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My entire family, outside of myself, has struggled with alcohol. I watched it turn them from brilliant, creative people into miserable wretches that avoided liv

My entire family, outside of myself, has struggled with alcohol. I watched it turn them from brilliant, creative people into miserable wretches that avoided living life like one would an allergy. For every single one of them, they started out drinking heavily at parties. Then they would have a beer after work to 'relax'. Then two. Then four. Then six. And then their livers, marriages, and careers started to fall apart around them. They stopped leaving their homes, and then their chairs, and then their beds -- until they were dead. Their livers failed along with the rest of their health. Alcoholism isn't a war or a battle, it's a slow, insidious invasion and dismantling of your coping mechanisms until you have literally nothing else to turn to. It always amazes me that casual and habitual drinking is an accepted thing. People even seem to take pride in their alcohol tolerance, and congratulate each other for drinking more of the substance than others would even attempt.

tasty_freeze 7y ago
> It always amazes me that casual and habitual drinking is an accepted thing yes, everyone agrees drinking and driving is stupid, dangerous, and selfish. yet there are so many bars that are located such that nearly 100% of the patrons drove to/from the bar. Yes, some may have a designated driver, but I suspect many many simply drink and drive because they feel OK to drive and walking home isn't an option. I'm a 175 lb man and after a single beer I'm sure I'm not legally drunk, but I can sure as hell tell that my perception and reflexes are affected.
- Broken_Hippo 7y ago
  "yes, everyone agrees drinking and driving is stupid, dangerous, and selfish. yet there are so many bars that are located such that nearly 100% of the patrons drove to/from the bar. Yes, some may have a designated driver, but I suspect many many simply drink and drive because they feel OK to drive and walking home isn't an option" This has always irritated me. It isn't that the bars are located where they are: It is more that walking home simply isn't safe combined with the absolute lack of public transportation. I've seen some of these bars in places that don't even have taxis available - and honestly, even if they were I somewhat doubt patrons could afford the fare since most of the surrounding area was countryside. To be fair, even living in the city where walking home is an option, actually doing so was a bad idea in the US. This is mostly because of public intoxication laws. On the other hand, I think some states have eased up on this because it seemed to encourage drunk driving. (Police in Indiana used to wait outside of bars for drunk people to come out of them).
  - balfirevic 7y ago
    > This is mostly because of public intoxication laws Public intoxication laws are totalitarian bullshit.
seibelj 7y ago
Not everyone goes from casual drinking to full-on life destroying alcoholism. Just as not everyone who gambles loses their house to the casino, or even does a line of cocaine and starts turning tricks for their next fix. We tried prohibition during an extremely prude moment in the USA. It failed so miserably that we passed a constitutional amendment to revert a previous amendment, which is pretty incredible. The stories of people who let any vice ruin their lives are powerful and important to know. But don’t let stories restrict the freedom of everyone. If alcohol was so bad then we never would have legalized it after prohibition. Everything is a trade off, and it’s better to let people make their own decisions than to throw people in jail.
- watwut 7y ago
  It was not so much extreme prude moment, but more of massive problems with pervasive alcoholism moment. People drinking out their whole salaries leaving dependents hungry and obviously a lot of violence - street and domestical. Prohibition did not worked just like drug war don't work, but it did not started on whim for no reason.

tasty_freeze 7y ago

> It always amazes me that casual and habitual drinking is an accepted thing yes, everyone agrees drinking and driving is stupid, dangerous, and selfish. yet there are so many bars that are located such that nearly 100% of the patrons drove to/from the bar. Yes, some may have a designated driver, but I suspect many many simply drink and drive because they feel OK to drive and walking home isn't an option. I'm a 175 lb man and after a single beer I'm sure I'm not legally drunk, but I can sure as hell tell that my perception and reflexes are affected.

Broken_Hippo 7y ago
"yes, everyone agrees drinking and driving is stupid, dangerous, and selfish. yet there are so many bars that are located such that nearly 100% of the patrons drove to/from the bar. Yes, some may have a designated driver, but I suspect many many simply drink and drive because they feel OK to drive and walking home isn't an option" This has always irritated me. It isn't that the bars are located where they are: It is more that walking home simply isn't safe combined with the absolute lack of public transportation. I've seen some of these bars in places that don't even have taxis available - and honestly, even if they were I somewhat doubt patrons could afford the fare since most of the surrounding area was countryside. To be fair, even living in the city where walking home is an option, actually doing so was a bad idea in the US. This is mostly because of public intoxication laws. On the other hand, I think some states have eased up on this because it seemed to encourage drunk driving. (Police in Indiana used to wait outside of bars for drunk people to come out of them).
- balfirevic 7y ago
  > This is mostly because of public intoxication laws Public intoxication laws are totalitarian bullshit.

seibelj 7y ago

Not everyone goes from casual drinking to full-on life destroying alcoholism. Just as not everyone who gambles loses their house to the casino, or even does a line of cocaine and starts turning tricks for their next fix. We tried prohibition during an extremely prude moment in the USA. It failed so miserably that we passed a constitutional amendment to revert a previous amendment, which is pretty incredible. The stories of people who let any vice ruin their lives are powerful and important to know. But don’t let stories restrict the freedom of everyone. If alcohol was so bad then we never would have legalized it after prohibition. Everything is a trade off, and it’s better to let people make their own decisions than to throw people in jail.

watwut 7y ago
It was not so much extreme prude moment, but more of massive problems with pervasive alcoholism moment. People drinking out their whole salaries leaving dependents hungry and obviously a lot of violence - street and domestical. Prohibition did not worked just like drug war don't work, but it did not started on whim for no reason.