Not sure about grabbing that beer? You’re not alone. Americans are reaching for alcohol at record lows, according to a new Gallup survey.
The survey, out Aug. 20, found the number of Americans who say they drink alcohol sits at 54% for the second consecutive year − and health concerns appear to be a major factor.
“Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults now believe drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day is bad for one’s health,” the survey results noted. “The figure is essentially unchanged from last year’s record-high 53%.”
In 2001, only 27% considered moderate drinking bad for one’s health, according to Gallup.
We have legal cannabis now. Why would we want alcohol?
What are alcohol remains?
If alcohol came out today, it would be illegal. It kills more people than all drugs combined. It’s terrible for you and 10% of drinkers account for 90% of all alcohol sales. I just wish I could stop.
You can stop. I won’t give unsolicited advice, but dm me if you want to talk about it
Word. My Friday evening beer math:
I always try to stick to one beer. These days I manage to not exceed a couple.
Hollywood needs to stop using it in every fucking scene. Two characters cannot have a conversation with beers to scotch, no cop comes home without cracking open a beer.
I’ve noticed that recently too. I watched “Life in Pieces” recently and it’s like every other scene this family is drinking.
It’s everywhere. Latest season of Reacher has at least 5 scenes per episode of people drinking.
Someone dies, drink, someone is sad, drink, someone is happy, drink, someone is nervous, drink, two characters developing a relationship, drink. Hollywood writers have no other mechanism to convey emotions.
Two wealthy people cant have a conversation without pouring from a crystal decanter of scotch…CEO offices have a full bar and people drink all day. Even superheroes are drunks now.
And of course, every male over 50 is burned out alcoholic in TV and movies. What would happen if alcohol was not allowed on screen like cigarettes?
I only started this season of reacher, but that’s ironic given that in the books reacher has no interest in drinking and only ever would buy a beer to be polite or get information out of a bartender and even then he doesn’t really drink the beer
But in the TV show, a character cannot explain something to Reacher without going to a bar and drinking at 9am. It doesnt even make sense.
nearly every English show I have watched (not may but still) has women drinking wine
I’ve met a lot of wonderful people through this organization that has helped me immensely:
Thank you for this. I plan to share it with people in my community who want to quit, but are struggling.
I tried SMART meetings. I felt as if the people there had significantly worse trauma and alcoholism than me and it made me feel like since I wasn’t as bad as them that I should still be able to keep drinking. When I have stopped drinking in the past, focusing on what’s wrong with me doesn’t help me focus on the positives and moving forward. Everyone is different though.
I initially got a similar feeling at meetings that others had it significantly worse, but that just made me feel better that I was getting some help before reaching that point. Nobody ever makes me feel that I didn’t belong, though. The journey really is different for everyone.
I prefer SMART to guilt-based programs like AA since it focuses more on progress with a basis in science.
It isn’t easy at first, but the pivotal moment is merely wanting to stop. You may not believe it yourself, addiction has this way of convincing you that you can’t, but it gets easier with time.
It’s been three years or so, but my life has turned around so much it’s astounding. Highly recommend believing in yourself, and pushing through the tough days.
Stay kind to yourself friend
Keep wanting to quit, I think that’s the most important thing, keep the desire to quit alive. Especially when you stop. I’d put money on you pulling through brother!
Alcohol never had any sort of attraction to me thankfully. I don’t really like having an altered mental state in the first place, and I never found a beer that I liked until I was 23. I’m 45 now and I’ve been drunk 3 times in my life and each time I was just wishing the effect would wear off. But I do have addictions, just other sorts of things. Wish you luck and strength in your journey.
They don’t care if you live or die. They care about if their rich buddies are still getting your money.
I believe in you.
I stopped drinking and it has been very worth the effort. It’s hard, but I believe in you
Yes alcohol, sugar and automobiles are the big killers that we seem to just accept in an “oh well” kind of way. We came a long way on smoking so I’m optimistic about alcohol. “Record lows” doesn’t impress me as a phrase because I know how high the historic highs actually were 🤣
Eh, I think “sugar” is both a slippery word (it should definitely be “added sugar”) and refined fats, frying, processed meats, are just as high up there.
