Who drinks alcohol here and how much?

[Fluffy]

As someone with an addictive personality, alcohol or any other substance (not including nicotine which I love and hope to never quit) causes me to want more, no matter how unwell it makes me.

For me, and may be not exclusively, it’s an open invitation for all kinds of attachment to jump on for the ride, I lose control of myself and pretty much lay myself bare to energetic and ‘dead dude’ influences that do not have my best interest.

So no, I don’t drink, I don’t like it, and I don’t like being around people who are drinking.

 

[SlipNet]

I've had a complicated relationship with alcohol (and weed) for 30 years. I first drank as a student in 1994-97, for confidence in social situations. As I've aged, it's become a crutch for me. Recently I decided that I needed to quit totally, because I was drinking a few beers every day, and I was beginning to worry that I was becoming a functioning alcoholic. Nothing major in reality, because I don't drink wine or spirits typically, but I just thought to myself, "enough is enough". I'm also a football fan, and that's where things became difficult. I REALLY struggle with avoiding beers when watching football on TV. This weekend I slipped up, and I have had 5 beers while watching the football matches today. So, it's proven to be tougher than giving up weed for me, which I've also had a problem with for the same period of time. Sometimes I feel bored drinking coffee and tea, that's proven to be the problem. But I've decided to give up for good now, for my family rather than myself. Sure, I'll miss it, but it's better than ending up ill, especially when family members rely on me for help on a weekly basis.

For me, I've finally seen that sobriety is a basic STO choice. Booze and weed? Pure STS in my case.

 

[SlipNet]

Recently I decided that I needed to quit totally, because I was drinking a few beers every day, and I was beginning to worry that I was becoming a functioning alcoholic

I just wanted to add, I have never drunk booze just to get drunk. In fact, I've only been drunk on a few occasions in all these years of consumption. Maybe I'm lucky to have a healthy tolerance level. But yeah, it's a slippery slope. In the years 2004-07 I drank red wine fairly regularly, and I'd suffer terribly the next day. It was easy to give that up, because it simply wasn't fun to suffer those terrible hangovers.

 

[John G]

I've never actually been drunk and the most I've ever drunk at one time was ironically long ago when I was my father's designated driver. I used to get jittery drinking many colas over many hours and wasn't sure if it was the sugar or the caffeine so the bartender had me try a mixture of white zinfandel and 7 up. That eliminated the caffeine and the wine slowed me down a lot so not too much sugar either. Took me a couple hours to get through one, it was not exactly tasty but better than wine alone. Nowadays Kahlua and cream is tasty and my wife and I get a bottle every couple years or so and it takes us 4 months or so to finish the bottle.

Only other alcohol I would call tasty that I've had would be the one time I visited a winery and they gave us small samples of very expensive imported wines and I could see why they were expensive, they actually tasted good. The not too expensive wine from the winery itself was the usual tolerable. Red wine is more tolerable than white wine for me. The one time I tried beer it was warm light beer at a baseball game I played in with people from work and that beer was disgusting.

 

[Ruth]

I can relate. I had to have a splenectomy via embolysis to stop my platelets from collecting in my spleen instead of entering my bloodstream. My spleen was attacking them like invaders. So no sugar or anything. I had to go full keto, which ain’t so bad, but I do miss many things.

Yes, often we can get into real strife and be faced with something that requires immediate attention/action. I think (as in my case) there is always an underlying issue as to why we do/did what we did (for example in my case, eating too many sweets/lollies/candies - depending where you come from - and wanting to drink alcohol which often led to binge drinking). We may be trying to numb something, supress something, or overcome something with emotional overtones. Each person is different.

This mind-body-spirit connection is something that chinese medicine (in my case) will address, that is why I've recently started a regime and treatment with a practitioner. But previous to that I've had kinesiology and did a Reiki course so I can do Reiki II. I've also seen a natropath a couple of times. In the past I've always been open to alternative therapies - which unsuprisingly the Government here now wants to discourage and disincentivise. The Government truly does hate us, and want us dead, I fear.

Personally, I think men must have it tougher, because (in general), our society, doesn't provide the emotional, social and even spiritual support that women have, or they are simply not encouraged to look for it. This inevitably leads to more sickness, but we are all born with a different set of physical circumstances, some of which we might not even know about. This is why alcohol for some people ends up being extremely risky.

 

[Ruth]

I'd like to add, that according to my chinese medical practitioner, alcohol can be used as part of a treatment, but only in very small amounts. It works as an adjuvant to treatments by enhancing the movement of energy in the blood, liver and kidneys.