Let’s talk about booze

Some basic things about alcohol:
1. It is a depressant.That's why drinking when your down is a bad idea.
2. It suspends your judgement. Hence people doing crazy stuff they wouldn't do sober. It's called liquid courage, but it should be called liquid dumb ass.
3. It's a pain killer. Vicodin doesn't actually kill pain, it just makes you not care that you are in pain. Alcohol on the other hand actually does kill pain. It's used in cough syrups because it numbs the throat on contact.
4. It's a preservative. Lab specimens used to be preserved with it. Ever hear the term pickled liver? It's a rather accurate common term for what happens to an alcoholics liver.
5. It's an antiseptic. Great for cleaning wounds.
6. It is poison. You blackout when you drink too much because you have poisoned yourself. I'm sure everyone can tell a story about someone at their high school, who was at a party, in a drinking contest that passed out and got left on their parents doorstep; only to be found dead by their parents the next morning. Cause of death: alcohol poisoning.You can build up a tolerance to it. Same as the practice of ingesting tiny amounts of poison over time and working up to larger does to gain an immunity to that particular poison. I don't remember the technical name for this practice.

Given all that, I'm a whiskey drinker. I can't stand the taste of beer. In moderation, or when used medically, there is nothing wrong with alcohol.

When I was a novice to drinking I used to lose my vision too, I even wasn't able to use my phone, I saw three of them at one time. That was cool, I'm missing that effect actually.

That's hilarious. And also refreshing to hear someone not hating on booze experiences.

A bit off topic, but this got me thinking about my own experiences. I don't drink (the only alcohol I've ever liked is kahlua mixed with chocolate milk), but I've been around a lot of drunk people. It's usually a very uncomfortable experience for me, but I was also reminded me of a friend I had who used to go out drinking with his buds, then come home and chat with me on skype. He was the most ridiculous drunk, lots of fun, the only drunk I ever enjoyed the company of. He'd crack himself up reading our messages the next morning.

Anyway, I realized I missed him a ton, so I decided to reach out on skype (since that's the only contact I have), and see if he still uses it. He does! So I'm just here to say that thanks to this thread, I've reconnected with a dear old friend.

I prefer beer, mostly stout, unfiltered beer and kriek. Also, sweet cocktails. Don't like vodka, whiskey and gin at all. Absinthe is great alcohol without any hangover after it! But the taste is not to everyone's liking.
I don't really drink much, a cocktail once in a week or two and I definitely don't like to drink a lot, but I feel nice after some alco. Relaxed, much less shy and much more talkative. Also I swear a lot, but it just comes with less shyness

I'm one of those people that loves alcohol, not for getting drunk but for the flavour and feeling.

For me spirits are the best. I love rum, whiskey and well-filtered vodka... I also have a soft spot for jagermeister, midori and Pinot Grigio. I like beer, too, as long as it's german or spanish beer. I love cocktails because I've been a bartender before and I like to come up with my own unique recipes for friends. Every party I go to, I end up being the one making all the drinks.

I am mostly a social drinker. The only times I drink by myself is if I have a particularly nice bottle in the house and feel like a nightcap.

I have the welsh side of my family to thank for my impenetrable alcohol tolerance. I can drink people twice my size under the table despite being a short and very skinny guy. My party trick is being able to drink an impressive amount while being totally fine. I can get to like..... 10-14 drinks and still be fine. I take great care of myself and give myself plenty of recovery time inbetween heavy drinking instances...... I'd say I only get drunk <10 times a year. Most people in my country get drunk 3 times a week though, because alcoholism is for some reason romanticised in our culture. I really don't get it because alcohol should be savoured and appreciated, and it can be expensive to go out every week.

I've never had a proper hangover, but that's probably bc I'm still in my early twenties and my metabolism is still good. I know that as you get older you don't metabolise as well and that's why hangovers happen.

I'm one of those people who don't drink very often but I have a reasonably high tolerance, and I drink whiskys. Its what my mum likes to refer to as "our Scottish genes". I once drank an entire bottle myself while the two girls with me got smashed on a bottle of lambrini between them. They were wobbling all over the place, nearly got hit by a car, and my worst mistake was giggling my head off when I forgot I'd locked my dorm room door and walked straight into it trying to open it.