You can do it, dawg!! It’s not something that can be done easily, but it can be done.
Try GLP-1s or ketamine treatment
Shrooms can also be highly effective
Always wanted to try and didn’t get an opportunity until a few weeks back. I didn’t stop totally, I still have a beer for meals that call for it, but I pretty effortlessly vastly reduced my drinking. Like, even the standard here in my part of Europe, what Americans call “tall boys”, is a little too much at once, I can only do a short can. Being drunk just does not feel good afterward to me. That wasn’t planned, so I don’t think it’s placebo, just kind of happened.
Maybe I will
Joke solution: Convert to Islam.
Serious solution: I have no idea.
I’d rather become a Buddhist and change my perspective which will eventually help me.
Outsourcing the choices you make about your body to a religion?
Why dont you stop drinking yourself and not outsource your decisions about your body to a brutal police state?
I am not tirelessly working to ensure you must be forced to drink every day, why would you do the opposite to me?
You can stop right now.
Edit: You guys are right. It’s better to resign yourself to doom and give up. I guess my case was miraculous. Self control wasn’t a factor. No one has ever quit drinking successfully.
That’s not how dependency works. Depending on how bad the addiction is, alcohol withdrawal can be deadly.
I dunno… I used to drink pretty heavily (several drinks per night) and then cut back to less than one drink per month. Never felt a single ill effect.
I understand that’s anecdotal, and I’m sure some people do have dts and withdrawal, but I doubt every person who quits drinking will suffer severe side effects, just like I don’t believe anyone has ever hallucinated pink elephants from drinking too much.
Your very first sentence is very correct. “I dunno…” Yeah. You don’t. You followed it up with a bunch of “I, me, my” and can’t understand that someone may have a different issue than you.
I don’t drink daily. I’m a binge drinker. I convince myself that it will only be a few this weekend and go on a bender every time. I can’t stop lying to myself. I keep telling myself I’ll quit next weekend and do it all over again. Cut back? I cut back every week.
We are the same.
I did 11 months last year and thought I could “reintroduce”. It was good at first, I still kept my Fri Sat rule but then it crept and as I watched my weight loss regain and my control loosen it wasn’t so good.
Now I’m just trying to avoid going back to my lowest which is like major blackouts and no sleep. Puking.
Unfortunately it will probably get worse before it gets better. I wasn’t even a heavy drinker, but when I started seeing shadows jumping and little flicks of light out of the corner of my eyes, that’s when I called it quits. Turns out that’s a symptom of alcohol withdrawal.
You’re an idiot spreading an admitted anecdote. Use your phone and look it up before you spread your ignorance to other people.
Alcohol and benzo withdrawal can be incredibly dangerous and medical professionals should be consulted whenever possible.
Booze, Benzos, and Barbituates: the three deadly “B”s, merely cessation from which can kill.
If people are getting medical advice from lemmy they have bigger problems. And at least I called it out as anecdotal. Go rage somewhere else.
I did the same thing. Cold turkey quit after 15+ years of drinking. Going on 4 years sober now.
That’s awesome. I’ll get there soon, I hope.
several drinks per night
that’s not much for a garden variety alcoholic.
I dunno
That’s right. I’ve seen people dead from alcohol withdrawal. So I do know.
The other horrible thing about alcohol compared to most other drugs is that quitting when addicted can kill you. In many cases special care is needed to ween, which is kinda a thing alcoholism doesn’t facilitate.
As far as I’m aware, the only other drug class aside from alcohol, whose withdrawals can kill you are benzodiazepines.
I was in rehab once with someone who had a terrible Xanax addiction. They had to wean him off, and he still had psychotic episodes where he would hallucinate some very bizarre things accompanied by these terrible panic attacks while they weaned him off, not to mention the seizures he would have.
They eventually stopped, but the first few weeks he was there were an absolute nightmare for him.
Hospitals stock beer cans because dealing with withdrawl is too difficult with other health issues.
Yup, people always talk about opiate withdrawals, and they are awful, but they don’t usually kill you directly. It’ll make you want to die, and that sometimes does people in, but in terms of directly killing you not so much. Alcohol and benzos absolutely will.
