Pretty self-explanatory. What’s the point of getting drunk anyway? A lot of people think that’s a fun thing. I find it rediculous, but whatever. Your life choice and all that. Does it have to do with your culture? I mean, it’s sort of an American ritual to drink during a sports game. Same thing with the Brits. <nice sarcasm> And of course, we all need a little alcohol to be able to pick up dates from the opposite sex. </nice sarcasm> Hahah And what’s so fun with puking your guts out after a binge???
Some people are very outspoken and critical of people who smoke weed, yet they bragg about being able to outdrink his friends. Isn’t that a little hypocritical?
Two things that are pet peeves of mine are when people brag about being able to outdrink their friends like it’s such a good thing and when those who drink call those who don’t drink ‘pansies.’
This may sound shallow of me, but I find nothing sexy with a drunk chick. Same with one who smokes cigarrettes.
So I ask you, once again, what’s so fun about getting drunk? I won’t accept, “well, it’s fun” as an answer.
Drinking to excess, however, is NOT fun. Bragging about how much you can drink is something college kids do to impress their friends. Calling a non-drinker a pussy is overstepping some boundaries; if someone chooses not to drink, that’s nobody’s business but their own.
That said, I drink because:
it’s fun. I like the mild buzz and relaxation that comes from a drink or two. Jokes seem funnier; it helps with stress relief; it makes me relax a bit faster than I would otherwise.
I like the taste. A fine wine is a lovely thing. A perfectly mixed Old Fashioned is both bitter and sweet in a fine balance. A cold beer is refreshing on a hot day.
I like the ritual. Sipping champagne out of crystal flutes appeals to the senses - the flute feels good in your hand, it’s beautiful to look at, the champagne tastes and smells wonderful, and you get a slight buzz from it. What’s NOT to like?
I don’t drink, mainly because of medication I have to take. I used to be quite self-conscious about it in crowds. But once I got out of college, you can exist quite well in group settings where you are not drinking and everyone else is.
If people get out of hand, you have the option of leaving everyone else to their hangovers and can drive home before the soused ones get behind the wheel of their cars.
Maybe you should try it some time. What’s so fun about smoking weed or any other drug? It makes you feel more relaxed, especially in social situations.
Plus, I like the taste. I would drink a good beer or a good mixed drink or wine even if it didn’t get me buzzed. Buzzed is just a bonus.
I don’t drink often, but sometimes it is nice. I enjoy sitting out by the lake with friends and a glass of wine. I enjoy a mixed drinks in a restaurant. I even like a few harder drinks.
Taste is important. If it doesn’t taste good, I won’t drink it. (I have a standing rule at parties where someone makes drinks for me: if I don’t like it, they take it back.)
I enjoy the sense of relaxation I get from it. It’s calming, soothing, lessens my inhibitions, and generally is fun. I enjoy the buzz as well.
A few things to note, I typically don’t drink at wild party settings (anymore). In fact, at parties and conventions, I am usually the sober one. I don’t feel the need to drink to enjoy being out. I also always appoint someone to guard me if I am drinking at a party or convention. Most of the time when I am drinking, I am with a few friends in a very relaxed setting.
If you don’t enjoy drinking, there really isn’t any reason to drink. My SO doesn’t drink, and I would never ask him to. He also doesn’t mind that I occasionally do. I’m looking forward to a nice glass of wine when I next see him.
I realized that I don’t enjoy drinking without a cigarette, and I don’t enjoy cigarettes without drinking.
Now that I don’t smoke cigarettes, I very rarely drink.
A light buzz is OK, but being drunk is awful.
This sounds vaguely familiar… I think we were down this road with someone else not so long ago.
That being said…
When my best friend and I go out for a girls’ night, it’s at one of the two or three bars at which we’re semi-regulars. Why only those places? The bartenders at these respective places know how to make drinks taste good. To echo other Dopers: Part of the charm is the taste. I know folks who drink shots of Everclear, but I won’t - to me, it tastes hideous. Give me a well-made drink (say, a cosmopolitan ;)) however, and I’ll be a happy woman.
So my friend and I sit, talk, and have a couple or a few drinks over the course of the night. It’s sometimes calming to get a slight buzz from a well-made drink in the company of good friends, especially if the week’s been stressful.
When we were younger, we’d sometimes purposely drink to excess. I think that a large part of the reason was 'cause we were new college students (we met upon entering) who went a little nuts with the freedom of living away from home and the fun that came from living with our peers and away from our parents.
And yeah, we probably thought that we were badasses for being able to sock it away. That’s mainly the stuff of one’s teenage years and early 20’s, I think. We grew out of it.
