Who drinks alcohol here and how much?

[Moine]

Don't do drugs. If you want to, sure --- but at a certain point your body will start screaming at you in ways that you can only perceive by listening to it.

Consistently over-eat on a daily basis? "Oh my!?, I can't fit into my clothes anymore." Stuff like that...

 

[Evan]

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.

See, what I hear is tradition. Beers during a match, and the like. Similar to getting a few down before going on stage fo me.

I have to confess, I only played publicly a few times after getting completely sober. It was strange. I wasn’t doing Jimmy Page dances around the stage or goofing with melodies inside of melodies. It was nice to play well, and the crowd loved it, but I felt like they’d just been subjected to a live rehearsal. It wasn’t a show.

The point I’m trying to make here is that, while alcohol became a huge part of my daily and night lifestyle, the absence of it took with it abilities and gifts that I was born with. Now don’t get me wrong, I can still knock out a pretty good Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but that’s because it’s uber slow.

So yeah, there were highs with alcohol, but they’re legends I can’t remember. I only know how truly good my band was because the drummers dad would video tape our shows.

Buy the lows, those you never forget. They stick with you and eat away at your soul. Not to mention the physical damage.

But enough gloom. Finally giving it up is wonderful news! Good luck and god bless , brother!

 

[SlipNet]

See, what I hear is tradition. Beers during a match, and the like. Similar to getting a few down before going on stage fo me.

I have to confess, I only played publicly a few times after getting completely sober. It was strange. I wasn’t doing Jimmy Page dances around the stage or goofing with melodies inside of melodies. It was nice to play well, and the crowd loved it, but I felt like they’d just been subjected to a live rehearsal. It wasn’t a show.

The point I’m trying to make here is that, while alcohol became a huge part of my daily and night lifestyle, the absence of it took with it abilities and gifts that I was born with. Now don’t get me wrong, I can still knock out a pretty good Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but that’s because it’s uber slow.

So yeah, there were highs with alcohol, but they’re legends I can’t remember. I only know how truly good my band was because the drummers dad would video tape our shows.

Buy the lows, those you never forget. They stick with you and eat away at your soul. Not to mention the physical damage.

But enough gloom. Finally giving it up is wonderful news! Good luck and god bless , brother!

Thanks for sharing your insights and encouragement dude. I let things get out of hand, especially in the years after my older brother died in 2018. We were crazy when together, sinking beers and smoking hashish on a semi-regular basis. It felt great at the time, and we'd share some good laughs too. Eventually his lifestyle led to a diagnosis of bile duct cancer, and he wasted away and died within 6 months, it was devastating to see such a strong, burly man just dissolve before my eyes. And so in the immediate years after his demise, I was kinda drinking to stuff my grief away to deal with later.

On top of that, a good buddy of mine in recent years (and another drinking/toking bud) has just suffered a major stroke. Absolutely tragic news. I've been informed that he'll likely never recover fully. He fails to recognise familiar faces, and has terrible destructive temper tantrums because of this, shouting and verbally abusing family and friends. He's being relocated from hospital to a secure care unit in the coming weeks, and his family has emptied his apartment already. His life as he knew it is effectively over. He's only 2 years older than me, and his troubles stirred in me a determination to change my lifestyle completely. It's been a constant battle since June of this year to make a clean break and reverse the cycle of self-indulgence, which is what it had become. Since drinking on Sunday, I've not had any beer. I had one beer left in the fridge, and I opened the can and poured it all down the sink, it was cathartic to do it. Even as I was doing it, a voice in my head was saying, "oh come on man, just one last beer...", but my resolve was firm and I threw it away.

As regards the football/beer habit, yes it was like a tradition. But like I even needed an excuse to get some beers in! It's amazing how the mind plays its baroque games to justify any self-indulgent activity. Anyway, on Tuesday I watched the Liverpool v Southampton game totally stone cold sober with no troubles at all. I drank tea and smoked a couple of ciggies as I enjoyed the match. Interestingly I am smoking less this week too. My mind feels clearer, I'm reading more and the quality of my thoughts as expressions has improved too. It does annoy me that I let it go on for so long before making the change though. I should have nipped this problem in the bud years ago, but better late than never! I don't regret the (oh so many) great times I had with booze/weed, but I was becoming a sad case as a 50 year old, going through the motions of my younger days. There's an opportunity to finally grow up and become a responsible and reliable person now.