This is true. A medical hospital can assist but it will be straight drugs and monitoring. You’ll sit in a room with a TV and whatever books or electronic devices you bring with you. Outpatient support? Maybe. Probably not.
A mental health hospital will monitor you and provide the drugs to keep you out of danger. Little room time. No electronic devices. Group therapy. Exploration of why you’re drinking with some Coping Skills 101 training. Discharge plan to include outpatient support.
if you are a heavy alcoholic.
My sister was a very light alcoholic under 100 pounds – that makes it even worse believe it or not.
i think weight/fat ratio has to do with alochol toxicity, your fat absorbs more. your sister being light feels the effect more easily. or if you have a deficiency in the alcohol dehydrogenase.
That special care seems to be ativan, in my area. It’s not replacing the poison, it’s calming the neurological side - effects of detox.
Ativan is one step removed from a lobotomy in terms of damaging a patient to make them more manageable.
Everyone is aware there are steps they can take to get free of whatever substance they are dependent on. If it were as simple as that, addiction wouldn’t be the scourge that it is.
You think if I could, that I just wouldn’t? No. I have been trying for years and can’t. I may not get withdrawal symptoms, but the societal pressures and habits drive me back to it.
Only reason I still use Reddit is because of R/stopdrinking… my virtual little AA meeting whenever I want/need it.
I was a daily drinker for 10 years, and the last few were… well if I kept it to a fifth of cheap canadian whisky a day, I was “doing well.” 🙄 , I didn’t do well most days.
Anyway, I was sittin on the couch one day, thinking about string theory. about how our decisions create little offshoots of different realities, and I thought about the string where I kept drinking, and where it
mightwould lead.Went into the kitchen, poured out the handle I had in the freezer. I remember looking into the sky… it was so blue.
From then on I only used weed and shrooms. Shrooms for figuring out big stuff, going through traumatic shit from my past. Weed sometimes did that too. Have you heard of EMDR? it’s where you just sit and follow a light bouncing from side to side. Well I’d get real high, sit on my Marcy recumbent stationary bike, and play Mariokart on my old Nintendo 64. And shit, I swear that acted as a perfect EMDR machine. I’d be on there dissociating, thinking about shit, making major breakthroughs.
Anyway, this year I finally found the courage to face the trauma from my past, confronting my past abuser, then confronting my parents that ignored it… and you know what? went from smoking weed almost everyday to… not. Like at all. I just don’t feel the need anymore. It’s crazy. My life isn’t perfect, but it’s so much better it’s nuts.
I dunno. just my own story. Hope you get there someday, brother. I promise it’s worth it.
I wish you the absolute best moving forwards.
That’s not how addiction works.
You don’t know how much they’re drinking. At a certain intake level, suddenly stopping can kill you. So just telling them “you can stop right now” is misleading and dangerous.
I was just reading a thing about this the other day.
For decades, scientists told people that 1 to 2 drinks per day is better for your health than 0 drinks per day. They determined this by asking a ton of people how much they drank, and then asking about their health repeatedly over a long period of time. And they found what they called a J-curve. Basically when they plotted drinks per day vs health over time, people who had 0 drinks per day actually had slightly worse health outcomes than the 1-2 crowd.
So everybody agreed that light drinking was better than no drinking. This became guidance from governments, it got repeated on the news all the time, and it was a huge boon for the alcohol industry.
However, in recent years, scientists went back to take a closer look at this J-curve, and they noticed an obvious thing that wasn’t accounted for initially: some people who don’t drink have existing health conditions that prevent them from drinking. And some people that don’t drink are in recovery: they’d spent decades being heavy drinkers and just didn’t drink now. But damage had been done, and worse health outcomes were to be expected.
Once scientists started to correct for these cases, the J-curve disappeared. Not drinking at all was suddenly clearly the safest thing for longterm health outcomes. So that’s been the new guidance coming down from agencies and health organizations.
That said, the difference in risk between 0 drinks per day and 2 drinks per day is significantly less than the difference between 2 drinks per day and 5 drinks per day. It’s riskier than not drinking, but we do plenty of risky shit because it’s fun or easy or convenient. See: driving, flying, eating fast food, etc. So, yes, a complete ascetic chasing immortality may not want to drink, but for most people occasional light drinking is an acceptable risk.
