I choose the custom poll option, to wit:
I haven’t had a drink in over 7 years. It almost destroyed me. But you do what you want.
That is great in 2 ways Airman Doors, 1 that you’re staying sober successfully and 2 that you understand your problem isn’t everyone’s problem. I know enough recovering alcoholics that are convinced that because they couldn’t handle it, then alcohol is evil and no one is safe around it. At least my Uncle got over that part of it after about a decade. But it was tough to be around him back in those days.
I’m a 5 – I enjoy a drink while I’m making dinner most days, and will have several on the weekends. I have no problem going without on days I have other stuff going on or if I’m driving, but I’d miss it if it was gone forever.
I have absolutely no judgement against people who choose not to drink for any reason whatsoever, but the judgement in the quotes below is hard for me to understand. Yes, irresponsible drinking is not a good thing, but why would someone’s moderate consumption of a legal substance that actually has some proven health benefits impact you to the point of losing respect for them? How is it a weakness? Genuinely curious.
Number 3, verging on number 2. Seldom take a drink these days, unless it’s with a meal in a restaurant (and I don’t go to those very often). If it vanished from the world tomorrow I wouldn’t miss it.
I just had a glass of wine, so I’d say the relationship is pretty damn good.
Seriously, though, I drink maybe once a month, but I definitely enjoy it and would be sad were it removed as an option.
I’m a 2 to 4. I only drink with close friends, never in a work setting or with strangers.
But I do consider alcohol useful to get a buzz, (4 glasses in a night) or to fancy up a meal (2 glasses in a night). I probably drink 1-2 nights a week.
#2. I almost never drink. I think alcohol is one of the most overrated things in all of existence.
Maybe a 3. I quit drinking alcohol when a dietician cut yeast out of my diet. Then I started having a single drink on holidays. Last summer, I actually drank beer again several times last summer. Yep, the yeast still affects me but the beer sure was good. I will only break the rules for a beer I know I like and can tolerate. I love home brew but can’t tolerate it. Oh well.
I’m a 3.5. Got the drinking out of my system in college and Thailand. Really a lot of drunks running around in Thailand, and it gets to be annoying. Once you stop going out with the sole purpose of getting bombed, alcohol simply ceases to be a big deal. I still have most of the 1.5-liter bottle of Glenfiddich I brought with me when I moved from that country a year and a half ago, and I’d had it a long time there.
Agreed. Where do I put myself on the scale if I almost always have a glass or two of wine with dinner (not lunch, but almost always with dinner)? It’s sort of the French style of eating, and to some extent European, though I am neither French nor European. I don’t do this to be snooty; to me dinner without wine is like ordering a burger and fries but no drink: it can be done, but why? A nicely matched wine with a meal is one of nature’s gifts that somehow manages to make both the wine and the food taste better than they would individually.
Well said.