I quite like alcohol. In fact I liked it so much I drank my whole lifetimes share, and several other people’s lifetime share, by the time I was 35. Decided it would be greedy to have any more. Better to leave some for the rest of the gang, so I stopped 3 1/2 years ago.

I think anyone drinking daily has a problem, and anyone doing more than 3 drinks once a week or more (bingeing) also a problem.

I do like a cocktail on the weekend, usually do about 3 per week, and take 2 months off completely each year. It does seem to affect me but not much & I really don’t want to be obsessive about health, just overall healthy. As long as I wake up feeling good I figure it’s ok.

When I see movies and people are in situations so dangerous, they need their wits about them, and they show these people drinking, I always think that is the last thing I would want right then.

I’m 50 years old.

Most of my life alcohol has just been there and had never been a problem for me. I just drank alcohol when appropriate. As I got older and had kids and a house and responsibilities, having a cocktail in the evening was a nice treat that I felt like I deserved. Still no problem. To me I had a normal relationship with alcohol.

Then I started on a GLP-1 med a few years ago. And I stopped wanting alcohol. Was I an alcoholic all that time? I really don’t know. I definitely looked forward to that evening cocktail…was I addicted to drinking alcohol? I just didn’t see it that way and assumed I had complete control. But now I question it.

Im 37 and drink nearly daily since Trump returned to office. Its my insurance policy to not stay alive that long since people in my family live to late 80s.

I can’t wait to take my eternal dirt nap and I hate the societal structure we’ve built.

But Ill say if your drinking results in causing pain to others, that is not okay. There has to be a stopping point so you don’t black out and cant recall what youve said or done.

Why do so many people in here think you have to get drunk every time you drink alcohol? You can stop at one. There are some studies suggesting a glass of wine might have health benefits. You could also just eat a handful of grapes.

I drink almost every night, one or two beers, often leave the second unfinished. Sometimes if I run out of beer I’ll go a few days without drinking because I’m too lazy to walk across the street and buy more.

I like the taste of beer, so many styles, so many flavor combos. What am I supposed to drink at night? I drink water all day. I don’t like soda, or tea, or milk. What am I supposed to drink with my burger? Soda? Pizza and tea? I don’t really like being drunk and hate hangovers. Has no effect on my work.

Why does there have to be alternatives? Don’t want to drink? Don’t. Worried about being judged? Fuck em. The people in here on their moral high horse that think if you drink you’re a drunk driving alcoholic, fuck them too. Or if your friend group are staying out at one place, get a Guinness. It’s a dark beer so people assume you’re going to be sipping it and it’s one of the least alcoholic beers you’ll find on tap most places.

Worried about your health? Stay active, get a dog.

I buy a fifth for the weekend and that’s generally it. I may buy some hard ciders but I try not to drink much over the work week. I do this partially because I almost fell into alcoholism with a prior job.

We drink because it’s good for the brewer and the taxman. Everyone else is harmed.

I used to drink and smoke weed daily. The combination of a few beers and lots of weed would numb my brain and take the edge off reality. I did this every single day for years on end, during which time the amount of both drugs crept up on me. When I lost a friend to suicide, the brakes came of entirely and no more fucks were given. I drank before and during work several days a week, and even more after work. Binge drinking also became more frequent. The last time I drank I got completely fucked up, blacked out, lost half my things, ended up with a court date for threatening to punch two ticket inspectors and a broken nose (unrelated to the incident with the ticket inspectors).

That’s when I decided things had to change and I made the decision to quit and I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since. My life improved drastically, practically over night, from that decision and improved further when I quit weed a few years later. I went from being miserable alone in front of the computer every night wasting my life getting drunk and high to a married man who will be a dad in a few months.

The moral of the story? I guess that drinking is fine until it isn’t and you don’t know if you’ll be one of the ones where it’s not until it happens. I really didn’t drink that much at first and it was already a big problem before my friend died, so it wasn’t that that caused it. I would recommend everyone who drinks any amount of alcohol to regularly evaluate the reasons they are drinking and if their habits are becoming problematic. But even then the hard part isn’t realising you have a problem, it’s actually finding the will do change that’s hard.

Alcohol is a sneaky bitch.
I used to drink only on the weekends, and I was never the guy who drank the most, or got wasted every week. I was the sensible one in the group.
My limit was 4 beers when I did get drunk, but a lot of the time I was the designated driver and had no problem having fun and dancing sober.
Then in university, Thursdays were the inofficial start of the weekend with the most parties, since a lot of people left town Friday till Sunday.
I didn’t, and in that town no one needed to drive, so now I was partying and drinking 3 nights a week.
Then came the daily beer to wind down in the evening. And over the next 10 years, gradually, this evening beer turned into 2, then 3, then 4.
6 on weekends, more if I actually went out.
Scotch also became popular in my circle of friends, and since we all made good money, it wasn’t uncommon to get gifted a 100€ bottle from a trip to Scotland. Which lead to a bit of a wake-up call when those friends visited again a week later to taste some of that really nice Scotch with me, but the bottle was already empty.

You only notice how bad it got once you stop. And then you realize you’ll never have a relaxed attitude towards alcohol again, cause whenever you have one drink, it won’t end till you pass out.

So that part of my life is over, and good riddance. I will not drink today.

as an alcoholic myself (10 years sober) if you can have a few drinks once and awhile and it doesn’t affect your life in any way whats so ever then power to you. If it’s fun for you every now again but not on the regular, then again, power to you.

For people like me we can’t do that. we don’t know where the stop button is and in many cases don’t care to find it. for otherx saying “drinking is bad full stop it has health issues even if you have one drink every month” oh let the baby have their bottles and ignore them. if you can drink and it’s not destroying anything and you can still function then have at it.

I think everyone is going to have their own opinion on this. Obviously it’s not great for health. Just like any substance, it feels good for some… Not so much for others. Some people get dependent, others not. I think it’s a very personal thing. If you can have a few drinks here and there without it causing problems… More power to you! If it becomes how you function or a daily habit, take a fucking break man. Or stop entirely.

This message was written after drinking a couple drinks.

You’re literally poisoning your body when drinking and increasing your risk of getting many different cancers down the line (you have to drink less than you probably think for this to be the case).

So yeah…I just don’t drink.

The medical community recognizes alcoholism and drug addiction as diseases, not moral failings.

I believe that the statistic is that 10% of all drinkers account for over half the alcohol sold.

I think people that aren’t just trying it out and that drink even one drink in a setting more than once a week are alcoholics to varying degrees. I don’t condemn them, but I do think that at that point, the alcohol is a habit, and you are addicted and therefore an alcoholic. Not a raging alcoholic, not a helpless alcoholic, but you have proven yourself able to be, and are, addicted to alcohol and at that point need to be VERY careful.

Also, alcohol is basically just bad for you, fully. Do whatever you want, maybe I’ll join you happily occasionally, but this is the fact of the situation.

Live and let live.

I only care about other people in so far as their habits are disruptive to other people’s peace.