Edit: Autocorrect-induced typo
So, yes, a complete ascetic chasing immorality may not want to drink
Either you’re missing a ‘t’ or you’re chasing immorality the wrong way.
Thanks, fixed.
Only one grammatical error/typo in a comment that long is way better than I could have managed :-)
scientists told people that 1 to 2 drinks per day is better for your health than 0 drinks per day.
One lab from one country, heavily promoted by the California wine industry. In Europe, this is confused with the fact that historically people drank weak ales because it was safer than water due to cholera.
Another scam with wellness influencers is resveratrol from wine -it does fuck all.
Great insights thank you
how much they drank, and then asking about their health
this kinda read as if they asked them about there health while they were drunk :) Would have made for an interesting curve.
Ethically because of the known dangers of abuse, no medical professional or organization should recommend alcohol consumption. It is NOT a safe drug to use by anyone’s level of evaluation. It runs a similar levels of risk as driving a car, another activity that no health professional should recommend.
That being said, for those that are genetically predisposed to heart disease and diabetes, the proper dosage and timing of alcohol consumption helps to regulate cholesterol and insulin. This is backed not by surveys which are prone to the errors you described, but blood draws etc. aka testable evidence.
Genetically 3 out of 4 of my grandparents had diabetes and 4/4 had high blood pressure/heart disease. So when my blood tests started coming back with screwed up cholesterol ratios and my blood pressure started increasing in my 30’s I read a shit ton of the scientific papers.
So I started having around 1.5 drinks per night. Within 1 year my cholesterol and blood pressure normalized. They have remained so for the past decade. My one glass of wine or whiskey after dinner is acting as a very enjoyable medication.
Anecdotal health stories are the dog shit of the Internet. You have no idea if alcohol affected those numbers.
Weed is legal in more places than ever. People are aware of cycles of abuse and trauma, we don’t want to keep repeating the sins of our alcoholic parents. And now recovery is out in the open like never before, regular folks and celebs both openly talking about their journeys.
There’s a big class of folks like myself who don’t do hard drugs, don’t drink, but will use cannabis and hallucinogens, maybe dissociatives. This is pretty reflective of our times - we’re disconnected, our journeys are isolated, our experiences tend to be isolated. So these drugs work well for that, without being destructive like drinking alone is.
Yup. There’s a reason ABC and Total Wine have a whole isle dedicated to THC drinks. People don’t not use drugs anymore, they just found a cleaner drug.
Weed is legal in more places than ever.
I will say from experience though that long term, chronic, heavy use of weed comes with its own problems, though. Probably not as bad as alcohol, but pretty unfun still.
In Canada, we are seeing all kinds of cannabis syndromes in ER, with psychosis and schizophrenia on a steep rise. The problem is the dose, 60s weed had 2% THC, but shops sell very highly concentrated THC. Government won’t regulate it because the whole point of legal weed was to make investors rich.
I absolutely believe this and that was my unscientific conclusion as well; a lot of the previous study we have on the safety of cannabis is with comparatively very low THC amounts. Some of the new study isn’t so rosy, as I recall (though it’s been some years since I’ve looked at it). My experience after 10+ years of few issues was a very bad panic attack bordering on psychotic episode. Though it is much better a few years later, I still have issues with panic and dpdr I didn’t have before which were very crippling in the months after the event. I can’t really mess with weed anymore and encourage youngers to at least watch their THC intake.
With teens, there is very really effects of brain development. Also, despite what Reddit/Lemmy will tell you there are cannabis addicts. Canadian government admits to 5% of users, but the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health puts the number at 10-30%.
Also, despite what Reddit/Lemmy will tell you there are cannabis addicts.
Being one, you’ll get no disagreement from me. I can’t have just one, I’ll be stoned non stop until I run out. I tried starting with more healthy and measured use at least a half a dozen times… no dice. It’s binge until gone for me.
It’s a bit more insidious than alcohol, because the impacts are less obvious in the short term imo, and there’s less acknowledgement it can be a problem because Bob Saget said a funny line once. It’s a slow burn.
