I never even had a sip of alcohol
For religious reasons obviously… But until now I didn’t have a problem with that. I also love working out so I always thought that alcohol would get in the way of my gains.
I’m 27 years old and I keep getting this feeling that I’m missing out on something amazing. I regularly go out to bars with my friends and seeing them so happy and laughing makes me really curious.
I know the downside and how dangerous alcohol consumption can get , but I wonder if moderate use is a myth?
Are there people who manage to drink in a healthy way?
I never thought being super drunk was fun, but getting tipsy and relaxed is something I might need.
My friends say I’m really better of not starting at all, what do you people think ?
26 comments
Idk. Sounds like theres lifestyle, wealth, genetic, mental health, etc reasons some people have difficulty moderating alcohol intake.
Ive never struggled w it i have one or two beer/wine/cocktail pretty close to every night. I think i learned it from dad and both granddads?
I stop after that. If i don’t get an alcoholic drink it doesn’t bother me.
Listen to your friends, as a recovering alcoholic, booze takes away much much more than it gives.
I wouldn’t recommend it.
Honestly if you have not started drinking I would not recommend it. I started drinking at a young age around 14. Never really got into any trouble, my friends and I always had a safe place to party and sleep it off. Fast forward a few years and I’m still drinking on the weekends and a few drinks at the bar after work. After my divorce is when it got bad I drank heavily literally every night for 11or so years. I never drank at work or while driving just when I was at home alone or out with friends. It started getting out of c9ntrol when I was drinking around 3.5 litres of wine a night. Thankfully last year my cravings and need just stopped. Don’t know why it just did. No plans or programs no AA. I still drink but only once a month or so when I’m hanging with my brother. After all this just don’t start, save the money and the damage to your body.
Its good until its not, if you’re lucky it can just be a small influence on your life when you want to have it around, if you’re like a lot of people it wont ruin your life but it can fuck things up for you here and there…
Sometimes it will grab a hold of your life and take everything for years until its all gone.
If you start drinking because of problems you’ll only add one extra, it’s just not worth it.
The most recent studies show that even moderate drinking takes a toll on your health and there’s no way to predict whether you will develop a drinking problem.Most western families have at least one problem drinker. It’s very common..From my own experience, I drank too much in my early 20s before I learned to control it then drank very little until my 50s (2-3 a week) when it became 2-3 a day.For about a year towards the end of the pandemic I was drinking a lot more than that and then I brought it back down again. I recently learned that I have fatty liver disease at 70. You don’t want that.I should add that my wife became alcoholic at around 40 yrs old and it ended in divorce 15 yrs later. She couldn’t stop until 65 when she spent 6 weeks in the hospital and rehab followed by several years recovering from liver failure.You have to decide whether the risk is worth it.I’d leave it alone.
Well you can just have 1 drink when you go out with your friends, isn’t going to make you an alcoholic.
Also you are 27, if your friends are around your age and they get wasted every time you go out they might have a problem with alcohol. Is more common to get stupid drunk when your are young and stupid, 27 is kinda too old for that.
I’m stationed in Korea and drinking is a HUGE part of our lives here.
So to make sure I don’t drink everyday or too much at once, I have a few safeguards in place. Firstly, I rarely keep any alcohol in my house. If it’s not in my home I dont even think about it. Outta sight, outta mind.
When I go out to drink, I pull out a certain amount of cash and that’s all I spend. If I run out of cash, I just vibe until it’s time to go home or I leave if I want to.
The issue comes in when your looking to drink daily. We only go out on weekends, so that also helps. The tipsy part is fun, getting drunk and doing stupid shit (that’s not dangerous) also fun.
The next day or two depending what I drank and how much I drank, not fun. Once i return to the states I’m giving up drinking socially, there just isnt an incentive and hangovers are getting longer.
I might have a mojito with tacos or something like that. Certain drinks taste amazing!
I got my drinking ‘phase’ out between ages 16-22ish and realized how destructive and dangerous it can be. Now, I’ll have maybe 5-10 drinks a month on average.
I could not drink ever again and be perfectly fine. But I indulge when friends want to go out a couple times a month, and I’ll help my dad house a bottle of Titos over a camping weekend.
