Hello. Newbie lurker here. Not wanting to tread on any toes, I’ll offer just my own recent personal experience. This past winter, I visited my parents, who live in Ireland. I spent 9 days with them with nothing stronger than a Scrumpy [Irish cider], and had a great time. My parents are both in their 70s with heart conditions, and any time with them is wonderfu. So, in a sense I partially agree with the OP about the family-time-Zen thing. And then I went to Portugal (never been before), and spent an unforgettable Saturday going around Lisbon, mostly on foot. And I was sober. However, I also really enjoyed my layovers in Amsterdam, and fully partook of the majesty of said city’s coffehouses… So I have to largely disagree with the OP’s position as being overly superficial and ignorant.
The OP sounds incredibly like I did a year ago. Sorry, everybody.
Let me give an example of one reason why I like to drink sometimes. Two Fridays ago, I watched a movie with my friend while drinking cranberry juice with vodka, then went to various small parties, visited some friends, came back and watched another movie while eating oatmeal and drinking water. Didn’t have a hangover, because I am disgustingly youthful and resilient, but my friend and I were definitely drunk.
See, for the last two months, I have been having a lump in my breast investigated. I say this not for pity, which it doesn’t require, but to give context. I have had unpleasant medical procedures, unpleasant doctor’s office experiences, and had to start seeing a counselor for depression (every time I got new information, it looked more and more like cancer). Although the depression had lifted by the night of my example, I knew from experience that, try as I might, if there was a lull in conversation or a pause in my social interaction, my mind was going to leap to that health situation and gnaw on it until I was unhappy.
Like most people (I assume), I generally have bits of my brain watching and criticizing other bits of my brain, second thoughts galore, interrupted and erratic thought trains, and many, many thoughts that never make it out of my mouth because I’m self-censoring so stringently. A certain level of alcohol removes that committee and I become more impulsive, relaxed, and able to live in the moment. The net result was that I could spend a whole night without drifting to the unpleasant topic or feeling sorry for myself. I enjoyed myself, and I was very glad I did. Without alcohol, I would have become too self-aware and self-pitying, and would have gone home to cry.
It’s all very 10 Questions: Do you drink to forget your problems? Well, yes, I did. I don’t do it all the time: I see counselors, I talk to my friends and family, I do positive thinking exercises, I work out, I nap, and so forth. On that Friday night, vodka and cranberry juice was the fastest, most readily available, and most effective of my arsenal of coping mechanisms, so I employed it.
Finding fun in natural ways is great, I understand that, and given the choice between standing in a summer storm and a shot of vodka, I would take the storm. But you can’t bottle storm.
It was benign, by the way. Found out today.
Can we smoke and drink your family? 'Cause well, they seem pretty trippy.
Glad to hear it.
I sincerely hope not.
Well, whether you agree with me, disagree with me, or hate my blackened soul and wish to condemn me to eternal suffering for my effrontery, this has been an interesting pit thread for me.
Yes, please scamper off.
Eh? What’s with that? Last I checked, you were the one who started this thread, to condemn people who don’t think like you. Now you’re claiming the high road? Piss off.
Take it up with the creatures of the forest, who, given the opportunity, will get stinkin’ drunk.
It’s fun.
Of course, the vomit stuff, not so much. (Man I miss Quaaludes… all the fun of alcohol, none of the sick. Plus a little toot to take the sleepy edge off, a magic combination. Those were the days…sigh…)
The “sand in the gas tank” analogy is interesting. I once took a great substance abuse class that was actually an evolutionary psychology class, because the professor was an evoluntary psychologist with tenure and everybody loved him. The class focused exclusively on food and alcohol, because they were the only two psychoactive substances with caloric value and the only two it’s impossible to avoid.
Next to fat, alcohol is the most efficient way to ingest calories-important stuff if you’re a caveman. That it made people feel happy was probably a huge added bonus. I wonder if our ancient ancestors did essentially the same things modern humans do when they’re buzzed-tell stories of past hunts, play Toss the Round Thing, dance, hit on each other, debate the existence of Og.
Um… I’ve been doing pretty well avoiding the alcohol.
“Let’s go paint ‘CAVE 23 RULEZ’ on the side of that sabertooth!”"