That said, there's totally a problem with alcoholism around here. Especially the high functioning alcoholics, who aren't really considered alcoholics because they can hold decent jobs. You see it in fiction most commonly with lawyers or judges.

There's also a very uncomfortable stigma around not drinking here. If you go out anywhere at my age (late 20s) and have a nonalcoholic drink, especially in the evening or if someone else is paying, the response is "you can have something stronger" and if you say you don't drink, or don't want to drink, you're expected to explain yourself. I don't get that and it really annoys me that I'm expected to explain my drinking choices to people. And that stupid thing about "don't trust people who don't drink".

(Also, awful story, I once accidentally got my cat drunk when I dropped a glass of Baileys, first drink so I was totally sober don't know how I managed to drop it and before I could do anything she'd shot in and licked it up while I was trying to grab her and get her out of there. It wasn't much and she was fine, don't worry, but if you've ever seen a cat coming round from an operation, it looked a lot like that and if we weren't so worried it would have been hilarious)

There's also different ways and reasons to drink alcohol.
Examples :
- traditional/cultural like pre-dinner or lunch/aperitif or after-dinner liqueur (I know it doesn't exist in some countries)
- for fun, getting drunk and all at parties
- loneliness, boredom (it's medical at this point)
- addiction (it probably joins the medical point)
- pleasure (savoring the tastes with or without a meal)

I live in a country where all celebrations and opportunities happen with alcohol
Someone is coming home? Alcohol.
Eating a good meal? Alcohol.
Going out with friends to walk in town? Alcohol.
Gifts to do to friends? Alcohol.
Going picnic? Alcohol.

In old times in my country, wine was even given to kids with their meal. Now you get in jail for that XD

I quite grown a taste for good quality alcohol so I always say "if you have to mix your booze with some other juices, then your booze is probably shit".
Also being tipsy is fun and being overdrunk sucks.

I never get drunk because most of the time I fall asleep before that happens lol.
I like beer the ones that have a lighter flavor like Corona or Stella Artrois,
I only drink wine or champagne on special ocasions like family reunions.

In my country it was common that your first hangover was in your first quinceañero , at age of 15 lol.
I mean I remember I even had a chopp in mine, but nowadays people are getting more strict about giving alcohol to youngsters and even beer companies encorauge it.

I was once in USA, in the north part and it really amazed me that there would be special shops just to sell alcohol but you could buy bullets in Wallmart O_O.

I don't usually drink that often. I am probably one of the very few people in the Czech Republic who don't like beer. I, however, enjoy wine, occassionally coctails or some shots. Also thanks to my dad's and other relatives' efforts to make me drink on silvesters etc. since I was about 14, maybe sooner. Like, the legal age is 18, but honestly, the majority of teens don't wait till then.

I got drunk a few times to the point of vomiting, every single time by drinking too much wine too quickly. Like it feels ok, ok, and then suddenly I am past the treshold. And I don't want to do that ever again I have however, learned to distinguish where the threshold lies. Eating in between helps, too. Like, I can get really sick after a bottle of wine, but when drinking over a period of time and eating too (fatty stuff), I was able to drink a couple and a glass. Feeling terrible the other day, but not the worst I ever had. But hey, weddings!
So I think wine can make you feel really bad. However, on a month long trip to Russia to study birds, we drank vodka quite a bit, every single day, some days as much as a bottle per person. And I felt perfectly ok in the morning, never had any hangover. So... russian vodka is really great
I hope I don't sound like a drunkard now. I, however, don't drink even every week and when I do, it is usually just a glass of wine, or two O:)

I mainly and mostly reserve my drinking for weekends when I feel the desire to. I dont have to, but sometimes drinking relaxes me coming off a stressful week. I'm more along the lines of a mellow drinker, and if I do drink excessively, I turn into the giggly drinker who laughs at funny stuff & says funny shit.

I dont really care to drink with other people especially if they cant handle their drinking or it makes them a violent or aggressive person. At that point, that would kill my vibe and I will leave them to deal with your own shit- I drink to relax or enjoy myself. When I wanna get a little buzz I'll drink stuff like the Smirnoff Ice drink or the Mike's hard drinks...at times I'll drink Yuengling lager, but when I do drink harder stuff I'll drink Kraken Rum(I like dark rum & Coca-Cola) or Ketel One/Stoli vodka. Rum & vodka are my preferred liquors; I'll drink a margarita if it has tequila, but not a big tequila drinker in general.