I have a VERY addictive personality and have dealt with other addiction issues before, but never had alcoholic tendencies/struggles thankfully, even when I was drinking ‘a lot’. For me, getting it out young and seeing the destruction it caused to others made me very weary. I’ve also got 2 parents who have drank my whole life but I never once saw them sloppy or excessively drunk. I think having parents that exuded a ‘healthy’ relationship with alcohol was wildly beneficial to my own approach as an adult, and even as a teenager.
Honestly it’s up to you.
I’ve been a regular drinker for most of my adult life. I’ve been through my 20s etc getting blind drunk as often as possible.
These days (43) I have a couple of beers on an evening to relax, sometimes I don’t.
If you’ve NEVER drank alcohol and you want to try, then do it. I’d go for a pint of beer perhaps, you’ll feel something but it should be manageable.
Reddit is so fucking weird about alcohol. Yes you’re missing out, no you shouldn’t abuse it.
As someone who hit it pretty hard from their late teens to their early 30’s, it’s not worth it.
I’m personally not someone that can moderate. I was the kind of person that couldn’t have “a few” beers/drinks and then stop. Once I started drinking I did not stop until I was either black out or I passed out. Which ever came first.
Listen to your friends, and just don’t drink. You’re not missing out anything.
Moderate use is not a myth, but also there is no healthy amount of alcohol to consume. It’s always bad for ya. But that doesn’t mean everyone has a self-destructive relationship with it. To answer the question without delving into morality that might not apply to you:
Generally drinks are mixed/made to certain expected alcohol content standards. Keep a running tally on how many drinks you’ve had, occasionally get up and move around, and stop drinking when things start getting whispy. It’s important to regularly check up on your intoxication levels throughout the night.
Drink a full glass of water in between each alcoholic drink. This will keep you hydrated throughout the night and reduce the chance that you have a hangover the next morning. Additionally, the glasses of water will help you space out your drinks, and let the alcohol get into your system with more control. Over all, just take it easy, this isnt a race.
Don’t drink alone, don’t drink to relieve stress, don’t drink when you’re sad. The alcohol won’t help with those problems anyway, and people who self-medicate with alcohol in this way are much more likely to become dependant on it.
If you do intend to drink, plan your night ahead of time. Establish a way to safely get home in the event that you have to bail before you reach a safe location to rest. Save a taxi service phone number on your phone, ask a friend if they’d be willing to pick you up. If you’re drinking at a friend’s place, ask if it’s cool if you sleep on their couch before you start drinking. If it is, put your wallet, keys, and phone inside your shoes so you don’t lose them.
Alcohol impares reasoning skills. This is well known even amongst non-drinkers, but people tend to forget during drinking sessions. It’s important for you to be able to ask yourself in the moment: “would I do this if I were sober?” Trust me, your ex doesn’t want to hear from you, and they’re your ex for a good reason.
Alcohol impares reaction times even before you can feel the intoxication. Don’t drink and drive (duh). The legal limit in your corner of the world is likely above the point where your reaction time is hampered, so even being below the legal limit doesn’t mean it’s safe to drive.
If you’re on any medications, make sure none of them interact with alcohol. Alcohol can exacerbate psychological difficulties. If you’re struggling through a major depressive episode, you’ll only make things worse for yourself – best to remain sober for now. Same thing goes with many other disorders.
Good luck, have fun, and if you do drink, be smart about it.
I just do drugs instead, haven’t had a drink for like 5 years soon.
If you’re not able to laugh and cut loose right now and you’re looking at alcohol as a way to do that I’d look at why you struggle with that to begin with. It’s useful information to have, because if you know what’s holding you back you can tackle it. But also it’s dangerous to use alcohol to treat that, that’s called self-medication, and has a higher likelihood of leading to dependence.
That being said to answer your question directly, my philosophy is one alcoholic beverage by default, sometimes I go over but I’ve accustomed myself to just one, doesn’t matter how strong or weak, big or small, one and done. Drinking multiple beverages teaches you to anticipate more, which is dangerous, and like I said above can lead to dependence.
Listen, my opinion is that there are a lot of things in this world that can kill you. You could go your whole life without drinking or smoking but out of dumb bad luck get diagnosed with a terminal disease at 45.