He meant coming into contact with it, not necessarily consuming it yourself. You don’t drink, but you’ve been around people who do. I refuse to eat certain types of food, but I’m constantly running into people who insist seafood and green peas are edible.
:eek:
:eek:
Jesus!
Smoking pot is fun, and three beers makes me a pool shark. You don’t want to participate? More for me. You don’t want to hang out for me? Am I supposed to consider that a loss, you sanctimonious prig? I don’t need it, but I enjoy it. If you can’t make the distinction, you’re stupid as well.
Didn’t Disney make a movie about that?
I’ll say. Hard to tell if you’re using your brain or your bunghole to come up with this shit.
Then again, they are likely one and the same.
I play pool better after a few drinks, too. It’s kinda bizarre.
Whoa. When, why and how did all the choices narrow down to Puritanical Abstinence or Self-Inflicted Lobotomy? Not that extremes can’t be comfy and all…
I come from families w/ alcoholism on both sides; never took a drink until I was 22. (Sorry, yosemitebabe, they were also hardcore classical music freaks. I was fad-impaired all around.) Nobody ever pressured me to be otherwise. Frankly, most people just plain didn’t give that much of a shit. How people flow along is up to them. Adapting individual quirks about anything is just part of life. I don’t share Buffy, Trek, D&D, Simpsons etc. passions either. Anything taken to extremes can be poisonous.
Turns out I enjoy wine w/ dinner, drinks w/ close friends but can take or leave alcohol. Who’d a thunk it?
Maybe not, 'cause me three. Don’t much play anymore, but with the right blend of liquor and MJ, there were few shots I couldn’t make. Dunno, but I chalk it up (pun unintended) to the angles. They just became that much clearer, as did the feel for the stroke.
And then there’s the fact that most places that have pool tables serve booze – perhaps pool is meant to be played with a slight buzz. Works for moi 
The OP should know that there are various classes of drugs, all with different effects and for different types of fun. Downright disingenueous to lump them together in terms of toxicity and addiction. The vast majority of drug users aren’t physically dependent. As for addiction, Health magazine has this chart. The Economist published a survey on illicit drugs and public policy a couple of years back.
Personally, I rarely drink alochol or smoke pot. Those drugs seem sedating, relaxing, not what I want. Stimulants are also very rare (coke, meth, Xtc). The only class I prefer is hallucinogens like LSD and mushrooms. I don’t take these to escape from life, but to escape into what can only be described as a sensory and cognitive wonderland. These drugs can be life-affirming and changing in the right environment. They will make you appreciate sensory and emotive nuances that your “developed” brain filters out. They aren’t really open to abuse, since tolerance builds up rapidly and breaks down rapidly after some days, so most users, who can be called heavy users, use it every weekend at the most.
So you don’t listen to music? You don’t watch the leaves change in autumn? You don’t read books? You don’t spend time in a garden? You don’t lose yourself (or find yourself) in Andrew Wyeth’s paintings of Helga? You don’t enjoy the exhileration of a rollercoaster or thought-provoking cinema?
All of these are external stimuli. We made not absolutely need them in our lives, but they can and do enrich the lives of many. (And it is difficult, really to “react” without external stimuli.)
You remind me of the friend who would never eat mushrooms because they are fungus. And bleu cheese was out because it is moldy. She said, “Why develop a taste for these things? What’s the point?” She began to understand about the time that she discovered sour cream.
If you choose not to drink, that’s fine! But there is no need to scoff smugly at those of us who are able to savor another of life’s joys if we are fortunate enough to be able to do it without causing problems for ourselves or others. And in the case of red wine, you are missing out on something that can benefit your health. That’s your call.
For us it is as silly as saying, “I don’t need to share Christmas dinner together to spend time with my loved ones!” Of course you don’t! But it’s nice when you can!
All you have to do is use different words to see the answer: “Why is being relaxed considered a good thing?”
If you don’t enjoy something, don’t do it. That’s not an inhibition. Inhibitions are restrictions that we place on ourselves to keep us from fully being ourselves.
Sometimes inhibitions are wise. (Maybe we should feel a little inhibited about being rude to our mothers-in-law.) Sometimes inhibitions are not reasonable. (If we never allow ourselves to express our feelings – even when we need to, for example, that’s probably not healthy for us.)