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Great writeup. As someone who never drinks, and never has, it continues to sound like a drug to me and I want no part of it. That said, I still get questioned a
by reustle 13y ago
Great writeup. As someone who never drinks, and never has, it continues to sound like a drug to me and I want no part of it. That said, I still get questioned about my decision like I have 2 heads.
- eyeareque 13y agoI've also never drank before. People just can't seem to understand why I have never chosen to. I've also never met anyone else who has never drank.
- hcurtiss 13y agoRespectfully, why not? Putting aside state regulation, what's your objection to recreational drug use? edit -- I'm pretty sure your second sentence appeared after I commented. In any event, I don't mean to put you out. Just curious.
- mumbi 13y agoI suspect a history of family related substance abuse. That usually does it.
- hillbillyjack 13y agoThough I suspect I'm not as strict as the parent comment this is why I avoid alcohol. Father's side extremely alcoholic including several deaths (both liver failure/pancreatic, and alcohol related deaths). I've never had more than 1 drink in a day and usually only drink once per month out to eat when someone else is driving. Alcoholism is scary for most of us that have seen it up close.
- reustle 13y agoBoth my mother and father have always been pretty dry. My father has maybe 2-3 beers a month, and my mother one mixed drink every 2 months. I've not had any bad experiences at a close personal level with alcoholism.
- mumbi 13y agoThen I suspect it's just being raised in a very healthy environment ;)
- smsm42 13y agoI think decision of avoiding certain or all drugs makes total sense, if the person has no interest in their effects and is not ready to suffer inevitable side effects of doing things that our body is not meant to do normally. Hacking one's body often has its costs.
- VLM 13y ago"doing things that our body is not meant to do normally." The reason it doesn't outright kill you is an enormous amount of evolution to occasionally consume "somewhat overripe fruit". That doesn't mean you're evolved to chug grain alcohol like water, or get drunk every night like the goof in the article, it just means your body is quite very well used to handling a bit of fermented grapes once in awhile. Hacking one's body, is like eating non-human food like grains or potatoes or beans or artificial sweeteners / colors / flavors.
- smsm42 13y agoHuman body is a very resilient thing, so it can withstand some abuse for a prolonged time (and some bodies are extremely resilient, read this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy). But it all takes its toll at the end...
- PhantomGremlin 13y agoEveryone, that is a must read!!! Amazing. Of course, it's Wikipedia, so who knows if it's true ... but amazing nonetheless.
- teddyh 13y agoWhat a veiled FUD. If you doubt the text, check the references.
- mpyne 13y agoWell in fairness the article wasn't joking about there being studies that indicate there may be health benefits to drinking in moderation (as opposed to complete alcohol abstinence). So if you're teetotaling only to be "healthy" then you may not be making the right choice.
- reustle 13y agoI don't drink because I don't feel the need to. Simple as that. It has forced me to develop that "social lubricant" internally which people use as the most common reason for drinking. And for dealing with stress, I think sweeping it under the rug (even a little bit, or temporarily) is not the right way to handle things. I have heard so many reasons over the years, none of them have convinced me. As you can see in my other replies in this thread, this doesn't have anything to do with personal experiences with family alcoholism. I'm also OK with recreational drug use for the most part. You're free to do whatever you please on your own time, as long as it doesn't affect me. I don't feel any better than someone because I don't drink and they do, that would be silly. That's just about everyone.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- smsm42 13y agoIt is not "like a drug", it is a drug just like any other substances commonly called drugs. We just integrated it into our culture, and learned to live with it and accept the consequences of its use (on the societal level, personally it is still as capable of destroying lives as any other drug if abused). But it doesn't change neither chemistry nor biology nor physiology of what is happening. So if someone talks to you about dangers of such things as marijuana while sipping wine or beer - you're talking to either dangerously ignorant or dangerously dull person.
- mumbi 13y agoDrug is a political term.
- smsm42 13y agoIt is, but not only. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug A drug is a substance which may have medicinal, intoxicating, performance enhancing or other effects when taken or put into a human body or the body of another animal and is not considered a food or exclusively a food.
- jlgreco 13y agoEven in a political sense alcohol is considered a drug. Hell, in the past many countries have even banned it like other drugs. A select few continue to do so.
- cdrxndr 13y agoFurther your point that ti has been integrated into our culture, I've read interesting pieces (probably linked by HackerNews) where it was integral to the founding of culture at all. We're a pretty edgy species, and alcohol has historic significance in helping us come down from the anxiety of and reach political/social agreement. Back to the topic, though I'd love to spider on the drugs-in-society vein, I'm glad OP documented the experience. Have a feeling it will make me much more conscience of the assisted wind-down when I grab a beer after work.