I watched nice kids growing up ruin their lives with pot addiction and chemically induced apathy. No careers and partners eventually leave them.
One thing I will say, from my perspective, is it’s less that it induces apathy so much as it makes you comfortable with it, and so you lose motivation to change.
That’s the greatest boon and curse of it all in one, imo: it makes bad situations tolerable. Which sounds great to some until you realize that bad situations being intolerable is usually what drives you to try to change the bad situation.
I’m sure it can manifest different for others, but that was my experience.
Government won’t regulate it because the whole point of legal weed was
That people should be free to do what they want with their own body.
make investors rich.
Sounds like you have an issue with capitalism, not drugs.
That people should be free to do what they want with their own body.
So you support drunk driving? Non shithole countries have universal health care so we all have to pay for the stoners on welfare and the hospital bills from substance abuse.
Libertarians have opinions until it all goes to shit then they are instant socialists.
I agree with this statement but looking back I have to admit that I’m not sure the chronics I knew were actually suffering the effects of their heavy weed use or if the heavy weed use was just comorbid with their other problems.
And like alcohol, people do respond to it differently. It’s not an amazing option for just anybody, even though it may be a wonder drug for some.
Conversely, I do amphetamines (legally, prescription) and still occasionally drink. At the height of my drinking I’d have 3 drinks in a night (usually more like 1-2), maybe 4-5 nights a week, but the rule has always been that I would only drink if I felt safe to do so, had something else to do (while drinking), and most importantly, am not in any negative mood or depressed. These days I only really drink for celebrations, and looking around there isn’t much left to celebrate. I still drink occasionally, but it’s been down to like 1 drink every other week, with company (and only mead, my body can’t handle beer or even wine anymore).
I keep wondering if “just weed and occasional hallucinogens” will actually be an available path for the next generation. I think it’s reasonable advice but I don’t know what’s out there and available to them. It seems like a broader spectrum of shit than ever and things get mixed together. Can you still just buy an 8th of weed in a sandwich bag anymore? Can you get a paper tab of acid without worrying what else is in it?
Canadian weed is clean because it’s regulated, but you can buy very high concentrations of THC that are not safe in edibles.
There was a great story out of Toronto where two cops palmed an edible candy bars from a dispensary. They ate the whole thing without realizing the delay and amplification by the liver. One cop had a panic attack and called in officer down, the other was found in a tree. A third cop was seriously injured responding to the call when he slipped on ice.
In the end, the judge of the case called one cop a “complete idiot” in court.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-cop-pot-charges-1.4899645
“Apathy had to make out of body the status quo” -Clipping (Daveed Diggs)
I think COVID-19 lockdown changed the path. Some people drank way too much during lockdown and decided it had become a problem or lost the taste for it. Then there is the disruption of how we socialize created by the lockdown. Before 2020, “meeting up for drinks”, going to bars, and eating at restaurants where the default adult form of socializing. The lockdown forced us to find other ways to socialize, or just deprioritize socializin altogether. Once you break the inertia of a default behavior, it’s difficult to start it up again. IMHO.
Covid accelerated my drinking. Still haven’t come back down
My wife completely quit late 2023 because the lockdown and some following things pushed here deep into alcoholic level drinking. I quit as morale support. I think what lockdown did was highlight our tendency towards problematic drinking. You seem to be aware that yours might be an issue. Whether you do something about it or not is a different story, but you seem aware.
If you do decide to quit, I wish you the best of luck. My wife turned to constant excercise as a coping mechanism because just stopping and doing nothing else was not doable. Seriously, good luck.
Yeah I mean I drink a good amount but not sure if it’s a “problem”. It doesn’t impact my day to day or anything like that. But as you said, with the exercise bit, that’s when I find I do most of my drinking. Bored. Watching tv. Etc.
It didn’t affect my life either. I would have a drink or three (one beer, two whiskey, or vice versa) while playing video games or working on something in the evening. Or even just sitting outside in the nice weather.
But then I started seeing shadows jumping or flicks of light out of the corner of my eye, which apparently is a symptom of alcohol withdrawal. (I wouldn’t get the classic ones like shaky hands or racing heart the next day unless I actually went out drinking all night.)