I gave up drinking a few months ago and I’m pretty certain that I’m not gonna do it very much ever again and never in excess. I never drank very often anyway but whenever i did it was never just a few glasses. I never got the initial buzz that people talk about, i bypassed the happy stage and immediately started feeling sick and got headaches. After that i quickly got more and more drunk and my memory of what happened next on all of those occasions could be better to say the least.
I must be pretty strange because I’m 16 but i see no reason to drink it myself.
Drinking to excess sucks. Did in once, twenty years ago, and don’t intend to go back.
Other than that, I drink.
I drink wine with dinner on occation. Wine complements what I’m eating. I’ll also drink water, or lemonade or coke, but some meals cry for a Merlot.
I drink mixed drinks at parties or bars. Usually a single mixed drink. It tastes good. It does relax you.
I drink when I get headaches. I get mind numbing stress headaches, and I cure them with three advil and a burbon coke. I was taking perscription meds for them, but I perfer my self medication method. Can’t drive on either. I happen to have advil and the burbon coke around - the meds require a perscription that I need to fill. Plus, the meds didn’t work as well - I was going to have to move to something on the vicodin scale, and MDs really don’t like prescribing lots of vicodin.
I never drink with people I work with. I can move to flirt pretty easily when I’ve had more than one, and flirt isn’t a professional image I’m looking to project. I don’t drink when I am driving - not at all - not even a glass of wine with dinner. Can’t remember the last time I had more than two drinks during the course of an evening. Some people do get carried away. They don’t intend to drink to a state of drunken-ness, but it happens. Its especially easy to do if you are with a bunch of friends and trying to keep up.
Salty, you are descibing teenage binge drinking. Chances are, you drank too fast and missed the buzz and went straight to sick. Wait a couple of years. Then drink in moderation - you may like it enough to drink occationally in moderation. But binging isn’t good regardless of your age.
This is like all those “why do people” questions. Why do people enjoy camping? I don’t camp and I can’t see why anyone else would want to do it. Why do people come to the Mall of America as a tourist attraction? I live fifteen minutes from the place and don’t get it. I don’t shop as a leisure activity, why would anyone else?
I drink because I enjoy turning into a mammoth mass of solidified goo, oozing over the couch and onto the floor as Bob Marley does his thang over the speakers, while my other buddies are similarly smashed. Great memories, mostly.
It’s really relaxing, to me. A good night of drinking helps make a shitty week drift away.
Another vote for the buzz. If I’m in a reasonably good mood to begin with, having a couple of drinks puts me in a better mood. Drinking too much, though, just makes me sleepy.
And if I never drank again for the rest of my life, I don’t think I’d miss it that much. Unless I spent much time hanging out in bars or clubs, that is. Those kinds of places can be pretty boring when you’re sober; and drinking gives me something to do.
I think some people get drunk as an excuse to do the wild, stupid stuff that they’re too inhibited to do, or want people to think they wouldn’t do, when they’re sober.
And some people get drunk to turn off their minds and keep from thinking about stuff they’d rather not worry about.
I’m 14 and I’ve only sipped a little bit of liquor, once, at my grandpa’s birthday party; nasty stuff. Burned like mustard (which I also hate), tasted like extra-strong medicine and made me run around in search for water.
But I don’t think people drink for the taste Some people drink to get drunk, because getting drunk is supposed to be fun. People who brag about being able to outdrink their friends is just a show of masculinity and the ability to stomach more.
As the years go by I am less and less attracted to drinking, (I’m 30).
An interesting thought is that I come from an Alcholic family… just the men, and i find myself having negative attitudes to excessive drinking. Something in my brain seems to ‘click’ when I start to indulge and I’m sick or I can’t get drunk.
When I’m around very drunk people I get ‘social shitty-ness’ and find them annoying and stupid, I really try not to because I understand that they are having a good time and i don’t want to rain on their parade, so I usually try and get out of the situation and go home or hang out with the sober ones.
I’ve seen some horrible things happen when people over drink, and i think that has had a huge impact on my attitude, and the morning after is ridiculous… for example my partner is in bed right now with a shocking hangover and it’s really stuffed up our Sunday morning.
I’m not angry at her but I feel bad for her because we can’t enjoy our time together.
I like a nice wine at the end of a long day but over drinking is not for me!
Like so many others have said, I drink because some drinks are yummy and drinking fun. If someone said to you, “Hey, drink this. It tastes good, will give you a little trip and is completely harmless (in moderation, that is)”, would you do it? I would. I actually do it on occasion. Now if you want to know why people like to puke their guts out, wake up hungover and call each other pansies for not doing so, I couldn’t tell you if I tried. I suppose it’s a phase that most people (hopefully) grow out of.
Not all the time, but once in a great while, maybe two or three times a year, its fun to lose your inhibitions and stagger about like a drunken fool. Especially on New Years.
