# College Alcohol Consumption and Partying Concerns **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2017, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183 "2017-06-30T05:06:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/101 "2017-07-07T13:55:21Z")
The thing is, I know plenty of people in college who share the OP’s spirit (if perhaps not the volume). Most of us drank heavily well into our 20s and 30s. Some did drugs as well. You know what happened to most of them? Nothing. No spectacular career collapse No destroyed families No criminal records Well mostly. I suspect the reason is that most of us grew out of it. It’s tough to be out until 4am if you have work the next morning. I certainly don’t feel like being hung over while dealing with two kids under 3. Also, a couple of times I didn’t bother to drink at a few company happy hours and was amazed how idiotic people became. The point is, sure, ingesting insane amounts of booze and drugs in your youth isn’t as abnormal as many people here are making out. But it is something you need to eventually grow out of. Also, I’m 44 and still enjoy drinking and hanging out with friends in bars. But mostly for the social aspect. And I certainly don’t want to get obliterated so I’m all hung over the next morning. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/102 "2017-07-07T14:47:58Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > The thing is, I know plenty of people in college who share the OP’s spirit (if perhaps not the volume). Most of us drank heavily well into our 20s and 30s. Some did drugs as well. You know what happened to most of them? > > Nothing. > > No spectacular career collapse > No destroyed families > No criminal records > > Well mostly. I suspect the reason is that most of us grew out of it. It’s tough to be out until 4am if you have work the next morning. I certainly don’t feel like being hung over while dealing with two kids under 3. > > Also, a couple of times I didn’t bother to drink at a few company happy hours and was amazed how idiotic people became. > The point is, sure, ingesting insane amounts of booze and drugs in your youth isn’t as abnormal as many people here are making out. But it is something you need to eventually grow out of. > > Also, I’m 44 and still enjoy drinking and hanging out with friends in bars. But mostly for the social aspect. And I certainly don’t want to get obliterated so I’m all hung over the next morning. Just to be clear: nothing in your post is inconsistent with anything anyone else has posted. The reported _volumes_ are outside the range of what you and your friends did. Usage as described would be very abnormal even for the minority of college students who are heavy recreational substance users during college years. Tolerance or no tolerance. Yes some minority of students did large amounts of recreational substances legal and illegal during college. It is not very abnormal to do so but the fact is the overwhelming majority in fact do not. Self-segregation being what it is those who do/did know more who do/did and those who don’t/didn’t not. Yes _many_, probably most, who do/did grow out of that phase, some before senior year, some a few years after. _Some_ do not. Some stay as functional heavy users and some have major consequences. Some die in college, falling off balconies, aspirating on their own vomitus, taking an ill-considered short cut through a train tunnel, car accidents, so on. Most survive and come out the other side and some do not. As long as they don’t take anyone else out with them it is their choice to make. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/103 "2017-07-13T00:07:41Z")
I think the responses are pretty well established for this one: 1. Ridicule/Sarcasm 2. It’s tough to believe your claims 3. Yes, you’re going to need to change your lifestyle (if you haven’t done so already). The rest is padding. What you do henceforth is up to you, out of our control, and beyond our concern. We, as decent human beings, hope you will cease the willful ignorance\* and start making better decisions. > [@msmith537](#): > > Also, a couple of times I didn’t bother to drink at a few company happy hours and was amazed how idiotic people became. It has occurred to me that this is a very culturally-influenced response. A lot of drug consumption is known to be like that: Marijuana tastes like shit and burns the throat and lungs worse than tobacco before inducing abnormal mental and emotional states. It’s only due to peer influences that cannabis consumers interpret the effects as a positive experience with acceptable drawbacks. As I started winding down my over-consumption of alcohol and really working hard on maintaining my lucidity while sipping drinks, I started noticing that a lot of people who were drinking around me seemed to lose their inhibitions largely because it was well-known that “alcohol lowers your inhibitions” in various ways. So it seemed to me that the girls who slept around would act more trashy after drinking and the guys who liked to jokingly tease each other would start throwing bigger insults to each other. And it didn’t seem like the quantity of alcohol mattered; the alcohol just seemed to be an excuse to do things they didn’t think they’d get away with if people thought they were sober. But perhaps that’s fodder for a thread of its own. –G! \*Opposition to ignorance, particularly willful ignorance, is the reason this site exists! ---
**Author:** ![RealTalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ec8ea/32.png) [@RealTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealTalk)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/104 "2017-12-17T09:52:30Z")
Shit is messed up. Led to other things. Seen deaths, rehabs and paralyzation. Glad to be gratuated and out of that deep hole. ---
**Author:** ![RealTalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ec8ea/32.png) [@RealTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealTalk)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/105 "2017-12-17T10:11:15Z")
I apologize for being a d\*ck. Once again, all my statements are true. Just reaching out. This all lead to horrible things that cannot be reversed. Should have listened. Sorry yall, and i thank all of you for your responses. Thank God ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/106 "2017-12-17T11:09:37Z")
DO MORE COKE. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/107 "2017-12-17T13:22:30Z")
> [@RealTalk](#): > > Glad to be gratuated and out of that deep hole. English major? ---
**Author:** ![RealTalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ec8ea/32.png) [@RealTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealTalk)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/108 "2017-12-21T00:58:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > English major? I am definitely smartter than your sorryass. Please explain to me how rising Federal interest rates affects the furture value of the amount of money you will receive if taken out? Go read some boring ass English literature and tell me about how to properly hold a conversation? Lol ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/109 "2017-12-21T01:18:39Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > English major? > [@RealTalk](#): > > I am definitely smartter than your sorryass. Please explain to me how rising Federal interest rates affects the furture value of the amount of money you will receive if taken out? Go read some boring ass English literature and tell me about how to properly hold a conversation? Lol Knock off the personal attacks. Both of you. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183/110 "2017-12-21T11:40:53Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > Knock off the personal attacks. Both of you. I apologize. I thought there was hidden metaphor/simile that had gone over my head. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-alcohol-consumption-and-partying-concerns/790183.md?page=5)