As I mentioned in another comment, quitting didn’t really help me feel any better, like improve my sleep or my memory. But I guess I didn’t want to wait until it actually had a major impact on my life. So I put the can I’d just finished in the recycling and haven’t had one since.
I do the same as your first paragraph. I’ve never seen shadows and shit. That’s wild, I didn’t even know that was a thing! As far as I’m aware I don’t have any withdrawal symptoms so far 😅
At least you were able to recognize and overcome it.
I don’t even like it for getting buzzed. I just like the taste haha. I started buying NA corrona. Cure for the itch, without the alcohol.
Yeah apparently it’s your body trying to compensate for the depressant effects by producing extra stimulants. Same reason your heart races and your hands shake, but in your brain/eyes.
NA stuff tastes just the same in my opinion, which is good, but I enjoyed getting buzzed so I don’t drink NA stuff too often. Only if I’m out at a bar or whatever, and fortunately most places have NA stuff in stock now.
Also, who has money for $15 beers. If going out means spending more than $50 it’s not worth it. And the dating scene is trash so most male singles I know are avoiding traditional meet up spots like the plague.
Restaurants are in panic mode. Without booze profits, most of them will go broke.
Restaurants, Strip Clubs, and Pawn shops are the first business to be impacted by a depression
I agree with most of what you said. For me however, Covid was when I learned how to mix cocktails. I figured out a very simple drink I like and now I have 2-3 mix drinks a week, almost never more than one drink per day though.
My secret ingredient is St. Germaine, thank you to The Expanse for introducing it to me!
Also in addition to what you and others said, I wonder if realizing why liquor stores were essential businesses put some people off from drinking as much or at all.
I still enjoy drinking, but I’ve greatly reduced it over the last few months. I’ll drink on date night with my wife, or at a get together or event, but have stopped drinking at home. Just felt like doing it. Overall it does feel better to drink less, but the occasional drinking is still fun
The worst part is that I don’t even feel any better since quitting.
I bet that wallet feels better though 😉
IT’S FUCKING EXPENSIVE AND LETTUCE MAKES YOU SHIT TO DEATH NOW.
Ah, well. At least they can’t tax the air.
Polluted areas will have cheaper rent and cleaner areas we will be priced out of. So many dystopian tropes about this and I truly believe it will come to pass.
Yet
As a recovering alcoholic, I don’t understand this “it’s expensive” talk in this thread. Are you talking about drinking at bars and restaurants? Because I can get blackout drunk for less than $10, I promise.
Proud of you for recovery. Shit ain’t easy.
To the point of the original comment, I think it’s less “what can I buy to get drunk” and more “what can I buy that I can enjoy?” Which (going from memory here so somebody correct me if I’m wrong) with the trends of the younger generations leaning towards nicer liquors, cocktails/mix drinks and craft beers, as those get pricier the overlap of enjoy and pay for is shrinking.
If you are in recovery, it won’t surprise you to hear that alcoholics are often narcissists - the type who may center the whole world’s experience on their own.
The vast majority of drinkers aren’t addicts though (or are at least very high functioning addicts). They aren’t going to be drinking the same grain alcohol or gas station vodka handles that you’d use as an expert to hit your goal quickly and efficiently.
The decline being discussed relates to the fact that you used to be able to go to a bar or your dinner at applebees and get a few beers or some mixed drinks, even a couple/few times a week, without blinking, for the average person.
If you are in recovery, it won’t surprise you to hear that alcoholics are often narcissists - the type who may center the whole world’s experience on their own.
Just what the guy needs to hear!
It’s all throughout the first few steps of the program. Tells you to stop thinking you control the world and admit to yourself that it’s all bigger than you.
When folks are in recovery, you don’t need to tip toe around them - That was actually a big part of the problem when they were drinking.
And if anyone objects to that, they might want to look into al-anon themselves.
Yeah, but this is Lemmy, it’s not the 12 steps program and I am not tiptoeing around them, nor should the “ban” on tiptoeing be seen as an encouragement to be confrontational.