I wouldn’t encourage anyone to binge drink, but a few pints on a friday evening with your mates is not going to kill you. If it’s getting to the point where you feel the urge to drink even when you’re not in a social setting, it might be time to put it down. But until then if you want to try giving it a go it is not going to hurt. Just be responsible, if you have too much to drink your friends will be there to take care of you
You must know that everyone is diferent. Some people are more prone to get attached to alcohol and some don’t. I’m not. Even though my father was a bit of alcoholic. I started to drink a bit late in my teens of the same fear but soon after I was fine and throughout the years I can go heavy drinking or I can totally pass on drinking for months and not miss it at all. What forks for me is: I got 3 simple rules.
1-Never drink alone.
2-Never drink at home.
3-Never drink depressed.
There’s pros and cons to it and you personally have to decide if it’s worth it.
For me personally, it’s not worth the risk. I come from a long line of addicts, alcoholic and otherwise, so I have to be very cautious with any addictive substance. Now I fully admit I did fall into that hole of addiction at one point, and it nearly cost me my life. After that I severely cut back, and now I rarely drink at all. I’ll have a shot of whiskey every now and again, but otherwise I just don’t touch the stuff. I’ll buy a bottle of whiskey and it’ll last me so long that it starts fermenting even more, so by the time it’s nearly empty I have to drink half a shot because it’s even stronger. Will I ever fully quit? Probably not, I enjoy a good whiskey too much. But can I control myself to where it doesn’t consume my life again? I mean I’ve been doing pretty good for over 8 years now so I believe in myself.
BUT, let me tell you a little bit about the hole I fell into. Growing up I had a rough childhood, got CPTSD thanks to my egg donor (bio mom but she wasn’t a mom). Eventually I resorted to alcohol to forget it and numb myself out. Eventually that stopped working and just made me depressed, so I started getting into drugs. Eventually those stopped working, and so I went into harder drugs and harder until I woke up and saw my egg donor in the mirror, staring back at me. I tried offing myself via crossbow to the head. I survived, and ever since then I’ve severely reduced my alcohol consumption and I only smoke weed for the phantom pains (I was prescribed oxycodone or something like that for it, but I got addicted to those too so I quit them and switched to weed). But I don’t touch anything harder anymore, honestly I’m too scared to. I know how easy it is for me to fall into addiction….
Look, if you feel the need to drink to reduce the pain or stress, go and ask for help before you start it.
Social drinking is drinking 1 or a few drinks with friends and family. One drink here and there won’t hurt you, but it can help (beer and red wine mostly)
If you don’t want to drink because of any reason, I would find something bitter like sprankling water or tonic water or something that you like, maybe a mocktail or a soda or whatever
I am in my 20s and I am drinking with family dinners 2 or 3 glasses if my father wants to drink. I won’t drink alone. And if we go out with friends i will drink a few drinks at most
I can very much take it or leave it. I enjoy going for a couple of pints with the wife at the weekend and sometimes fancy a beer so buy a fourpack and drink it over two nights but I can go weeks without one and I don’t miss it.
>Are there people who manage to drink in a healthy way?
Most people do… It’s not that hard to say “well, that’s enough” after a certain amount of drinks.
Most people got shit faced blackout drunk at least once though.. And we know we don’t want to get back there.
So how? Well you know cake or candy or ice cream or pizza is good. How do you, as an adult still eat vegetables and healthy meal when you can have cake for dinner instead? It’s the exact same thing.
Short and simple. Don’t drink because you have a problem and you want to make it feel better. Don’t drink because you feel bad and want to calm down.
Don’t drink alone.
Drink socially with your friends. Don’t expect every drink to feel better. Once your 2-3 drinks in have a drink every hour or 2. If that’s hard, leave after the third drink.
Every drink doesn’t feel better than the last, even though sometimes it seems that way. Each drink will make you feel different than the last. The first few feel nice and pleasant.
The last few make you feel numb, take away all your thoughts, and out you on autopilot. If this is what you like when you drink, it’s probably time to stop and work on your mental health.
You’re better off keeping a safe distance from it. Some people really struggle to keep drinking at a moderate level. I do it socially and end up only having 5 or less drinks a month (sometimes none, as my social outings have migrated to cafes more recently).
If you can manage it, sure having a glass of wine or two one night a week is perfectly fine. Tough line to walk
When I was younger I was wild man. I could polish off a half a bottle of whiskey and go to work the next day. I was drinking for the social factor.
Now, I just don’t drink like I do because I don’t want to feel like shit and it’s expensive. My mind ser changed. I’m happy with 1 or 2 light beers an outing
If you can’t control yourself, you should avoid alcohol. That’s the harsh truth that people don’t like saying.