- deleted 13y ago
- betenoire 13y agoHe lost a little weight, but had an increase in asthma symptoms. He had a harder time winding down, but slept a little better. I'm not sure what you got out of this article that confirms your aversion to this drug. Care to elaborate?
- jpollock 13y agoThat he felt it was a loss to not drink alcohol, and that he was consuming sufficient amounts to be worried about withdrawal.
- HelloMcFly 13y agoWell it is a drug, there is no debate there. Like any drug, such as caffeine or aspirin, one must decide for themselves 1) whether the associated positives outweigh the associated negatives and 2) whether you're able to control your consumption so as not to tip scale from net positive to net negative. Legality and ease-of-acquisition are a part of this decision. I like drinking, and brewing, and would never give it up; that said, it's crazy to me that others find it so far outlandish that someone would want to abstain. It's kind of like having kids: there are great reasons to want them, and great reasons to not want them. It shouldn't be hard to appreciate both perspectives.
- chrischen 13y agoThe positives are almost always cultural. Then you just have to ask yourself if you want society to dictate how you live your life.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoOn the other hand, you wouldn't get very far if you decided that no part of your life could be dictated by society. You'd die before you'd worked it all out from first principles. Unless you were some sort of magical wizard, what has magic and stuff. Then you might be ok. Though I bet you wouldn't, cos it would all have to be new magic and you would have to think of it really fast, like in three days cos you can't accept just anyone's say so about the whole water/thirst thingy and stuff. That water might be poison. So you'd have to be a really powerful wizard to make all new stuff that works without the imposition of society so that you can be truly free before you die of thirst. Though I guess if you were a really powerful wizard you might not get thirsty anyway, so it might not matter.
- cmccabe 13y agoYou're posting drunk, aren't you?
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
- mumbi 13y agoSeeing as everybody seems to want you to drink, I would like to say that I commend your ability to stay away from substances of abuse. I, for one, cannot.
- cclogg 13y agoI've managed to pull off not drinking like the parent commenter (both because I don't like the taste and I just don't want to)... but unfortunately I love soda/sugar-drinks... which brings other problems lol.
- reustle 13y agoI've also pulled away from soda and I've never been into energy drinks. If you're looking to get rid of them, I'm rooting for you :)
- baddox 13y agoIt's really not that difficult to use it responsibly in moderation. I wouldn't question your personal abstinence, but I would question anyone who broadly demonized alcohol.
- rbehrends 13y agoWhile I'm not going to demonize alcohol, I also wouldn't downplay the harm. Alcohol is probably one of the nastier psychoactive substances known to man. Alcohol abuse is pretty common (an estimated number of 15 million Americans); it can create a physical dependence; there is a strong link between alcohol and violence (alcohol is normally classified as a depressant, but a significant minority of alcoholics become violent); alcohol is involved in the majority of car accidents. Plus, of course, the health problems that excessive alcohol consumption can cause. That does not mean that people should be teetotalers (in the end, only a minority of drinkers is thus affected, though a scarily sizable one); but it is important to understand that alcohol abuse is both frequent and dangerous regardless.
- baddox 13y agoI agree with all the things you said, but they are all compatible with my claim that it's relatively simple to use alcohol responsibly.
- jgross206 13y ago> ...alcohol is involved in the majority of car accidents. This didn't sound right to me, so I did some digging and found: "In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States." http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impai... I couldn't find any data on non-fatal car accidents, but my intuition says that it would be a smaller proportion (i.e. alcohol-related accidents are more likely to be fatal). Can you share your sources?
- buckbova 13y ago> alcohol is normally classified as a depressant, but a significant minority of alcoholics become violent It's a nervous system depressant. This does not mean it makes you emotionally depressed. It is extrememly unlikely alcohol is involved in the majority of car accidents. Please post a source.
- tjic 13y agoI never had a single drink for my first 40 years on the planet, and, yes, people absolutely look at you like you've got two heads. I started drinking (about once a week) two years ago. It's moderately nice from time to time, but I also think the decision to avoid it for twenty years of adulthood was a good one - I established who I am and what my coping mechanisms are for stress, and now it's a nice little social adjunct. My advice: if you're even the least bit undecided about drinking, don't do it. You can always give it a shot later. Or perhaps you'll never drink; that's great too.