I also have periods of time where I dont drink at all- like right now; the last time I drank something like a Mike's hard flavored drink was around Christmas...the last time I drank rum or vodka has been 2 or 3 years ago.

Ahh let's see. First off, I'm 24, live in the US, and am a fan of alcohol, in general~

I never drank until it became legal to do so at 21. Partially because I don't make a habit of doing illegal things if I can help it, and partially because my parents were both pretty annoying while drunk, so I didn't really feel compelled to mess around with it until I was older/more mature anyways.

On hangovers: I conveniently never really get them unless I drink way way wayyyyyy too much. Like a lot of people I know will experience at least minor hang over symptoms after most instances of drinking, be it a headache the next day or worse. I'm typically fine unless I'm to the point of throwing up & etc., in which case I have all of the other hangover symptoms as well. Not entirely why that is.

On getting "drunk" vs. "Tipsy" or wev: generally speaking I have a preconceived notion of how much I'm going to drink depending on the occasion.

• Like with a meal out, I'll have 1-2 drinks max (typically not enough to even get me tipsy, this is just for taste~),
• casually hanging out with friends is like probably a drink an hour or so (can maintain a pretty good tipsy feeling, but without getting "drunk", and should be okay to drive at the end of the night, so long as I stop a few hours early)
• at a party, it varies. I might have a beer or glass of wine in hand that I refill as I drink through it, but may get invited to do shots or taste other people's drinks (NOTE! this is only at parties with people I completely trust. never ever take sips off of random people's drinks at a large party... safety first!) And these are often the times I get "drunk". It's not really much different than "tipsy" in my experience, just "more".

I guess my number 1 tip for not getting ill is just not to mix different types of alcohol too much. Most of my "get sick/hungover" experiences came from drinking too many different things in a night. Although sheer quantity will do it too... I had an unfortunate experience with "Drunk Jenga" at one party >.> Each time is a learning experience though, I get to that point less and less each year lol

On what I drink: I used to be all about red wine, particularly merlots. Now I drink a lot of IPA beers though as my go-to. Never liked most mixed drinks much, a lot of them are simply too sweet for me to find enjoyable :X I do like some though, like Moscow Mules. And especially I don't trust anything most of my friends mix. I do have one dude I hang out with sometimes who used to bartend, so I totally drink whatever he makes at parties xD

On when I drink: almost exclusively socially. I genuinely don't like drinking by myself, because I don't see the point. Where as it loosens me up to interact with other people better in a social setting, when I don't have people to talk to it just makes me sleepy, so unlike some folks who I've heard will have a drink before drawing or something, doesn't work for me xD I'll just play a game for a while then sleep early, usually. I'll raaaaaaarely do that anyways, but not too often.

I don't really like drinking, just because despite trying a variety of different kinds of alcohol universally they just give me a headache and make me drowsy. I've never even gotten drunk, so it's not like a hangover headache - I'll only be a few sips in when it starts.

I have the unique American viewpoint on alcohol by way of my home state, Utah. Let me enlighten those who don’t live here:

Our alcohol laws are ridiculous. The Utah government is heavily influenced by Mormon lawmakers, and despite separation of church and state there’s nothing we can do about it. Utah bars aren’t allowed to pour or mix drinks on top of the counters; they have to do it out of sight. Our alcohol percentage is very, very low - four percent, if your establishment is licensed as a bar. We don’t sell wine in our grocery stores, only beer. We can’t bring alcohol from other states into Utah.

You cannot order doubles. You cannot order a shot with your drink, but can only do so separately. Hard liquor can only be purchased at state liquor stores, all closed at 7:30 PM, all closed on Sundays. If you’re ordering a drink at a restaurant, you legally MUST purchase food as well.

It’s insane.

THAT SAID we have an amazing bar scene in Salt Lake City, we have to in order to make up for the shitty laws lol. I myself start to feel unwell after I have any kind of hard liquor, two drinks max. I hate mixed drinks and I love, love, love beer ️ Especially Hefs. I’m not such a fan of IPA’s.

I’ve never been drunk, just very tipsy. Never had a hangover nor vomited from drinking too much, I’ve been very careful not to lol. I have two friends that are both very high-functioning, flirty drunks. They almost always end up cuddling when they’re drunk together lol. I tend to reflect the mood of those around me - I get contact high. The drunker everyone else is, the drunker I appear, despite being half a beer in.

