the next hour or two. It was like trying to run in mud. It wasn't relaxing; it was very discomforting.

4. I came to realize I liked being calculating and in control of myself better than being uncontrolled.

5. I had gained self-confidence over time so drinking became less of a useful crutch.

After I stopped drinking I soon realized something: America has an epidemic of functional alcoholics. I don't mean the ones that go to the bar literally every day after work. I mean most people can't socialize sober. They sure can't attend anyone's wedding sober, not even their own. I hadn't realized the scope of this until I quit drinking entirely and found it be to rather disturbing.

I've been a teetotaler now for over a decade. I don't miss drinking and I don't find not drinking to be difficult; it was only ever something I did to socialize.

Mind you, my social life has been in steady decline since I stopped drinking. Not really because I stopped drinking, but it contributes to it. Being a teetotaler creates a gulf between you and all the drinkers. Even if you never say a judgemental word to them about their drinking, they assume it or fear it. (And, in fairness, I do judge them for it.) Or they are just subtly uncomfortable about your non-participation in the social bonding ritual of alcohol consumption.

I don't know how many friends being a teetotaler has cost me, but it's been worth every single one of them.

I'm a recovering alcoholic. 30 years sober.

I drank to (amongst other things) navigate social relationships. But I never drank 'socially' in my life.

Even after all these years I still encounter well-meaning types who, when I tell them I don't drink, say 'Can't you have just one?' If they're persistent enough, I just tell them the truth - 'No, I can't. I can have twelve, then a curry and a fight, and wake up in a skip the next morning, covered in puke.' They tend not to ask again after that.

I think being autistic has actually helped. Neurotypicals prefer to avoid that kind of awkward, socially 'uncool' honesty. It's actually the same thing that got me into trouble as a kid for telling the teachers I was smarter than them. It's beautiful to know that it's actually a superpower as well as a disability.

I don’t drink it, don’t care if others drink it, so long as I’m not pressured.

I don’t drink and never have.

Being fussy with food I couldn’t stand the flavour and I also don’t have ANY fizzy drinks I can’t deal with the fizzy texture

I enjoy a meal with the right people for a short time then make my excuses and leave

Drink makes many people idiots and if they are stupid I want to hit them, so best I keep away

Alcohol has done decades of damage in our family, a murder, others with mental health drank there selves to death etc etc

Much better off without it