And nobody was taking to you or adressing broader Lemmy… This was a response directly to that OTHER person where YOU then felt compelled to interject yourself (funny when the topic is narcissism)
And it’s not “encouragement to be confrontational”, it’s a lack of that barrier when direct talk is warranted.
compelled to interject yourself
I’m sorry, this is a public forum for discussion? Everyone can comment and is encouraged to do so. You seem to have forgotten that, since you treat your original response like a PM. A bit self-centred, no?
You bringing up narcissism in first stanza of your reply to the person talking about money not mattering that much is a bit of a non-sequitur. “When direct talk is warranted” reads to me like the tough-love BS people like to reference when they are being paternalistic.
Why drink, make bad choices, and feel like shit the next day? I can just get fucked up on weed for a fraction of the price and stay well in control of myself while feeling fine the next day. Alcohol just kinda sucks.
I think people recording antics on behaviors of drunks also kind of reduced a psychological thing nobody talks about: alcohol has always been a low-key social lubricant to allow for out-of-bounds behavior. Alcohol historically provided not only disinhibition, but also a socially recognized excuse for disinhibition. Either through “liquid courage” or “it wasn’t me, it was the tequila.” Now, people can be held accountable for their actions.
One of my deejay friends got riled up after drinking by a group to go out and beat the shit out of some guy who made a homophobic slur about him. My friend was gay, pride and proud, and this other deejay said some stuff about him that ended up on social media (I never heard what was actually said). My friend was going to “let it slide,” but after a few rounds of a flask, his friends group were like, “let’s go to the club and GET HIM!” THANKFULLY, before they got there, the venue had actually shut down due to an unrelated medical incident (a puke chain) and nobody was allowed in. So they went home.
The next morning, my friend brother’s woke him up and said, “I think you should see this.” And it was cell phone video of him drinking, letting his pals rile him up, and the pure rage her was coaxed into. Then the mob going to the venue, but then being told it was closed for the night, and all of them frustrated in rage unfulfilled. My friend had NO MEMORY of this, but there he was, drunk and angry on video. His brother sat with him and said, “I think you need help.” And he got help, quit drinking, and a lot of health issues dissipated over the next year. But that video scared him. “I don’t know that guy. I don’t know Mr. Rage. That terrified me. Drinking would kill me if I kept going like this.”
And while that’s an extreme example, I think some people being shown, “Hey, Rachel, you go so smashed last night. Here you are confessing you have the hots for Jessica’s little brother even though he’s sixteen. It’s on Tiktok, along with you saying you didn’t care who knows.” Maybe that wouldn’t scare everyone, but a good portion might think twice about getting drunk, or drinking at all, knowing that alcohol wouldn’t be the shield that it was.
I am so lucky my teenage drinking years were before smartphones were ubiquitous.
Totally different feeling. Weed for some people is anxiety train to nightmareville. Booze is anxiety begone (for some time) and happy dumb bliss.
It depends on the individual reaction to the drug, in both cases. In both cases, either can result.
Weed for some people is anxiety train to nightmareville
Yeah, for me, high doses of THC, like through edibles, induces panic attacks, which are double-plus unfun. Lower doses, like through smoking, mainly make me “feel dumb” rather than feel relaxed. It would be interesting to have the sensation of “chilling out” that other users seem to get from weed, but I’ve never experienced it. Alcohol, on the other hand, makes me feel great and very chill and relaxed up to a point. I would still use it (bitter IPAs are the best but brewers are cranking up alcohol content way too high these days) if it weren’t for bad interactions w/chronic illnesses and with other prescription Rxs.
That’s exactly my THC experience for a good part of my life! It went from “hehehe everything funny” to “man I’m dumb” at low doses and “holy shit everything is terror this is the worst” at high doses. After quitting drinking, now it’s a 90% “this is fun AND I’m dumb” and 10% “this is a bad time,” but the bad times subside after an hour or two.
Weed just doesn’t do it for me and I don’t have the problems you described with alcohol. Last bad decision I made I was stone sober.
My docs have all begrudgingly accepted that I value enjoying my life more than I value longevity. I’m sure it makes them sad. But I don’t see this world / humanity suddenly growing a conscience during my time on this planet, so if I shorten my life a bit, I really don’t care. If anything, people will likely get dumber and make me not care harder and faster.