Don’t drink when you’re sad, kids.

Is noone going to make note of the fact that both alcohol and caffeine when consumed in reasonable amounts have been scientifically proven to have positive effects on the body and life expectancy, whereas smoking and drugs like cocaine and heroin have more dangers than benefits regardless of consumption level?
Low regular consumtion of alcohol is theorized to prevent alzheimers, among other things. Just one example.

The only thing we usually think of as a "heavier drug" that has medical or positive effects when used in reasonable amounts that I can think of is weed.

Also, everything alters something. If I stand up right now, my state has been altered. Altered state is just the nature of movement. If we are going to avoid everything we like/that can be potentially positive for us, either socially, emotionally or physically, just because there is a risk it could go bad, then noone would do anything. Ever.

If we are going to start calling caffeine and alcohol "drugs", then we are going to have to agree that not all drug use is negative for your physical health and emotional health, and that some drugs when used to certain extents can even be positive.

The reason people are bringing these things up is because you kind of talk about alcohol with a holier-than-thou attitude. You compare it to drug use, bring up all the stupid things people supposedly do when consuming it, and basically turn alcohol use into a strawman.
If you don't wanna drink, that's fine. But if you are going to act high and mighty about that choice and talk to others as if they do what they do because they are uneducated or ignorant about the topic, then people will have a problem with that and some of those people will express their concerns with your approach.

I wonder if this is a cultural thing then because over here that is exactly what we're taught. It goes without saying because we're taught them all in the same talk. As I said "if it alters you it's a drug" although perhaps that should be reworded to "if a substance alters you". We're quite clearly told they're things like "prescription drugs" or "over the counter drugs". It's made abundantly clear that drugs are used for all sorts of things, especially medical. It's a well know, if slightly inaccurate joke, that morphine is just medical heroine. There's a reason pharmacies are called drug stores after all

Listen here, all I did was tell you why people are reacting the way they do to your posts, seeing as you seem to be taking issue with it and it seems to be a reoccuring problem for you. You do with that information what you will, you are free to reject/ignore it and keep doing what you do. But don't expect the results to be any different.

@DokiDokiTsuna

If I can say something, as someone pretty neutral in that alcohol debate:

I think the issue is that you clearly like coming with controversial subjects, which is okay, and you generally present the first message as being informative or simply questions to discuss; however it's debatable whether these questions or information are neutral or if they are biased. Also, I have no idea if you realize it or not, but you sometimes sound very peremptory.

I understood you are learning a lot of things lately with your studies, and your enthusiasm and curiosity is nice to see, but maybe you are going too fast. You sometimes make it sounds like you're a specialist of whatever you discuss, which obviously will annoy people. On a large site you'll have a huge number of people who are more expert than you in at least one a facet of the issue discussed; also some people with no specific knowledge will get simply annoyed at the peremptory tone.

I think the choice is yours: either be a bit more careful on how you handle controversial topics, or accept the fact that you will get a fair bit of critics.

Ayyy! if it helps anyone, I think I found the recipe my mom used. I think she adds a little extra chocolate and vodka though. It tastes amazing with pasta on the side too. Stay thirsty my friends...

I was pretty much a functional alcoholic for a little while there and I spend a lot of time at bars because that's where bands are. Feel free to ask me anything.

First off, hangovers are worse if what you're drinking is high in sugar, and they are worse if you don't stay hydrated. They also aren't all made up of the same symptoms. For example, you can have ones where it's just a sharp headache and a dry mouth, which I've found are particularly acute and horrible from red wine. Worse ones are often accompanied by something colloquially known as 'room spins'. This is the sensation that everything is spinning even when you and everything around you is still. Any slight move makes you feel like you're on a horrible tilt a whirl ride you didn't sign up for, so scrolling on your phone or moving your head too quickly might make you throw up.
Greasy, terrible food often helps with a bad hangover. My personal favorite cure is a big mac and orange juice.

By random chance, I suppose, you got to see the European countries that have the strongest culture of binge drinking. And Russia, although geographically for a part European, has really a different relationship with alcohol compared to the typical European country.
Also, every country has its internal variability. Depending on regions (eg. In France both Burgundy and Brittany have strong alcohol cultures but they are incredibly different); demographic, etc.