- debt 13y agoTHIS. I quit drinking a few years ago and it was the hardest time of my life. Not because, I was having booze withdrawl, but because I didn't know how to be a person. Most of my interactions with other people involved getting obliterated so I was never able to really by myself around other people. First become a real person and develop a healthy coping mechanism for stress. THEN, maybe, think about getting your drink on. If you drink too early in life and too often you might become a complete social retard like I did.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoI agree with you in many respects, but it also made me think about the flip side, which is not getting drunk because you want to talk to other people, but getting drunk because you want to talk to yourself. There is a bit of writing in the wonderfully titled "Modern Drunkard" magazine that puts it well, "The Zen of Drinking Alone" - http://www.drunkard.com/issues/03_03/03-03_zen_drinking_alone.htm http://www.drunkard.com/issues/03_03/03-03_zen_drinking_alon... I would say that drinking early does not on the whole make someone a social retard, given the patterns of alcohol consumption among the communities generally deemed to be sociable, but two of the most useful things I ever learned was how to have a good night in a pub while sober and how to have a good night on my own while drunk.
- shanselman 13y agoYep, I've never had a drink in my 40 years as well. I just never got around to it. I'm not that interested in the culture, either. That said, it does kind of suck to be the sober guy at 3am in Vegas. Always.
- fossuser 13y agoUsually because that decision is in within the context of some kind of moral superiority or religious belief (which is in and of itself irritating). In the rare case when it isn't there's also the issue that alcohol is a large part of socialization, someone who's never drank may not have this perspective. I feel I have some credibility on this since I didn't drink for similar ('practical') reasons longer than most people and I think that decision was ultimately a mistake.
- reustle 13y agoMy decision not to drink is not at all religious or related to moral superiority. It would be silly for me to think I'm morally superior to such a large percentage of the adult population. Regarding socializing, it's definitely there, but not required. I'm often at bars with friends not drinking alcohol.
- mpyne 13y agoI don't drink (and not because I'm morally superior :P) and trust me, it's hard to miss the socialization aspect of it. That's the kind of perspective you couldn't ignore if you wanted to, as people essentially club you about the head with it. It's weird, you could be hanging with a group of people who are the most socially liberal, equality-seeking types on the planet and they find out you don't drink alcohol and it's OH. MY. GOD. and suddenly they're almost as intolerant as those they oppose.
- davrosthedalek 13y agoI know that feeling. It seems everybody sees it as a challenge to get me to drink.
- reustle 13y agoThat and the endless questions. I feel like I have it rehearsed so well now :)
- betterunix 13y agoAlcohol is a drug. Whoever told you otherwise was wrong.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- brohoolio 13y ago>Drinking to much does have negative effects, you just need a little self control. I'm guessing you never been close to an alcoholic. It's a disease. Specifically it's an addictive illness. Saying it's just a little self control trivializes that it's an addiction.
- jacquesm 13y agoSame here. I have a rather addictive personality and I'd hate to find out there is a drug stronger than my willpower to get rid of it so I have decided to forego the experience completely. If my dad was any example to go by then I think this is the right decision for me.
- mrtron 13y agoThere are many drugs which are socially acceptable - including alcohol. People would look like you have 2 heads if you said you take stimulant drugs daily and have withdrawal without it, but coffee is incredibly popular. Sometimes what you don't do is incredibly important.
- pherz 13y agoThat said, I still get questioned about my decision like I have 2 heads. Well, of course. You're bucking a social norm that is generally enjoyable in and of itself, has a handful of well known reasons for abstaining, and also carries a low amount of baggage that would prevent open discussion of your reasoning. What do you expect?
- hoka 13y agoNice to read others like me exist! My dad drinks, but is pretty picky; only high end IPAs for the most part. That's what he brews too, and I love helping, mostly because I appreciate the science. I don't look down on anyone who drinks, as long as they're not getting blasted just for the sake of it. Okay...maybe I judge you if you drink cheap beer...but only in good fun! I'm 22, and I tried wine on my own terms at a wine tasting solo the other day; I felt like I wanted to vomit. Holy crap! I have my hobbies, and my friends, I just don't drink. Usually 'no thanks' is enough, I've found that even around new people I don't have to say 'I don't drink/smoke' mostly because I don't want to seem pretentious or judgemental. My hobbies include heavy lifting, green tea, and generally eating really healthy; barring something catastrophic, I think it'll pay off.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- reustle 13y agoNice! I'm 22 as well. I have a feeling it will definitely pay off
- satori99 13y agohaha. I too, think alcohol is a drug with a poor value proposition. At least for me. The 'high' is rubbish, and the come down is painful. I am also part of a minority in this respect in my culture.
- louthy 13y agoMaybe you should start... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12531837 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12531837