The problem is not that you shorten your life by 5 years and are healthy up until death. It’s that the last 10 years of your life is spent with medical / hospital admissions because of the liver failure, heart disease, brain disease etc due to alcohol, smoking et cetera
Heh. Hospital?
I’m there too. Being in the Southeastern US with all these people who hate everyone who are not like them and who also want to destroy everything certainly has made me reprioritize my own survival. Also, generally all the war and greed. Our species is sick. I’ll drink if I want.
drinking here and there =/= enjoying life
*to you
I drank hard liquor pretty much daily for a few years up until I started having health problems. while at work one day I felt nauseous and delirious, and could only lay on the floor of the bathroom for a while in order to barely function the rest of the day. That day, valentines day 2024 I swore off the stuff for good.
From what I understand what i went through was just considered a long hangover or something, but it was the worst I’d felt in a long time and I didn’t want to feel that way again.
That sounds like withdrawal
Might have been that, yeah
Most beer tastes like garbage to me so it’s easy to not buy it.
The only alcohol I drink even with friends is various ciders, because they actually taste nice and the alcohol content is low enough for me to handle.
Low abv ciders and wine are so good. I rarely drink it though because of the health implications.
I like dry apple ciders/wines. Most of the stuff made in the USA taste wayyyy to sweet for me.
Ever try strongbow?
Recombinant alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme has changed the brewing industry. Zero alcohol beer no longer tastes like shit, and is the single largest growth sector of the industry. But, they are charging alcohol prices for a beverage not taxed.
By the time I quit alcohol, I was developing peripheral neuropathy and fatty liver from all the drinking. I ended up in urgent care after a particularly bad night. The intake staff treated me like shit because they didn’t understand why someone would drink like that; I was taking up space that someone with an “actual” problem could’ve used. I was laid up in the hospital for three days having auditory hallucinations while I detoxed.
I was lucky enough to have enough time and space to introspect about how my life had gotten so fucked up. Turned out I was coping with massive amounts of unrealized trauma. I came out as queer, I transitioned, and I ditched my unhealthy “friends” and “family”.
5+ years sober, my nerves are better and my liver is back to normal. I shed 40 pounds of alcohol weight. I finally have a healthy relationship with myself.
To anyone who’s struggling… don’t give up. You are capable of winning your fight.
Turned out I was coping with massive amounts of unrealized trauma.
Me too, sister. Me too. We freaking made it, though 🫡 🥲
Yes we did. Be proud of that. <3
Who can afford alcohol?
Alcohol is the one product that seems basically untouched by recent inflation, at least around me… it all costs basically the same as pre-2020.
I realized that the other day and it made me very sad.
(This doesn’t include dining or bars ofc)
Heineken has definitely gone up, but imported hard liquor has remained unchanged.
I had a spell where I’d just make my own wine at home. Could make a couple gallons at a time for cheap, it’d just take a few weeks to be drinkable.
But now it’s rare for me to drink too. So my excuse is all the wine I’ve made is “still aging”. Perfect hobby for the lazy and forgetful.
I switched from beer/wine to Kirkland tequila because it’s cheaper
Kirkland Tequila sounds like a very sad kind of inebriation.
Like Joe Fresh Vodka.
Careful… the cheap stuff can do things to your stomach lining that’ll make you wish you’d paid the extra money instead
Ethanol is ethanol. The only difference between cheap liquor and expensive liquor is the branding and price. In business schools, they teach the Chivas Regal effect, where they increased prestige and sales of a cheap whisky by doubling the price.
This seems like comedy…
But I worked summers as a chemist at a large beer plant and we bottled the same tank of brew across 6 different styles and brands. I learned quickly 99% of beer sales was just marketing.
It’s not about the ethanol, but all the other things (including other alcohols) they don’t bother to distill out of the product.
Next, Trump will lift all restrictions on alcohol advertising.
Product placements coming to Bluey.
Looks like they already party hard.
Good things Bluey isn’t made in America.
Tariffs on Bluey until they stop being Communist Anti-Americans and start doing alcohol product placement!
Don’t fool yourself. If they were paid enough, they’d make a version just for the U.S. market.