I generally found more pressure for drinking often and with meals in Europe, and more pressure for overdrinking at parties in Canada, but I would not give too much credit to that as I can compare a lot of European countries, while I rarely go out of my province (SK) in Canada (so that it's more a comparison of Europe vs SK, not the whole Canada).

Fair point! I just think that while the USA is conservative, I don’t think that this necessarily is why the parties are so crazy. I think that’s a really hard question to answer and tied with a lot of other things (age, stress, ease of acccess to alcohol, temperament, psychological factors). Because if it was simply conservative countries= crazier drunks and more liberal countries= civilized drinking, then you’d never see a super drunk, crazy European (which I’ve seen lots :P). I found an interesting article on drinking patterns around the world https://www.alcohol.org/guides/global-drinking-demographics/1

Now, this is NOT to say that there isn’t binge drinking culture in the USA, or in Canada. There is an it can be dangerous to teenagers and adults alike. I’ve seen it and fallen victim to it, and it’s scary. However, binge drinking can be found all over the world and isn’t strictly tied to being conservative.

Med school student (coming from a country that produces real alcohol) advice: Your body is really bad at metabolizing alcohol. Then, when it does metabolize it, it passes through highly toxic intermediates.

I think this is reason enough not to drink. Then again, if you need to(then you should ask yourselves some questions), do it slowly and with restraint. In the big scheme of things, alcohol is way worse than weed. Five minutes of binge-drinking can kill you, you can't fatally overdose on weed (mind you, I am not a weed apologetic, I am just trying to put things in perspective here - weed is dangerous in its own way).

Oh, and no, alcohol is NOT food. People who think that are generally alcoholics and end up with severe megaloblastic anemia.

Alcohol as in Ethanol/ethyl alcohol is not food, although it can be used in food production.

-but-

Alcoholic beverages are both food and a potential drug.

The drug part I think has already been discussed here.
Alcoholic beverages are a caloric source, used as a way to preserve carbohydrates, and still in many places a safe way of consuming liquids. Now, do we still need this caloric source in today's rich western world? If we were to look at it just from a caloric point of view, probably not. In the poor and isolated parts of Chile? Actually yes. There are still places in the world where fermented drinks are consumed for sanitary reasons. Just as example, some years ago I went with a friend from vet school who was working in agricultural extension, to a group of islands in the south of Chile where the drinkable water wasn't always reliable, and was given chicha at every place we visited, because people didn't want their guests to pick up something from the water.
Now, going back to the food aspect of alcoholic beverages. In food preparation for example, some dishes will not work out the same without the wine or beer in them, not just because of the flavor, also the solvent effect of ethanol. And then, we can't ignore the organoleptic properties of alcoholic beverages: a glass of wine is an equally important part of the main dish if it was prepared with that in mind.

Here is what I think is a good read about culture, food, and booze: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2013.841118
A quick pubmed search will point you to more articles about alcohol and health.

I wonder if the same is happening to you. When I was a vet student, after physiopathology (and even worse after infectious diseases), I became super black and white about certain behaviors, aka, why would I eat X if it does Y to me, or why would I risk getting Z. Fast forward 15+ years and that's fortunately all gone; being a person who can take informed risks is probably the best side effect of learning.

This!

I think it's pretty inevitable, and actually simply the normal path to walk: first we are ignorant because we lack the knowledge, then we have some knowledge but we don't know how to use it and are not aware of how much is still missing, then hopefully one day we have a good understanding that our knowledge is and will always be incomplete and that we have to deal with that factual situation because it will never be as perfect as we would want.

But it's a constant battle to remind ourselves that. I certainly does not always in normal life, will be more careful but still forget at work.

A related and very difficult thing to deal with happens for people who do specialized studies (my background is in research but that could also happen with any kind of skilled job, for example artisan alcohol making to go back to original topic): At a specific time and on a specific subject, it's possible to be the person who know the most about said subject in the whole world, and to be the one who has the best grasp on all the little nuances about that subject. And then let's take one small step away from this subject and here we are, complete ignoramus, wondering what was the point to master such a ridiculously tiny subject if the rest of the topics our knowledge is so pathetically deficient. It gives a very, very weird feeling.

I'm so off topic, sorry.

I like a good whiskey every now and then...